The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1865-05-23 00:00:00

BITTER SWEETS: A LOVE STORY.*

MNIMII.••=b

HORACE advises all authors to write a modest oom-
mencement to their works, and "so husband their fire."
He is right. A simple, easily-written opening is far
more interesting and likely to further the success of s
work thrin a &epee of bold, harsh imagery, startling the
reader before he den gtdas the aim of the work, or
knaw what all the display of thotight is shoat. It is
well to have a good beginning, but if it be simple it
speaks well for the rest of the subject in hand.
In bringing before the notice of our readers the new
novel of " Bitter Sweeta," coming from the of
_ . .

W-:Jusepl4;44:_zicaiiire.ilizioinz !Amapa, aur!nr'y

circles a; a first-class journalist, and also se-the authOr
of "Provincial Papers," "My Summer Holiday,"
" Jacob Morriaton," sc., we feel great pleasure in 'eying
It is the beet and most interesting of his works. It is
very eloquent in Pliny inetances •' really and truly
eloquent, because it touches the finest chords and
feelings in our nature. Not a subject is taken in hand
but it is finished with the oonsemmete ekill f
practised artist. Each event is well and closely con-
nected with the principal plot. Each scene is a link in
the chain work which runs through the story. Varying
as the characters introduced do, there is a unity amongst
them whieh is wonderfully preserved. The aim of the
story is ntfer ones lost sight of. Yet there is no ,
apparent effort iii all thip • it is so naturally, so easily
depicted; and it shows tha Mr. Mattton has reached a
high standard in his profession. So perfeat,is he in his
art that he hides his art. In placing his objects vividly
before his reader, he attains an end which many a more,
practised novelist has failed to gain; viz., he impresses
the scene he is describing so strongly on the thoughts,,,
that they seem as if passing before the eyes, trans-
lating the reader as if by magic to the very spot of
action, with a perfectly irresistible charm and freshness.
His deaoriptivii pasegies are like good photographs—
clear, distinct, and lifelike. We will now give our
readers a sketch under th° pretty title of
“cut VIII TRACI( or eons firtves Course."—ft Orsettimee silver I
bells which began, their peaceful beensoniso on this ntishis,
morning of our story, and, which, to Harry Thornhill, Dawned
to whisper sweet words of hope find happiness The efilmes
bad not to grave/ so far, to reach Denloy Rile, as they had to
journey when they gladdened the cars of the good old Church-
men 07 feel years ago. Making their way to Denby,
they began thioni journey at a bend of the mast,
travelling over a shining • in company with the gentle
murmuring helm of the tie Vecislopally. the mourn.
Sul cry of the seo.pill went with Mudd. end NW/fling Oiplete
WI from the lart'S loud song, piped high above Awns Admit
.spoprliws; then the chimes mounted the on the two-
* eof the little boy, ,Seeltrow their war about many rocky
amine , and whispering to the birds as they sat oo the stony
ledges told finally, creeping slowly through some eChol
elitism, and travelling onwards, over meadows and Oren
gernefields, Min:ll7 with the meet of the landrill, and tZt
lowing dl IsiCdo, an the mockhurtlaki• of sheep-bells; and
finally, flowing ty into the opm windows of Denby Rise,
with the hum d bed, and the scent of Sowers, and the
solemn music of the ocean.
There is a ma.low silvery made in every tone of 'This
asege. The words are an imitation of the armada.'
They are aS magmata thp sweet bells them*vest. Theee
can Ile nothing more beautiful than this little Sketch of
a Lord's day morning in the quiet country. There is a
rest deal of 'art in these fa* lines flimple as they look.
A great deal of thought and keen obAervation. Not
one small detail is left out or forgaten that would add
lo the beauty or heighten the reality of the picture.
Yet it is not over-crowie I, and is a just sample of good'
and delicate penciling. It is a study for the poet, the
'artist send the musician. Here is a very pleasing May-
day incident. There is something very fresh and teed'
shout it
H Ma Moonrise owe Iris MAY Qussar.—M roe *in*
; but tier iog would Wive nothing to do with at
Dunkem's drk cavern. She opened her 'olden rates, sari
goods tip toe on Is WO his. She touch. the 81K,..wit1,
her orient fined, nd bright stork+ sh in •
set tople4 and sp ri sway wit', to the she
upon the'primr see sod t ey 0 e ed IA le
closet aim/ Lb. 4 as whlit the iodate hod 4
-arid the. Igoe bells nodded th le heads to
leaves to tha treat end 'old bees the/ be
sport whiltdi eq.. bind leaves sh edited'
beams, es Vey had is t t• en in their
wind. the' in it dynes the Morning b
and behold. g eta knees end prisms*.
tne brown le vs had la, mooing
hills, and touched the beds with her c
shook their bead., stupidly at first. aric
told each other it into d •y-break. She
meseengere,fieet rosy mown rare, to peep
and waken pretty maidens; and then bunt
said : It's May-day, its Moy-day." It in,
delitt.fuldoriLerick
°C.:IZ !:ltairo'ngt in
Denthe istvieeof themono ry Mao. an I Bk
mother to will bar ea+ ; bat the sodders
d d not forget her. Right osier the hii ml
bill terrain whea the vi•itote loci.oldr •
'ls_.
Marti

