BRITISH SPORTS AND PASTIMES. 513 



in a mass, and places the names of the authors he has pillaged, not 

 each after his own passage, but all together at the end of the subject 

 which he attempts to elucidate. Thus it is impossible to ascertain 

 whether any assertion which attracts our notice be the dictum of 

 Buffon or Blaine Griffith or Mr. Gullet for he very complacently 

 quotes from his own " Wild Sports of the West." 



The book is put forth as being " compiled from the best autho- 

 rities, ancient and modern." This is not the fact. It is said to be 

 " unique in arrangement." It is arranged as a dictionary. Its embel- 

 lishments are asserted to be " splendid." They are outrageously 

 bad. It professes to embrace " every subject connected with the flood 

 or field." It does nothing of the kind. Its " utility as a book of 

 reference" is proudly proclaimed. It is of no use whatever as a 

 book of reference or otherwise. It is proffered as " a valuable 

 and elegant addendum to the sportsman's library." It is a worthless 

 piece of trashy humbug, that would disgrace the library of a rat- 

 catcher. 



tC The Young Cricketer's Tutor" is quite a different affair. This 

 little work is replete with practical information on one of the finest 

 and most unexceptionable of our pastimes full of life, spirit, anecdote, 

 and novelty a perfect gem deeply interesting even to those who have 

 never pitched a wicket, and to every batsman and bowler in the 

 kingdom, decidedly a sine qua non. We are happy in being able 

 conscientiously to accord it our most unqualified praise. 



" Sunday in London" is a work devoted to an exhibition of the 

 Sabbath sports and pastimes of the metropolis. It is written in 

 rather a lively, amusing style, and contains some capital illus- 

 trations by Cruikshank. The author seems to be well acquainted 

 with the dog-fightings and dram-drinkings of the lower orders, 

 but he is evidently not au fait to the Sabbath exploits of our 

 " miserable sinners" in high life. Hence the latter appear to be 

 venial compared with the former whereas, in fact, they are 

 directly the reverse. The moral offences, committed on a Sunday 

 morning in St. Giles's, are as dust in the balance compared with those 

 perpetrated during the latter part of the day in St. James's. The 

 timely appearance of this volume, and its intrinsic merits, especially 

 as regards the embellishments, will doubtless ensure an extensive 

 circulation. The cuts are vigorously drawn, full of humour, cha* 

 racter, and moral satire well engraved, and printed in such a style 

 as to confer great credit on the Widow Maurice's establishment. 



M.M. No 9& 3 M 



