LORD GRANVILLE GORDON'S " SPORTING REMINISCENCES."
Sporting Reminiscences. By Lord Granville Gordon. Edited by F. G. Afialo. (Grant Richards. 10s. 8d.)—Lord Granville Gordon is a sportsman who has pursued big game in the Roches and reindeer in Norway. Ho has caught salmon and shot grouse and stalked deer in the British Islands. He has a very poor opinion, in consequence, of pigeon-shooting. He knows all about glove fights and billiard matches and horse and dog shows. Finally, he found himself in a financial condition which, he says, is best described by that one unlucky word " broke," and was reduced to becoming a professional bookmaker. Unfortunately, these varied experiences do not always enable a man to write a good book; and apparently Lord Granville reluctantly yielded to the impor- tunities of his editor, who accepts the responsibility. The author's chief expeditions off the beaten track, in Albania and Sardinia, were failures from the sporting point of view; and the adventures of the traveller who can only communicate with the natives in English or atrocious French are not very interesting. It is hardly surprising to find that he thought he was crossing the Hungarian frontier on the railway journey from Milan to Trieste. In Scotland or Ireland Lord Granville is more at home. Frank expression of his opinions is never withheld, but his humour is terribly crude. When he is lost in the Rockies, he appreciates "the difficulty with which the children of Israel found their way out of the wilderness, though they know how to find their way round Hyde Park now." When he loses a salmon, we are told that "a Commissioner of Oaths might have made a handsome fee during the next few moments." On the whole the book is a disappointment. There are a number of photographs in the text. Mr. J. G. Millais's and Mr. Thorburn's pictures are good. We hope the custom of inserting the author's photograph into the outside of the binding of the book may not become fashionable.
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