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    522 The Leader and Saturday Analyst. [Ju...

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    NEW ROMANCES.* ri\HE talented authoress ...

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    * JSl Furoidia. By Maria S. Cummins, Aut...

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    Local Associations With Royalty.* A New ...

    vignettes of the palaces of Henry VII . and George II ., at Richinond . There is a wide range for comprehending a large number of what Mr . Williams denominates " Court memorabilia , and Court celebrities ; " and he claims credit for '' having 1 produced a continuous panorama , in which they form the foreground ; with a less studied treatment of such accessoiles as the demands of the subject required . He merits praise for the completeness of his picture , and the diligence lie has shown in the collection of his materials . To this kind of labour Mr . Williams tells us he has devoted himself for thirty years , during about ten hours a day , and its

    severity has so told upon his sight , that he is now grateful to be spared the investigation of original documents , by the series of publications lately issued under the auspices of the Master of the Rolls and the Secretary of State for the Home Department . He has laid the calendars of State Papers under judicious contribution , and altogether composed a series of pleasant chapters . After the manner of topographers in general , 'he also quotes our poets to excess , from Chaucer to Leigh Hunt . George the Third , we are told , was fond of the poets , and when at Richmond greatly preferred Thomson , for the sake of the description ,

    beginning" Say , shall we wind Along the stream , or walk the silent mead , Or court the forest glades , or wander wild Among the waving harvests , or ascend ¦ s "While radiant Summer op ens all his pride , Thy hill , de lightful Shene ?" This citation brings us by a pleasant amble to the subject of Shene , the etymology of which word reminds us at once of our old poets , who were fond of its use . Spenser and Chaucer continually patronise it , in the sense of bright or refulgent . The place is said to have derived the appellation from a palace built here by Edward the Confessor , and known by the title Shene , or resplendent . For the rest , the reader must be referred to the volumes before us , the early chapters of which give a full account of the antiquities , and whatever else concerns the king ' s manor at Shene , with its kitchen of large dimensions , like the existing examples at Durham and Glastonbury Abbey . '

    " Some illuminations of the Luttrell Psalter , " says Mr . Williams , ¦ ' furnish curious illustrations of the culinary art , but give a very inadequate idea ofThe busy scene that was going on during the preparation of a royal feasts with the portly master-cooks directing their numerous active subordinates in ~ the composition of the made tlishes ; the nimble ' turnbroaches ' attending to the great joints revolving on the spits before huge-fires * the bakers running with pasties to the oven , and the valets of the kitchen collecting the various articles required for the service of the meal , while fryingpans , gridirons , brass pots and kettles were in active operation everywhere . "

    The court manners of the fourteenth and subsequent centuries are graphically and fully described , and illustrated by Mr . Williams , in relation to the manor of Shene , the gorgeous ceremonies of which really seem to have dazzled his imagination . He requires us to believe everything and anything of them , and gives us all manner of poetical extract ? as painting its various splendours . The knights © nd- ^ 'ladies-were- ^ handaome—in—tl « eir— co & t » imer-aH—made-of—the . cosiliest fabrics , enriched with gems of gold and silver thread . One of the former is thus described in a romance of the fourteenth century— " She came in a violet , With white pearl overfret And sapphires therein set On every side ; All of pall work fine , With miche and nevyn Anerlud with ermine , And overt for pride . To tell her buttons was toore , , Enamelled with azure , With topaz and treasure , , Overtrasyd that tyde : She was receved a span , Of an y living man . Of red gold the riban , 'Gleamed her aide . Her hair washyghted on hold , With a coronal of gold , Was never made upon mould , A worthier wight . She was freely and fair , ' And well her seemed her gear , ' u With rich bosses u pair , That dearly were by-dight . " But we cannot follow our author in his descriptions of magnifi-< rent dresses and other accessories of great tournaments and banquets , in which he delights to revel . The romances of chivalry were then the favourite court reading : nnd the imitation of them

    the favorite practice . Add to these the fwldueps for shoitnarrn * tiye poems , depicting tlie pnnsion of love or the devotion of friendship , and for tno French chansons , which we are told were in much request at Shene . In these and other , particulars we may accept Shene as the symbol of England , and , indeed , as the type of the age . In the fifteenth century books began to bo considered Tby the court as necessaries rather than luxuries , and appear more frequently in testamentary bequests and family memoranda . ] - ... We may pnas on , to glean a few remarks on the reign of Queen Elizabeth . On lior accession , we are told , the Court at Richmond resumed its splendour and guiety . Our antiquary praises the inex-Tiauatiblo resources of her wardrobe . Her style of costume is too

    well known to need description . Her majesty was not desirous that her own sex should imitate her splendour , and so managed that the dresses of the nobles and gentlemen of the Court should oiitshine those of the ladies . " She ' eontinued to promenade the groves of Richmond— ' in maiden meditation fancy free , ' while on both sides of her they were rivalling each other in the display of those qualifications to which they owed their position near her stately person . " Mr . Williams justifies the regal taste in this respect , and particularly as they were all distinguished by mental and personal gifts . Never were so many able men , whether a 3 statesmen , warriors , navigators , poets or divines , seen at court . The Queen was fond of field sports , and employed a considerable hunting establishment at Richmond .

