The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-07-31 00:00:00

r s le P. • ' 1~~ , , ;1 111 )t i o° td 11. 6 1 '0 , ~ ~CI',I V , djtl' jD~r y it ~J iV ~~ ~' . .::~' ~r , ~ ~ ~~,,:~~ Th_ ft Ji - SUPPLE N , EN'. TO i f l Or tbrrAnwi -)fautorti AND GENERAL COMMERCIAL ADVERTISER. i which beset Betty the housemaid, which render Molly the cook intolerable, and Henrietta the tirewoman ridiculous. True, the peculiarities of each are marked by distinctive features, which clearly indicate the real ownership of tach; but on examination these will be found not more widely different than the petite nez retranse which distinguishes the latter from the Grecian contour cf her mistress, or marks the portly rotundity o f cookey from the towering embonpoint and made majesty of the grand Dorothea. Convincing and interesting illustration " of all that sort of thing," as our author would say, is to be found scattered with no stinted freedom throughout the pages of the book ; but, besides these, there are other and more valuable to be found abundantly within their snowy margins. The beautiful ,style of life and scene painting, in the pur suit of which Dickens is so justly esteemed a master, found in Leigh Hunt an early and an able practitioner. His delineations of manners are instinct with that fine appreciation of minute shades in character which, by judicious application, constitute so peculiar a charm in the displays of social life ; and without which indi vidual portrait becomes, in a great degree, caricature. While tastefully playful in his mode of handling those points of social and personal character, he is not less happily s)ortive in treating of the vagaries which, from time to time, have been allowed to rule the choice of costume; leading the votaries of fashion now into one absurdity, now into another. On these points, as on I the happy arrangement of trivial plots for the purpose of bringing about events important to the actors themselves, Mr. Hunt is great. His serious gossip upon such subjects is nearly as far removed from twaddle as the nature of the case- will admit of. In all of these, however, the quaint humour, the lively fancy, and the innate sagacity of the observer are finely manifested, and the picture which these are united to produce has generally its intention pointed out, and its value heightened, by some sly hit ingeniously planted at the time it receives its finishing stroke from the hand of the artist. Female fashions, and the varying as well as frequently fantastic forms which they are occasionally made to assume, engage especially the attention of Mr. Hunt, who touches upon them with a delicacy of satire scarcely less pleasing than it is uncommon. He fancifully dilates upon a fashion of female costume, which, prevailing in the days of great grandmothers, was presumed to have been interred with the hair powder and otshions ; the patches and the paint, our management )f which, in those days, constituted so important a prtion of a lady's toilet, and which threatens, like th) " buried majesty of Denmark," to revisit " the glimises of the moon. Mr. Hunt, after a pleasant introduclion, thus discourses of A LADY'S PROGRESS IN HER HOOP. The hoop, like any other habiliment, was only ugly ikismuch as it interfered with the mind's idea of the body's sha)e. It was ugly, when it made the hips appear dislocated, tlb body swollen, the gait unnatural ; in other words, as long as it suggested the idea of some actual deformity, and mighthave been considered as made to suit it. But when it was llrge, and the swell of it hung at a proper distance from the perm, it became, not an habiliment, but an enclosure. The persm stood aloof from it, and was imagined to do so. The lady, the a goddess, was half concealed in a hemisphere ; out of whic l the rest of her person rose, like Venus out of the billows When she moved, and the hoop was of proper length as well as breadth, she did not walk ; — her steps were not visible ; she was borne: along ; she was wafted ; came gliding. So issued the Wortley Montagus, the C,oventrys, and the Harveys, out of their sedans ; and came radiant with admirations of beholders, through avenues of them at palace doors. Thus, poor Marie-Antoinette came, during the height of her bloom and ascendancy, through arrays, on either side, of guards and adorers ; and swept along with her the eyes and the reforma tions of Mr. Burke. Having thus gracefully disposed of the hoop, let us take a glance at our author's skill in mana g ing the denouement of a love case, in which a young lady con trives