The Image pl . „ War - Cross Country with Hounds. By
lc A. Stewart. (Collins. 2 Is,) The Devon and Somerset Staghounds. By Lionel Edwards and E. T. MacDermot. (Collins. 21s.) Sport in War. By Lionel Dawson and Lionel Edwards. (Collins. 21s.) More Bandobast. By Snaffles. (Collins. 25s.) Tim 'King's Arms' at Bieester used to support a small nomadic population of hunting people during the season.
They valiantly dressed fer dinner every night, sifting islanded among the cinema-going farmers and travelling mercantile gentlemen who made up the rest of the diners, painfully dropped all their g's, and sat comatose before the lounge fire, breathing heavily upon their shirt-fronts. It was there that I overheard an impressive conversation between two hardy annuals of opposite sex, long past middle age.
" Ah ! " remarked his lordship (surely he must have been a lord) with admiration and astonishment. "Readin', I see." " Yes," replied her ladyship, equally surprised at her own
occupation, " I like readin'." " So do I," exclaimed his lordship heartily. "But I find it takes me a long time."
It is presumably for such scholars as these, against whom the dice are so heavily loaded, that every Christmas brings its little collection of luxury publications, told in pictures rather than print and sold for not less than one guinea.
They will have a happy time of it this year, delving about in the stockings and hunting boots which they hang up at the bottom of their beds—though they had better hang up a saddle cover at least, if they hope to get any of the books noted at the top of this column inside it.
Curiously enough; for generally these high-priced articles are mere snares to entrap those untouchables whose purses are longer than their heads, at least two of these books are more than worth the money. I cannot imagine any follower of the Devon and Somerset, literate or illiterate, who will not be the happier for _possessing Mr. MacDermot's com- pilation, with the , Lionel Edwards pictures. The ideal history of a hunting country, it is profusely illustrated not only with the Edwards landscapes but also with photographs of the masters, huntsmen, harbourers, notable heads, &e. It is a real book of sound letterpress, not a mere collection of horsey pictures for snobs, and I cannot think why every
M.F.H. in Great Britain should not follow the extm7le of Colonel Wiggin in, promoting a similar history of his own hounds. But they must put in a rr ap.
Cross Country with Hounds is much the same sort of thing, except that it deals with twelve packs instead of one. The letterpress is contributed mainly by the masters or secretaries, and Mr. Stewart's illustrations are splendid. Less " artistic " (by which I mean- Set in an immediately recognisable indi-
vidual style of craftsmanship) than the illustrations of Lionel Edwards or Snaffles, Mr. Stewart's pictures are compara- tively unpretentimis, humble or photographic. But this nose-to-earth attitude of fidelity to the object imitated seems to give Mr. Stewart a much greater variety of positions for his horses. They are not in " Stewart " positions (the Snaffles horses are always in Snaffles positions and the Edwards horses often in Edwards ones), but more or less in any sort of position that crops up. Buy the book and look. at the gentleman collecting his horse in the Surrey and Burstow picture. If you look away for a moment you may find him on the other side of the hedge.
The hunts illustrated are : North Atherstone, Belvoir, Cattistoek, Duke of Beaufort's, Earl of Berkeley's, Essex Union, Grafton, Old Berkeley, Old Surrey and Burstow, V.W.H. (Cricklade), West Norfolk and Zetland. Anybody_ who hunts with these hounds will find the book well worth
buying. It has one other attractive feature, the fact that none of the portraits of -notables can be recognised, except that of Mr. Brand, who can be identified by his beard. I have to confess that the other two bookS seem to me - less worthy : Sport in War because it seems so light for the money (a few pictures and articles in big print knocked together to make an apparent guinea's worth), and More Bandobast because I dislike the big-headed, earicattu'ish, - NIllgar*, horsey hearties whom Snaffles delights to draw. I must in fairness admit, how-ever, that the book will have a real appeal Air people of that nature, and I cannot dO better than recommend it to any subaltern who knows how to pronounce Bandoba:st correctly. T. H. WHITE.
Previous page