opo it wh'cli
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B filet Oyes ;
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and f.r,way inti
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Well haa our friend portrayed the May morning, and
it, happy little Queen, happier far that day than many a
crowned head, rising from her peaceful pillow with her
warm, loving, child heart, joyful and ready to join in all the innooent mirthful games of the day. If he hail
drawn the May morning well, snore beautifully and
touchingly has he pieced before us some Christnial
thoughts which bring back scenes of childhood, end
days gone by;— the absent or lost ones who have left
us far behind on the road of life. forgotten us amid the
din and busy hum of their city life, with its million gay
attractions. It brings the youthful memories so dear
to every heart those gleams of sunshine from those once
our friends—how far and yet how near to us—with all
their vi rtues ! and pity thaws the icicles with which a cold
hard world has enoircled on our hearts, and the sunbeams
of love cast a halo round them, and their failings are for.
gotten as we think of the day and its blessings:—
. Tugs Till PRIACHta came hack again to the more v.lialou
phase of his sermon, and dwelt upon the Saviour's merciful
consid ration for women, showing how he had forgiven her
V/i3O ha I siiied the sin so *Thiele formiven in this word; and
he prayed his congregation to he kind to one another, and
not to let the softening influences of this holy day paw away
with it; it IVSA only a short time that They w re sowed to
each other, a d there was never a death without • living one
left behind to regret some unkind or has‘y word. Get tbs.,
continual y have in mind the suffering and forbearance the
love, the meeknase of the Saviour . and strive to be worthQf
the grace which the heavenly martyr hal won for all, o
cm so seldom foreiven in this world!" Had she. the May
Queen of years and years ago, heard the Christmas bells?
What memoriee had they brought to her mind? Had she
ventured to pray on this holy morning? fled the bets
brought back to her the memory of Helswick rectory, and tie
1 Christmas parties at which ale lied beeo present—one of thoi•
, pure Innocent beings of which the weather had preached?
, Wan she listening to the merry laugh of children, in their
ho hlay clothes passing beneath her windmv In some London
, street or alley? lied any good angel topped • tow of pity
over her sad hut? Did she languish in Rinses, cm this holy
morning ; languish with the bell-music In her ear, and eta
thorn In her heart? Or had she ended her unhappy life in the
great bcmdon river? Had an unknown body teen picked on
at ebb-tide, and laid in a pauper grave, without a name ? and
wee the forlorn 'me Beane Martin? Was that story of a
woman leaping from Waterloo Bridge, when the stare were
shining on the sullen tide, the story of Bessie Marlin? The
nee-graspers record many Incidents of this kind. Borne wood
angel had surely kept Bc,sie from etfen eft end as this t me
woman in Flood's heartidercinr belled hicibeen *child °nee.
happy and innocent. They have all hot, Tidied on potent'',
knee.. those poor f lien creature. whom yell see in Oliva,
light; some of them perhaps have hew May ljneern ;Ind
they died in infancy they would have beea angels how joining
in heavenly chants, on this holy day. in the mill*/ Thin trf
above. Frank thought in this wise as he knelt, aiter thei
sermon; and on prayer, at least, went up to heaven, off tbrM
Chrietenae morning, for Bessie Martin.
Can anything be more poetir than this passage, any,
thing more purely, grandly heartfelt 'The bell.
music in her ear and the thorn in her heart." Those
