The opinions of Boswell and General Dunsterville on the subject
of biography coincide. Boswell has recorded that " minor particulars are frequently characteristic and always amusing," and the General in his preface to Stalky's Rend*.
iscences (Cape, 7s. 6d.) states that " to me the minor incidents of life are vastly more interesting than heroic achievements." These last the author has written of in another place ; here he alternately delights and tickles us with an olla podrida, which, if not so exciting as his great Persian adventure
(though that is touched on), is vastly more human. He explains that his name in anagram can read, " Never sit dull," and his book will certainly not allow a reader to sit dull for a single moment. - In it is revealed the true story of Kipling's Stalky thv Co. ; the intimate history and training of an Indian regiment are given with an abundance of breezy
detail ; and there are hosts of good stories. - " The Colonel is-, a very bad shot, isn't he ? " said someone to that officer's Shikari ; to which came the instant answer, " Not at all. He is a wonderful shot, but God is merciful to the birds." In grimmer vein is an anti-infanticide notice-board that hung beside a pond in China " Girls may not be drowned here."
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