Page images
PDF
EPUB

And Literary Museum:

OR, WEEKLY MISCELLANY OF FINE ARTS, ANTIQUITIES, AND LITERARY CHIT CHAT.

No. XLIV.]

By Ephraim Hardcastle.

A stamped Edition for Country Circulation, postage free, Price Tenpence.

EXHIBITION OF DRAWINGS,

NO. 9, SOHO SQUARE.

AFTER the most prosperous season that has yet attended the public display of drawings at this place, the present exhibition closes this day. We have not been sparing of our notices of the collection, nor indifferent to the success of the undertaking. The circumstances that brought so fine a selection of works of the English school together, were too much to our taste, not to claim our approval and respect, we consequently afforded this exhibition our best support.

[SIXPENCE.

WORKS ON THE FINE ARTS.

British Galleries of Painting and Sculpture, comprising a General Historical and Critical Catalogue, with separate Notices of every Work of Fine Art in the principal Collections. By C. M. WESTMACOTT. London: Sherwood, Jones and Co.

This volume comprises an account of the Pictures, Statues, &c. in the METROPOLITAN GALLeries. The King's, (Carlton House) Buckingham House, National Gallery, (late Angerstein's) Marquess of Stafford's, (Cleveland House) Kensington Palace, St. James's Palace, British Museum, Mr. T. Hope's, Duchess-street, Presentation Works of the Academicians, at the Royal Academy of Arts, Somerset House, and an essay on the marbles of the Parthenon.

Nothing we may safely aver, can be more gratifying to the distinguished artists whose ingenious labours have enriched these walls during the late season, than to witness that generous zeal which prompts the patrons of art, to promote their interest, by yielding to every proposed measure that can tend to aid their improve-shall select the description of the pictures in the two ment, increase their employment, and enlarge the sphere galleries at Mr. Thomas Hope's, as the collections therein are less generally known to the public, than most of the others mentioned in the work.

of their well-earned fame.

When it is considered that this collection of the choicest works in water colours, purchased only for such liberal sums, was entirely formed by the joint contributions of their possessors, who thus consented to strip the walls of their private apartments, for the further advantage of living talent, we cannot express our acknowledgments but in terms of profound respect.

In confirmation of this noble spirit which will mark the present as a memorable epoch for the arts, we have heard with inexpressible joy, that the Directors of the British Institution propose, in the ensuing Spring, to open their gallery with an exhibition of the finest works of our living artists, and that the noblemen and gentlemen who compose the direction of this National Institution, have communicated their intention to the President and Council of the Royal Academy. The selections, which will form the collection, to be made by the Academicians.

We hold it a duty to withhold our pen for the present, from a disclosure of the conditions which are thus graciously and very judiciously yielded to the professors, assuming only the privilege of observing, that they are such, excepting in one point, as cannot fail of approval by all who feel an interest in the prosperity

of the British School.

From this useful and very extensive catalogue, we

[blocks in formation]

Burn inward. Then ecstatic she diffus'd The canvass, seized the pallet with quick hand, The colours view'd, and on the void expanse Her gay creation forged the mimic world."-THOMSON. "In this apartment, the centre of the ceiling is supported by small columns, which divide the light, and are imitated from those seen at Athens, in the upper division of the octagon building, vulgarly called the Temple of the Winds. These columns rest on massy beams, similar to those in marble, which lie across the peristyle of the Temple of Theseus; the larger columns, which support the entablature, are profiles of those of the Propylaea. The organ assumes the appearance of a sanctuary. The Ionic columns, entablature, and pediment, are copied from the exquisitely beautiful specimen in the Temple of Erechtheus, in the Acropolis of Athens; over the centre of the pediment, is the car of Apollo; the tripods, sacred to the god of Music, surmount the angles; the drapery, which descends over the pipes in the form of an ancient pepluus or veil, is embroidered with laurel wreaths, and other tables, with recesses for books and port-folios, and the emblems appropriate to the son of Latona. The massive antique pedestals and implements, which adorn the sides of the chamber, have all the classic uniformity of the general decoration.

