Bench and Bar in the Saddle, by Colonel C. P.
Hawkes (Nash, 18s.), is a difficult book to review. To describe it one can do no better than quote the alluring subtitle : " A Book of Gossips, Records, and Impressions of Races and Riders, Dances and Dancers, Dinners and Diners, and of divers Notabilities, Legal, Social, Political and Sporting, associated with the Bar Point to Point Steeplechases from their Inception in 1895 to the Present Day." One may add that in addition to photographs of eminent persons (and horses) it is full of caricatures by Sir Frank Lockwood—who designed the crest of the Pegasus Club, of which he was an original member —by Phil May, by Theo Mathew, by George Belcher, and especially by the author, Colonel Hawkes. The club's presidents have included three Lord Chief Justices, Lords Russell of Killowen, Alverstone, and Trevethin (who as A. T. Lawrence laid out the first course), two Lord Chancellors, Halsbury and Birkenhead (the last a frequent competitor), with Other luminaries of the Bench too numerous to reckon. But Mr. Justice• Grantham must not be omitted, since his was the idea of the first point-to-point ; nor Lord Darling, for he suggested the club ; nor Lord Danesfort, for as J. G. Butcher he won more than a fair share of the races. There is an account, too, of the first Parliamentary point-to-point, and in the first pages of the volume comes a very pleasant sketch of Hyde Park and the Row in the last days of last century—which sounds anything but fin de sack. This is a jolly book, which will hold and deserve a place of honour on many bookshelves.
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