THE HUNTING-GROUNDS OF THE OLD WORLD. IX 



" MORNING POST," 10th April, 1865. 

 THE HUNTING-GROUNDS OF THE OLD WORLD. 



For descriptions of wild life and hunting adventures, " The Old Shekarry" 

 has earned a reputation equal to that which for very many years he has en- 

 joyed as one of the best of shots, the most chivalrous of sportsmen, the most 

 daring of riders, and the most genial of companions. His modesty in 

 handling the " gray goose quill," which he says is a more unwieldly instru- 

 ment in his hands than "the rifle," however becoming, is not to be relied 

 upon, for nothing can be more graphic — more intensely exciting than his 

 writings. Whether describing "a header" into a nullah, or the sublime 

 scenery of the regions of eternal snow, the same fluent yet powerful style of 

 writing is conspicuous. It is, therefore, necessary to decline accepting his 

 own judgment as to his literary qualifications. To the English public the 

 name of " The Old Shekarry " (sportsman) is perhaps not so familiar, but 

 from one end of India to the other there is not a man who is worth his salt 

 in the pigskin, or who has beaten a patch of jungle, that does not look 

 upon him as an old and valued friend. It will be a source of great grati- 

 fication to aspiring Nimrods to know that the author has described every 

 kind of shooting to be met with from Cape Comorin to the Himalayas, thus 

 making the work a complete guide for the Indian sportsman. He has also 

 included in it accounts of various expeditions to Cashmere, Thibet, and 

 Circassia ; and in these days of steam and rail, he hints that it is an easy 

 matter for the lover of the picturesque, instead of forming one of that horde 

 of sight-seers annually discharged on the Continent, to take his lounge one 

 afternoon in Rotten Row, and that day fortnight to find himself sipping 

 coffee in the midst of a circle of mountaineers in one of the romantic gorges 

 of the Caucasus, where a man's worth is not estimated by the length of his 

 pocket, but according to the gifts bestowed upon him by nature, and the 

 manner in which he makes use of them. As " The Old Shekarry " writes, 

 the pleasing recollections of the past come crowding upon him, the memory 

 of friends who have bearded the tiger in his lair, who have tracked the 

 mighty elephant to his haunt in the pathless forest, or pursued the watchful 

 ibex from crag to crag, over precipices, chasms, and ledges of rock. All 

 those, in short, who have been his companions during his eventful life he 

 mentions with an affection, which makes his reader feel that he is pursuing 

 the journal not of a sportsman only but of a generous, kind-hearted English 

 gentleman. It is delightful to find such genuine feeling, such true nobility, 



2o 



