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No, 450, yovEMBEB 27,185B.1 ' . T -H. E ...
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A SUMMER AND WINTER IN THE TWO SICILIES....
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3a . . . - . SUPERB CHRISTMAS GIFT BOOK....
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POETRY. lonica. Smith, Elder, and Co. Po...
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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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Sir Humphry Dayy's Remains. Fragmentary ...
we reach the common goal to which all biographies , wherieesoever they start , conduct their students . The body returns hel p lessly to the all-embracing bosom of that Nature into so many of whose arcana he had found or fabricated the key ; the soul , to answer to God for the employment of those talents which he used to explain the mysteries of tiis creative power and government . This book , with no assumption of pretentious literary merit , is a truthful * brotherly record . It tells much that is hew and else untold , and what is old in it is well worthy of reiteration . ies , its . ing ma to nts lis » us It is
No, 450, Yovembeb 27,185b.1 ' . T -H. E ...
No , 450 , yovEMBEB 27 , 185 B . 1 ' . T -H . E LEABEB . - lags
A Summer And Winter In The Two Sicilies....
A SUMMER AND WINTER IN THE TWO SICILIES . A Summer and Winter in the Two Sicilies . By Julia Kavaflagb . Hurst and Blackett . We had rather have new books on Italy from feminine than from the rougher hands of our own sex . We are delighted to welcome Miss ICavamagh ' s impressions de voyage , though in respect to male travellers we agree , to a great extent , with Dean Berkeley , from whom she differs . Writing to Pope from Naples , so long ago as 1717 , that dignitary held that his silence was excusable when he lad nothing to write about but the exhausted subject of Italy . He was certainly premature . The Prince of Elbceuf had not yet struck upon Herculaneum in quarrying stone for Ms villa at Portici . Pompeii had not unveiled its streets of tombs , its j house of Arrius Diomedes , or its Forum ; nor were , the cities of Etruria dreamed of . The Dean was i probably—like many cliquists of his time— -a lium- < bug , and , to be in the fashion , perhaps pretended to t ignore features of Italy that must have been new and strange in his day , because he was too lazy to study or c record them . But since him , so many plodding as r well as imaginative persons Lave so diligently £ wrought in the vein of Italian travel , turning ana s twisting into a hundred marketable forms each "rain t of metal they could find , that unless we were al- c lowed to pick our authors , we must confess we had 1 rather be bored jvith no more masculine lucubra- t tions"about Venice , Rome , the Campagna , Florence , Milan , Turin , the Lakes , and Naples . All these ' taste forbids men-travellers—unless under special ?! circumstances—tp touch ; for they have' been handbooked to death , and so worked out that a fallow * is needed . But though we may differ from the j worthy Dean as to the exhaustion of Italy a lmn- a j died and thirty-one years ago , and at the same time a deprecate heartily the piles of yet unwritten travel- a books of which our present authoress has visions , d we yet welcome for a while the new sparkles of g fact which it is open to female penetration to strike * out , and the new lights which female intelligence n may refleot upon well-known objects , Ci Sorrento is one of the most delightful of the a Italian watering-places ; and in one of the few ^ . small ,- seedily-furnished villas that perch amidst b ) orange-groves on the verge of the precipitous cliffs j , . overhanging' the sea , Miss Kavanagh and her Xainily- party passed their summer and winter . JGast n , And west of them stretched the arms of the bay . ci Vesuvius , Naples , and Ischia were opposite them ; t | below and all around were orchards of fig , olive , m orange , and lemon trees , interlaced with vines . N No wonder , then , that a penetrating lady-tra- oi veller , familiar with the use of the pen , should give jj us so much charming word-painting of the scenery w , and of the 'figures that peopled it , that we arc cm- 01 barrassed how to select from the many passages of sv varying intensity and value which her pages place cc at our disposal . es The beauty of the bay , tlio no less striking tn beauty of the people , " eternal nnd . avenging dower Or of poor plundered Italy , of which the barbarous f , r nations may not rob her , " are ever-inspiring j u themes ; and Miss Kavanagh makes much of them , bi When on an excursion to Pastum , by way of e > Onstollamuro , the party onoountored King BomWs toother : — a On tho road wo mot hia Royal Hl « hneaa Princo Leopold , f « a fat , good-humoured looking prince , who has a hand- wi flomo villa in Sorrento . Ho was riding in a public VV carriage like our own , with two men , in cotton jackets , sh on tlio box . Outriders , equerries , lacqueys , postilions , hn ¦ were absent . There la no country like this for oaao . W This brother of a king , and descendant of the BouTbons , he 18 fond of tho mountains . He regularly goes off to thoin , tin « n < l passes under our windows , riding on his donkey , bu « n < l preceded in Eastern stylo by six wddlors , all blind pri of one eye . On tho present occasten ho loaned back , ex lazily smoking a cigar $ and as usual , ho neither re- m < coived nor gave any token of recognition . tin rpv ^ Ua £ j . m rn a- to th to »_ j ' e ( j _ \~ *¦ yS " 6 is I- 0 d r s y 1 ii - t - 3 Y i " * a - a , f g > , he , a \ ' the out we in by a who We sh liad her tho but ex tho
