The Book of the Roach. By Grovillo Fennell. (Longmans.)—This is
a very carefully written little hand-book, which every aspirant after success in roach-fishing, and not a few who consider themselves more than aspirants, should read. And roach-fishing, let us hasten to protest, against the arrogance of those who will hear of nothing but salmon and trout, is no such bad sport. The writer has tried either kind of fishing many a time, and with fair success, and owns to, not a preference indeed, but a liking for the humbler roach. It wants fine fishing and shows good sport, nothing like the grand rush of the salmon or the trout, but far more than the sluggish pike. In one thing it is vastly inferior, it must be confessed,—in flavour. We have tried it often, and on Mr. Fennell's advice tried it again, and still found it detestable. We thank Mr. Fennell heartily for an amusing little book out of which we have got not a few hints, so many, indeed, as to make us feel, after more than a quarter of a century's experience, to be little better than a tyro.
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