The Press. — London, England, 1858-05-29 00:00:00

514 horse. Their sport is what with us would not be dignified with the name : Their game is quails, migratory birds which are wafted over to us from Africa, at the beginning of summer, and are so utterly exhausted by their flight over the Mediter ranean, that on their first arrival they can easily be knocked down with sticks or atones They then lay eggs, and their young spread over the plains, and lie by thousands on our cornfields, where, ut harvest-time, in July and August, they may be shot by dainty citizens walking over the dry stubble in their dancing•pumps. To render this sport even easier and lazier, rich landowners keep a " muta," a flock—literally a " pack "—of cogent quails ( which, by the way, must, with a cruelty no true sportman should be guilty of, be blinded for the purpose) : these are put out at night to decoy, by their singing, their free brethren, so as to gather them all together in one spot within convenient gunshot distance. Later, in the autumn and winter, the birds of passage are snipes and other water fowl; the lovers of this game must wade through deep water and mud in the rice-grounds in quest of them ; some of our most ardent youths will dabble in time marshy grounds till they catch more fevers than birds, and others expose themselves to the damp till they fall into a consumption. The net and the snare carry on a far more awful havoc than the gun. Even as a sportsman the Italian is true to his sedentary habits. And yet, though inert and sluggish, he is not even patient : [ hardly ever heard of an angler amongst my Piedmontese acquaintance. The boors of this neighbourhood, and I believe all over the Alps and Apennines, have a barbarous way of catching the fine trout with which their torrents abound: they throw lime into the water at the fountain-head, by which the choked and asphyzied fish are brought senseless and helpless to the surface, and caught in shoals as they come down the stream. One of the great obstacles to the improvement of the country is the want of good roads. Those which exist arc laid out on too magnificent a scale, and being ill kept up, become a mass of mud in wet; of dust in dry weather. There are few travellers, and those of a class whose com plaints are not much attended to. Hence the accommodation on the road is of the most wretched description, and such a thing as a "spirited proprietor" is unknown out of Turin. At these " ruin'd inns" there is not even a "bitter barmaid ;" the beds are made by men ; the rooms are innocent of bells ; and the whole es tablishment seems to be taken by surprise at the advent of a traveller. Many English families, on reaching the top of an Alpine pass, and cast ing longing looks on the rich Italian valley below, turn back rather than encounter the dis comfort which they know awaits them if they proceed. Far from joining in the common censure on travellers who are fastidious in out of-the-way places, Signor Gallenga considers that they do well to be exacting, and that their refusal to "rough it" is the best war of teaching the natives a refinement which they lave already begun in some slight degree to practise. Against the unfavourable picture which he draws of Piedmont, the author has more to set off in the way of promise than of actual perform ance. The country has vast capabilities, which freedom is beginning to develop. The cultivation of silk, by which at present the French manu facturers make the chiefprofit, may at no distant time be expected to reflect some portion of their prosperity upon the original seat of its produc tion. 'l% ater-power is of course abundant ; there are flourishing mills at the entrances of many of the Alpine valleys, which railways, in progress, radiating from Turin and connected at their ex tremities, will place in speedy communication with the capital and with each other.* A move ment is making to improve the harbour of Genoa, and do away with the monopoly at pre sent exercised by the boatmen who transport merchandize on shore ; and if English enterprize can be induced to convey a sufficient quantity of coal, both the productive energies and the do mestic hearths of the Subalpine Kingdom will respond with vital warmth to the supply. Of the moral qualities of the Pteamontese, Signor Gallenga gives a more favourable account than would be expected from what we have mid. All are hospitable, kind, and amiable, and the lower classes are industrious, under proper ma nagement. The middle classes are perhaps less to be depended upon, but, as they thrive when away front home, they will perhaps do equally well there under good government. liow tar the author is a prejudiced witness, we have not the means of ascertaining. He has seen a great deal of the world, and, having lived much in England especially, seems prone to judge his countrymen by a severe standard. l e appears to have thought that he might be the means of effecting • A portion of a railway intended to join Aosta with Turin hasps% been opened.