The Press. — London, England, 1857-11-14 00:00:00

1114 Some could rate the " Mr. Rigby " alluded to by Walpole even lower than " the second class." Some of the notes by "Croker in these volumes, if exposed to Lord Macaulay's criti cal battery, would undoubtedly receive a sharp volley. Mr. Croker was fond of lashing authors because they did not express them selves with the most critical accuracy ; and i n the review of " Boswell's Johnson' bis own style of composition was tried by Lord Macau lay according to Mr. Croker's own standard. At page 1:37 in the fourth of these volumes, alluding to Charles Townshend, there is a note by " Croker : Mr. Burke's beautiful, but, perhaps, too favourable character of Charles Townshend will immortalise the writer and the subject.—Cnok.m. Mr. Croker, as a reviewer, would have leant heavily on any one who cited " the writer." It was in a speech, in the House of Commons, that Burke alluded to " that prodigy" Charles Townshend ; and Burke the " writer " and Burke the debater are not to be confounded. Though the mistake is a trivial one, and though the meaning is obvious, Mr. Croker would have chastised its commission. Under date of 17(17 Walpole writes of the father of the first Lord Sidmouth : But there is a misfortune not so easily to be surmounted, the state of Lord Chatham's health, who now does not only not see the Ministers, but even does not receive letters. The world, on the report of the Opposition, believe his head disordered, and there is so far a kind of colour for this rumour, that he has lately taken Dr. Ad dington, a physician in vogue, who originally was a mad doctor. 'rho truth I believe is, that Addington, who is a kind of empiric, has forbidden his doing the least business, though he hes out of town, and everybody sees him pass in his coach along the streets. To which Mr. Cunningham appends the note : Little did Walpole or anybody else foresee that the son of this empiric should within a very few years after Wal pole's death be Prime Minister of England, and that his cant-appellation ifrom his father's profession) would be that of " The Doctor."—.CUNNlNGit If Mr. Cunningham will consult the " Gren ville Correspondence " he will find that " the empiric" in twenty years afterwards was sent for to attend at Windsor Castle, and that his prescription of a pillow of hops was of great use to Khig George 111. Walpole writes to the Rev. W. Cole (176E9 : I have long had thoughts of drawing up something for London like St. Foil's Rues de Paris, and have made some collections. I wish you would be so good, in the course of your reading, to mark down any passage to that end : as where any great houses of the nobility were situated; or in what street any memorable event happened. The work which Walpole has indicated has since been ably performed, though no mention of it, from modesty, is made by " Cunning ham." Walpole, as we have observed on former occasions, was an admirably graphic describer of English "interiors." A few of those de scriptions are still faithful portraitures of the special lociilities, but others (like that of Stowe) are entirely inapplicable to our time. Amongst the former class is the following de scription of Ham house near Richmond, which reads as if it were written yesterday : Close to the Thames, in the centre of all rich and ver- Rant beauty, it is so blocked up and hatricaded with walls, vast trees, and gates, that you think yourself an hundred miles off and an hundred years back. The old furniture is so magnificently ancient, dreary and decayed, that at every step one's spirits sink, and all my passion for an tiquity could not keep them up. Every minute I expected to see ghosts sweeping by ; ghosts I would not give six pence to see, Lauderdales, Tollemaches, and Maitlands. There is one old brown gallery full of Vandycks and Lelys, charming miniatures, delightful Wouvermans, and Polem burghs, china, japan, bronzes, ivory cabinets, and silver dogs, pokers, bellows, Sze., without end. One pair of bel lows is of filigree. In this state of pomp Will tatters my nephew intends it shall remain, and is so religions an observer of the venerable rites of his house, that because the gates never were opened by his father but once for the late Lord Granville, you are locked out and locked in, and after journeying all round the house, as you do round an old French fortified town, you are at last admitted through to creep along a dark passage by the house , and so by a back door into the great hall. much afraid of water as a cat; for though joy the Thames from every window of three hous t, you may tninlile into it before 3011 it is there. In short, our ancestors had so 'taste and beauty, that I should not have been they had hung their pictures with the painted wall. Think of such a palace commanding all