"Bacchus and Ariadne," by Guido. A fine free specimen of the master, delicately coloured, and full of ex"Magdalen," by Corregio. A true but early picture of the master.

The Royal Academy has recently held a general meeting on the subject, and we feel assured, that a dis-pression. play of such works, as may pass its ordeal, will be viewed with an universal sentiment of national pride.

VOL. II.

"The Inspiration of St. Giustinian," by Albano. From

LONDON, AUGUST 7, 1824.

the Orleans gallery. A noble emblematical picture, finely sayers,' in the Marquess of Stafford's collection; the perdrawn, and coloured with great breadth of effect; the headspective is grand, and the scene rich in natural effect. of the Saint is particularly expressive.

"Adoration of the Shepherds," by Jordaens. A magnificent specimen of the master, full of choice expression and character; it is coloured with a richness that approaches closely to Rubens.

"Madonna and Child," by Vandyke. A brilliant, clear, and captivating performance, rich in colour, and chaste in drawing and expression, altogether in the most felicitous style of art.

"Our Saviour and St. Thomas," by Guercino. A bold, masterly work, painted with a very decisive pencil, and great effect of chiar-oscuro.

66

Lucretia," by Guido. Very delicate in colour, and sweet in expression.

"St. Michael," by Raphael. Painted for Cardinal Oneis, after the first had been sent to France-registered in the Roman archives of 1517-three years before Raphael's

death.

“Roman Charity," by Guido. A masterly, fine picture, painted with great breadth, and producing a fine contrast of expression.

"Paul Veronese between Virtue and Vice," by Paul Veronese. The figures the size of life, and the portrait of the Artist admirable; the drapery of the female figures is very fine, and the subject altogether very graceful and free.

"Charity," by Vandyke. In the first class of art, rich in all the excellencies of his fascinating pencil, poetical and beautiful in expression.

"Venus bewailing the Death of Adonis," by Rubens. A magnificent gallery picture, exhibiting the mighty powers of the artist in the highest perfection; the figures are of the size of life, and the dead body of Adonis, perhaps, the most wonderful work of art in the world, it is fairly rounded from the canvass, and foreshortened with most surprising skill; indeed, the whole anatomy of the figure affords a fine model for the study and admiration of succeeding genius. The colouring is not less beautiful, and the arrangement of the composition truly poetical, but there is the usual vulgarity of expression in the female heads, which invariably detracts from the otherwise superlative performance of the artist.

"Portraits of Dante, Petrarch, and other Italian Poets," by Vasari. A singularly rich and clever work, the portraits admirable, and very characteristic.

"Virtue leading Hercules," by P. Veronese. An emblematical subject; the Hercules is not sufficiently muscular. "Dying Magdalen," by Ludovico Caracci. A very interesting picture, finely expressive of resignation, and serenity of mind, the life-parting gasp is quivering on the lip, and the eye fixed in the stillness of death.

"St. Cecilia," by Domenichino. A very choice work of art, rich in colour, and fine effect.

Venus chiding Cupid," by Palma Vecchio. A captivating specimen, freely drawn, and chastely coloured, with very characteristic expression.

"Cæsar Borgia," by Corregio. From the Orleans gallery. A glorious, fine head, rich in all the brightest materials of art, elaborately finished, and full of character. "A Holy Family," by Titian.

"Temptation of our Saviour," by Titian. From the Orleans gallery. These are two figures of the size of life. The head of our Saviour may safely be pronounced as one of the finest works of art in the world, it is full of heavenly expression, rich in colour, and masterly in effect.

"St. Sebastian," by Andrea del Sarto. A very chaste, fine specimen of the master.

"View of Castellamare," by Salvator Rosa. An extraordinary fine picture, highly finished, and very similar to the oval picture by the same master, called the Sooth

[ocr errors]

little God of Love, fast bound, and the figure of Hymen, "Hymen destroying Cupid's Darts," by Guido. The stooping to burn the darts, admirably drawn. The story is' poetical, and the artist has caught the inspiration of the

sister art.

