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    200 NOTICES OF BOOKS.

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    ¦ » R—, ^ The And Eng Sardinia Lishwoman...

    into so-called bargains , or—for the two extremes generally gx > _together- —haggling over the payment of a few miserable hard earned

    coins ; priding herself on her utter want of sympathy with the feelings and ideas of the fellow-creatures among whom she dwells ; despising

    their institutions , yet profoundly ignorant of tliose of her own country ; hurrying through galleries as if merely to cheek off the

    accuracy of her catalogue , and only pausing rather longer in churches in order to sneer at and interrupt the devotion of tlie

    " ignorant and benighted papist'' who evades her stare and closes his ears to her loud whisper and laugh , astonished at nothing

    from an "Anglaise . " She has started with certain preconceived ideas , and travels merely to seek confirmation of them . We are

    thankful not to know where she lives in England , but we do know the sort of book she writes when she comes backwith facts

    mis-, quoted from guide books , and sentiment diluted from Corinne , recording circumstances which have been known to every educated English

    reader , since Matthew and Eustace went over after the peace ; and missing the truth and color of the wonderful word-painting which

    makes us read and re-read the descriptions of what we know so well when they are given by Hawthorneby Andersenor hy

    , , Milliard . But if we dwell on this odious reminiscence of " the

    Englishwoman in Italy , " it is but to prepare the readers of Mrs . Gretton ' s book for a very pleasant contrast , and also partly to excuse ourselves

    if we are somewhat morbidly alive to any blemishes in it , not in themselves so very great , but objectionable just from their having

    some remote affinity or _cousinshij ) to the ways of acting and thinking of the above-mentioned obnoxious individual .

    Thus we had rather she had not confided to us even the very business-like proposal of marriage which tlie young Italian is

    reported to have made her ; we had rather she had profited by the well deserved rebuke of the poor peasant , who , after patiently

    answering many of her questions , finally stopped her by " Pardon me , there are subjects which can only be divulged between our

    conscience and our God . _" She , however , relates the conversation with a naive conviction that either his poverty or his faith excused any

    want of delicacy in the gratification of her curiosity . If this was her style of conversation , it is not wonderful if she found Italians

    " opposed to any reference to sacred _things . " Tliere are many mistakes of detail , especially in the portion

    relating to Piedmont , but perhaps not of sufficient importance to deserve notice , were it not for an assumption of extreme exactitude ,

    . and were it not , too , that they invariably occur so as to give a more amusing color to a description , or stronger weiht to a particular

    view . This Journal is not likely to uphold g the ultra views of the retrograde party , but we can safely affirm that the poor coclini

    are dressed up for the occasion , and that if they did converse with

    the authoress , their views and opinions were by no means supported

    200 Notices Of Books.

    200 NOTICES OF BOOKS .

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), May 1, 1860, page 200, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01051860/page/56/