With Paget's Horse to the Front. By Cosmo Rose - lanes. (J.
Macqneen. 38. 6d.)—This is a good specimen of the minor books about the war. The author writes as we might expect a man of sense and good feeling would write. There is no false sentiment, and no forced fun. He tells us what he saw, and now and then gives us an opinion of his own, but he does not think that he knows better what ought to have been done than the Commander-in-Chief, or even than his General of Division. Here is one significant passage which will explain not a few of mu failures :— " Nothing could have been more supremely ridiculous than our marching order in those days. Imagine a heavy saddle, with high arched pommels and cantle. In front, two huge holster bags stuffed to bursting, and over these strapped a rolled cavalry cloak. Behind, a rare pack—that is, a tight roll, about three feet long, and containing blankets, an assortment of clothes and waterproof sheet. Already one might suppose the horse suf- ficiently burdened; but we must not forget the trooper, with belt, bayonet, bandolier, water-bottle, field-glasses, revolver, and haversack, and carrying his rifle supported in a • bucket' attached to the saddle. Huge balls of hay in nets, strung over the horse's withers, complete the picture of a Light Horseman, destined to pursue the flying Boer over the trackless veldt."
Among the vivid pictures of fighting is the description of the engagement in which Colonel Spence was killed. A very strange affair it was,—the troops encamped close to a farm garden and outhouses which were full of armed Boers, and, it seems, were never searched.
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