The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1866-10-02 00:00:00

titeratun.

NEW PUBLICATIONS.

uooiillo full of vigour this month that
i needs not a word to he said in its favour. Both
•. ,ir Bos.ke " and " Nina " its leading stories are
eostained. And even the minor articles are
ncy a the toil of jimpi. For ezample, we have
artielo on Salads and French wines commencing
oh, Nlseaulay :—" It was a hot day in July. The
o„.floometer stood at Sr in tho shade. l'arliament
still sitting. It was • far cry to Lochow, or any
otts r place In the Highlands. (rOll.O WY a aacred
and unvueliable bird for a month to come. The
KM at its zenith, /to., kc." " Light and
dok I.luu " is a literary contrast of Ozford and 1
Thu rest of the number is occupied
with a review of the now edition of Alison's history,
1, Auras on the Jewish Church, and Cornelius
I 'Pow&

. - -
1.11111,,T1M So irry, amonthly magazine of yell..
gioue in(oi motion, and biography. =he,
a, appearance as an •CoeOrion to our shilling period.
de IlessrL IlrOOMbridge and Song, and we
LA it very cordially. It promises to be in the
.„.1,1 of religious literature what the
%loch it meeleatly resembles in bulk and external
...pee. is in secular. Many and various have been
Ilw ',vent attempts to fill the great and craving void
ir Perieus reading, which we look upon as one of
Vie test. and touchstones of our social improvement;
Ill'ordA, CamaroQsirer, and last, not least,
Cutbrie's Sunday Moyazonr, have all allayed
the Mak with a superabundance of euccear. None
of them all has however 'ppm-ached our ideal of what
14 really demanded by the great middle oleo. of
England no nearly as Cliri.ttiart Society. We have
wruse.l the first number attentively, and flail it, as
ilwreisnoreason why it should be otherwise, sprightly
and enticing& We would notice particularly the
hiding article. No. 1 of " F.venings with Friends
sod llookr." which for condensation of view in ex-
tracting the purport of the last new religious work.
liexo Homo" included), has. we suspect, seldom
been surpassed. We also like exceedingly the
generous estimate of " the Clapham sect" which
really embrace& however we may differ from them. I
many men of mark and likelihood.

-
Scorr tND DVCRIREI, lie eeriei of topographical
sketches by Mr. Alexander Murray, of Glasgow, who
previously " described " the Upper Ward of
lAnarkshire, written "Outlines of Boottisk History,"
hind Itooks for the Clyde, the I lighlanda, /cc., and
shove all is the editor of those famous bijou Time
Table', without which unman need attempt to trireme I
the land of the North. From the index to places
inciaentally des:nixed we estimate that Mr. Murray
net bare her, touched upon at least twelve hundred
distinct I,.calities within the compass of this little
band volume. Of its great oonvenienoe, therefore,
for immediate reference on a journey there can be no
.I.epute. Oaring formerly cited it. descriptions of
" Abbotsford," and other opening scenes (for amengs
its other dexterities it is alphabetically arranged), our
readers will also be prepared to learn that it is more-
over well and readably penned. There is little romance,
it is true, in Mr. hlurray's narrative, or rather
ileeeriptive writing, for even the most sensational
incidents are related with the collected calmness of
allied fact. Thu., In the heart of the Highland.
Iv waxes a littlelnietical, it Is true, over the funeral
.4 a highland chief, but recites with perfect Nue-
eimity the meet tragic events befalling "lowland"
toil jets :

•• ruder the endow of Coriatban the Ides are many
1,....1 them most poetically named, a. [mesh:ill, the
; !, of lk.uty l—wliere wan • convent of old. the chapel
till 17:G; and to the burying ground there tio
to ha a of the departed were eartlel —few eights being
. i.• grand Or 1110U1.14 ii, impreaaire than the funeral
t 1..• chirf when carried aortas the waters to sleep
I. I. I. f..refathers —the wail of the bagpipe awaking
t • ...hi.. of mountain and shore. The water. of
IKII trle ore deep, suddenly SO, and sad accidents have
nin consiguence. Some years aince, the farmer of
11,0,11. who had been long well-known m an inn.
j„ K lao, liot his life stepping from the green
a. ..t.l Mb. tho deep water.; and a few years ago, •
I lei.lr from the south, a good swimmer, took to
te act., lanaine cramped, and was drowned in sight
of I. r purest sister and friend, who could we their loved
ea in trio decp clear water, but were helpless to aid
u.•til too late. The mune of the catastrophe arose from
0.0,...ie0 coldness of the waters—the spines in
11,cli Agit, numerous."
till the whole it must be admitted, as this random
vvtreo previa, that the little volume before no is
ti ?Mei In ati easy, interesting, familiar, nay, goesip•
etyle, unusual in guide books, and therefore the
more to be cesium:tided. We oommend Mr.
Murray's work accordingly, and trust that not only
Uwe° visiting Scotland in the " Indian Summer"
shads approaches, and promisee, in fact, to afford
our only glimpse of good weather fur the mason of
bat them likewise whohave visited "the Land
o' cake.," will peons themselves of a work in
which is reverved fresh and green, the memories of
many a delightful Ilighlan.l tour.

