Fowls and Fishes
Marsh and Mudflat. By Major Kenneth Dawson. Illustrated from original dry points and etchings by Winifred Austen, R.E. (Country Life. 15s.) A Fisherman's Angles. By Patrick R. Chalmers. Illustrated from drypoints by Norman Wilkinson. (Country Life. 15s.) FROM Country Life we are accustomed to expect beautiful books, and in these two we are not disappointed. Alike in
print and paper and format, both more suitable for the library than for intimate reading, both beautifully illustrated, their contents are quite dissimilar. Mr. Chalmers' book is a collection of episodes, stories, verses (some of them from Punch), anything however remotely connected with fishing : light and airy, written with the delicate touch, both prose and verse, of which Mr. Chalmers is a master. He claims that the book introduces a new kind of fishing book, in addition to the three divisions into which, like Gaul, he divides that rapidly growing branch of literature. To the academic, the entertaining, and to those which are a combination of both, he adds what he calls the "Fly-book" style, because it can be opened anywhere. It is delightful, and the only criticism possible is that the size of the book is rather out of keeping with the lightness of the matter : the " Fly-Book " should go into the pocket.
Major Dawson writes of his wild-fowl more seriously than Mr. Chalmers (in this book at least) of his fish. But he loves his mallard and teal and grey geese—especially the grey geese—as keenly and enthusiastically as Mr. Chalmers his trout and salmon, even his chub and his grayling. The book does not pretend to be a text-book, but is an excellent example of the descriptive (or entertaining) type of sport book, with a special interest in the chapter on sport in Macedonia.