66

Supper at Emmaus," by Geminiani. A small cabinet chiar-oscuro. picture, richly coloured, producing a magical effect of Holy Family," by Agostino Caracci. A little gem, in the first class of art, particularly fine in pencilling, and full of expression.

66

picture, of the size of life, exhibiting great mastery of art, "Angelica and Medora," by Guercino. A noble gallery

and richness of colour.

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

Holy Family, St. Mark, and Doge Ranieri, by Tintoretto." pencilling, and richly coloured; the figures are of the size An extraordinary fine picture, bold, and free in of life, highly characteristic and expressive.

"Christ betrayed," by Guercino. The companion to "Our Saviour and St. Thomas,' in the same gallery, and quite equal in merit.

66

[ocr errors]

Judith," by Giorgione. A very fine specimen of the master, rich in colour, and breadth of effect. "Ecce Homo!" by Spagnolet. A very fine head, peculiarly delicate in colour, and sweet in expression. cheerful picture, in the most felicitous style of the artist, Landscape with Figures," by Claude. A magnificent rich in all the magical sweetness of pencilling and colour, happily disposed, and the whole subject true to nature. which distinguishes his best productions; the figures are

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Madonna and Child," by Romanelli. A very rich specimen of the master, finely drawn, and full of expression. drawing and colour, the infant Christ very soft and exHoly Family," by Schidone. Masterly and free in pressive.

Marc Antonio, the Engraver," by Raffaelle. An astonishing fine head, choice in expression, and rich in colour. "Praying Saint," by F. Bartolomeo. A clever figure, very expressive of devotional fervour.

66

sketch for an altar-piece, emblematical, and freely drawn. Assumption of the Virgin," by Vandyke. A fine rich "Petrarch composing his Odes," by N. Poussin. An emblematical picture.

"Landscape," by Rubens. Bold and masterly in effect, with great richness of colour, and crispness of pencil.

"The Martyrdom of a Saint," by Salvator Rosa. A figure suspended to a tree by his hands, on a wild rocky scene; a very bold fine specimen of the master.

"Holy Family," by Tintoretto. An upright picture, rich in colour, displaying a fine contrasted effect in the figures.

of art, celestial in expression, rich in colour, and general Head of Christ," by Raphael. A magnificent work

effect."

(To be continued.)

FINE ARTS.

PORTRAITS OF FOREST TREES

In different parts of the Kingdom, remarkable for their Size, Beauty, or Antiquity. Drawn from Nature, and etched by Jacob George Strutt.

THE four first numbers of this folio publication were noticed in a former Number of the Somerset House Gazette. Mr. Strutt has since completed Nos. V. and VI., and No. VII. is nearly ready for delivery.

Few objects in nature excite a more general interest in the contemplative mind, than woods and groves. Trees have ever been the theme of the descriptive poet, and one of the most charming features of the picturesque, a study exhaustless of beauty and rational delight.

It has not been the custom with many painters, however, to whom the forest tree seems most congenial, to study that individuality of portraiture, which is the professed object of this work. The landscape painter takes a general view of the wood, and in his composition rather gives a pictorial, than a particular tree. The great Italian masters' compositions may be adduced in proof of this, as displaying a simplicity and greatness of form in their trees, and a corresponding touch, which constitutes what has aptly been designated the painters' tree.

We look on these representations of the Forest Tree by Mr. Strutt, without reference to composition, and receive them on his own terms, namely, as pictorial records of particular oaks, beeches, elms, cedars, and other trees remarkable for the qualities proposed; and have watched the work thus far with an interest corresponding to our love of the same species of research.

The The

The subjects of these last numbers are. No. V. The great Oak at Shelton, Shropshire. Bounds Park Oak, the property of Lord Caledon. Moccas Park Oak, Herefordshire. The Wotton Oak, the property of the Duke of Buckingham.

