Covert-Side Sketches. By J. Nevill Fitt. (Sampson Low and Co.)—
Mr. Fitt, who writes under the initials "H. H." in the Sporting Gazette has put together a volume which we may venture, though without' possessing any special acquaintance with the subject, to commend. Not the least entertaining part is the historical sketch of fox-hunting which it contains. Up to the end of the seventeenth century, the fox was regarded as noxious vermin, which was to be killed without pity. In the course of the eighteenth he rose in estimation, the sentiments of Sir Roger de Coverley marking the transition of feeling. "Still regarded as vermin and his death rejoiced over, he is no longer snared and knocked on the bead, but hunted honourably to his death with horse and hound, and has his mask preserved as a trophy of the chase, even as it is now." It is the nineteenth century which has de- veloped his position till, as Mr. Fitt puts it, he is "a gentleman at large among us, whose life, save during the few hours he submits to his destiny in being hunted, is one of ease and enjoyment." This destiny cannot be very grievous, if he can find occasion, as he some- times has been seen to do, to snap up a fowl while he is being pursued. —We cannot speak so favourably of Sketches of Hunting, by F. F- Whitehurst (Tinsley Brothers), in which a most deplorable feature is the amount of personalities which it contains. True, the personalities are flattering, but they are only one degree the better for that. Surely ladies cannot like to have their beauty and skill advertised in this way ?
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