Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 1 (1877).djvu/106

80 the impress of an observant study, both of man and animals, a power of imparting the fruits of such study to others, and a thorough appreciation of all those little lights and shades in Nature, apparently unimportant in themselves, but which unite to give force and beauty to the picture of life.

Our author takes us through many sports and some variety of country, beginning with one which we agree with him in thinking one of the most delightful—Fox-hunting. As we read, memories of the past come thick upon us. Again we see the wary old fox as he steals from the covert, the hounds quivering with excitement as they sweep on to the scent, and every nerve is braced as we follow our author o'er plough and pasture, clearing again, in fancy, the hurrying river, and crashing through the tangles of the bullfinch, too high to top. It is in scenes such as these that Mr. Rooper, like his fox, is most thoroughly "at home"; but his enthusiasm is not confined to the saddle. In a short sketch he gives us a week in the Western Highlands, and though our company there consists only of a holiday-making employé from a London warehouse, who, having purchased a ten-shilling gun-license, fancies himself every inch a sportsman, still we enjoy the week almost as much as the cockney hero. The description of the Scotch laird and his gillie is capital, their Gaelic unimpeachable, and over the whole is blown a scent of the "muirs" that is really refreshing.

From Scotland we travel to the Sister Isle for salmon and trout-fishing, returning rifle in hand to bring down the buck in our own southern counties, where we again fall in with our cockney friend disporting himself with the "Harriers" at Brighton and the "Queen's" in the Harrow Country.

Most, if not all, of these stories were published many years ago under the title of 'Tales and Sketches,' but they come before us now with some additions, not the least noticeable of which are eight full-page illustrations, somewhat rough perhaps, but withal full of spirit. Indeed, the artists' names (Georgina Bowers and J. Carlisle) sufficiently guarantee their excellence.