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966 THE JiJB APEOR . [ No , 389 , Saturday ,
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woods . where he wandered at night , have all become familiar to the readers of . the *> oet untimely snatched away . Poets , however , who have penetrated that / dtvine mystery which lies everywhere , in everything— who have revealed what it is a necessity of their nature to reveal—are not always " firstrate * " at etymology ; and the derivation of the " brawling Trent" remains in their ' hands in any but a satisfactory state . Drayton , -Spenser , ^ and Milton acco unt for the name , because of " fishes thirty kind" abounding in it , and because of its receiving thirty tributaries " in many a sundry way . " Walton , ¦ ofiheavenly memory , favoured the idea of thirty several sorts of fish ; but Camden , with noble indignation , pronounces all who derive the name from the Bra nch trente to be ignorant and idle pretenders . Thomas Warton , though by no means a great poet , was inspired by his ¦" sweet native stream" the Xoddon , to become its laureate . Banked at
* Oxford among the " idlers , " and his manner of speech compared by Johnson to-the " gobble of a turkey , " the comfortable collegian could not but be moved to numbers by his beloved river . The sonnet beginning ' < Oh what a weary xaefi my feet have run , " will live as long as sentiment endures . Suffolk , much-abused as " silly , " to those who know not how wise is unchan ged simplicity , which begins where wisdom ends , has had her riverpoets , ancient and modern . The Orwell is mentioned by Chaucer in the prologue to his " Merchant ' s Tale , " and by Drayton in his " Polyolbron . " Stowmarket , past which the river runs , was visited more than once by Milton , whose name is associated with a venerable mulberry-tree in the vicarage garden . Orwell Park was the residence of the celebrated Admiral
Vernon ; and a little farther on was born Thomas Cavendish , the second Englishman who sailed round the world . The Aide , which waters the eastern part of Suffolk , supplied Crabbe with the greater part of his subjects ; and in the rustic village of Toxford , so rustic and beautiful as to be called the ** gardenof Suffolk , " lived and sang James Bird , whose verse survives to « how how the heart of Suffolk could produce the artist and the gentleman in the most graceful type of that happy combination ; and although Mr . Lewis forgets to say so many things , he cannot forget the indigenous poet who sang the Vale of Slaughden . The Vale now presents a totally different appearance ; it neither realises the poet ' s description , nor deserves the encomiums lavished upon it by Camden ' s " Xourrice of Antiquitie . "
Isaac Walton , that " father of fishermen , " has immortalised his favourite riyer , the Lea , by his book upon angling—" The Contemplative Man ' s JRecreation "—that is , has immortalised it for those who do not think angling is to be considered as a " stick and a string , with a fool at one ejid and a fly -at the other . " Angling , says Walton , is a rest to the mind , a ch&eser of spirits ,, a . calmer of unquiet thoughts , a moderator of passions . Here we may Think and pray , Before death Stops our breath ,
sings this patriarch on the bank of his river ; and the next moment he ieaeheth the way to prepare " an excellent bait" for trout . " Take one or more , if-need be , of these large yellow caddis ( worms ) , pull off his head , and with it pull out his black gut , ' * &c , &c . Fancy this from a man who was always piquing himself on the innocence of his amusement ! Another complacent injunction of this kind is to impale a certain worm twice upon the hook , 'because it is lively and might get off ! The Meece is the native river of Walton , where he found " the longest summer day too short for his loved pastime ; " and by the Itchen in Hampshire rest his mortal remains ; so that even in death he is not separated from his too beloved trout . Among the list of anglers it is not unnatural to find the names of Gay and Thomson : -Sir Humphrey Davy , amid all his scientific investigations , found * i mP ! > to temnt the tenants of the brook ; and Archdeacon Paley , when
questioned about the progress of one of his books , announced its forthcoming - " after the fishing season . " The Book of English Rivers , indeed , is npt a bad companion for the . angler : the best points for fishing are indicated , and the . fishes peculiar to each stream are enumerated . The Thames keeps up its reputation for furnishing good sport . Mr . Lewis says of it" Few streams contain a greater variety of fish and fisbing-stations than the Thames . The trout are few in number , but celebrated for their large size and the excellence of their flavour . The pike and jack are more numerous , and the following fish are abundant in all parts of the Thames , from Battorsea Bridge upwards , namely , perch , barbel , chub , eels , lampreys ( or seven eyes ) , flounders , roach , dace , gudgeons , bleak , ruffe , and minnows . In some places , fine , carp and tench are taken . "
