On this page
-
Text (2)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
thereon ; of aU sbanm sham audition w a reason for implying ^ as in thi ^ passamfce imphes ^ -a spr ^ of hxughing priority foU ^* JW&a * t ^ fe - traveUer of . t oste , W > f dull dog , and the gay litterateur may turn from his formalities witli scorn-^ anSspensiW ^ ser but ther e Is ; ^ Wisdom in the ; viblet ^ pn | r atu - lating itself upon mot being a dfihlft ; and Mr / Reach ' s f ^ agea would have been none the less amusing if he had refrained from pluming himself upon their deficiencies . V : - > - ^ ' ¦¦ '¦\¦ '•¦" ¦¦ , _ : . „ "' - \; ' : v , ' -: ' - , What he has done he haa done well ; with a light , free , graphic hand , powerful because not straining at effect , but touching all aims with easy masjfcery , 4 . sunny picture of the . tanksofthe Garonne , andthe grape country—a cjear aud interesting . description of the venddnges , — - much gusto in the talk about wines—anartistic sense of the picturesque r—some information worth having about the wine manufacture—a sprinkling of legends—and a complete absence <> f dulness—all these you will find in the volume , together with some woodcut illustrations to help the
text , ¦ - ... - . . , . .- ¦ ¦ .. . . . . ¦ . "¦ . . , . . -, ¦ . ' . ' : ¦ ¦ ¦ :. • . ¦ : ¦ - ¦¦ . - We shall dip somewhat at random for passages to extract . JdLere * s a picturesque view of Bordeaux , apropos 01 M . de Tournay's statue : — . " Under his auspices the whole tribe . of dolphins and heathen gods and goddesses were invoked to decorate the city . He reared great sweeps of pillared and porticoed buildings , and laid out broad streets and squares , on that enormous scale so characteristic of the grand tnonarque . He made Bordeaux , indeed , at price vast , prim , and massively magnificent ; The mercantilei town gotqriite a courtly air j arid when the tricolor rid longer'floated in St ; Domingo , and the commerce of the Gironde declined , so that riot ririich . Was left over and aboVe the wine trade , which , as all the world knows , is the genteelest of all the traffics * B 6 rdeatix became what it is _ sort of retire deity , having declined business—quiet , and clean , and prim , and aristocratic . Such , at least , is the new town . With old Bordeaux , M . ^ e Tournay
rneddied not ; and when you plunge into its streets you leap at once from eighteenth century terraces into fourteenth century lanes and tortuoiis by-ways . Below you , rough , ill-paved , unclean , narrow tnorougnfares ; abbve , the hangirig old houses of fire ages ago , peaked gables , and long projecting eaves , aiidlianging balconies , quaint carvings in blackened wood and mouldering stone j- ^ the true middle-age tenements , dreadfully ricketty , but gloriously picturesque—charming to look at , but woful to live in ; deep black ravines of courts plunging down into the masses of piled up , jainmed together dwellings j squalid , slatternly people buzzing about like tees ; bad smells permeating every street , lane ^ arid alley ; and now arid th . en the agglomeration of darksorne dwellings clustering round a great old church , with its vast Gothic portals , and , higli up , its carveri pipriacles arid grinning gbutikres , catching the sunshine far above tlxehighest of these high-peaked roofs . This is the Bordeaux of the English arid the Gascons- ^ the Bordeaux which has rung ta the clash of armour—the Bordeaux which was governed by a . seneschal—the Bor ? deaux through whose streets denied , f With manya cross-bearer before , And inany a spiear behind / the christening procession of King Bichard the Second . " Here we see ' . THE MOEALIST AMID THE VINES . "If ever you want to see a homily not read , but grown by nature , against trusting to appearances , go to Medoc and study the vines . Walk and gaze , until you come to the most shabby , stunted , weazened , scrubby , dwarfish , expanse of snobbish bushes , ignominiously bound neck and crop to the espaliers , like a man on the rack—these utterly poor , starved , and meagre-looking growths , allowing , as they do , the gravelly soil to show in bald patches of grey shingle through the straggling branches—theso contemptible-looking shrubs , like paralysed and withered raspberries , it is which produce the most priceless and the most inimitably flavoured wines . Such are the vines which grow Chateau Margaux at half-a-sovereign the bottle . The grapes themselves are equally unpromising . If you saw a bunch in Covent-garden you would turn from them with the notion that the fruiterer was