few little words, what volume* they speak, what •
picture they present Sorrow, dimes, grief. A woman
forsaken, uflieted, alone, without one word of bonnie
sympathy—that One thing that Man lopes abcrve all
others—rrhiM the outer moad is gay and rejoicingi
Mr. Hatton is eery fond Of belt Music: In Ms "Provincial
Papers," he gives a beautiful description qf sdrne evenieg
chimes playing s-ftly and eireemili, and with them lie
links a thousand home memorice. The character of
Frank Grey is ably drawn—open, manly, juet • not onei
that would cast off • friend and spurn him ift Ike of
adversity, or to please his changing unstable m It
ottity
true sterling gem, the more precious because it rare:
We pronounce Frank Grey a master-pieoe. One More
entrant and we must draw our notice to • claret,
" Keem's Harmonic Bowers," and the "Simple Country-
man," are excellent passages, and we regret want of
space in order to place them before our readers.
Sullearteett was a fair inland 11 'age a hundred miles Into-
the sea, It was a Moss-royal, Thar/boring, picturesque p sow,
which had stood aside eind 'el the greet gravid pass by h. Enna
the mallows which came there every year had partaken sowie-
what of the local indo once, and did not trouble to rebid il The
nests which they occupied (Amite after Wary
Paul Names, had found out this place through the works of
an artist, who had wandered thither, and made Thetehes to
the infinite wonder of the vi lagers. The limner had pointed
the river with the church-shadow in it, and The water 'ldes;
he had drawn the twin ema with the worm-eatim stocks be-
uesth them, and a group such as Go demlth hoe described in
"lovely auburn," danchig on the green ; he had Indicated the
church porch, and the parsonage in the Thom with the sun
netting upon than ; he had done a vignette in the churchyard
with some line. from Grey's It egy written beneath, to add
greater force of beautiful sadness to the picture; he had
painted • peaceful moonlight scene at the outekirts of the
vi 'age. showing the quiet o'd houses nestling together; and
he had done another view on a calm summer night wins
the blue smoke aseending from the old stunted chimneys.
, Those who have followed us thus far through "Bitter
' Sweets" will see that it is not one of those pernicious,
contaminating, demoralizing works with which our
Fiction Markets are overstocked, and which are thrust
upon an eager public under the name of sensation
novels 11. Sensation novels are a blot on our English
literature, • shame and a diem-ace to English author...
Talk of French novels, our English works of that class
are nearly if not quite as bed. Drawn from the word of
police eases, from the very scum of our city mobs.
Thieves, murderers, women who commit sins and out-
rage. against their God and society. These are the
characters a sensation novelist delights in holding up to
our young folk as example,; dressing guilt in the robes
of virtue and modeety. And are thew the subjects that
are to amuse the leiaore hours of our young men and
women? No; we denounce them, and every right-
thinking reader much denounce them; and it is with
pleasure we turn to "Bitter Sweets," and tun our
readers that Mr. Hatton has, without descending to
cater for the existing morbid taste for sensation novel..
reading, produced a popular readable novel. We hope
our numerous friends will order the work either through
the library. or from their bookseller, assuring them that
they will enjoy it. It is calculated to cultivate those
fait, honest, and, above all, religious feelings which are
the stay of our homes and people. In conclusion, we
wish Mr. Joseph Hatton, our good friend, every /400 M
trusting to see him soon in print again in another of
his well-written works. L W.

