6 FEBRUARY 1926, Page 21

THIS WEEK'S BOOKS

Docrons often write charmingly ; Sir Frederick Treves, for instance, in one essay (" The Garden of the Unforgotten ") has brought to us within the limit of a few pages the infinite beauty and sadness of that old Mogul garden where Jehanara lies. Through a Consulting Room Window (Methuen, 6s.), by Dr. W. C. Rivers, has not the Treves touch, but it is full of amusing if somewhat bitter things., " In a nurse," says the author, " laziness is like cowardice in a soldier, bashfulness in a lawyer, veracity in an ordinary newspaper proprietor." The first essay is on Surtees and that hunting masterpiece, Handley Cross. " No sooner were the 'ounds in, than out went Reynard at the low end. Sich a fine chap ! Bright, ruddy coat, with a well-tagged brush. One whisk of his brush and away he went. Pigg flew in double flight of oak rails." What good hunting that old tea merchant gives us But we do not agree with the author that Hillingdon Hall is " the worse sequel ever penned." Jorrocks in his old age, trying to run with the beagles, seems to us a figure of real tragedy.

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