\ . The ' .-landscape beauties of lia Cava , favoured haunt of English and German artists ; of Amalfi , with its lovely valley' of the paper mills , where " steep mountains , Swiss in height , Italian in their grace , rise on mountains yet more steep ; " and of Capri , the . miniature Gibraltar , with its antiquities and the indescribably lovely Grot' Azura , are all cleverly sketched , and peopled with animated figures . But its women are , after all , the most beautiful piece of antiquity which Oapri possesses ; truly blood of the Greek has come , down to them undefiled I never saw in all Italy such lovely creatures . They are tall and stately , yet exquisitely graceful , with p oval faces , dark eyes , soft and downcast , and a sw dignity in their aspect and their bearing that made them look to me like so many virgin queens . I could not think with patience of the comments I had heard on the so-called mesalliance of the two English gentle men who married Capri girls . Women like those saw are ladies , for their beauty is not mere beauty form and colour , it is the perfection of womanhood They may be peasants , they may be ignorant , but ru or vulgar they cannot be with such noble , intellectual faces . Was Nausica the less . a princess for washing her father's linen ? For my part , I looked at them , and became a sudden convert to the theorj' of races . I had already seen , two years before , Agrippina , Faustina Messalina , and other Roman empresses revived under the aspect of Roman . girls ; but these before me were the daughters of an earlier and a nobler race than the Roman . Theseus , Ajnx , Agamemnon , the most heroic of men , Helen , Briseis , the loveliest of women , were the progenitors of the ' women of Capri . Carmela was , like U 3 , lost in admiration . " Belle donne , " she kept repeat- ing , "belle donne ; " and when a pretty girl like Carmela praises women whose beauty throws her in the shade , who can do-ubt the praise ? Not without a pang , yet loth to brave the en chanting influence of spring , which might have made it hard to start at al ] , our traveller left Sorrento for Naples , the scenes and people of which she sketches with , a free and skilful hand . A trip to lethargic Palermo and its picturesque environs occupies the first portion of the second volume . The following sketch of a floating' Improvisatore may be novel to many of our readers : — There were very few passengers on board . These few were now gathered at one end of the deck , looking at the little boy who escorts every steamer in or out of Naples . He . is a lad of nine at the utmost—small , supple , brown as a berry , with a quick Italian face , such a face as out of Italy you never see with a child . He comes in a little four-oared boat , and on this floating stage , he will dance the Tarentella , act the buffoon , sing n aria , fight an invisible foe , atab himself at the feet of faithless lady , and , turning up the whites of his eyes , die in the bottom of his boat as gracefully as the ancient ladiator , from whom he is most probably descended . Having lain there long enough to impress the audience , starts to his feet—bare , of course—doffs the cloth cap that covers his little curly head , and generally reaps plentiful harvest of coppers and silver pieces . Of the coins that are thrown to him whilst he is acting , he takes no notice-i-they ma 3 ' roll in the bottom of the boat , and fall into the sea , for all it matters to the little Improvisatore . The sights of Palermo were soon " done , " and having seen enough of Etna to corroborate the criticism , by some attributed to Leigh Hunt , tliafc mountain is " a big impostor , a hollow and miserable delusion , " Miss Jvavanagh returned to Naples , where the twelvemonth was easily made by a survey of tho city itself , and of tlio classic Baia , Ilerculaneum , and Pompeii . It may be said ought to blush at thus plundering our gifted and entertaining authoress , but so abounding a store of sweet and pleasant passages do these two volumes comprise , that wo must plead the old schoolboy ' s excuse , that " out of such a lot" what wo have taken will never bo missed . Wo will , tliercfore , onco more lay tho Summer and Winter under con- tribution for a sketoh of an infant Bourbon at play tho Villa lleale , or marine shrubbery at Nnplos , way of pendant to that of her uncle , a , bove extracted :- — There is a little princoss of seven or eight , who wears pink silk skirt , flounced to her waist , » nd sticking out m her diminutive person in the moot npp ~ rovod style , runs about trundling her hoop with great zoal . mot her tho other day in ono of the arbours , where e was sulking in n very ill-humour . A . little balloon got lodged in a troe , nnd could not be got down . Without it , hIio would not go ; and all tlio scolding of governess could not make hor royal highness leave arbour without it . Her arm was Irreverently pullod , alto sullenly laid down on the stone bench , evidently prepared to resist to the last . Wo went on ; and what tremities wore resorted to in this difficult matter , is more than I know , A soldier guarded tho entrance of Arbour against Intrudera—a wise precaution , for tho
Neapolitans are not a ceremonious people , and would not have minded looking on . Here , indeed , we must perforce draw the line . We might quote and quote all day from the sweet and sparkling pages of the gifted authoress , but alas ! we have no space left to stow more plunder .
