THE SPORT. OF KINGS. By Ralph Nevin. (Methuen and Co.
16s. net.)—Glorious things have been written of the British Turf. Nobody minds the scorn of the deliberate, i.e., affected, " highbrow " and the real intellectual is as likely as anyone to be swept off his feet by the glamour of racing and hunting and the best sporting literature, to which Homer and Virgil contributed.- Mr. Nevill will nottake a place on that high plane. He has not the qualifications of, say, Mr. George LambiOn, to write the kind or book that reveals a Masterly knowledge of the whole business. Nor can he claini to be in any sense a vales sacer i • nor does he fulfil anY.hope that we might have had of his mother's son writing with the real spice (in the best sense) of an original wit. We fear that he is only bookmaking," in the literary use and with no re- ference to those whom he calls- (as we should expect) the "laying fraternity" with its "leViathans." But he has made, with the help of scissors and paste, a book that will make an hour or two pass pleasantly enough. The chapter on racing in France has more that will be news to most. of us:than .the others. We wonder why Mr., Nevill seems to mock at Buono-. Fate's -edict that horses should carry weight according to their height. State interference in -handicapping may sound-
s- bine more ridiculous. ••••••..Lterablv less dangerousi than interference in trade, but the Emperor was only following the system which Mr..Nevill shOwa was regularly followed in English " Giye and Take "-Plates:- There are reproductions of old prints and photographsthat add attraction to the book,
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