XXIV OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 



or in the forests and on the swampy shores of Western Africa, where he has 

 seen much arduous military service and much adventurous sport. These 

 poetical effusions, written during the campaign in the Crimea, partly to 

 amuse the comrades with whom he nightly sat before " the camp fire," and 

 partly to solace himself while he lay severely wounded in the hospital at 

 Scutari, possesses the interest of reality and a tone of ardent martial en- 

 thusiasm which may compensate for their want of literary finish. The' 

 principal composition is a spirited narrative of the Battle of Inkermann. 

 The cavalry charge at Balaclava is no less worthily sung ; and full justice is 

 done to the valour of the Turkish contingent elsewhere. 



'•UNITED SERVICE GAZF,TTE," November ^th, 1866. 



THE CAMP FIRE. 



By "The Old Shekarkt." 



It would be almost sufficient recommendation for a book to say that it 

 was written by the " Old Shekarry," whose previous works have attained so 

 well deserved a popularity. But we shall go further, and press this little 

 volume on our readers, on its own account. It is a genuine contribution to 

 soldiers' literature, and will be welcome in every military library. The most 

 ambitious poem, " Inkermann," is full of fire and elevated description, 

 which has the further merit of being as accurate as it is glowing ; but we 

 could have wished that the author, whilst doing justice to the brave resist- 

 ance of the Guards in the Sandbag Battery, had not forgotten that they 

 were at last rescued from their perilous position by the gallant charge of 

 the 20th of the Line. It would not take a single leaf from the Guards, 

 laurel-wreath, if full justice was done to the gallant comrades who so 

 bravely stood by them on that day of carnage. One of the minor poems, 

 "Balaclava," is well worthy of perusal. We turned with curiosity 

 and some fear to a poem going over the same ground as the immortal 

 " Charge of the Six Hundred," but we were agreeably surprised to see the 

 theme treated in a perfectly distinct and original manner. Comparisons, 

 as Mrs. Malaprop says, are " odoriferous, but in this case the " Old She- 

 karry " need fear nothing. He has written like a soldier of one of the 

 greatest deeds of daring ever performed by British or any other soldiers, 

 and soldiers' hearts will throb with sympathy as they repeat his trumpet- 

 tongued stanzas. 



'/ 



J 