to escape from the importunities of a lover se lected for her by her parents, and to throw herself into the arms of the heir of Holland House, who had previously won her affections. The lady was a daugh ter of the then Duke of Richmond, and the affair may be denominated THE LADYS DEVICE, The duke was a grandson of King Charles the Second ; and F bo o t r h , t ie; e a s n o d n t o h f e t d h u e c og lie l s i s iv l o m ea d l d s e i c r li s n t e e d pi t i o on favo Th ur t o3 he r s eo u4t on of ed Mr. on her marrying another man ; and an evening was appointed on which the gentleman was to be formally introduced as her suitor. Lady Caroline, whose affections the dashing states man had secretly engaged, was at her wit's end to know how to baffle this interview. She had evaded the choice of the family as long as possible, but this appointment looked like a crisis. The gentleman is to come in the evening ; the lady is to prepare for his. reception by a more than ordinary attention to her toilet. This gives her the cue to what is to be done. The more than ordinary attention is paid ; but it is in a way that rerders the interview impossible. She has cut off her eye brows. How can she be seen by anybody in such a trim? The indignation of the duke and duchess is great ; but the thing is manifestly impossible. She is accordingly left to her self for the night ; she has perfected her plan, in expectation of that result ; and the consequence is, that when next her parEnts inquire for her, she has gone. Nobody can find her. She is off for Mr. Fox. 'The above may be taken as a fair sample of the minute painting of Leigh Hunt. His more general, as well as his infinitely more comprehensive style, will be seen to advantage in the annexed rich, racy, pictu resque sketch of KENSINGTON GARDENS A CENTURY AGO. Miss Chudleigh, not yet Duchess of Kingston, was still in request. The young ladies who have figured as actresses at Holland House—Lady Susan Fox, and the charming Lady Sarah Lenox, with whom the younc , King had been said to be in for e, were, perhaps, the greatest' attractions in the Walk. There, also, might probably be seen the beautiful Countess of Waldegrave, an illegitimate Walpole, who, before the Marriage Act had put an end to such ambitions, became the wife of the King's brother, • the Duke of Gloucester, and moth er o f th e late Duke, not long deceased. Kitty Clive, the actress, would also be there, looking more intelligent than handsome; and the notorious Kitty Fisher, the Venus of the day, would con tribute a face as insipid as Venus herself (that is to say, the Venus de Medicis). Her charm consisted, we suppose, in the unexpected things which such a face could utter ; we mean, in the way of slang : a contrast in which Horace Walpole found something very bewitching. This is the lady, we be lieve, who, by way of making a sensation, and showing her superiority to vicissitudes, emulated the pearl-melting of Cleopatra by eating a bank note (we forget for what sum) itt the guise of a sandwich. George Selwyn, Lord March, and such like worthies, would be there as before ; Wilkes, also, indulging his gallant squint; and Bubb Doddington, daring the month in which he was a'" young lord" though a corpu lent senior, bigger for his huge, gaudy clothes. Madame de Bouffiers gave a look in from Paris. The mysterious pheno menon called the chevalier, or chevaliere, d'Eon, showed its doubly-diplomatic face : and Rousseau, who was in England about this time, might even have given a pitying, misanthro pical glance down the foolish assemblage. We know not whether Johnson was ever to be found in these promenades a, little later in the reign ; but very likely he was, con sidering that he was as great, although a somewhat more frightened admirer of pretty alleles, as his friend Richardson. And Goldsmith assuredly would not suffer his blossom coloured coat to be lost to the assembled world, while its lustre was yet upon it. How could the Woffingtons, and the Lady Cravens and Bolingbrokes, and charming Mrs. Abingdon with her Roxalana nose be there, and Oliver, em boldened by his coat, not snatch the fearful joy of deeming himself admired 'as well as admiring? He has no time to lose ; for see—the younc , author of the "School for S can d a l," parliamentary orator and' gallant duellist, is coming up the walk, with his bride, the beauteous Linley, on his arm; and all hearts will be his, if his little countryman does not strike ,first. A few years later, poor Miss Ray is in danger of being shot, by her lover, the Reverend