3a . . . - . Superb Christmas Gift Book....
3 a . . . - . SUPERB CHRISTMAS GIFT BOOK . ^ The Merr ie Days of England . By EdvaTd M'Dermott . ^ W . Kent and Co . ' * Thebe is something very taking in Hie title of this J ? L book- The same may be said of its typography , et ana its glorious crimson and gold housing . Nor ie has Mr . M'Dermott failed to render its inside well Id worthy of both the title and the outer splendour , rd We are glad to be reminded of the " merrie 2- days . " There is little enough of merriment about re the old country how . If it ever were a land of Ar-3 f cadian happiness for the peasant , and of "joyaunce " for the lord , those characteristics had fled before ? our time . The English of to-day are a fast-living people , —all rising- early , late taking rest , and d eating bread of carefulness . All burn the brief d candle of life at both ends ; all draw upon nature ' s t , bank as though it were inexhaustible . It is a r grave , wrinkle-browed , crow's-footed old country e now-a-days , as far as we know of it ; and if its e merriment is not precisely a myth , it is at least an c old-fashioned bygone , a reverend piece of antiquity , e coeval with caps and bells , Andra Ferraras , maye ings , pageants , and pots of sack . We are grateful to the ingenious Dryasdust who will dig it up carej fully , furbish it lovingly , and lay ifc before us at Christmas-tide , when we chew our annual cud—all of us—of sweet and bitter fancies . > A short but happy sketch , in Mr . M'Dermbtt ' s -. best manner , of village life and all its " secret L sweetness , " is followed by one of "May . " Here , our author calls in aid the lyre of Herrick and Spenser , as well as the pensil of Nash and Thomas . " Harvest Home" introduces some beautiful lines by the brother of the present Laureate . The essay on " Sports and Pastimes" bristles with long-bows and cross-bows , clothyard shafts and popinjays , and is enriched with extracts from the old ltobin Hood ballads and " Robin's last farewell . " The dramatic chapter on " Plays and Mysteries" popularises knowledge hitherto confined to a limited circle . A drawing of the " Noah's Ark" ; whieh adorned old Bartholomew Fair illustrates this chapter . The work comprises , in all , nineteen chapters . These are illustrated by twenty wood engravings of the very highest class by Evans , Linton , Harral , Thomas , Wimperis , Green , Measom , Palmer , and Cooper , after designs by the artists we have mentioned , and hy Messrs . Birket Poster and Edward Corbould . It is a beautiful specimen of its class ; for all engaged upon it seem to have wrought con amore , and we have no hesitation in saying it will warm the heart as well as glad the eyes of all who love the manners , customs , sports , and martial feats of our ancestors . the . ure eet - we of t . f de -P e c , b g n n o c :. j . « * * - * - ol D < sv Ol "j "J ou ai ! is ba ch kn ( j r , g ar < Y ^? ^•' 1 Cc tio Co foi atn wa ] ov * \
Poetry. Lonica. Smith, Elder, And Co. Po...
POETRY . lonica . Smith , Elder , and Co . Poems . By Ada Trevnnion . Smith , Elder , and Co . Poems . By Henry Cecil . Smith , Elder , and Co . Pleasure . A Poem . Iu Seven Books , By Nicholas Michel ] . TeggandCo . Modern poetry , with a few brilliant exceptions , has dwindled into a very innocent affair . If poetic " fire" is not very scorching , neither is poetic " duluess" below tlio mediocre level . A middle palli lias been found out , and it isr fast being thronged with poetic perambulators . The quartett of productions , which heads our article in no instance rises greatly above mediocrity j it is fair , however , to say that not one sinks below . The works are of diilorcnt degrees of merit , but no surpassing difference is visible . lonica is the re Ilex of a classic taste i Greek and Latin head-linos meet us cvorywhoi-o , and classio themqs are the subject of several of the pieces . The versification is smooth , sweet , and elegant , and we could select more than ono passage in which the thought and expression would bo not unworthy of Tennyson . Beams , by Ada Trovanion , are mostly domestic in their tendency . Hemans , Tennyson , JLandon , and that school of poets appear to have materially influenced this writer . But horo and there we fauoy wo recoguiso an old acquaintance . . For mstanco , in the picoo entitled " Cathleon ' s Ghost , " has not the writer closely copied—unooasoiously , Ion Pot Poi •™* Mx dw : " *] " " P thr ° " s '' ai cve ^ f * ' * ti \ sl win sev s \ V ( 01 ) C . vo . , ' ., In ' stai has
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 27, 1858, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_27111858/page/13/
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