The Press. — London, England, 1855-07-21 00:00:00

692 and always chosen with a strict regard to the nature of the theme, Mr. Ainsworth achieves an ease and freedom of versification and expres sion which have seldom been surpassed. A third especial trait is novelty of matter. It seems to be the peculiar province of the writer to impart a vivid and picturesque interest to scenes and incidents rarely visited by the in spirations of poetry, and to discover elements of beauty in places where they are not generally supposed to reside. Few of the hacknied topics upon which the lyrical spirit is wont to exhaust its enthusiasm are to be found here; and when we are carried by the force of occasion into any of the beaten tracks, the path is sure to be strewn with unexpected flowers. In this age of verse-making these qualities are suffi ciently uncommon to confer a distinctive cha racter on the volume. The majority of these pieces, we believe, are extracted from Mr. Ainsworth's published romances, and having been written, like songs in operas, to respond to particular dramatic situations, they are here submitted to a severe test by being taken out of their setting. Yet there can be no doubt that they take a stronger hold of the imagination as indepen dent compositions than as part and parcel of a narrative. They are better than we ex• pected to find them ; they tell their story in a poetical spirit, which the literal accessories and surrounding action of the romance con tributed somewhat to lower; and, like birds liberated from a cage, they seem to sing higher up in the air, and with a fuller throat. It is favorable to their suggestive tendency that we should know nothing of what went before, and that our attention should not be divided by any anticipations of what is to follow. They have a clear audience to themselves; and whenever we fancy there is something want ing to fill up the design, it helps to pique rather than to disappoint curiosity. But it is time to let the reader taste these ballads and songs, and judge for himself. Some of the characteristics we have alluded to will be found in the following verses : THE CARRION CROW. The Carrion Crow is a sexton bold, He raketh the dead from out of the mould; He delveth the ground like a miser old, Stealthily hiding his store of gold. The Carrion Crow bath a coat of black, Silky and sleek like a priest's to his back ; Like a lawyer he grubbeth—no matter what way— The fouler the offal, the richer his prey. Caw 1 caw / the Carrion Crow ! Dig! dig! in the ground below. 11. The Carrion Crow hath a dainty maw, With savoury pickings he crammeth his craw ; Kept meat from the gibbet it pleaseth his whim, It never can hang too long for him ! Caw ! Caw ! Caw! Caw! The Carrion Crow amelleth powder, 'tie said, Like A soldier eseheweth the taste of cold lead; No jester or mime hath mote marvellous wit, For, wherever he lighteth, he maketh a hit ! Caw ! caw ! the Carrion Crow ! Dig! dig in the ground below. If it be one of the chief means of success in a lay of this kind to bring together a collec tion of figures that centralise in the one figure it is the object of the composition to exhibit in a kind of focal light, this little piece must be admitted to be quite successful. Nor is it a merit to be overlooked that the mea sure, language, and refrain help materially to concentrate the effect. Of a different kind is the drinking-song, "My Old Complaint," which we formerly quoted in our notice of " The Flitch of Dun mow." It has a man in it, whose nature and habits are not to be mistaken It is not a piece of affected jollity put together skilfully like a house built of cards, but a substantial reality. The verses are not mere adroit praises of liquor—they are perfectly in earnest, almost to gravity ; and there is not only a ruling sen timent running through them, but a face looking out of them, and a voice singing so norously norously in every syllable. As we are not afraid that the inspiring strain addressed by Dick Turpin to Black Bess will tempt any of our readers into midnight ex- jaloits upon Hounslow-heath, or awaken in labitiliatirkeitteeSible desire to revive the glories lib. THE PRESS. of the road and the heroic processions to Ty burn, we will conclude with a lyric which may fairly claim to take rank with the most spirited productions of its class in our language : BLACK BESS. Let the lover his mistress's beauty rehearse, And laud her attractions in languishing verse ; Be it mine in rude strains, but with truth, to express The love that I bear to my bonny Black Bess. From the West was her dam, from the East was her sire, From the ono came her swiftness, the other her lire; No peer of the realm better blood can possess Than flows in the veins of my bonny Black Bess. Look, look ! how that eyeball glows, bright as a brand ! That neck proudly arches, those nostrils expand ! Mark that wide-flowing mane, of which each silky tress Might adorn prouder beauties, though none like Black Bess. Mark that akin sleek as velvet, and dusky as night, With its jet undistigured by one lock of white; That throat branched with veins, prompt to charge or caress: Now is she not beautiful—bonny Black Bess? Over highway and byway, in rough and smooth weather, Some thousand of miles have we journeyed together ; Our couch the same straw, and our meal the same mess, No couple more content than I and Black Bess. By moonlight, in darkness, by night, or by day, Her headlong career there is nothing can stay ; She cares not for distance, she knows not distress : Can you show me a courser to match with Black Bess? Once it happened in Cheshire, near Dunbar, I popped On a horseman alone, when I suddenly stopped; That I lightened his pockets you'll readily guess— Quick work makes Dick Turpin when mounted on Bess. Now it seems the man knew me. " Dick Turpin," said he, " You shall swing for this job, as you live, d'ye see;" I laughed at his threats and his vows of redress, I was slue of an alibi then with Black Bess. The road was a hollow, a sunken ravine, Overshadowed completely by wood, like a screen; I clambered the back, and I needs must confess That one touch of the spur grazed the side of Black Bess. Brake, brook, meadow, and ploughed field Bess fleetly bestrode, - As the crow wings her flight we selected our road ; I We arrived at Bough Green in five minutes or less — My neck it was saved by the speed of Black Bess. Stepping carelessly forward, I lounge on the green, Taking excellent care that by all I am seen ; Some remarks on Time's flight to the squires I address, But I say not a word of the flight of Black Bess. I mention the hour—it was just about four-- Play a rubber at bowls—think the danger is o'er; When athwart my next game, like a checkmate at chess, Come the horsemen in search of the rider of Bess. What matter details? Off with triumph J came; He swears to the hour, and the squires swear the same. I had robbed him at four, while at four they profess I was quietly bowling—all thanks to Black Bess ! Then one hallos, boys, one loud cheering halloo! To the swiftest of coursers, the gallant, the true 1 For the sportsman unborn shall the memory bless Of the horse of the highwayman—bonny Black Bess ! The horse of the highwayman !