The Express.
London, England, 1860-11-27 00:00:00

LITE&&TURH.

liwaireiw.weee of an Old Bjeortnawit. By Colonel J.
P. limunost, K. H. author d " Travels in the
Interior of Columbia. " In two volumea

Longman,.
Unfortunately, Colonel Hamilton has been de-
prived of eight for more than twenty years past,
and, hie readers will not say unfortunately, the
cherished recollections of a sportsman's life, before
this disabling visitation tame upon him, have
amused him in the darkness of old age. We could
not refuse him, therefore, a share of our sympathy
and attention, when relating the favourite and
Dietaries" pureuits of his youth and his active man-
hood, even though no curious entertainment were
to be derived from his long stories about all the
bites of the air and all the wild beasts of
the field. But the author being an intelligent
naturalist, and not • mere vain braudisher of
what the Yankees call his " shootingdron," we
really do
zatataufrom him a greal deal
of pleasant instruction, as well as an ex-
ample how to It is chiefly in the British Isles,
and nowhere out of Europe, that the exploits and
observations are located which he tells. The
English may not be, as Chszles 11. said it was, the
best climate in the world, but October is the finest
month of the English year, as the sportsman thinks
when in the beech-woods, let us say of Bucking-
hamshire, where the pheasants " run like grey in -
hound." between the trunks of the trees, orthe
open stubble field, where, plump and saucy, the
pxtridgeo, in a close covey, start up from ditch or
furrow, he follows the common English game. We
are glad to notice that Colonel Hamilton dis-
likes the unmanly, wasteful, and merciless
slaughter of the batfue, as practised in these
too prodigal days by gentlemen who are
too idle to hunt up the birds for themselves,
to study the haunts and habits of any wild animal,
to exert any patience and ingenuity in approaching
it, or to do anything except standing to lire off the
guns which a keeper has loaded for them a hundred
tines in one morning at a mob of helpless terrified
creatures driven up for massacre in the gross by the
aid of a number of men and boys around the cover.
This may be shooting, but it does not deserve the
name of 'port, compared with " the old-fashioned
way of going out," as our author says, " with
setters, pointers, spaniels, and • good retriever, and
getting healthy bodily exercise from a walk of six
or seven boars, besides the great satisfaction of
seeing your dogs steady awl active in the perform-
ance of their duty." la the same wise spirit, be
denounces the fully awl imprudence of a landowner
who chooses to maintain an enormous stock of
pinie, to the destruction of the farmer's crops.
We record these dicta, because if the discreet nee
of the fowling-piece continues to be an approved
national pastime, that wanton butchery which is a
nuisance in England, and a barbarism worthy of
the Aehaittees, should be more correctly appre-
ciated ; and when my lord, with Lis three or four
coca Ous, Las heaped up a dozen cartloads of
deal flesh and feathers by a furiously brief expen-
diture of cartridges, it should not be celebrated as
a triumph of the troe'sportsman's prowess. For
the rtat, Colonel Hamilton gives us an account of
Lis adventures and achievements in the Island of
Sardinia among the boars and bustards, the snipe
and quails, with a beautiful Joe Manton, Sir
Charles Knightley-'e gift to him, about fifty years
ago ; he talks of killing the ortolan in Holland
and the ptarmigan in the Pyrenees. Every kind
el sport, from deer-stalking to cotiey-citiclung, in
our done:Ale haunts, or on Scottish moors and
Irish bogs or waters, appears to be familiar to him,
and a part of his second volume is occupied with
the art or " mignon "of hawking, and the virtues
of the falcon race.