trying to do his customer , with over-ripe black currants . Lance ' s soul would take no joy in them , and no sculptor in his senses would place such meagre bunches in the hands and over the open mouths of his Nymphs , his Bacchantes , or his Fauns . Take heed , then , by the lesson , and beware of judging of the nature of either men or grapes by their looks . Meantime let us continue our survey of the country . No fences or ditches you see—the ground in too precious to be lost in such vanities —only , you observe from time to time a rudely carved stake stuck in the ground , and indicating the limit * of properties . Along either side of the road the vinos extend , utterly unprotected . No raspers , no ha-ha ' s , no fierce denunciations of trespassers , no polite notices of spring-guns and steel traps constantly in a state of high gooffism—only , when the grajxa are ripening , the people lay prickly branches along the way-side to keep the dogs , foraging for partridges among the espaliers , for it to be
from talcing a refreshing mouthful from the blusters as they pass ; seems a fact that everybody , every beast , and every bird , whatever may bo his , her , or its nature in other parta of the world , when brought among grape * , eats grapes . As for tlio peasants , their appetite for grapes is perfectly preposterous . Unlike tho surfeit-sickened grocer ' s boye ,, who , after the first week lpatho figs , and turn poorly when sugar-candy is hinted at , the love of grapes appears literally to grow by what it feeds on . Every garden is full of table vines . The peop o cat grapes with breakfast , lunch , dinner , arid supper , and between breakfast , lunch , dinner , and supper . The labourer plods along the road munching a cluetor . A ho ch Id in ita mother ' s arms is tuggirig away with Its toothless gums at a bleeding bunch ; while us for the vintagora , male and female , in the loss important plantations , Heaven only knows where the , masses of grape * go to , which thoy devour , labouring ¦ inccBBiuitly at the metier , aa tlicy do , from dawn till . Hunsot . "
In the bay of Arcachon ho takes a Bail , and gives us this lovely bit of description : — . ' , " ' You can see how iUst we ' re going by the bottom / . eaid tho boatman ; I leant over tho gunwalo , and looked down . Oh , tho naarvellouB brightnessof that shining sea I I gazed from the boat upon tho sand tlirough tho wator , utmost as you might through the air upon the earth from a balloon . Ghost-like fiah gleamed in tho depths and their shadows followed them below upon tho ribbed sen-sand . I-iong flowing weeds , liko rich green ribbons , waved and streamed in the gently running tidal current . You could see the white pebbloa and sheila—hero a ndgj » ; « t *** » there a dark bod of sea-weed ; and now and then a great ilat-fteh , for all the world like a burnished pot-M wt to motion—went gjpamjng along tliQ bottom .
At Agen he went tp see Jasmin of course , and found tjie ..-. " Last of the ^ rroubatdours , " £ h , e ppet-Obarber , what j ^^ ' ^ T 0 llerB . ^ 4 es 6 ^ ib . e > Jl ^ -: ^; tp be ; one trait we ; ivul qiiote . ^ ¦ ¦ / ¦ :. ; ¦ > -a : / - .: ; - ' ^ -. , ' - : V ' : ^/' v > - '; .- ;;;' : / \ " There is a feature , however , about th ^ . recitations , whicri is stiU ^ ordinary than the uncontrollable fits of popular enthusiasm which , they produce . His last entertainment before I saw him was given in one of the Pyrenean cities ( I forget which ) , ^ nd produced 2000 francs , : 13 yery sou of this went to the public ; charities : ; Jasmin will not accept ia stiver , of money so earned . , ^ ith . a species of perhaps overstrained , but certainly exalted , cbivalric feeling , % e declines to appear before an audience to exhibit formoney the gifts with which nature has endowed him- After , perhaps , a brilliant tour through the South of Erance , delighting vast audiences in every city , and flinging ' .-many thousands of francs irito every
poorbox which he passes , the poet contentedly returfts to his humble occupation , and to the . little shop where he , earns M s daily bread by his daily toil , as a barber and hair-dresser . It will be generally admitted , that the mm-capalflei of . ¦ Hel f-deni ^ l of so truly heroic a nature as this , is no ordinary poetaster . One would be puzzled to find a similar instance of perfec ^ andjabsolute ^ disinterestedness in the roll of minstrels , froin Homey . downwards ; and , to tell the truth , there doss seem a spice of Quixotism mingling with and tinging the pur « fervour ; o £ the enthusiast . Certain ife is , that the Troubadours of ^ ore , upon Whose model ^ asniin professes to found Ms poetry , were by no . means so scrupulous . * Largess 6 ? was p very prominent word in their vocabulary ; and it really seems difficult to asi ^ gn ' any satisfactory reason for a man refusing , to liye ripon the exercise , of the finer gifts of his intellect , and throwing himself for his bread upon the daily performance of mere mechanical drudgery . " . > .. ¦¦•¦ .- ' . ¦
Untitled Article