    " The Queen and court were at Richmond in the year 158 G , whence the Lords of the Council wrote to Sir William More and other Surrey magistrates respecting complaints that had been made by the inhabitants of Guildford , Godalming , and Wonerth , in that county , against an Italian , who had lately erected a glass-house in their neighbourhood , whereby the woods are likely to be consumed , to the prejudice of the whole country . Here was also dated , Richmond , Dec . 3 rd , the Queen ' s proclamation , afterwards printed under the great seal of England , for the declaration of the sentence lately given against the Queen of Scots . "

    Mr . Williams takes the most favourable side of the royalty that he loves to celebrate , and exempts Elizabeth , at the expense of Davison , from the hurried execution of Mary . In the same manner and spirit he denies the marriage of George the Fourth with Mrs . Fitzherbert . These are points of weakness in our antiquary ; but we suppose he thought he could do no less , since he has entitled his book " Domestic Memoirs of the Royal Family . " There is little to justify its claim to this appellation , beyond the innocent flattery to which we have alluded . Notices of Shakespeare are few in these volumes ; but those of Ben Jonson abound , from whose masques some excerpts are made . Honest Ben , however , obtains no large share of commendation from the compiler , who is not ashamed to prefer the librettos of modern opera to the poetry of the ancient masques . Here our antiquary , like others of his craft , has evidently got beyond his depth , and I ' inditeth words without knowledge . "

    The reigns of Charles-I ., . - . James II ., and the Georges * afford-^ ample materials for a history of Richmond ; and even during : Oliver Crom welFs Protectorate Richmondjias somjtinteresting ^ associatipns . A pai-liamentary survey was made of Richmond Coxxrtrprelmiinary to its being offered for sale . This survey is a curious document , from which Mr . Williams lias made ample extracts . But the pur itans are evidently in no favour with him ; though' he speaks with some approbation of Milton , whose garden of Ederi lie thinks may have been conceived by him when gazing on the expansive landscape at Richmond . More congenial with his temperament are the times of Horace Walpple , when Queen Caroline was accustomed to retire to Richmond Lodge . She made many improvements in Richmond gardens , adding a hermitage and a grotto , decorated

    with a figure of Merlin . The coarse king , however , ridiculed her taste- while Gay and Pope , and the poets of the time , were em-— -ployed--in- ^ applaxiding-4 t 7- — 'bnt—it-was—t-he-second ^ Georg ^ s—br-utal custom to " snub" his consort in public . Some of the poetry of this period , illustrative of manners , is smart in its satire , and also in accordance with the representations l'eceived from Hogarth ' s" Marriage a la Mode" This part of the subject , however , ought riot to be quitted without recording that the Poet of the Seasons died at Richmond , in 1748—a tablet indicates his place of sepulture . These interesting volumes conclude with a brief notice of the Prince of Wales's residence at White Lodge / for the purpose of his education . The plan on which this is conducted gives satisfaction to Mr . Williams , whoso approbation we hope will contribute to the gratification of the Royal Familyy whose domestic memoirs he has rather symbolized than recorded .

    522 The Leader And Saturday Analyst. [Ju...

    522 The Leader and Saturday Analyst . [ JuKE % > I 860 .

    New Romances.* Ri\He Talented Authoress ...

    NEW ROMANCES . * ri \ HE talented authoress of the " Lamplighter' * and " Mabel -I Vaughan" appears before us for the third time in anew novel , entitled " El Fureidis . " This work is entitled to take a higher and more ambitious stand than has fallen to the lot of either of Miss Cummins's preceding efforts . The successful ] tale of the " Lamplighter , " in which this lady made her first essay as a popular novel writer , was a simple but touching recital of the life and vicissitudes of a poor orphan , fighting an upward course in the great battle of existence . Her present production is a story of the far East , involving the necessity of much research on the part , of the authoress , extensive knowledge of human nature , and , to enable her to picture to the reader with vividness and precision the manifold beauties of the glowing Orient , descriptive powers of no ordinary calibre . In saying- that Miss Cnmmins haB proved her-

    * Jsl Furoidia. By Maria S. Cummins, Aut...

    * JSl Furoidia . By Maria S . Cummins , Author of " The Lamplighter . " 2 Vols . Sampson Low , Son & Co . Squires and Parsons . A Sketch for the Times . Sa ' undero , Otley & Co . Diary of a Poor Tovn , q Omtleman , translated front the German . By M . Anna' Ohilds .. Trubner & Co . The Bemi-Detached IZovae . Edited by Lady Thbrbsa Lewis . Biohnird Bentley . The Jiateman Household . T * y James Payn , Author of " Stories nnd Sketches . Reprinted from Chftmbera ' e Journal . " Arthur Hall , Virtue tc Co .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), June 2, 1860, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_02061860/page/14/