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POUR AMERICAN BOOKS . My Bondage and Freedom . By Frederick Douglass . With an Introduction by Dr . Jamea M'OunetSmitU ., TrUbnor and Co . Picture * of Europe , Framed in Ideas . By C . A . Bartol . TrUbnor and Co . The Unholy Alliance : an American View of the War in the East . By William Giles T > ix . TrUbner and Co . Letters to ihe'People on Health and Happiness . 'By Catharine E . Beocher . Sampson Low , -Son , and Co . Thbke are many autobiographies more renowned and less readable than that ( of Mr . Frederick Douglass , the " coloured" orator and journalist of
Ko-/ xmester , in the state of Now York . Without disparagement of the importance of his later career , we cannot but thank the author for giving more than -two-thirds . of his book to the story of his slave-life . This story ho tells in a -clear , connected , and gonorally dispassionate manner , impressing us with its . truth more through the probability of its sequences than by graphio porjtroiture . Still , here and there , the writing becomes animated and picturesque . The volume is edited by Dr . James M'Cune Smith—himself the * ot \ , as he informs us , of a self-emancipated bondwoman . In an introduction , and in a short noto to an appendix , the editor completely falFs in with ^ 0 American . humour of extravagant laudation . Hear Dr . James M'Cune i&nitIv . oa , tJUe " . style" af his author : ~ -
The style of Mr . Douglass in writing , is to me an intellectual puzzle . The strength , affluence and terseness may easily be accounted for , because the style of a . man is the man ; but how are we .-to account for that rare polish in his style of writing , which , most critically examined , seems the result of careful early culture among the best classics of our language ; it equals if it do not surpass the style of Hugh Miller , which was the wonder of the British literary public , until he unraveled the mystery in the most interesting of autobiographies . We confess a decided inclination to place Mr . Douglass above the parallels discovered on his account by Dr . James M'Cune Smith . But the next bit of comparative criticism is irresistible : — The very marvel of his style -would seem to be a development of that other marvel , —how his mother learned to read . The versatility of talent which he wields , in common with Dumas , Ira Aldridge , and Miss Greenfield , would seem to be the . result of the grafting of the Anglo-Saxon on good , original , negro stock . Does the reader happen to know anything of the versatility of Mr . Ira Aldridge , the " African tragedian , " as he is called ? We do . We once saw him play Othello , with incredible heaviness , and heard him , the same night , sing " Possum up a gum tree , gum tree , gum tree , " with admirable comic effect . Miss Greenfield , we presume , is the " Black Malibran , " Mr . Lumley , with true managerial taste , entitled her in the bills of her Majesty ' s Theatre . We were not then told that the lady was versatile—an unpardonable omission of Mr . Lumley ' s . Turning from Dr . James M'Cune Smith ( in the midst of whose grotesque eulogy there is apparent a sincere belief in its justice and a warm regard for its subject ) to Mr . Frederick Douglass himself , we will first rid ourselves of an unpleasant duty , and say that , viewing him by the light of his narrative , his letters , his editorial writings , and his speeches—and not knowing anything about him besides—we don ' t like him . That he is not , by nature , a vain or a hard man we are willing to believe ; his story affords good ground for the charitable supposition that circumstances have made him both ; but we are not above vulgar prejudices , and are unphilosophical enough to consider men pretty much as we find them . We find Mr . Frederick Douglass vain and hard—probably from external causes—and we don ' t like him . His intellectual qualities are considerable , but not astonishing . Such as they are , his friend Dr . Smith has mistaken them in the most ludicrous way . We are told that certain very ordinary speeches , published in the appendix , " for originality of thought , beauty and force of expression , and for impassioned indignatory eloquence , have seldom been equaled" ( sic ') . Mr . Douglass appears to us , and , we have no doubt , to most readers of his story , as a man with a good head for a long statement of a case . He puts his facts together remarkably well . Beyond this we do not think his most partial admirer , not an American , could find much to say