A SHOOTING ANTHOLOGY
EVERY study and gunroom, where old sporting prints hang on the walls, should have a copy of this very ingenious anthology on the table or bookshelf. It is all about the sport of shooting, either directly or indirectly ; but the emphasis is never on the noise' of the gun, but rather on those sights and sounds, and indeed smells; which make naturalists of most sportsmen, of the best keepers and indeed (may one say ?) of the less cruel or greedy poacher. Mr. Parker might have quoted Walter Scott's question and answer :-
" What is it steels the sportsman's heart ? It is his conscious pride of art."
But the quotations, especially from that happy sportsman whose death all who love sport lament, Hesketh-Prichard, from Mr. Parker himself, from Charles St. John and C. J. Cornish known best of all to old readers of the Spectator— these and many others indicate that conscious art is secondary to an overwhelming delight in the open life. " The Moor," " The Forest," " The Bookshelf," " The Kitchen," " Yarns," "Weather," " The Philosophy of it," are titles of some of the sec- tions not devoted to particular game birds or mammals. "The Philosophy of it " is the largest of all the groups, though one must confess it does not in the least describe a good number of the subscript passages. Whenever we pick up any anthology on a favourite theme all of us say instantly, after a cursory glance at the index, " Why ever did he not include— ? " And here it would not be difficult to go on suggesting omissions till midnight. Where is " the Master of Game " ? Selous, Millais, Jefferies, Hudson ? Should game pie be an exclusively British dish ? Would it not have been broad-minded to include some of the critics of the 'killer of game ? But such absences only mean that there is room for an anthology twice the size. Perhaps some of the selections are a little too short ; but the volume has the crowning gift of charm, and pleases by reason of the character as well as the industry and learning of the compiler. The centuries arc well covered. It is pleasant to be reminded that Dame Berners in The Iioke of St. Albans called a flock of starlings a " mumsuracion of stares," and that three hundred years later Folkard protested against the " improper slang " of applying " flock to any, or every,
description of wildfowl." But the latest quotations are the best ; and as good come from newspapers as from books. More new friends will be found than old ones missed ; and the possession of the book will add zest to every sportsman's pastime.
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