My Start in Life. By a Young Middy. 1 vol.
(Sampson Low and Co.)—These bright letters of a young middy are pleasant reading. He starts in such freshness and high spirits, and writes so naturally, that his indifference to the trammels of syntax becomes amusing. His delight is in cricket, dancing, music, and athletics, though in the latter part he awakes to the beauties of nature. The degree to wbich'crickot fascinates him can be understood by saying that there are above forty references to it. His manner of referring to people unconnected with the Navy or athletics is novel ; he speaks of Kingsley "raving" about tropical scenery, refers to an archamlogist as " the man who is digging it [Ephesus] out," to an astronomer as a "man by the name of Stone." The comparative value of literary and scientific men, as against that of cricket-playing naval officers, is not realised by our middy. The account of the China station, and his expedition in the Fiji Islands, is the best part of the book.
Previous page