WITHIN the last few weelm hundreds of colliers and
other workmen have left Aberdare for America.
Moms that 200 esumengers from America, came by the
Persia to see the Irish International Exhibition.
MR. BROUGHTON, a brewer, of liancheater, ties been
fined ciao for not filling up his brewing paper correctly.
IT is said that not less than 5,000 photographs of
Booth, the assassin, have been sold by one metropolitan
firm. . .

ALTOGITHES about •ifty blockade-runners are lying
in the ports of Liverpool and Glasgow, their occupation
being gone.
THE Directors of the Crystal Palace bare engaged
Mdlle. Adelina Patti for the whole of the looming
Handel Festival.

le is teetered that Mr. Home, the spiritualist, pre-
dicted eighteen months ago the assassination of Presi-
dent Lincoln within two years.
Sill TWOMA.II STAPLES, Who is described as the last
surviving member of the Irish Hostas of Commons, died
at Dublin on Sunday. He was in his 90th year.
OVZR the tomb of Francis Saville Kent the father
caused to be erected • head-stone, on which wee
inscribed the remarkable Scripture text, "Be sure your
sins will find you out."
ikitattrif 51'13E1'3[0Yr.— This girl, whose case wiz
so prominently before the public some time ago in
connection with the Brompton Orstorians, was on
Thneeday restored to her mother.
A mouse decree has ordered the construction of light-
houses on various dangerous pointe of the French coast.
These lighthouses are to contain light of great power,
produced by electricity, and will cost 1,600,000 francs.
At Marseilles the number of rats is at present no
west, that the manicipal -council has voted a credit of
£5OOO francs to be expended in attempts to exterminate
the myriads of those destructive animals.
Ire the funeral procession of the late President Lincoln
in New York, there was • body of Jews to the number
of five or six hundred. They carried a banner, with
the inscription, "L 0. Free eons of Israel."
THADISKIN should know that they are liable to
make good any injary they may do to coin on testing its
goodness. Alcadoner, who broke scuspected sovereiga
on trying at, has had to make it good to the owner.
Exasou is now exhibiting, at his Museum, three fat
girls, who are raid to weigh a too. The trio, a short
time ago, threatened Barnum that, if be did not raise
their lenge'. they would pat themselves under the
Banting system.
Jr is said that among Mr. Lincoln's papers Ins been
found a package of letters marked. in his own hand-
writing, "Assassination Letters," While many of them
threatened his life, others warned him of plots to take
it.
Semis, it seems, have • society to protest them, and,
what is more, they want one, for recently Messrs.
Hadley, • firm of London millers in a very large way of
business, were found in possession of 2,500 sacks that
did not belong to them.
Now that the alarm has subsided relative to the
Russian epidemic, and it has been proved to be very like
myth, it may not be quite an terrific a shock to the
serves of the superstitious to remind them that this
is the 200th anniversary of the Plague of London.
Tut amount voted for the manufacture of postage
stamps and envelopes-toe 186445 was £27,860; for 1865-6
the amount required Is £28,730; the summit required
for paper for labels and envelopes, printing and gmening
labels, and folding and gumming envelopes was £18,500
in 18645; for 1865.6 it will be L'19,500.
A tWeiese soldier, recently, boasted that be could
put • ballet through a man's hat at a hundred those
without touching his head. A peasant accepted the
wager, but, in order to foil the marksman, inneesed his
hat so low down over his eyes that the ball went through
both hat and head, sad left him • *wpm an the ground.
Ws read in the Churchman :—" We believe we are
right in stating that Lord Palmerston's complaint is not
gout, as has been said everywhere, latit one of • much
more serious nature, especially in the am of • man of
his advanced age. This, we fear, will hasten the politi-
es,' eomplicatioas which are expected."
THZ Belvidere Hospital is one of the new philan-
thropic institutions of the day. The idea is to establish
an hospital similar to Greenwich for worn-out and
disabled seamen of the United Kingdom, and also a
benevolent fund to which they or their widows may
entitle themselves to • pension.
Ir a "lone young wan" presses hie attentions upon
your sister against her wishes, the family must not
entrap him with • visit, and then duck him. The law
will not elltele it, as was shown at Decibury last week.
by three -*metiers being cast in 00 damages for jest
seek as ass!
Tem young girls of the establishment for the blind, at
Mika, guided only by their touch, have oompletel •
tutfOlsent piece of tapestry, on which a splendid
I. embroidered in golden leaves, surrounded( by a
Terse from the "Divine Comedia" of Dante, paying a
jest homers to the memory of the great poet.
THE first portion of Hr. Gisditoae's budget speech,
which was begun in London at • quarter-past five, yes
received in Dublin at five—a quarter of an hour before
nas d 1 ho Intlend,
which attention in the

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immediate
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