4 NOVEMBER 1893, Page 13

Some Country Sights and Sounds. By Phil Robinson. (T. Fisher

Unwin.)—Mr. Phil Robinson's humour is scarcely as fresh

and pleasing as it used to be in days of old. The essays in this volume have, in part at least, seen the light before. As for matter, they are somewhat made up. The " troublesome " boys

are not a specially country sight. Indeed, boys are less trouble-

some in the country than in town, and the shocking example that is described to us is the running away of two boys who were natives of a London suburb. The happiest effort in the book is, it seems to us, " Wild Beasts at Large." Here the author is himself. The picture of the tiger making himself at home in Savernake Forest, and of his anger when he has carefully stalked a man, and unhappily finds it to be a scarecrow, is well drawn.