The Press. — London, England, 1858-11-20 00:00:00

THE PRE S S, NOVEMBER 20, 185 g. a quick eye for effect, combine to produce a light literary tourist ; but many other qualities are wanted for a thoroughly good writer of travels. The matter must be well weighed, the descriptions must be accurate as well as striking, and there must be weight of opinion in the author. A narrator or describer, who merely tells us of strange places, and forms no distinct opinion about them, fails to satisfy. There must be not only the attempt but the ability to examine and decide upon the defects of a climate, the re sources of a region, the habits of a population, or even the expression of scenery. Inglis was a remarkably agreeable writer of superficial terms, and his work on Ireland was for many years an authority upon the sister country ; but there was want of matter in most of that lively writer's productions, and his success had an injurious effect in creating a demand for flimsy works of travel as distinguished from the solid perform ances of Edward Daniel Clarke and others. It became a fashion for popular novelists to com bine profit and pleasure by taking tours, and scribbling their accounts of what they saw and heard, and calling it " their travels." The United States of America were successively " done" by " Boz," Captain Marryat, Captain Hamilton (author of " Cyril Thornton"), and Miss Martineau. Numbers who could not appreciate the profundity and admirable writing of De Tocqueville's " Democracy in America," amused themselves with the graphic descriptions by fictionists of their hasty peeps at other countries. The true test for deciding upon the merit of a book of travels is whether it be worth keeping for reference. Most of Mr. Laing's works would stand this test. " The Crescent and the Cross," by Warburton, is a brilliant piece of writing, with a sharp, crisp, scintillating style, and its literary merits are indisputable. Sir C. Lyell's Travels are agreeable reading always, and deeply instructive when their author touches on his favourite subject. The Handbooks from Albe marle-street are unique in this particular branch of Literature. The Continent being opened freely during the Thirty Years' Peace, the " English Interest Abroad grew and prospered in all the pleasant places in Europe. We all went abroad to see our friends ; we all had rela tions resident abroad, and handbooks became indispensable. Byron's works, to a great extent, stimulated the desire for foreign travel. His magniicent description of scenery had a vivid effect on the imagination of thousands who longed to see the places so beautifully portrayed, and the vigorous and easy letters in his Memoirs helped to augment the taste so produced. " Mr. Murray " was familiarly associated with the poet whom Lord Macaulay has termed " the most " remarkable Englishman of the nineteenth " century; " and with the " handbooks" anno tating and illustrating most of the scenes through which the wayward Childe pursued his melodious and melancholy way, the name of " Murray " is identified by myriads of roving Englishmen. The work before us, as well as Mr. Poulett Scrope's, seems to show that with a new and special style of Travel Literature the distinguished bibliopole of Albemarle-street is desirous of identifying his far-spread name. The Alps will always continue to furnish sug gestive themes for good describers. Science and sentiment combine to invest them with extra ordinary charms for tourists. Poets, naturalists, painters, cannot but feel deeply interested in stu dying Nature under the various aspects which she presents in that region. The author of this work has many accomplishments for the part of a writer of a good book of travels. He has bo tanical and geological knowledge, a genuine love of scenery, classical scholarship, and that appre ciative faculty which results from a well-balanced state of mind. His style is correct and animated, and at times is effectively graphic, though it wants freshness of tone and has no striking ori ginality. Mr. King's intellect is vigorous, his sense is strong, and he commits no errors against taste. His defect, we think, is that he becomes rather monotonous from frittering away his energy on too much matter of the same kind; he does not select and contrast with sufficient care. Let a traveller go to the Grecian Archipelago, we are not to expect from him an account of every petty islet; and Mr. King has given us rather too much of the same matter. He deals with the subject of the Italian valleys of the Alps, and he English, whose diaphanous forms and soft colouring cannot anywhere find their equal. But, on the other hand, i n no circle of arusta does so much profound divergence, glaring antithesis prevail, as here. The suc h varied and development of English art takes, at every moment, some new direction, and different models came upon the lapis. And yet ex t e rior influences are never tolerated, the national indepen d en ce being jealously . preserved. If we examine, however, in what this last consists, we find it limited to a spec ific technical manner, but without root in any par ticular mode of viewing the thing, or in any primitive and indigenous sense of form . . Reynolds and Lawrence are not less English than Wilkie and Turner; and yet how little has the one pair in common with the other