No. VI. The Yew Trees at Fountains Abbey (more ancient than that structure.) The great Ash in Woburn Park, the property of the Duke of Bedford. The Black Poplar, at Bury St. Edmunds. The Abbots Willow, in the Abbey Grounds there, the property of J. Benjafield, Esq.

No. VII. The Cowthorpe Oak, Queen Elizabeth's Oak, in Haveningham Park, the property of Lord Huntingfield. Sir Philip Sydney's Oak at Penshurst. The King's Oak, in Savernake Forest, the property of the Marquess of Aylesbury.

We are gratified to see so extensive a list of the first personages in the kindom, subscribers to, and patrons of this publication, and happy to add, that there is reason for believing that in the ingenious author, the English school of landscape will have to enrol another very original painter. Mr. Strutt has lately finished a landscape composition, in which one of the trees aforementioned forms the main feature, which is painted with a freshness and truth, that savors of the feeling exhibited in the works of the old masters. It is a wood-scene on a half length canvas, || and is a picture of acknowledged merit.

GEMS OF ART.

THE Messrs. Cooke, of Soho-square, have added two new subjects to their collection of cabinet prints, engraved in mezzotinto on steel, by Lupton. One is from a picture in his Majesty's Gallery at Carlton Palace, painted by Maes. The other, from the celebrated Arthur and Hubert, painted by James Northcote, R.A., for the late Alderman Boydell, and acknowledged to be one of the finest pictures of the British school. Mr. Lupton's exquisite touch, is displayed with felicity in these two small plates. The discovery of engraving on steel may be hailed as a new epoch in art. We have no hesitation in saying, that two more painter like engravings in small, never were sub

The art of etching on copper as is well known to connoisseurs, is never more congenially applied than in the imitating of trees. We have many examples of the fitness of the point, for these studies, in the works of Claude, Swanneveldt, Berghem, Both, Waterloo, and others of the old Italian, Flemish, and Dutch landscape painters. Certain of the modern school too have excelled in this delightful pursuit. A small book of Etchings of Wood Scenerymitted to the judgment of the collector of taste, nor had by Mr. Delamotte, is a recent publication worthy the library of the amateur, although we are sorry to learn that it has not met the encouragement it deserved.

The etchings of the publication before us, as works of art, are the more acceptable, as they are simple transcripts from nature, and like the Wood Scenery, by Waterloo, Iseem to be copied almost literally from their prototypes upon the spot. As examples to the young student in landscape then, we should recommend them for this particular, as the ramifications and foliage are drawn with unusual truth, a quality which may be vainly looked for in many books of trees, published of late, which are addressed to the untutored eye, through the specious appearance of looseness, freedom, and effect; although without any real merit, or having any other tendency than to amuse the idle, and to mislead, rather than direct the taste.

The historical descriptions which accompany this display of inanimate nature are curious and interesting, and help to preserve the memory of facts established by ancient records, or handed down by the more enchanting annals of oral tradition,

We learn that Mr. Strutt is indefatigable in his research, and arduous in the pursuit in which he is herein engaged. He has recently made a journey into Gloucestershire to make a study of the Tortworth Chesnut, mentioned in ancient deeds, as a well known boundary, in the reign of King Stephen: This, we believe, is considered to be not only the oldest, but the largest chesnut in the kingdom.

superior claims upon the approval of the learned connoisseur. Such works as these are creating amateurs at home, honors for our native school abroad, and daily augmenting the exportation trade of our empire.

We have been favoured with a sight of a proof impression of a large plate in progress, in the line manner, by Mr. Pye, from one of the classic landscape compositions, by J. W. M. Turner, R.A., which promises to be one of the finest engravings of modern times. This will be published by Messrs. Hurst and Robinson.

There is also in preparation an engraving on steel by Lupton, for Messrs. Cooke, from a chef d'œuvre of Gainsborough's, a Cottage-girl with a Dish of Milk, a picture of pure originality, and of incomparable truth. This was purchased by its present proprietor for the sum of £700.

