Records of Old Times, Historical, Social. Political, Sporting, and Agricultural.
By J. Kersley Fowler ("Rusticus "). (Chatto and Windus. 10s. 6d.)—Mr. Fowler, who has already published two volumes upon " Old Country Life," completes a trilogy in these " Records." For about sixty years he lived in Aylesbury, and earned more than a local reputation as sportsman and agricul- turist. Of Bedfordshire, his native county, he writes with affec- tionate diffuseness, and his stories of old times and manners will be welcome to many readers. The book has the merit of variety. The author describes the posting-days, when the great inns would have stables with fifty stalls, and when horses ready harnessed, with postboys booted and spurred, were kept in readiness for the traveller. In recalling the obstruction and the costliness of turn- pikes, he might have found a page for the Rebecca Riots, in the Prince of Wales's infancy, when Punch (who was himself but two years old) told his Royal Highness, in baby language, not to cry and wet his lace frock because naughty men dressed up like naughty women had pulled down the turnpikes in his "little Principality." The shameless bribery at elections, and their great costliness, are illustrated from documents in the author's possession; but he questions whether "the shameless promises to constituents, of Acts of Parliament to carry out the vagaries of political faddists are not as potent as personal bribery in the good old days." Mr. Fowler carries the reader to Epsom and to Ascot, to steeplechases and cattle-shows, and is as much at home in the hunting field as in his judgment of crops. Like Arthur Young, his estimate of art is dependent on his farming instincts ; and he observes that he should scorn to see Paul Potter's "Young Bull" in any decent herd in England. "The animal is," he adds, "such a wretch that I would not have allowed him to look over a hedge into the field where my short- horns were grazing." The " Records " are not free from padding or from repetitions, but the claims of the veteran author on public attention are stronger than his literary deficiencies.
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