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

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 mother of the
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 Scandal,"
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

lovely Duchess of Devonshire, poetess, queen of hearts, and
carrier of Westniinster elections—the sweetest of stars in the
„-Tacefullest of aristocratic houses. Then the Duchess of Gor-
don, as fond of power for power's sake, as the other is for per-
suasion's. Then Warren Hastings and his " elegant Marian,"
sole eonqueress ( except her sister in jewelry, the Kingston
duchess) of the reputation-loving court samples of Queen
Charlotte. Then Miss Farren, an actress, setting a real ex-
ample of manners to the polite world, and escaping from notice
into a coronet. And now the French revolution brings an
inundation of emigrants, male and female, preceded by Egalite,
Duke of Orleans, who is come to add orgies to orgies at Carl-
ton-house ; and none of them know what to make of ex-bishop
Talleyrand, who represents all parties by turns, and abides for
a while in Kensington, as we have seen, confounding all no-
tions of old French propriety, by abandoning his cloth and his
gallantries, and paying his debts. At this strangest of all
epochs in the history of the world, there might probably have
been seen in these gardens, on one and the same day, in the
portentous year 1791, Wilkes and Wilberforce ; George Rose
and Mr. Holcroft ; Mr. Reeve and Mr. Godwin; Burke, War-
ren Hastings, and Thomas Paine ; Horace Walpole and
Hannah More (whom he introduces to the Duke of Queens-
berry) ; Mary Wolstonecroft and Miss Burney ( Madame d'Ar-
blay), the latter avoiding the former with all her might; and
the Countess of Albany ( the widow of the pretender); the
Margravine of Anspach ; Mrs. Montagu ; Mrs. Barbauld ;
Mrs. Trimmer; Emma Harte ( Lady Hamilton), accompanied
by her adoring portrait-painter, Romney ; and poor Madame
du Barry, mistress of the late Louis XV., come to look after
some jewels of which she has been robbed, and little suspecting
she would return to be guillotined.
Of a book which affords, and indeed abounds in such
passages as those which we have extracted, it cannot
be necessary to say much in commendation. The ex-
tracts speak more eloquently in its favour than any
eulogium we could offer ; to speak of it in terms of
condemnation would be ungenerous and ungrateful.
It has conferred on us much gratification in perusal ;
and although it contains many sentiments in which
we do not agree, and is redolent of opinions which we
repudiate, it nevertheless supplies material for `rave
thought, and is full to overflowing with amusing
matter. Its effect on the mind is, in a great degree,
like sunshine to the material world. it lightens and
brightens all around it.

Aspen Court ; a Story of Our Own Times. By
Shirley Brooks. London : Bentley.
This three-volume novel, which does not aspire in
any.degree to rank as a work of literary art, is a story
full of life and spirit. It appeared originally as a
serial tale in Bentley's Miscellany, and during the
periodical appearance of its progress in that magazine
it sustained the character of its author as a shrewd
observer of men and manners, who was also able " at
sweet will" to invent tellinc, episodes and draw
cleverly effective scenes. In "Aspen Court" we have
a very favourable sample of Mr. Shirley Brooks' capa-
bilities as a tale weaver. The incidents are numerous,
and rarely exceed those of easy credibility. His
characters are generally well and even powerfully
drawn, and the situations in which he places them are
admirably selected for showing his skill as a romancist.
His hero, Bernard Carlyon, is a young man who
makes his way in the world through the agency and
exercise of tact and right feeling. While depicting
the•darker shades of human character, which he does
with success and in good taste, setting aside grossness
of every kind, doing little more than glance at abso-
lute wickedness, and always to reprove it, and strongly
exhibiting foibles with a view to their correction. His
heroine is a gentle, loving, and ill-mated lady, whose
husband is as repulsive as she is the opposite ; but
the-heroine and the author will both receive the best
meed of justice and of commendation by giving his
own account of her, in contrast with the portrait of
her reprobate husband. The picture is a well de-
lineated family group, in which the dark shadows,
although powerful, do not entirely obscure the brighter
lights of grace and loveliness :
HENRY WILMSLOW AND HIS FATED WIFE.
She married Wilmslow, and soon found out what was meant
by a man's having been toogay. Poor dear, good Jane She
struggled with all a woman's noble obstinacy against her con-
viction that her husband was a good-for-nothing fellow, but
the conviction was too strong for her. I shall not annoy you
by describing the series of levities, wickednesses, and insults
by which Wilmslow forced that conviction upon her. I have
shorn what he was in his bachelor days, and I would not
have dwelt upon that part of the picture as I did, but that it
was to understand the man, and but that by explain
lug, his nature while its developments had somewhat mon
extenuation, and somewhat less offensiveness, we might escwe
from delineating vice and folly when they bad darkened itto
crime and cruelty. Her fifteen hundred a year was speedy'
wratkdei•ed, with the exception of two hundred. which Wes-

