A Frontiersman. By Roger Pocock. (Methuen and Co. 6s.) —The
author begins by lamenting the defects of his education; that he learnt "the useless abstractions of Euclid and the syntax instead of commercial mathematics," and the "squalid biographies of our Kings"—e.g., Alfred and Edward 1.—" instead of the history of our freedom." He tells us again and again that he is a fool, but his being a fool does not prevent him from doing many wonderful things. His adventures are many and various. Most of them are located in the Western Continent. Towards the end of the story the scene is transferred to South Africa. And here we may quote a sentence which goes far, with its whole-hearted praise, to make us think well of the whole narrative : "The British private soldier held our Empire to- gether by teaching the disgusted Colonies a new love, a new reverence for the Motherland which can breed such warriors, the finest steel ever forged in the flames of war."
Previous page