that is important . Let us now turn to the book for a taste of the author ' s quality . The account of the origin of Tuckahoe—the name of his birthplace in the slave state of Maryland , is amusing : — It ( the name ) was given to this section of country probably , at the first , merely in derision ; or it may possibly have been applied to it , as I have heard , because some one of its earlier inhabitants had been guilty of the petty meanness of stealing a hoe —or taking a hoe—that did not belong to him . Eastern Shore men usually pronounce the -word took , as tuck ; Took-a-hoe , therefore , is , in Maryland parlance , Tuckahoe . But , whatever may have been its origin—and about this I will not be positive—that name has stuck to the district in question ; and it is seldom mentioned but with contempt and derision , on account of the barrenness of its soil , and the ignorance , indolence , and poverty of its people . Decay and ruin are everywhere visible , and the thin population of the place would have quitted it long ago , but for the Choptank river , -which runs through it , from which they take abundance of shad and herring , and plenty of ague and fever . He is sent to a noted " breaker" of slaves , a Mr . Covey , who was said to enjoy religion . " Mr . Covey instructs the new hand in the art of driving oxen : — Mr . Covey took a rope , about ten feet long and one inch thick , and placed one end Of it around the horns of the "in hand ox , " gave the other end to me , telling me that if the oxen started to run away , as the scamp knew they would , I must hold on to the rope and stop them . I need not tell any one who is acquainted with either the strength or the disposition of an untamed ox , that this order was about as unreasonable , as a command to shoulder a mad bull ! I had never driven oxen before , and I was as awkward , as a driver , as it possible to conceive . It did not answer for mo to plead ignorance to Mr . Covey ; there was something in his manner that quite forbade that . Ho was a man to -whom a slave seldom felt any disposition to speak . Cold , distant , morose , with a face wearing all the marks of captious pride and malicious sternness , he repelled all advances . Covey was not a large man ; he was only about five feet ten inches in height , I should think ; short necked , round shoulders ; or quiet and wiry motion , of thin and wolfish visage ; with a pair of small , greenish-grey eyes , set well back under a forehead without dignity , and constantly in motion , ana floating his passions , rather than his thoughts , in eight , but denying them utterance in words . The creature presented an appearance altogether ferocious and sinister , di 9 agreeable and forbidding in the extreme . When ho spoke , it was from the corner of his mouth , and in a sort of light growl , like a dog , when an attempt is made to take a bone from him . The fellow had already made mo believe him oven worse than ho had been represented . With his directions , and without stopping to question , l started for the woods , quite anxious to perform my first exploit in driving , in a creditable manner . The distance from the house to the woods gate—a full mile , 1 should think—was passed over with very little difficulty ; for although the animals ran , 1 was fleet enough , in the open field , to keep pace with them ; especially as they puUeu mo along at the end of the ropo ; . but , on reaching the woods , I was speedily thrown into a distressing plight . The animula took fright , and started off ferociously into the -woods , carrying tho cart , full tilt , against trees , over stumps , and dashing from side to eido , in ft manner altogether frightful . Aa I hold the ropo , I expected every moment to bo crushed between the cart and tho hugo troos , among which they were bo furiously dashing . After running thus for several minutes , my oxen were , imiUly , brought to a stand , by a tree , against which they dashed themsolvos -with great violence , upsetting the cart , and entangling themselves among sundry young sapling * By tho shook , tho body of the cart woa flung in one direction , and the wheels ami tongue in another , and all in tho greatest confusion . There I was , all alone , hi ft thiok wood , to which I was a stranger ; iny cart upset and eha . ttor . od ; my oxen entangled , wild , and enraged 5 and I , poor ao « l I but a green hand , to sot all tuw . unorder right . I knew no more of oxen than tho ox driver ia supposed to Know «» wisdom . After standing a fow moments surveying the damngo aud diaordor , ana w without a preaentiment that this trouble would draw after it others , oven moio «
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 6, 1855, page 966, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2109/page/18/
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