Sam Bough, R.S.A. By the late Sydney Gilpin. (G. Bell
and Sons. 75. (3d. net.)—Mr. Gilpin died in 1892, leaving this work nearly completed. Bough himself died in 1876. Its appearance, therefore, is somewhat belated. Still, it is an interesting record of a man of versatile powers, inclined to Bohemianism, but in quite a harmless way ; a hard worker, though in a fitful sort of fashion ; and always ready to help a friend, or even a stranger, in need. There are scarcely as many good stories in it as one might expect. One of the best is the hoaxing of the representative of a Scottish journal who had come in search of a "par." "I'll not show you my largest picture= The Destruction of the Cities of the Plain '—as Dr. Guthrie may be writing a criticism upon it." The "par." appeared in due course, though the man ought to have known that the subject was scarcely in Bough's line. He never realised very high prices. One picture exhibited in 1873 fetched .B750, and another in the following year £500. In the latter year his pictures, as given in the appendix, brought him
1,126, and there are some not priced.
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