Three engravings have recently been published by the same concern, from drawings by Mr. J. F. Lewis, son of the engraver of that name, which are very original and masterly specimens of style. They represent the lion and lioness. Mr. Lewis, we believe, though but recently of age, has evinced talents for animal study, which promise to increase the reputation universally accorded to the English school for this department of painting. We can now point to a list of British artists, who have excelled in representing animal nature, whose works would occupy a distinguished space on the walls of a national gallery. Stubbs, Gilpin, Ward, Cooper, and Landseer. Woodward is deservedly rising in public estimation, and the few works which we

have seen by the hand of Lewis, justify the fond anticipations which his progress has excited among his family and friends.

REVIEWS.

Redwood; a Tale. By the Author of "A New England Tale." New York, 1824. 3 vols. London, reprinted : J. Miller.

Another painter of animals claims the notice of our page, whose cominencement in his art, gave presage of talents, which steadily cultivated, must have raised his fame to a level with the ablest of his predecessors, and the first of his compeers. Mr. Garrard, early in life, produced his Brewer's Yard, a composition so truly original, and so excellent in its class, that Sir Joshua Reynolds commissioned him to paint a similar subject, ad libitum, for his own private gallery. This he accomplished, and it was received with general acclamation. The ingenious painter attained the first step to academic honours-and with an associate-picious criticisms of professional reviewers. The puerile ship," like some who doze upon a fellowship, it would appear that he was content.

Not so, however, we must say, in justice to the industry of this worthy artist. The versatility of his talent, the impulses of a fertile imagination, and the claims of an increasing family, urged him to other pursuits in art, which diverting him from his palette and pencils, raised him a name for sculpture in a branch, which being neither addressed to human vanity, nor to human affection, left him little other reward, than the fame of achieving that in art, with greater skill, than had ever been done before. Mr. Garrard shaped his abilities to the modelling of those subjects, which, alas! for his experience, met with patrons in the comparison of painting to sculpture against himself,

as fifty to one.

GAINSBOROUGH.-Two pictures by the hand of this favourite painter, accidentally came under our observation within the last week. One a landscape, of a circular shape, about twenty inches diameter, painted before he came to settle in London; it is executed in his early manner, when he copied trees, banks, weeds, &c. with a minuteness, even surpassing what is discoverable in the works of his admired prototype Wynants. The scene is obviously painted from nature, on the spot, probably near Ipswich, whence he culled his studies, and drew and coloured in the open air. In this composition, is a young oak, bending over a brawl ing brook, which is painted leaf for leaf, with that careful identity which would have delighted the eyes of old Nehemiah Grew, the hoary historian of the Royal Society, or the late worthy president of that learned body. Even the varieties of grass run to seed, that spring between the fissures of the rock, are depicted with microscopic minuteness. We might fancy this picture painted for a prize against your Denners and your Gerrard Douws, and that naturalists of yore, had been the umpires.

The other piece is a composition in his subsequent days, when he gave to the world his cottage groups, and ranked with the first painters of his age. This picture represents portraits of his two daughters, in the garb of peasant girls, on the confines of a corn-field, dividing their gleanings, They appear to be of the age of about eight and nine, and are the size of life. The painting is pure, and the characters are nature, clothed with the utmost simplicity of art: unfortunately both the pictures are left in part unfinished.

Whilst dwelling on this group, we could not forbear the obtrusion of a melancholy association with one of these portraits, the painted image of Gainsborough's infant daughter, yet living, and very far advanced in years; who has long survived her mental faculties, and is now doomed, to all human speculation, to waste the remainder of life, in the vain pomp and self-complacency of fancied royalty. This is the wreck of that favourite daughter, then a woman of mind, whom the fond father bestowed in matrimony on Fischer, the celebrated performer on the oboe, who separating from his amiable wife, after treating her with unresisted injury, liberated her from the matrimonial chain, by that premature death, which was induced by his hasty career of dissipation and folly.