11%.rei,huni. Nary, and some Old Anita from
Ka:hw &amok's Pvrtfoliu. By House Len
Smith, Elder, and Co.
How long the system of reproducing current
therefore may last is a question for authors, pub-
lisher., and readers to settle among them. We
must take the fact as we And it. There can be no
doubt that the system is commercially successful to
two parties etmeerool, nor, inferentially, that it
affonLe great 'Ahern tem to the third. Still we
may question the los.' effect of this reproductive
system on the literary art. At different timea,
under different impression'', and with different ends
in view, an author contributes to different period-
ical works a variety of tales, essays, and fugitive
@hatches, each of which we may assume to be more
or less deserving the character of completeness.
The unto collection of theses at any time, into a
41. is a proceeding against which we have
nothing to urge. Inured, there are reasons
over andabove that invincible reason of
" demand," why this kind of re-publication may
be Inked upon favourably. It is a fair test and
• fair reward of popularity. Scattered hither and
thit: Cr way b, dim:email the traces of many a skil-
ful hand, which traces have left their correspond-
ing marks in the minds of at least • clean Every
author who is worthy the name has, in fact, his
pubiic ; and it is • real service to them se well as to
him to preserve his creations intent. Such are the
grounds no which we think select etlitionit of an
author's miscellanies may be justified ; but if these
ground' do not afford an inducement sufficiently
strong of themselves, we are of opinion that the
banquet is not rendered more attractive by the
commingling of many dishes, with a little extra
flavouring. . .

The reappearance of any number of short stories,
by the authoress of " Sylvan Holt's Daughter "
would have been sure of a wide and hearty wel-
come. Their fusion into a three volume novel, by
the trite plan of a family diary, seems to us a mis-
tak.... Beyond swelling the bulk of the collection,
nothing is actually dune by the interposition of the
fresh pages. Not one of the stories has been
brought closer to another. Add to this objection
the fact that the " Diary," taken separately, is the
weakest thing of the whole, and there may appear
a very strong basis for the proposition that art is
needlessly violated by the plan of re-publication
adopted in the present instance.
Some of the tales clesien for setting in this un-
satisfactory form are aiming the best that have
issued under the name of Holme Lee. Especially to
be admired and praised is that well-sustained ro-
t:Lance, "The Haunted House," which, in idea,
construction, and language, is a prose poem.
Never stilted or strained in any degree, the natural
diction used throughout this delightful tale is yet
messureland sonorous, proceeding gravely at points
and turns where conventional humour would be apt
to disport itself. The other stories, of considerable
length and elaboration, are, " Ashburn Rectory,"
"At 01.1 St. Ann's," " From First to Lest," and
"The Day of Reckoning." There are sonic dozen
minor tales awl sketches beside which have appeared
in Thium/e4l IVords and other journals. Much en-
tertainment may be found among them ; nor would
aconnected and entire interest have been missed
had nut the pretence of that interest been given.

Strange Surprising Adrentures of the Venerable
G...nui Simple and kis Fin histipits. WU&
trated by Axratu Catiworiti. TrUbner and Ca
Wiitc rtconilite leaning condesoends to the mer-
rier .4 fuu, it dwarves to please both the young
and the Mr. Gousequill, the editor of this
merry volume, is an Oriental scholar who has dis-
covered in the luxuriant jungle of native
Indian literature an amusing satire upon
the pompous inanity of certain Brahmins,
which he has translated or paraphrased for
the English reader. The offing of a " Gooroo"
in Southern India is that .4 a peripatetic teacher
of Brahnuos, wbo iuktructa them in the peculiar
errenionies soil oloserinurts of their caate ; and in
the Deccan, it appeani, the theme, is also • sort of
bishop, having au ecclesiastical supervision or.,
his district The story of ( brims. as related
in the Tamul language, does not ruflect upon the
Brahminical religion itieslf so nail. as upon the
stupidity and IrERIMOID a some of it., pnofusa.rs.
Like Mr. Pickwick and his immortal .oa,paui,,,n.,
Tupulan, Snodgrass and Winkle, the n00n...
sem forth, attended' by his admiring disciple,
Me...4v, Noodle, Douslle, Wiseacre, Zany, anal
whose fate it is altermite!y to enoNunter the
must nalculous mishaps and mistakes. hiuso, .4
these nitileuts of their blundering peregrunitioue