NATURE'S MOODS AND TENSES.*
Mn. HORACE HUTCHINSON has collected into a volume about sixty or seventy articles. Some of them first appeared in print in these columns ; others saw the light in the Guardian, Country Life, the Westminster Gazette, and Longman's Magazine. They treat of all varieties of outdoor life, sport, and natural history. Those who associate Mr. Hutchinson's name chiefly with golf will discover that he has found many other congenial topics. The volume opens with essays on the fur seasons, the aspects of Nature, and the doings of =4.41.. "First Days of Spring," "In the Water Neadows," "Autumn Leaves," "Birds and the Weather" are not very novel subjects; and it is difficult even for the practised journalist to treat of them in a very original manner. But Mr. Hutchinson never fails to write easily and pleasantly, and we do not doubt that those whose knowledge of country things is not extensive, and whose tastes incline them to the open air while work detains them in large towns, will derive much pleasure from a book like the one before us. "Man and his Friends" is the next sub-heading, and we have a series of essays on wild and domestic animals. The volume ends with a set of articles on the Shetland Islands and some papers entitled "Country Gossips," which tell of the doings and sayings of country folk. As is inevitable in journalistic work, these articles are unequal in merit. Some, however, are excellent, and taking them all in all the standard is high. It is always hard to remember in what is called "Nature-writing" that what may be very trite to one reader who is himself an observer of Nature may be a revelation to another whose eyes are closed to such things. The volume is dedicated to the memory of Sir Spencer Walpole, "kindest of men and best of friends, with whom were shared many of the rambles that gave opportunity for the notes which they record."
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