Richmond and Twickenham, with a domain of Richmond-hill to Kingston .bridge, and then imagine its being as dismal and prospectless as if it stood On Stanmore's wintry wild! It is not many days since we were ourselves examining those parts of Ham-house which are visible to the public, and we can verify the force of the foregoing description. Many, however, would object to Walpole's recom mendation of cutting down the timber. The long and stately avenues are in artistic har mony with the grand old house, which would j appear extremely bare if denuded of its ver dant alleys ; and the trees are so disposed that partial vistas, while disfiguring the avenues, would not admit the prospect. The gate is still kept closed as in the days when the above letter was written. The following note is givm by Mr. Cunningham front " Crokcr MS." : So it is when one dines there up to this day ( MI6). The iron gate is never opened except for royalty. I have often dined there,—more than once with the Duke of Wellington, anu even for him 1 don't think that avenue was opened. Hain house has recently undergone extensive repairs, and is a first-class specimen of man sions of its particular era. In a few letters afterwards Walpole alludes to Stowe, and the contrast between Stowe as it is now and as it was then must occur to every reader: — The number of buildings and variety of scenes in the garden made each day different from the rest, and my meditations on so historic a spot prevented my being tired. Every acre brings to one 'a mind some instance of the parts or pedantry, of the taste or want of taste, of the ambition or love of fame, or greatness or miscarriages, of those that have inhabited, decorated, planned, or visited the place. Pope, Congreve, Vaubrugh, Kent, Gibbs, Lord Cobham, Lord Chesterfield, the mob of nephews, the tteltons, Grenvilles, \Vests, Leonidas Glover, and Wilkes, the late Prince of Wales, the King of Denmark, Princess Amelia, and the proud monuments of Lord Chatham's services, now enshrined there, then anathematised there, and now again commanding there, with the Temple of Friendship, like the Temple of Janus, sometimes open to war, and sometimes shut up in factions cabals—all these images crowd upon one's memory, and add visionary per sonages to the charming scenes, that are so enriched with fanes and temples that the real prospects are little less than visions themselves. A history of Stowe—its rise, decline, and fall —would be almost a fitting subject for a clas sical pen. A witty Frenchman called Abbots ford "a romance in stone and mortar." Stowe and its associations suggest a century of history. When Walpole alludes to " poplar-pines," we find this note : The first poplar-pine (or,as they have since been called, Lombardy poplar) planted in England was that at Park place, on the bank of the river near the great arch. It was as a cutting brought from Turin by the late Lord Ilochford in his carriage, and planted by General Conway's own. hand.—BERRY. Can this be so? I remember three Loin hardy poplars at Blenheim, that in 1800 looked eighty yearn old --Croke/ . .11.5.--CUNNISOHAM. The note of Mr. Croker is characteristic. He had a passion for dates. He fixes the time when he saw the poplars at Blenheim, and when they " looked" eighty years old ! Mr. Cunningham plunges into so many details that he is often inexact in trifles. 'The following note about Mrs. Abington is erro neous : ..--..... . Frances Barton ( Mrs. Abington), celebrated as Lady Teazle, was born in London in 1731, and made her first appearance in 1751, at the Haymarket Theatre. In 1799 she retreated to private life, and died March 4, 1815.—CUS. MNGIIANI. Mrs. Abington certainly was not " celebrated" as Lady Teazle, nor, judging by her tradi tional reputation, would we suppose her to have filled that part in brilliant style. Her Widoe Baotou! , (in The Way to Keep Him) was the part in which she was justly celebrated, and no one is believed ever to have played that part with such effect. Lady Townly and Lady Racket were her other great parts. There are many passages in these volumes which ask for a more critical style of annota tion than is hero given to them. Walpole, 1 writing to Voltaire, says : Nor do I fear yon, sir, only as the first genius in Europe, who haft illustrated every science ; I have a more intimate dependence on you than you suspect. Without knowing it, you have been my master, and perhaps the sole merit that may be found in my writings is owing to my having studied yours; so far, sir, am I from living in that state of barbarism and ignorance with which you tax me when you say que nous neeles peut•elre ineunnu. We allow for the flattery, but we believe that Walpole uttered the truth when he acknow ledged this intense admiration for Voltaire. In reading Walpole's letters we are