Mr. Hackman (as she was kfterwards), for coming modestly along, leaning on the arm of , ford Sandwich. General Burgoyne badly represents the Imerican war, but not inelegantly the taste for polite comedy. Otarles Fox astonishes his friends, for a day or so, by appear int with Lords Carlisle and Essex in red-heeled shoes, and feahers in his hat. Burke looks round the place with an eye to 1 - tformation, but a few years later is for keeping it in state quoit any price, as a rebuke to his brother reformers at Paris. Mealtime, George, Prince of Wales, has arrived at "years of indisekttion ;" and the Mary Robinsons, the Crouchs, and the Fitzhe•berls, pass in fascinating succession down the walk. Then ifrs. Siddons, very respectable awl majestic. Then the 1.71,.- , 1 t o ~. Wit, 1 co 1)- t ...__ IVING WIND. Where . 111 % No th ii, b e carp s , e isles of bloom, As d e t r i e i INoil.bfr;acd olive breathe forth perfuMe ; It% e view t o I n& on the leafy pines, . 'ere th e 0. 3 S oft on the clust'rir .; vines , ad the siive'ea are on as a Peri's dream, O'er the silver With lustre gleam. A le bill ow lld al, 3 1 NCI in my stormy pride, The , en to t A 411 thj, 7 uolult the slumbering tide; 'Od th e , " 'leaves o'er the heaving foam, lAhdrhia fst'hearlailer d reanis of his island home, -4 th 1 0 , T " c ot, and the beechen shade, .. 1 1 4, 111 en where I -"el- ''.l his childhood played 1 41 the tr°,,.,,1' the woods with a golden sigh, iNtriths•°"ing lea ves t o my voice reply; A l' ' th e i i r : c. 4 ; l l . the groves where all is mute ;1 1 4 1 'ter, ''''lng tones of the lover's lute , r 411 4 " rilY wings to the maiden s ea i) I T at r • - to hear. awe„ al is which she to es 4'4 " 4 1, It l r e the:el) Past the mouldering wal 3, Ar,ee t : te atli of the sunshine dimly falls; Ctliel;4la once sat at the festive board, . . 1) 4 , 4 the,'4l roirth rang as the wine was poured , . tt4t,irrior-bard with his wild harp told j' erth, . 44 t deeds in the days of old. (f) :,: h eili pt h l it .'ioi I breathe as he kneels once more A th e , Itit sands of his native shore ; A4,lthe b i ch of disease my Pinions wave, 444 I • tir4ng browof the sufferer lave, p o. Nt . ko. 3,111 e lightens his languid eye, ~ b alms as I wander by. 1 ; 4° 14 e r-i X W 'S • ',. i . 44 't k i; 4 l ll g L4 ti T a .6 l -------.. 01' Memorials of Kensiny 'l ;Nin e -1 ' 1 (10n : Rursat'ld Anectotical. By Leigh cAp t ' 5 l a book is an ci Blaekett,-, ,titt4ll2rtion. To oeftsteanbli .ts most suggestive and the truth of this, it I: l° Orkll4 '4l. i ,t° quote e xarn is i ll Oc 4 'i l 't a l ,li.s aved r Pe to show how many ~, to rnzi.NNis ,,, lin 1 from oblivion, and embalmed , d s t , ie r to vilp ttl p easant memory, through the m o th oth, title :as little can it be n&ces l'lbie (I ° p liS and , n ,, Which are familiar as household L, CI th e its ands .." 0 never saw the book,. or heard . 'ken ' eapi i ` °4 tents or knew anything of . it one o l:ess essio ° l lous and . striking . title which A passion, a i t 1 4 „, , (l ow) , ri of their minds. ~,4 11 ,je , - f a q . e li n. , seems to drive the book-making 01- it i` , 1 4 7 of striking titles for everything ; i k ,,(41,N a ric Oost instances, being to cheat con ii:llt,itseli ; (0 allure posterity into a belief that 1 4, 1 ,kti: 14 t1 1 ,,: s Possessed of virtues to which both Lti l Ilg •"` are alike L .N44„ , It i s b . strangers. In making . these 41 11 , ,,, i 'illat e ti ,3 no means any part of our mten kie Ak,ol uTile g s at the interesting and quaintly con -4ti,tl,44,ecke i , Whose titles stand at the head of de of or to chief value or will rest the pro liPl'k4.their titlens enduring popularity to the 11 4 ,N o l,e.sti ve • e. On the contrary, the title, o kt ; Its ehianr: high degree, is not successfully ter nor to almost any- extent 4 1 % 0 4 61 t he kind 'of material with which it .t44 t o ,t4 q . tt0 t : x 3 ,, c , 1 ... in,g the title-page, one is unques to sc an an abundant magazine of quiet 4 ;, I ?alit:tai, sauced with the piquancy pecu ik''S‘iivltkZhiitio°,ll4leos, Of polished life, and not unspiced "11) :e %% t 4 c'°lltribsesme of those more stirring kli , t ßi b eat on ute not unfrequently to render ket 141 4 54 the es a reproach and a scandal." In 4 , e 4, 4 1 4 1 . 44 11 y narerader will not be disappointed. Pk' iti tollow di ra t.ives of events and circum -1):414 • e i . kai n „, st , i nctlY enough that human li,i o . 4 'llat t a ' greatly different in prince 111 1 4 _ te r ~_;''S Mary has her weaknesses, I Iv la '' ll ",.."ts, and Miss Amina her senti `‘er strikingly kindred to those s