—but a song which a horse of nobler inheritance might fill with less lustre. It would be a false direction of criticism to enter an objection to the praises of Black Bess because they chronicle the ad ventures of a gentleman of the road. Were the grand fellows of chivalry much better in their day ? We have nothing to say on behalf of Dick Turpin, but a great deal against him in reference to this same Black Bess. Yet we suspect that Dick Turpin, after this breathless five minutes' ride, will show to greater advan tage in the bowling-green than Du Guesclin in the tent of the Spanish king he betrayed to death After all is there net a little affecta tion, or, at least, some inconsiderateness, in the indiscriminate protest againt the choice of such subjects ? There is hardly a chapter in our romantic literature more popular than the escapades of Robin Hood, the humours of Little John, and the beauty of the fair ac complice, Maid Marian. And who was Robin Hood ? What was his life, that he should monopolise all the glories of song and chro nicle ? Assuredly Dick Turpin, in his line, was as gallant a spirit as Robin Hood, although he had the misfortune to live in a less pic turesque age. True it is only the poetical side of the old legend we preserve so preciously; but who will deny that there is a poetical side to Dick Turpin ?—or that it is only the poetical side, with all its modern disadvantages, that is attempted to be expressed in this capital song ? SATURDAY, Journal of a Tour in the Principalities, Crimea, and Countries adjacent to the Black Sea, in the Years 1835-36. By Lord De Ros. London : J. W. Parker and Son. Tilts private journal, now first made public, was kept under peculiar circumstances. In the years 1834-6 a strong suspicion of the ultimate designs of Russia against the Porte existed in this country ; and rumours of the preparations of Russia in the Black Sea having reached the ears of the Government, they decided upon " fathoming the truth " of these reports by despatching a military and a naval officer upon a toui through the Crimea, in order to ascertain, by personal observation, whether any, and what, preparations for war the Russians really were making. Lord Dur ham was at that time upon the point of starting upon his mission to St. Petersburg, by way of Odessa, and advantage was taken of the opportunity to include Lord De Ros and Captain Drinkwater, R.N., in his suite, special instructions being given them to ascertain whether " unusual preparations were perceiv " able in fortresses, military stations, ports, " and arsenals." In July, 1835, Lord Durham sailed from England, making a long tour to St. Petersburg, by way of Malta, the Pincus, and Constantinople, being joined en route by the two Commissioners. From the superior opportunities which Lord De Ros enjoyed kr observation and record he might have been expected to collect much curious detail, but we are bound to say that, however full of valuable information his secret reports to the Government might have been, his lordship has carefully expunged everything from the leaves of his journal in the shape of novel or exclusive information. Odessa was the first port which the Embassy reached in the Black Sea ; and the country in the neighbourhood is described thus : This steppe is an endless plain, thinly covered with a sort of herbage spread over a sandy soil, which causes a quantity of dust in summer, and after twelve hours rain in winter becomes a sea of mud, defying man and beast to exceed a :•ertain pace through it. Yet some parts in the interior are highly cultivated, and every year immense cargoes of corn are shipped at Odessa, unless in seasons when these regions have been infested with locusts, which has lately happened, and done incredible mischief. The peasantry bring their corn to the coast in long trains of carts, which at first starting consists, perhaps, of fifty or sixty ; but as they advance, their number is in- creased by additions from all the villages on the steppe near which their track lies ; so, by the time they reach Odessa, there are many hundreds of these carts marching in exact order. This is a curious fact worth noticing, and in all field operations of the army, and especially with regard to the supplies now afforded to the Russian army, it must be borne in mind. There is in those provinces a most extensive system of civil land carriage ready at hand, which our military critics seem always so dis posed to ignore when speaking of difficul ties of transport as affecting the tactics of the Russians. Lord De Ros tells us that the people of Odessa are singularly quiet and orderly; but he finds a most efficient reason for the fact : Justice is well administered, but in a summary way. Caning is for the male sex. Whipping with birchen rods is reserved for the women, and is so generally received a custom that in great estates the steward sets one morning apart in the week for causing this punishment to be admin istered by a matron, with as much decorum as the case will allow; nor from the peasant to the head housemaid is there any exception. After leaving Odessa the suite proceeded to Nicolaief, the great dockyard of the Black Sea fleet. And here we hoped to find some in formation upon the resources or defences of so important a place, but Lord Do Ros merely tells us that the dockyard officers spoke Eng lish and were very civil, and that from the main street there are many lovely views ! Kiew, a military town of some importance on the right bank of the Dnieper, was next visited, and even so far back as 1835 was being strongly fortified : There are some new fortifications of vast extent now in progress at Kiew, and a number of troops employed in working upon them. The plan, it seems, is to strengthen the whole fortress round the south by advanced works, and, commencing from the fortress, to carry a permanent line round the upper town, and so return to the river about a mile to th northward. The portion of the fortification most complete is a huge battery, four hundred paces in length, which,