One cannot dispute the great charm, the striking beauties of numerous English productions; but it the entire mass or a wing English art were annihilated, its disappearance would not have the slightest influence on the aesthetic development of the rest of Europe. Even in England herself the vitality of the fine arts is exclusively main wined by private individuals, and is wholly unconnected with, and independent of, the education of the people. A closer coherence is seen in England's architectural works. These do not disdain the historic soil, do not strive after an ill-assorted originality, but rather abide rigorously by the old indigenous arid purely national taste. England has recently become the promised land cf the Gothic. To the merit of having been the first to revive this style, she adds the still greater merit of having applied it more frequently and with greeter versatility than any other ostioa lt is customary in speaking of Eng land to praise the elaborate provision for comfort in private buildings, and to go into ecstacies about the marvels of engineering; but, if one is asked about the condition of architecture, to point, with a shrug, to the bare brick boxes, three windows broad and three stories high, which our round the squares and border the endless streets. But this judgment is altogether an unjust one. These shape. less masses of brick are, it is true, inexpressibly ugly, and faithfully symbolize the fact that in London even the enjoyment of life is carried on as a matter of business. Bat they do not in any way represent the English taste for architecture. When we state that this taste stands incomparably higher than the exaggerated architectural phantasy of the Parisians, the praise is not of great significance. But the British creations in this walk need not shun comparison even with German edifices The lively, religious feeling, which distinguishes the English people above all ethers, has, during the last few years, given an amazing impulse to ecclesiastical archi tecture—and their exertions in the field of civil Gothic are still more remarkable, are indeed unrivalled. We may instance the colossal Parliament Houses, by Barry, which hare already swallowed np the gigantic sum of 14 millions, and whose grand effect, whatever censure may be thrown upon overloaded ornament, defects of plan, and errors in acoustic, not even the bitterest criticism can deny. In sculpture Dr. Springer accords us inferior excellence. Flax - man, he allows, " could be " placed above Canova without fear of contradic " tion ; but only the most shortsighted pa " trioti4m would venture to compare Gibson with " Thorwaldsen, Chantrey with Rauch, Marshall with Jouffroy." The first-mentioned sculptor, Dr. Springer evidently regards as overrated. On the subject of his unfortunate polychromatic monomania, he observes : Gibson has sought, by the revival of Polvchromie, by tinting separate portions of the face and the fringes of the drapery, to give his works enhanced charm—an absurd notion in an age when, by the perfected development of painting, the limits of the plastic hays been distinctly marked out, and when the phase of civilization no longer tolerates here such direct appeals to the sense! With respect to painting—but really, in justice both to author and bookseller, we must stay our pilfering hand here, and allow this, probably the most attractive section of the book, to draw readers for the reviewed rather than for the re viewer. That Dr. Springer judges English Art with an impartiality rarely found among foreigners will, we think, be already evident to our readers. His views, although often expressed with obscurity and prolixity, are unusually practical—for a Ger man; and a translation of this book, executed with intelligence and judicious exegetical free dom, would, we feel convinced, be well received by an art-losing public. The Italian Valleys of the Pennine A4ll. By the Rev. 8. W. King, M.A., F.R.G.S. With Illustrations and Maps. London : Murray. THE Literature of Travel has become a specialty within the last few years, and the services ren dered by the admirable Handbooks of Mr. Murray can scarcely be overrated. The public, and readers at large, have been taught to look for solid matter, careful observation, and condensed style in books aspiring to describe foreign coun tries. Several causes have combined to make books of travel favourites with the public. Those who are obliged to tarry at home are glad enough to read good descriptions of strange and novel, While others naturally desire to find new routes for exploring in their rambles. Yet it is not so eassy to produce a good book of travels. Pleasant slants, a lively style, a turn for anecdote, and 1135 assumes a tone as if that region had never been visited before, and is almost as minute as if he were writing a description of his travels in China or some unexplored district. This want of se' lection and retrenchment does give a certain air of heaviness, and his style would be better if he allowed it to sink and swell with his theme. He exhibits a calm, strong, smooth, and quietly ener getic manner throughout, and the reader would at times wish for more variety. Solidity of matter, closeness of detailed descrip tion, accuracy of investigation, and a serene temper, with good literary powers, are the main merits of Mr. King. His