TILL within a very few years, the greater part of the British public has known nothing of America, except what was to be gathered from the half-informed pages of Brummagem bag-men, and the susignorance and blind prejudices of the one, were, however, not half so hurtful as the profligate malevolence of the other. The two combined, served to scatter all sorts of hostile and contemptuous notions of America amongst the "great vulgar and the small" of our country, which have only been weakened by the progress of the Americans in arms and letters. It is now no longer a question whether they have the ordinary courage of men, or whether they are able to conceive any thing in literature beyond a bill of exchange or a letter of advice. They have been pouring forth books of various kinds in great abundance, and have exhibited powers of invention, and combination, equal to any possessed by those who were so ready to decry them with their sneers. The fair author-we understand, that she is a lady-of the novel before us need not shrink from any severity of criticism. In most of the requisites of imaginative composition, she is singularly endowed. Her creative powers are original, her management of incident ingenious, her painting of character and passion, delicate and just, and her sensibility to moral and natural beauty, very acute. One virtue she displays, which is by no means common to the writers-even the highest-of novels, Her style and language are pure, correct, and eloquent; we have been so used to slovenly composition in works of fiction, so long, and by such "eminent hands," that all improvement had long since been despaired of." Redwood" is quite a prodigy in this way. It is neither careless in the employment of words, nor in the construction of sentences. Were there neither interest in the story, nor nature in the passion, it might be read for its style alone.

The story is domestic, and relates to the fortunes of a Mr. Redwood, the younger son of a Virginia planter, | whose youth had been marked with a good deal of dissoluteness, the result of lax principles and bad companions. He marries, without the knowledge of his father, a beautiful girl in humble life, and quits her to make the tour of Europe. At Paris he learns the tidings of her death. Returning to America, he afterwards espouses his cousin, a rich widow, vain, childish, flattered, and spoilt. In a few years she dies, and leaves a daughter, Caroline, as beautiful and nearly as spoilt as herself. She grows up to womanhood, an object of admiration to the world, of alarm to her father. They set out, as the Virginians annually do, to visit

[ocr errors]

the falls of Niagara, and the novel opens with their homeward passage down the lake of Champlain. He lands, and seeking for an inn, a dialogue ensues, which is worth transcribing as a picture of American manners. "Turning abruptly from him to a good-natured looking man, who, at that moment riding past them on horseback, had checked the career of his horse to gaze at the travellers, he inquired the distance of the next village. That,' replied the man, is according to which road you take.' "Is there any choice between the roads?' "It's rather my belief there is; anyhow, there is many opinions held about them. Squire Upton said, it was shortest by his house, if you cut off the bend by Deacon Garson's; and General Martin maintained, it was shortest round the long quarter, so they got out the surveyor and chained it.' And which road,' interrupted Mr. Redwood, ⚫proved the shortest?'

"Oh there was no proof about it; the road is a bone of contention yet. The surveyor was called off to hold a Justice's court, before he had finished the squire's road, and-' "Which do you believe the shortest?' exclaimed Mr.|| Redwood, impatiently cutting short the history of the important controversy.

"Oh, I,' replied the man, laughing, and every body else but the squire, calculate it to be the shortest way round the long quarter, and the prospects are altogether preferable that way, and that is something of an object, as you seem to be strangers in these parts,'

"Oh Lord,' exclaimed Caroline, it will soon be too dark for any prospect but that of breaking all our necks!' "Do you think,' pursued Mr. Redwood, that we shall be able to arrive before dark?'