—Tiraei correspondent of Thursday. THE PRESS, MA! 29, 1858. some remarkable improvement, and, finding that this was beyond his reach, gave up his project of establishing his home there, and has returned to England once more, not exactly in despair of Pied mont in general, but feeling unable to cope with the obstacles his single-handed efforts encountered. Whatever may have been the result of his expe riment, we are indebted to it for a very interest ing book, and one which, even if it requires, as we think, some grains of allowance, affords in formation which all who are speculating on the part which Sardinia is destined to play in the future of Italy will consider highly valuable and instructive. For and Against; or, Queen Margaret's Badge. By Frances M. Wilbraham. Two Vols. London : J. W. Parker and Son. This is a graceful work of fiction, purporting to be a " domestic chronicle of the fifteenth cen tury." It embraces the period of the wars of the Roses; and the style is pleasing, with the fresh ness of first composition. Its effect is that of what might be called literary tapestry. 'We see design and colours, and pictorial contrast, and considerable dexterity, though of a kind rather mechanical. The groupings are spirited, and there is a certain general resemblance to the manners and features of the age described. It would be, perhaps, too much to expect creation of character in a young authoress; and if an author has the rare talent of inventing types of human nature, we should always recommend a choice of subject for narrative fiction not so re mote from our time as the fifteenth century. In dramatic composition, it is necessary to remove the scene to a distant time in order to give ele vation to the language ; but in a novel affecting to paint the domestic life of bygone ages, a sense of unreality is apt to creep over the reader's mind when he finds commonplace sentiments and ordinary people using an antique phraseology. We have had many works of this kind before us from time to time, and we observe that they generally are produced by female pens. Miss Wilbraham gives promise of considerable success, and in literary attainments she is superior to the great crowd of candidates for success in fiction. But she must not depend too much on knowledge of hooks, and she should rather study the art of finding out and copying characters, and endowing them with lite. Novels of manners and costume are not stimulating, and the passions of the fif teenth century, with its ire and bloodshed, are not the most suitable for a lady's pen. The general effect of this tale is that which might be produced by Mr. G. I'. R. James if he turned sentimentalist. The first sentences re minded us of that novelist : Towards the close of a bleak January day, in the year of grace 1435, a small party of horsemen rode slowly across the brow of a high bill, one of the range which divides Staffordshire from Cheshire. They were but three in number, and two of them. a grey-haired man-at-arms and a stripling in a tight fitting snit with no ornament save a " greyhound passant " embroidered front and back, on his dark dress, lingered some paces behind, as if afraid of breaking in upon the meditation 0 their master. And again, in the middle of the second volume, we read Late in the afternoon of St. Denys's-lay (Oct. 9, 1439) and somewhat more than a fortnight after the bloody fight of Blore, a little knot of horsemen might be seen spurring up the steep ascent t) Ludlow. This town, which with its castle was then the property of the Duke of York, was in every respect well fitted to be a princely residence. It stood on a height near the function of the Cone and Teme, and was in its turn commanded by the castle, whose im posing remains may yet be seen, perched on a tall grey rock overhanging the first-mentioned river. The whole place was strongly walled and fortified, but the castle especially, which occupied the north-west angle of the town, wore an aspect of imposing strength. Its north front pre- sented a chain, of massive square towers, connected by a lofty wall; on the west, the ground sank to a chasm, through which the Teme worked its way, swollen at thrt time by autumn rains; a rocky height, not inferior to that on which the castle stood, rose opposite to it on the further bank of the stream; the trees which crowned its ridge were clothed in the brightest reds and yellows, and stood out sharply against masses of glowing slate-coloured cloud, such as otten veil an autumn sky. Into these the blue Mlle of Wales melted imperceptibly. The nearer land scape, being richly timbered, wes clothed in brilliant tints ; it was, besides, studded