Now come we to the climax. The steeple-chase season of 1847-8 in Great Britain embraced numerically 179 races, out of which we find two hundred and sixty-one falls and fourteen killed, or obliged to be so, fully bearing out our leading remarks as to the contingent danger as well as inutility of steeple-chasing. BROUGHT DOWN AT BAY. DESIGNED AND ENGRAVED BY H. BECKWITH. A clean shot to which the deer falls dead in his stride gives all its glory to the crack of the rifle; whereas the "brought down at bay" has its honours divided pretty equally between the dog and gun-one could not tell much without the aid of the other. Mr. Scrope thus advises how the hound should lead up to the play of his partner: "After the shots are fired it is the man's duty to run up with the dogs in the leash, some few degrees quicker than the American vessel which was unsuccessfully chased by a flash of lightning. He then gives them up to the forester, who lays one of them on if there is occasion, one dog being quite sufficient to bring a wounded hart to bay. "It may sometimes be requisite to slip a dog immediately for instance, if a hart is shot through the loins, he will fall prostrate, spring up again suddenly, and baffle a good dog afterwards. There are certain other cases also when dispatch is necessary; but, generally speaking, it will be prudent to take time, and the party had much better lie down in the heather, and keep an eye on the wounded deer through the telescope. If he is slightly wounded it is of no use to send a dog after him at all unless he is alone, for he will get into the middle of the herd, and keep there with enduring pertinacity, and the thing will just end by your losing him, and bringing a singularly lean hind to bay; throwing away, by a moderate computation, two or three precious hours, and with them, perhaps, your remaining chance of sport for the day; but, on the contrary, if he is badly wounded, and you do not press him on, he will gradually get worse and worse, and fall out from the parcel, when you will have him safe enough. The forester should then pass the track or taint of the herd, and either lay the dog on the scent, or put him in sight of the quarry, and he will soon bring it to bay if he is worthy of his ancestors. "Some sportsmen are accustomed to give their dogs portions of the deer's liver when he is gralloched, but after having blooded them once or twice to enter them, I do not think the custom should be continued, a dog's love for sport being independent of eating; for pointers will hunt gallantly all day long, and they are never permitted to touch their game, nor even to run after it; harriers, likewise, will persevere from morning till night, and yet the hare is always preserved for the table if possible, more particularly in a subscription pack. "My objection to the system lies principally in the two following reasons: the first is that a dog can never run a second chase properly after having been so fed; the second, that when he has a deer in a wounded or dying state he is apt to help himself from the haunches before you have time to come up." X LITERATURE. A TOUR IN SUTHERLANDSHIRE, with Extracts from the Field Books of a Sportsman and Naturalist; by Charles St. John, Esq.; with wood-cuts. In two volumes. London: John Murray, Albemarlestreet. This is not the age of very brilliant books. Among the contributors to modern literature no doubt there are men of talent and acquirement, but genius is not just now a sojourner in these islands; or, if it be, it is veiled from our mortal vision. Such, at least, is the rule; and as every author will of course assume that he is the exception to it, the proposition can give no offence. Nevertheless it is not to be inferred, because of this dearth of high intellectual power, that all works now issuing from the press are alike in value-or vileness. We are essentially a mercantile people, and our commercial speculations include the travail of men's heads as well as the labour of their hands. In our literary marts are to be found articles, in every sense of the word adapted to the capacity of the customer. We have cheap shops as well for books as for butcher's meat; and establishments which dispense both mercery and metaphysics" under prime cost." How they are supplied is no affair of the purchaser: he is furnished with a fashionable novel in three volumes, published at a guinea and a-half, for ninepenceshould he be in a condition to obtain the re-issue in a single volume with the usual discount allowed to the trade-and that's enough for him-or it ought to be. But the medal has also its reverse. There are other low-priced books, which are got up by unworthy means; such as sleight-of-hand tricks with copyright; legal larcenies of translations; and knavish contracts with poor devils of authors, innocent of the knowledge that Jacob Tonson, who gained a hundred thousand pounds by trading in other men's brains, used to slip bad shillings into his payments to Dryden whenever an opportunity offered. This trade, or 66 cunning," however, is not destined to a long career. It is but eking out a disreputable existence, like other filthy figments of quackery, by sheer force of newspaper puffs. Messrs. "Do-the-Muses" may reckon on a "short life;" and, by the blessing of Apollo, no "merry one." In the meanwhile it is fortunate that there is a stamp whereby the sterling metal can be known from the Brummagem ware; such an imprint as that attached to the "Tour in Sutherlandshire." It is well to take up a book with such a prestige. True, Mr. St. John's volumes need no letter of recommendation, once they are known; but without an introduction many might never make their acquaintance. It is not the office of the literary reviewer to deal in arrogant praise or petulant censure: his motto should not be, "stat pro ratione, voluntas." He should so read that he may be enabled to place a work in the best light for those who are disposed to contemplate it. In such a spirit having accompanied Mr. Charles St. John in his pleasant peregrinations, it would be competent for him to say to those who desire to ramble in the same direction-" Take this book for your itinerary: it is not the |