Wild Sports in /re/and. By John Bickerdyke. With Illustra- tions.
(L. Upcott Gill.)—Mr. Bickerdyke as an author has displayed a variety of accomplishments. He has produced three novels, he has written two or three volumes of sporting reminiscences, he has discoursed on the rights and wrongs of the Thames, he is known as the author of "A Cruise on the Broads," and the list of his works includes a volume on "The Curiosities of Ale and Beer." The present work relates in an easy, rambling style Mr. Bickerdyke's experiences in Ireland, whither he went in the first instance, hoping to land a pike weighing forty or fifty pounds. He did not succeed, neither does he believe any one else has succeeded, in capturing such a monster, but he had plenty of sport, and discovered, that there was "no more delightful way of spending a few months than to become a modern lake dweller on the Shannon and its stormy mountain- surrounded loughs." Mr. Bickerdyke considers the country a paradise for the sportsman of small means who does not mind roughing it, but adds that "before Ireland becomes like Scotland a popular resort for sportsmen, the hotel arrangements generally must be vastly improved, and owners of property might well devote a little trouble and expense to the better preservation of their moors and rivers." The author relates his adventures as if he enjoyed the recollection of them, and his illustrations are excellent.
Previous page
