The Press.
London, England, 1855-08-11 00:00:00

THE PRESS..

This volume is in ever) respect handsomely pro.
duced, and, from its engravings and illustrations,
always beautifully and delicately executed, is likely
to become a text-book for both architects and
tourists. To both classes we can honestly recom.
mend it.

Philip Courtenay ; or, Scenes at Home and Abroad.
By Lord William Lennox. London : Hurst and
Blackett.

" PHILIP COURTENAY" is one of those narratives in
which the author, under the guise of fiction, sets
forth realities of life, and relates particulars of his
own personal experience. Many characters in this
book will at once be recognised as having played a
conspicuous part in London society in their day, and
the scenes and incidents introduced are so clearly
drawn that, without pretending to give them a " local
" habitation and a name," we feel sure that they are
essentially real, and have most likely come under the
author's immediate observation. In the first part
of the narrative Lord W. Lennox seems to have
drawn from the recollection of his own early days.
Courtenay's visit to the theatre and introduction to
George Frederick Cooke, his initiation in military
life, his reminiscences of Canada and the United
States, his transactions with horse-dealers and
money-lenders, his part in private theatricals, with
many other passages, read like transcripts of per
sonal experience. In the portions of the narrative
plainly f►ctitious, the author's pen is still fhcile and
amusing. Courtenay's love and its unfortunate
ending are described with mingled humour and
pathos in chapters which remind one of the novelist-
style of Theodore Hook. It is one merit of the
volumes that they idealise manners and customs now
to be ranked among the past, as Irish hospitality,
electioneering humours, and stage-coach travelling.
The chapter dedicated to the latter subject is a
clever essay. The author, contrasting the coach
with the rail, looks back with fond regret to the
former:—
Who that remembers the box-seat with St. Vin cent Cotton,
Stevenson, Charles Jones, Apperley, the Walkers, Peers,
Snow, Jack Adams, W. Moody, Bramble, Faulkner, cum
multi+ aliis of noble and gentle blood, can forget the jest,
the repartee, the story, the laugh, that went round to be-
guile the laughing hours?
Then as we drove through the towns, villages, and
hamlets, the " shooter's" merry-keyed bugle attracting
hundreds of bright eyes to get a sly peep at the
passengers; then the momentary stop for changing
horses, during which a glass of ale was quaffed and a c►gar
lit ; then the stand up lunch at the bar of some clean rural
wayside house, with a blooming Hebe at the bar, dis
pensing draughts of nectar, in the shape of home-brewed
malt, cold without, hot with, purl, bitters, hollands, or the
more refined beverages of sherry and soda, newts, perry,
or cider.

The narrative has the bustle of adventurous and
high-blooded life throughout, and will be all the
more esteemed by the novel reading public that it
combines the attractions of social romance with tho
actual experience of an English gentleman who has
seen life under widely-varied aspects and in its gayest
colours.

The History of England and Wales—The History of
Ireland—The History of Rome—The History of
Greece—Scriptural History Simplified. By Miss
Corner. London : Dean and Son.

A NEW edition of these little elementary works speaks
well for their usefulness, and for the estimation in
which they are held by teachers generally. Miss
Corner's school books and histories bid fair to super-
sede all others of the kind in use, and with reason,
as the authoress has not only consulted the highest
authorities for her subjects, and taken her historical
facts from Neibuhr, Grote, Arnold, Thirlwall, and
Smith, but relates what is most authentic in
history in a style at once agreeable and concise. If
ever the "dry bones" of history were made enter-
taining to children, they are so in these little
nooks, as the narration is pleasantly, diversified with
descriptions of the domestic manners and habits of
the people at certain periods, how they lived, dressed,
and died. In the histories of England and Ireland
the narration is brought down to 1851 ; and in
the present edition, published at an extremely mode-
rate cost, a concise chronological table, with a
copious list of historical questions, are added. All
the books are illustrated with maps and engravings,
and are well printed and bound.

767

sure an abstract from the Oxford chronologica
tables, and we presume that in mere matters of fact
it is tolerably accurate, though, by the by, we see it
stated in one place that Cardinal Fleury was the
Minister of Louis XIV. A good index greatly
facilitates reference, and synchronical tables show
at a glance the contemporary sovereigns in Europe at
any given period.

Practical Illustrations of the Principles of School
Architecture. By Henry Barnard. London :
Trtibner and Co.

AN elaborate pamphlet upon a very important sub-
ject—the art of building a school-house, which
should be properly ventilated, and upon such a plan u
should tend to perfect the system of education, both
mental and physical. The author is the superin-
tendent of common schools in Connecticut, and may
hence be supposed fully capable of exposing the
deficiencies of national school-rooms generally. He
treats the subject in a thoroughly practical manner,
and illustrates his plans by numerous diagrams
of everything required in a school, from the ink-
well to ground plans and transverse -sectional
elevations of the building. On the whole, the pam-
phlet is so practical in all its details, and appears to
be written with so thorough a knowledge of the sub-
ject, that we strongly recommend it to the notice of
all school officers and educational societies.