explorings were per formed in company with his wife, and he thus describes their luggage : With this object in view we were on our way across the Alps. Profiting by experience, we had divested ourselves of every possible encumbrance, and reduced our baggage to the smallest compass—expecting that we must oaten encounter wild districts and difficult passes : at the same time, from the probability of very scanty accommodation in the chance quarters we might meet with in the reinoter valleys, where inns are rare exceptions, we were obliged to provide such articles as might render us independent of all but a roof. Accordingly, one of Whippy's portable side saddles for E. folding into a compact waterproof case, and adaptable to a donkey or a horse , —a pair of saddle-bags, small, but of most multifarious and well selected contents, comprising every possible requiaite,—a spare bag for emergencies,--plaids, waterproofs, a portable cooking apparatus and adjuncts, fly rod, vasculutn, and some instruments, with various inapt, charts, and neces sary guide-books, constituted the total of our personal travelling kit for the next three months. We bad besides a reserve depot of a couple of light air-tight japanned cases, so arranged with straps as to be easily adjusted on either side of a mule. After crossing the Alps these were to be sent on to some convenient point in advance, for the purpose of replenishing our scanty wardrobe if necessary, and to receive future collections of plants, minerals, and othermatters. The whole together weighed only 132 lbs. We shall select several passages from this valuable work, and we shall choose them so as to exem plify the great variety of matter to be found in it. Mr. King devotes much space to his account of the Val d'Aosta Having be!ore travelled down the Val d'Aosta by night, full daylight now enabled us to enjoy its exquisite beauty and variety of scenery. The recent thunder showers bed pooled the air, freshened the vegetation, and heightened the rich colouring and beauty of the wonderfully tinted rocks, as we left the walls of Ivrea behind us, and rapidly penetrated the mountains, which begin to close in at a village aptly called Monte Stretto. The ruins of the quadrangular keep of the old castle of Montalto steed in the middle of vineyards, on a rock of pure limestone. There are several rocks of the same kind in the reigh bourhood, on which De Saussure remarks with reference to the striking difference of the prevailing formations on the two sides of the Alps. On the north, limestone or dolomite predominates, consecutive ranges of calcareous mountains of vast area extending along a great pertion of it. This will be readily understood on reference to the convenient reduction of MM. Studer and Escher's geological map, a most useful companion to the Alpine traveller. • It will be seen there that a distinctly marked belt of secondary ranges of these formations, allied to the Jura limestones runs along the north side of the loity chain of central Alps, which—as Mont Blanc, Monte Rosa. and the higher peaks of the Oberland—are chiefly granite or schistose rocks. But on the south side, the calcareous format'ons constitute &comparatively insignificant proportion of the geological system, being mere yatches ; that in the neighbourhood of the Allie Blanche, the only one of importance. Granites, micaceous and chlorite schist*, quartz, gneiss, and every variety of metamorphic rock, some of the largest tracts of serpeutiue in Europe, masses of hornblende. gabbro, and syenite. form the pre dominant components of the ranges of the Italian valleys. It is this which gives to their scenery the remarkably abrupt and romantic character which distinguishes it entirely from the Series Alps, and causes that bo!d; rugged form, and peculiar richness of rock colouring, which fascinate the eye of the artist, as much as they surpass all the efforts of his pencil. The Val d'Aosta does not, strictly speaking ,begin until just before the village of Pont St. Mar.in is reaches!, but the mountain scenery increases in beauty every mile from Ivrea—passing Bc.rgo Franco and Settiruo Vittone, the head of the commune, the striking entrance to which is under overarching walnuts —until at last it culminates in the Val d'Aosta proper The mountains on either side are more like immense blocks of rock of great height, clothed from top to base with magnificent forest; not toe severe sombre pine only, but mixed with the finest timber, chiefly indigenous sweet chesnut and walnut. The faces of these heights, too, are generally so rocky and steep, that there is no pasture. Their colouring after the rain was lovely—deep purple, almost black, olive-green, red, yellow, grey, and every intermediate tint—while a few white fleecy clouds, here and there, crept slowly up their aides, as the sun dried up the shower. Wherever it is practicable, vines are carried up, on the side facing the south, to the extremes% accessible hilltops; and with more freedom and wildness of growth than nearer Aosta. They mantle elegantly over and among the scattered rocks, and in the sunniest yet fresh-looking nooks form fairy bowers, gracefully intermingled with the ferns and flowers growing from the crevices. The Val d'Aosta, from head to foot, is indeed • continued feast to the eye, of every cumbuiation of mountain, rock,