[ocr errors]

to the appropriate duties of her station. Her husband and sons wore the finest cloth that was manufactured in the handsomest and the whitest diaper. Her butter and cheese Mrs. Lenox's table was covered with the county of. commanded the highest price in the market. Besides these home-bred virtues, she possessed the almost universal passion of her country for intellectual pleasures. She read with avidity herself, and eagerly seized every opportunity for the improvement of her children. She had married very young, and was still in the prime of life. The elder members of her family were already educated and established in the world; and she had the prospect of enjoying what Franklin reckons among the benefits of our early marriages, an afternoon and evening of cheerful leisure.' Her eldest son, with very little aid from his parents, had, by his own virtuous exertions, obtained a collegiate and theological education, and was established a popular clergyman in one of the southern cities. Her second son had emigrated to Ohio, and had already transmitted to his parents a drawing and description of a prosperous little town, where, five years before, his axe had first announced man's right to dominion over the forest. Two sons remained at home to labour on the paternal farm; and four girls, from ten to eighteen, diligent, goodhumoured, and intelligent, completed the circle of the domestic felicities of this happy family. Both Mr. and Mrs. Lenox had the wise and dutiful habit, which, in almost any condition, might generate contentment, of looking at their own possessions, to awaken their gratitude, rather than by comparing the superior advantages of others with their meaner possessions, to dash their own cup with the venom of discontent and envy, a few drops of which will poison the sweetest draught ever prepared by a paternal Providence."

"That's according as your horses are.' Whilst confined in the house of the Lenox family, "The horses are good and fleet.' Mr. Redwood is witness to an affecting scene of a "Well then, Sir, it will depend something on the driver; but if you will take my advice, you will stop by the lovely girl Ellen, lamenting over the corpse of a young way. It is not far from night; there is a pretty pokerish man, and a pathetic interview between her and the cloud rising; it is a stretchy road to Eaton, and it will be deceased's sisters, The account is rendered more intersomething risky for you to try to get there by daylight.esting by a mixture of descriptions of the Shakers, by But, Sir, if you find yourself crowded for time, and will stop at my house, we will do our best to make you comfortable for the night. If you will put up with things being in a plain farmer-like way, you shall be kindly welcome.""

An accident happens to the carriage, Mr. Redwood's arm is broken, and the party are obliged to take refuge in the house of the farmer. The description of the family, may pass for a general portrait of the farm-houses and families of most of the New England farmers.

"Mr. Lenox, as master of the family, was entitled to precedence in our description; but in this instance, as in many others, a prominent character has controlled the arrangement of accidental circumstances. He belonged to the mass of New-England farmers, was industrious and frugal, sober and temperate, and enjoyed the reward of those staple virtues, good health and a competency. He was rather distinguished for the passive than the active virtues, patient and contented; he either enjoyed with tranquility, or resigned without repining. His wife (we believe not a singular case in matrimonial history,) was his superior: intelligent, well-informed, enterprising, and efficient, she was accounted by all her neighbours an ambitious woman. The lofty may smile with contempt, that the equivocal virtue, which is appropriated to the Cæsars and the Napoleons, should be so much as mentioned in the low vales of humble life. But the reasonable will not dispute that Mrs. Lennox made ambition virtue, when they learn that all her aspirations after distinction were limited

|

whom one of the sisters had been converted. Ellen Bruce's appearance makes a deep impression upon Redwood, and calls up painful recollections of the past. She is young, beautiful, accomplished, and an orphan. We scarcely recollect a more delightful per

son than this creation of the novelist. From the no

66

ment of her first appearance on the scene, she becomes part and parcel" of the story. Her history is involved in obscurity, and the secret of her birth is concealed in a locked casket, left by her dying mother, with an injunction that it should not be opened until a certain period. Miss Redwood's curiosity is excited, and she proceeds to its gratification at all hazards.

"A most convenient opportunity now offered to gratify her curiosity, perhaps to confirm her malicious conjectures. It was possible that the key to one of her trinket cases might open Ellen's box; there could be no harm in trying just to see if one would suit. She drew out the drawer in which she had seen Ellen replace her casket, and then paused for a moment-but, c'est le premier pas qui coute;' the first wrong step taken, or resolved on, the next is easy and almost certain. She carried the box to the light, found a key that exactly fitted, and then the gratification could not be resisted.

"She opened the box-a miniature laid on the top of it. Caroline started at the first glance as if she had seen a

« PreviousContinue »