The Fairy Tales of the Countess D'Aulnoy. Trans-
lated by J. R. Planebk. With illustrations by J.
Gilbert. London : Routledge.

A WORK that should be welcome to all play-goers, as
containing the originals of those delightful extrava-
ganzas with which Mr. Planche's name has been so
long connected. The stories themselves contain a
fund of innocent humour, and sly satire upon the
ceremonial of the French Court, and present almost
as much food for laughter to the old as to the young :
for the latter it is, indeed, the most complete guide
to fairyland which has yet been invented, and th•
peculiar humour of the original has not, we think, lost
anything in Mr. Planche's hands. It is in some
respects, of course, better brought out in a prose
translation than in those metrical versions for which
the Lyceum was so famous. In three words, it is a
" very pretty book ;" and as we are not likely for some
time to see a renewal of those beautiful representa-
tions, it is something at least to have the elements of
their fascination so faithfully presented to us.

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.
BOOKS.

Outlines of Moral Philosophy.

Dugald Stewart.
Dublin : Hodges and Smith.
Pignadar ; or, Three Days Wandering in the Lonills.
Alethea E. Longman'
•

The Poetical Works of Monk, Akenaide, and John Dyer.
Edited by the Rev. Robert Aris Nellinott. Routledgs.
Woman's Devotion. A Novel. Hurst and Blackett.
Married Life of Rachel, Lady Russell. M. Uuizot.

_
Bosworth.
The Benefit of Christ's Death. Churchill Babington, H.D.,
)•'.L.3. Bell and Daldy.

The Isthmus qf Suer Question. M. Ferdinand De Leseepe.
Longmana.
Stanford's New Guide to Paris and the Paris Exhibition.
Stanford.
The Lives of our Heroes of the Crimea. George Ryan.
J. Field and Co.

Nodes Atnbrosiane. Professor Wilson. Vol I. Blackwood,.
Poetical Works of Samuel Butler. Edited by It. Bell. Vol. I.
J. W. Parker and Son.

Law Maga...Re.
Martins q/Cro' Martin.
West of Scotland Magazine. No. IT. Glasgow : Murray

The Petition of Dr. Peithman, LLD. Perceval.
the Battles of the Crimea, with Other Poems. Mrs. Alfred
Hayward. Port Hope, Canada West : J C. Ansley.
Bank qf England Charter Act, 1844, and the Manchester
Commercial Association. Seeley.
Gilbert's Official Guide to the New Newspaper and Book Acts,
and Warrants. Gilbert.

Mormonism : its Blessings and Advantages.
Address at the Anniversary Meeting of the Royal Geographical
Society. Earl of Ellesmere, K.G., D.C.L.
Clowes end Son.
Finances and Trade of Canada,lB:ss. W. Cayley, Esq.
Ridgway.
Our Village; or, a History of Erith and ifs Neighbourhood.
Hope and Co.
A Day on the Downs, Berks. Ditto.
Peace Popery, Puseyism, and Church of Eng-
Ditto.

WIITIIUer WIICLIMI uy 61/111C cut/alum, au au...a a cora-a... ..a., - -
may not save enough to allow of the use of the best kind of the books are illustrated with maps and engravings,
Our Village ; or, a History of Erith and its Neighbourhood.
red brick for the general face of our walls. and are well printed and bound. Hope and Co.
At the present day there is, I think, absolutely no one - A Day on the Downs, Berks. Ditto.
point in which we fail so much, and about which the Compendium of Chronology. By. J. H. Jaquener War in Peace ; Popery, Puseyism, and Church of Eng-
world in general has so little feeling, as that of colour. landism. Ditto.
Edited by the Rev. John Alcorn. London : Long- Ditto.
Our buildings are in nine cases out of ten cold, colourless, The Amateur; or, Our Magazine.
insipid academical studies, and our people have no con- mans. Our West Indian Colonies, "Jamaica." H. B. Evans, M.A.,
ception of the necessity of obtaining rich colour and no A FRESH addition to a class of school-books the name CS. Effingham Wilson.
sufficient love for it when successfully obtained. The of which is legion. The peculiarity of this " Corn. Condition and Prospects of Canada in
pendium " is that it is thrown into the form of a dic-
-1854.. .
task, therefore, and the duty of architects of the present The Palace al Westminster and other Historical Sketches.
day is mainly that of awakening and satisfying this feel. . , W. D. Arnold. J. W. Parker and Son.
ing; and one of the best and most ready vehicles for doing
tio nary, instead of being cast in a tabular shape,
House of Lords, July 27, 1855. Ridgway.
the year standing first, and the events by which it Religious Liberty Bill. Lord Brougham's Speech in the
this exists, no doubt, in the rich coloured brick so easily
manufactured in this country, which, if properly used, may was distinguished following immediately after. The Confirmation of Admiralty Mismanagement. W. S. Lind-
become so effective and admirable a material. information contained in it appears in great mea- say, Esq. M.P. Effingham Wilson.