perpe- Wally reminded of Voltaire's style, not only in its piquant and inherent levity, but in tho nimbleness of the thoughts and the condensed power of narrative. The mere structure of the sentences, also, is constantly Voltairian ; and the ease with which an old topic is slipped away from and a new subject entered upon, constantly reminds us that the gossip of Straw berry-hill was habitually familiar with the writings of the philosopher of Ferney. The fifth of these volumes ranges from 1766 to 1773, which more than includes the Junius period (1767-17772). It is surprising how little notice Walpole has given to Junius. One might have thought that the personality, scandal, and even mystery of those letters would have had some interest for Walpole. " Single-Speech Hamilton was Walpole's candidate for the laurels of the man iu the mask. But it is only on two or three occa sions that Walpole alludes to Junius in these I letters. The Home Affections. Portrayed by the Poets. Selected and Edited by Charles Mackay. With One Hundred Engravings. London : Itoutledge. THIS is the earliest of the book annuals that herald the approach of Christmas, when tokens of affection are given in so many pleasing forms. It is a splendidly hound volume, and has a union of artistic and literary beauties, the letterpress being nearly all taken from standard minor poems which have become household lyrics. The editor has shown much practical skill in selecting his pieces, as there is something fur everyone in the book. It is dedicated to " Love" in its purest form, and Dr. Mackay must be allowed to express his views in compiling this attractive volume : To Poetry more especially belongs the duty of celebrating the beauty and the purity of Affection, anti of linking together the two great principles of Love to God and Love to Man. In the poetry of no language have the freshness, and it may be said the holiness, of this sentiment, and the paramount beauty of the Howe Affections, been more exquisitely portrayed than in that of England ; and the poets of the last sixty or seventy years may be truly said to have surpassed ell their predecessors—Shakspeare and Milton alone excepted—in the tenderness and beauty of their illustrations of this great passion, and the multi farious incidents of joy and sorrow which mark its pro gress. In the less advanced period of literature which intervened between the days of Milton anti those of Wordsworth and his great contemporaries, Love was too commonly treated by the rhymers and versifiers, and even by those worthy of the higher name of poets, in a Greek and Roman, and consequently a Heathen spirit. Cupid, Venus, and Hymen were as pertinaciously and unwarrant ably introduced, as if Christian readers believed in these names, or could be moved in the most infinitesimal degree by them ; and the poetry of Love, or that single exempti' fieation of the feeling which may be best described by the word amatory, became a mere play of the fancy. AA it did not spring from the hearts of the writers h , it could not touch the hearts of the readers. But as the public taste improved, anti new and great poets arose (as they did so plentifully at the end of the last anti beginning of the present century), these inane compositions fell into well-merited contempt; and Love in its widest and most universal acceptation,—the Love of Home, of Country, anti of Kind,—Love in innocent childhood, Love in court ship and youth, Love in matrimony and middle age, and Love on the confines of the tomb --embracing as these du all possible varieties of human relationship—found poets worthy to celebrate the name. it is from the works of those poets of the last sixty years, living or dead, that the extracts are taken. The exaltation of the domestic affections is the object kept in view by Dr. Mackay, but we are afraid that he has inserted too many pieces of a mournful character, and he himself has anticipated this opinion in his preface. There are several pieces in which the lost and gone are poetically lamented, and some of these, though melancholy. are well calculated to apply balm to bruised minds. Thus the anonymous poem of " The Lust Little One " has much nature in it: — We miss her footfall on the floor, Amidst the nursery din, her tip-tap at our bedroom door, Her bright face peeping in. And when to Heaven's high court above Aacends our social prayer, Though there are voices that we love, One sweet voice is not there. And dreary seem the hours, and lone, That drag themselves along, Now from our board her smile is gone, And from our hearth her song. 1 • tt 0 lr ti d 1 • • .• • Ft• 1 'l'4l u th lu e stable-yard keeper's room, He seems as 1 might enjo y siTe s of the h would guessof ts it little ideasorPriged if tht sides to the ws the reach of from the foot • THE PRESS, NOVEMBER 14, 1857.