_
Peesi.i, descriptive end lyrical, by Thomas Cox,
series.) Mr. Thomas Cox, of Poole, has put
rth a sewed series of those pretty poems with
loch he refines his Insure, and we make them
welcome as the flower& in May. Song is one of the
sweet solaces of human life. Birds are the embodi-
ment of seem, but human beings must be poor samples of
imanity if they have it not within the heart. Hence
the warm teepees which every effort to utter natural
melody commode from ell but the sordid and the
hue. Mr. Cox puts forth an irresistible claim on
sympathies of this sort when he reminds us of what
we are well aware, that his poems are the product of
leiviare hours, after the graver duties of business life
have been discharged. "Preferring literary trifling
(as the world generally regards it) to other and more
usual evening recreations, and greatly preferring it
to downright mental inactivity." One hopeful and
significant eign of artistic advancement in poetry
'Amides the present volume. Mr. Cox ma manifestly
not content with acting on his own impulses as a .
lyrist, but has gone to the beet models to qualify, if
;Possible, as a master in his art Mottoes from
C lancer, Marlowe, Schiller (Lord Lytton's English?)
Shakespeare' Shelley, Scott, Lord Vasa, Coleridge,
Wordsworth, Milton, Byron, Thomson, CAM., and
Spencer greet us almost at every stage. Nor is there
the least appearance of borrowing from thew writers,
the author has only given them his studioue worship,
guil this of the notion that it would be permissible to
ttuge his thoughts with their tran.oendazmt imagery,
and in the cue of Marlowe, to whose wild career be
dedicates • note, obviously ignoring the extent to
which Shakespeare himself was indebted to him.
The motto from Scott's "Lay of the last Minstrel,"
which precedes the sea shore scene of Mr. Cox's
" Song of the Pirate," is slightly incongruous not to
say inapplicable. We happen to know the
(Minto Crags) well, " here Barnhill (a rouser)
hewed hirs hesl of flint." It is in the hurt of Roe-
burghshina, and not within sight or mind of the see.
We heartily congratulate Mr. Co. on his almost
fatal facility of verse—for as "practice makers
profit/nem," according to the old school copybook,
in it elli be clear ruin the subjoined little specimen
that in so far as his poetic chiming is concerned, the
merchant poet of Poole is not materially behind sense
of the most melodious of versifiers, not excluding
!Clan Edgar Poe.
" 1104%4 tolls the warning bell—
The mournful bell I
Now in Spring and now In Summer,
Like a sad unwelcome comer,
Sounding as the note of dirges
tier life's rough and troubled surges,
Rings the funeral knell I
Pilgrims waudering to sad fro
lieu the death bell u they go,
Now on hill and now In dale,
Now upon the Autumn gale,
Now serum the Winter snow,
Sounds the sullen bell
Who takes warning from the tell I
That mounful WI
Speaking to each human ear.
Now of hope, and now of fear,
•
Careless youth and thinking age
Ever on their pilgrimage—
War alike the doleful knell
Bidding earthly scents farewell,
Ilark again that mournful bell I"
These are good and wholesome "evening examines."
and we trust that the local and general public will
say ID by handsomely patronising this pleasing
little vellum% It ii produced by Mr. Sydenham, of
P. tile.

orn Owx FliiillDl in always acceptible to us
fur two or more reasons, firstly, because it is pro-
vineial and we aro clannish ; secondly, because it
th5.11n., and clan of literature we most affect
and desire tarneetly to promote. The Christian
Home—Pleasant readings for our Sons and
Daughters—Science, Art, and History—Leaves from
the took of Nature—The Poetry of lime and the
Home Library—we hwigigge, which, when appro-
PriattlY tiled sP, as thoy ere under the direction
of Mr. Bulloek, the rector of St. Nicholas, Wore
miter, and lir writers of such varied pretensions
11111 Mrs. Webb, linsjituin Cough, Rev. Alexander I
Raleigh, Margaret 11,,witt. and the line. J, 0.
Horns, who are amongst the contributors to the
preen, at number cannot but fulfil the mission 41
any periodical that usidurtakos to address the
domestic ay La path ice.