THE SCHOOL FOE FATHEES . . ..., The School for Fathers . An old English ^ Story . ¦ .. - " By T . Qrwji ^ . < , . ! Smitb ^ lElder and Co . Do you want something fresh , piquant , true , and perfectly charniing p something that has little or none of those Wearisome circulating ^ library accents , ' * vexing the dull ear of a drowsy" novel reader P something that has the aspect and the form of life P send , for this single volume—the School for Fathers—and ^ you will not leave a page unread . That is high praise ; it is meant as such : and yet recalcitrant , authors accuse us of " never admiring !" ¦ Ah I if they knew how delightful it is to admire , they would not believe that critics went out of their way to find fault . Here is a volume which we dp n : ot : present fa you ^ as anything vastly profound , or as displaying more genius than inaiiy a volume we are forced to condemn ; and yet , by a certain sobriety of toueh , by the union of excellent qualities never strained beyond their , compass ; by the . mere charm of vivacity , truthfulness , and the absence of phrase-spinning , it is a most readable novel . To convey ojar opinion of it by an encroachment upon Vivian's domai ^ j ¦ , we . ghpuld-iiay that . as many a f robust tenor '' disappomts the audience vy anunwise straining aper " efieets" not within his reach , ~ while perhaps his rival , who contents himself with warbling a sweet melody melodiously , succeeds , because he has no ambitious ut de poitrine , so m the School for Fathers the delighted reader is never fatigued by unsuccessful effort—there is no tit depoitrine in these pages ! There is freshness in the scene , freshness in . the characters , freshness
in the style . It is a tale of the eighteenth century . Les talons rouge * tnov ^ 'acrdSa ^ the ^ ceno . The types of old English life , both town and country , are before us . A jovial fox-hunting' squire brings up his nephew in all the joviality of fox-hunting animal'spirits ; the youth is a good youth , a brave youth , sound in heart and limb ; not over bright , not at all elegant , and somew ; hat red-handed : &lout , in short , in the estimation of his foppish , town-bred father , whose ambition it . is to polish him into a gentleman and a statesman . For this purpose , poor Jack is torn from the charms of fox-hunting , and , what is wbrse , is torn from the charms ot Lydia , the sweet little daughter of the portly and pedantic vicar ; but not before Jack and Lvdia have engaged themselvesi The education ot
a young cub brought up to London is ludicrously and vividly depicted j and the highest praise is due to the author for the dramatip consistency with which he preserves the integrity of his ! characters , "W > will not spoil the-reader ' s interest by even hinting at the course of the story . Enough , if we direct attention to its qualities , which are—truthfulness arid vivacity in the representation of life and character , with considerable skill in the conduct of a very simple story . The only objectioti we have to make is to the profuse , and not very accurate , employment of x rench phrases , very carelessly printed . , Without interdicting the useof French in certain passages , every one must be aware of the abuse of it in novels _; and we were sorry to observe so original a writer following in the track
of the worst writers . _ As we mean you to read the School for Fathers , we shall make no extract but this , which tempts us by its being easily separated from the context :- - ' ' - ' ' ' ¦ '
THB COUNTRY DANCE AND THE ) POLKA . " Tlie country dance is a good honest old English dance , fit ibr this land ; Sec how every one brisks up when a country dance Is announced , and how much ft homo every one appears directly to bo ! Spe the same beings labouring at » . polka J which most of tho men have learnt from sisters or other young ladieB , and whicU they usually dance flat-footed with bont knc < m ! See thorn hug # » o | r partner so close ns to crush tho bouquet on her corsage ; which lack of courtesy the young lady fcols , and is too timid to icsont or resist , but continues to hop up arid down among the cohue , breathless , her chin over her partner ' s shoulder , her lace flushed and terrified , and her eyoa wild ' , whilst ho takes her on , his' forehead more than
moifit , punting , stamping , running against other'barka in tho ngitntod polkft'sea * voting it " itnohfun , " and tlmt " the girls" Hko it . Anon they stop , like overdriven postei-H after a long Htago . The young ludy , with heaving shoulders , l » aos her fuco in her bouqxiot ; tho gontloman " Mom , " and drawp forth his handKcr : chief ; they gnsp a few words—after a Bpnco lie puts his arm suddenly roum no waist , uttcra " tako ftnothor turn "—and off they g 6 again , jerking up aild down , and looking like two tumblo-dowri waxwork flgutcfl from " Mr * . Farley ' s waotooric show , " stuck up pro tempore with their hoadw over each other ' s ehouldors . "Oh ! young ladies , how the polkft puts you ftt every strarigor ' s mercy f oj thoro arc bright excoptioiui . Sco it danced , abroad ! No jumping mob airov tho H' 99 in , but ft regujftr order jpreservpd . 3 qo the cavalier , t ake h > , tfatflff VJW *
Untitled Article
853 ' ¦ ¦^^ E av : L ; E . A' 3 ? fg ft . ,. ¦ ¦; 'l im ^^ mmi :
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), April 10, 1852, page 352, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1930/page/20/
-