with cottages and farmsteads, rude but p:ctnresque in form. Thin lint•si of smoke issued from holes in their roofs, which supplied, though imperfectly, the place of chimneys ; for our ancestors, so far from con -1 sidering smoke a nuis anc e, esteeme d it " t h e b est h ar d en i ng for the timber of their houses, and the best medecine that could be gut fur keeping the good man and his familte from rheum, catarrhs, and quakes F' To add to the animation of the scene, the Duke of York army, reinforced by a formidable band newly brought over from Calais by the Earl of Warwick, was encamped in Ludlow and the adjoining village of Ludford. Men-at arms, esquires, and here and there knights, mounted or afoot, were hastening to and fro. Burnish ng of armour, trials of skill in archery, and other martial a osittions were being pursued on all sides; and in all, exceit perhaps the use of the bow, the grim veterans brought by Sir Andrew Trollope and Sir John Blount from France, took the lead. And so on. The descriptive powers of the writer are considerable, and there is a spirit of poet ry in several passages. But th e fault of the tale is that we scarcely know whether we are reading history or fiction. Yet there is so much ability in parts of the work that we hope again to meet with the writer; and, as a first attempt, this " chronicle" is certainly meritorious. PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.-34T 27. BOOKS. Doctor Thorne. A Novel. Anthony Trollope. Three Vols. Chapman and Hall. Maud Skillicorne's Penance. A Tale in Two I'arts. Mary Catherine Jackson. Two Vols. Smith and Elder. The Voice of the Last Prophet. A Practical Interpretation of the Apocalypse. The Rev. Ed. Huntingford. D.C.L. Skellington. Lord George Bentinck. A Political Biography. The Right Hon. B. Disraeli, M.P. New Edition. Rontledge. Friends at their Own Fireside. Mra. Ellis. Two Vols. Bentley. Recolketions of Syria and Palestine. The Rev. Ed. James Jones. Mash rs. The World and Ilia Wife: or, a Person of Consequence. A Photographic Novel. Lady Bulwer Lytton. Three Vola. Skeet. Tales from Blackwood. Vol. J. /31ackwoods. Banking and other Joint-Stock Companies. E. \Allgoo— d Consecration Sermon. Raingtone—llemoral of W. Tayler from the Coramissionership of Patna. Thacker and Co — The Politics and the Political Economy of Weak Goren. melds. By F. C. Hardwicke. ght s i t. MADAME SZARVADY gave her second matinee at Willis's Rooms last Monday. The programme, though it contained none but music of the highest class, was not well selected. It consisted of Beet hoven's trio in E flat (Op. 70), tor pianoforte, violin, and violoncello ; Handel's variations on the air of " The Harmonious Blacksmith ;" Scarlatti's sonata in A; Beethoven's sonata in A flat (Op. 110); two short pieces by Chopin and Heller ; and Mendels sohn's grand quartett in B minor, for pianoforte, violin, viola, hod violoncello. Two such elaborate compositions as the trio and the posthumuous sonata of Beethoven would be sufficient to exhaust the attention of almost any audience; any one who after these could listen properly to Mendelssobn'a quartett must base a very strong head for music. It was unwise to include three such works in one programme; and to place a composition of such intricacy as the quartett at the end of any concert could have no other result than to drive the audience away. A large number of persons left during the performance, in spite of the magnificent playing of Madame Szarvady, and of Herr Molique, Mr. H. Blagrove, and Signor Piatti, by whom she was assisted. A second hearing only confirms us in the opinion we have already expressed of Madame Szarvady ; that while her mechanical power has decidedly increased, sho has not lost any of the quick sensibility by whch she was always distinguished. For purity of feeling and delicacy of expression she has hardly an equal in any pianiste at present before the public. The last matinee of the series will take place next Saturday. HER MAJESTY'S THEATRE.—The arrangements for next week present varied attractions% On Tuesday, the Huguenots; Thursday, the Aozze di Figaro Saturday, the ever-popular Troratore ; and on M. day, a morning performance of idozait's clief4ceuv l e , Don Giovanni, which has evidently been selected as bringing together Titiens, Piccolomini, Giuglini, and the greatest amount of talent belonging to the establishment. The new opera, L u isa Miller, is to be produced on Tuesday, sib June. Reports speak highly of the music and of the part of the heroine, for which Mlle. Piccolomini has been selected. Sig. Giuglini has also an interesting character, and some music peculiarly suited to his charming talent. Beneventano and Vialetti also appear in the opera; and to give richness to the whole, we are glad to nod that Alboni has consented to take the contralto part-