worth had thought proper. to secure. and to secure in a way
which enabled,him to defy all Henry's attempts to get at the
principal, and even to resist poor Jane's entreaties, when her
husband had compelled the poor g;.rl to ask that this little
fund might be given up to him. The rest went as Mint
Albreda's allowance first, and then her legacy had gone; and
every other sum that Wilmslow could lay hands on had gone.
The hardships, privations, and humiliations to which a vicious
spendthrift's wife is exposed, came heavily on poor Jane
Wilmslow. Sometimes more heavily titan she could well bear ;
for she never had the consolation of beng loved, to arm her
against all this world's storms, and to be her assurance of another
world's peace. And at last, though ntt without a desperate
resistance on the poor woman's part, her husband took from
her the power of loving him. All was at length over between
them, except the marriage link, and Jai.e's never-weakened
sense of duty. But there was another lore, which the vain,
and vicious, and hardening man could not 'disturb or destroy.
They had three children, girls, born in the earliest years of.
their marriage. Jane never had any more. To these children
she becaine the angel which she would hive been to their
father, had his nature permitted it. To tlese children she
devoted herself with an unvarying and seiulous affection,
which neither his ridicule nor his threats evlr turned aside
from its holy course. She could tremble away from his taunt-
ing presence, and cry her very heart out besidt her bed, bat
when she rose from her knees it was to go to tin cottor assist
in the lesson, or arrange the walk, or to work at the little
dress, or to do some other kindness at which he had been
scoffing. Not that he did not rather like his littlt girls, after
his manner. Indeed they were so beautiful, aid of such
various beauty, that his vanity and his caprice 6uld hardly
but be flattered when he vouchsafed a glance at the group.
Nay, he took the trouble to do his utmost to coniteract his
wife's teaching, and stooped to occasional fits of aucation in
his own school, seasons at which poor Jane's heart was well
nigh bursting. It needed not, however, for the visdom of
childhood served each child, in turn, better than its loving
mother's wisdom had served her. They found their father out,
and three more hearts, little, but warm ones, dromed away
from Henry Wilmslow. Who could love that vain, noisy,
passionate sensualist ?

The preceding specimen will serve to show tN style
of writing and the powers of dramatic limning pos-
sessed by Mr. Brooks. Those who wish to become
better acquainted with both will find Aspen Count an
easy and a pleasant mode of becoming so. His )lots
and under-plots are ingenious, and sufficiently hitri-
cate to sustain the interest of the scenes and the story
throughout its whole length, and most of the cha-
racters are sketched out with vigour and success. -

The Life of William Coleper. London : Seeley.

The first of a series of small volumes, published each
alternate- month, and entitled. " The Library of Chris-
tian Biography," superintended by the Rev. Robert
Bickersteth. There is, perhaps, no class of literature
more truly valuable for entertainment and information
than biography ; and when this is of a Christian cha-
racter, its importance is greatly enhanced. As the
proper study of mankind is man, it is best obtained by
the lives of good men ; and of the benefit of such
teaching we find abundant proofs in the Holy Scrip-
tures, which contain a series of biographies, and always
the most attractive portion to the youthful reader.
In reading the lives of others we gain much in exam-
ples for imitation, as well as for warning. The lessons
so taught are tar more impressive than bare precept,
and the delight experienced in this kind of study has
been evident in all ages. As a solace in trouble, what
more efficacbus than a comparison of our own condition
with that d those who have endured far more with
patience ? And in all we receive the comfort of
knowing tie glorious reward which finally results from
confiding' faith and duteous submission to the benefi-
cent lass of our great Creator. The life of William
Cowper has been attempted by several writers ; but to
do jusice to such a theme the biographer must be
able ,o sympathise with the peculiar feelings and
appreciate the motives of the subject of his theme—a
taskby no means easy, when dealing with so singular
a character as William Cowper, who, though the most
poiular poet of his generation, according to Southey,
ad the best of English letter-writers, possessed extra-
odinary feelings and opinions onthe subject of religion,
vith which his works are mostly identified. To say
hat the author of the work before us has been emi-
nently successful, might be, perhaps, too high a eulogy;
but he has certainly surpassed his predecessors in his
appreciation of the character of Cowper, and in his
delineation of those peculiar phases of thought which
lend such a strange interest to the narrative. Cowper
was himself his best biographer, and the writer of this
work has wisely made use of the materials at his dis-
posal to furnish a narrative which will be read not
only with interest, but. with considerable advantage.

He has drawn largely on the copious cor,V
by which Cowper best illustrated his own
an example of the wonder-working hand
While his poetry displays his constant I)„,.el'osi,
wisdom and goodness of an over-ruling
his. correspondence shows that he almost sissetlro
tamed a dread of his own exclusion-
salvation which he believed to be op ,
others. He laboured for many years
most extraordinary delusion, so: tlia! of
of his conversion is doubted: by 10.5,eiej
biographers. In the present work;-
point is ably combated, and particular atten4(
to that conversion, at thirty years of age, scblp,
has himself narrated with such minute detail:
the whole, we can cordially commend tl'(-0
careful perusal as a valuable addition t°,
literature, although there are some who
take exception to particular views- enulle!V
writer in accounting for feelings and' OP
in their very nature, were unaccountale-

The New. Quarterly Review, awl
Literature. No. XV. Loradon::T.
The July number of this periodical c,°,..11ti
support the high character it originally
sea t
Its articles are trenchant and skilfullY Do?
while a tone of vigour and manly firm the
most of them, without diverging into t r
or verging towards the hypercritical. ,fe"
feature of this publication, and it is one 0
and advantage, is. the fact that it keep'
literature of the day. The reader of the
terly is kept au courant with tho pt
labour. In it books are reviewed an,
in a style of vigour and, general fair- :)59,
bloom of novelty is still fresh upontheo 4'
of literary and critical intelligence, it vi
encouragement.
Cho
The Martins of Ciro! Martin. By
London Chapman and IP
The progress of this cleverly-narrr
lively and dashing, brisk, and full of
dents flow on in a gushing stream
and the dialogue sweeps graceft;r;
through the maze of' adventure oi
tive is at once beset and ornaul!''
continues to rise as the story fici"
is still kept in the liveliest suspend
Inelif of some of the under-plots, a-
story,

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