V EN ERIE AND THE V A LOIS 255 



jSIouille was so fond of him that she would leave the most 

 ravishing line if she heard his voice ; an amiable peculiarity 

 which he admits does more credit to her heart than her 

 perseverance, and which would have profited her nothing 

 with the late Mr. G. Lane-Fox at Bramham. But I like 

 the book for its rather particular and unusual style and fla- 

 vour. It is too long ; most books on sporting subjects, and 

 especially mine, are. Very often we lose sight of the forest 

 for the trees. It is too allusive, thanks to a mixed cargo 

 of classics, ethics, scripture, and philosophy, which the 

 author carries and unloads at every port, but only to take 

 in fresh stores. Saints and sages and public characters 

 of all sorts and sizes are squeezed into his service and into 

 all sorts of ineligible places. But what gives the book the 

 particular and unusual quality I have just referred to, is 

 his treatment of the subject throughout in the spirit — if I 

 may say so without irreverence — of the hundred and fourth 

 Psalm. 



When Mr. Jorrocks got lost and benighted on the 

 moor on the Pinch-me-near forest day, the spectacle of 

 nature caused him a homesick alarm. He could only 

 think of Betsy and the Torbay soles he had ordered for 

 dinner. But in similar circumstances M. de Ligniville would 

 have looked at things very differently. 



Nature to him is the splendid nature of Addison's hymn. 

 I do not say that at times the sylvan piety is not a little 

 overdone. Every incident of a day's hunting is not sus- 

 ceptible of being read into a sublime and everlasting context. 

 A luxury of horror at Nature's frown, an overdone thanks- 

 giving for her smile, easily become mannerisms, and M. de 

 Ligniville is not frugal enough of realising his feelings 

 in type. But, on the whole, the fault is on the right side. 

 Possibly, the manufacture into words of thoughts about 

 Nature and her divine message is too sustained. But it is 



