The Press.
London, England, 1855-09-08 00:00:00

864

The Martins of Cro' Martin, Lever's clever tale,
progresses swimmingly in the late number. Not
much advance is made, indeed, in the story itself,
but the personages of his plot develop their respec-
tive characters in very lively modes; and two new
figurts are introduced, which promise well for the
future entertainment of his readers. One of these
newcomers is Captain Martin, the heir to the Cro'
Martin estate, who is first seen on his return from
service in India, and in whom the dandyism of a
London Guardsman and the langour of an Oriental
nabob are portrayed in delightful combination. He
bids fair to become one of the most effective cha-
racters which even Lever ever drew.

Handbook for Travellers in Portugal. With a
Travelling-Map. London: Murray.
PoRTUOAL is a country which even in these days
is not often visited by tourists. Travelling through
it is such an absolute labour as to deter most
people front risking their pleasure and convenience
in a country which scarcely boasts of a road, pos-
sesses hovels for inns, with maize-bread, pumpkin
broth, and Sour wine as their good cheer, filthy
boards for beds, and a dirty, lazy, passionate
family for landlord and servants. " Roads " exclaimed
a member in the House of Peers the other day (we
quote on the authority of our guide), " Estradas!
" para que queremos estradas, se nao for para
" facilitar a invazao do amigso vizinho? "—What do
we want roads for, except to facilitate the invasion of
Our good Spanish friends ? But, says our guide, with
good health, good temper, the right time of year, and,
We would add, a love of scenery, the tourist will find
himself repaid by a visit to Portugal. He must
rough it, it is true, but who would not do that to
behold such magnificent scenery as Portugal pos-
sesses in its romantic woodlands, its rich valleys and
orange-groves, its magnificent mountains, its beauti-
ful cascades, its fine rivers? In a word,
the tourist in Portugal will learn what he must be pre-
pared for and what he may expect to find. He must be
prepared for the worst accommodation, the worst food, and
the greatest fatigue, and he must not expect much that can
interest in the way of architecture, ecclesiology. or the fine
arts. But to one who is in pursuit of scenery, more espe•
cially to the artist, no other country in Europe can possess
such attractions and such freshness of unexplored beauty.
We would conclude with the remarks of an earlier labourer
in our own field: " To him who shall them go forth, bent
on enjoying all that is enjoyable, both by day and night,
this book is offered ; and if he take it in his hand, simply
to assist him by the wayside, and not expecting that it
always will be, nor insisting that It always should be, correct
in its estimate of the actual beauty of given places, or in
its admeasurement of distances, but as affording an ap-
proximation to accuracy, he will probably, at the conclusion
of his wanderings, be glad that his steps were by it directed
to the matchless scenery of this physical penalise."
An excellent travelling-map, with the various
routes duly marked, accompanies the volume, which
takes rank among the best of Murray's invaluable
guide-books.

PUBLICATTONS RECEIVED.
BOOKS.

Eight Sermons, preached before the University of Orford in
the Year 1855. John H. Bode, M. A. Longnians.
Handbook for Travellers in Portugal. With a Travelling-
Map. Murray.
Female Life among the Mormons. Routledge.
The Crimean Enterprise. Captain Gleig. Blackwoods.
PAIIIPTILETS.
Anti-Maud. Poet of the People. Churton.
German Voices and English Echoes. Oxford : H. Ladd.
Tnstructions for the Framing of Rules of Friendly Societies.
john Tidd Pratt, Esq. Eyre and Spottiswoode.
Gymnastic Polymachinon. Captain Chiosso. Walton and
Maberly.

Harry Coverdale's Courtship. Virtue and Hall.
The Art• Journal. Do.
The Merchant's Magazine. Richardson.
The Churchman's Magazine. Harrison.
Evangelical Christendom. Partridge and Okey.
Tail's Edinburgh Magazine. Do.
The Signs of the Times. Do.
The Atnateur ; or, Our Magazine. Hope and Co.
The Evangelical litpontory. Ward and Co.
Maophait's Edinburgh Ecclesiastical Journal and Literary
Review. Simpkin and Marshall.

MR. BEATTY has received instructions to form two
hew lines of railway—one from the Col de Balaklava
to Kamiesch to be worked by horse-power, the other
from Kadikoi to the Woronzoff-road, near the Sar-
dinian position over Tchorgoun.
THE RETURN OF MR. AND MRS. BRACEBRIDGE has
been made the occasion of a seaso❑ of rejoicing and
congratulation on the part of the inhabitants of
Atherstone and its vicinity, who were determined not
to allow their arrival to pass without some demon-
stration of unfeigned regard for their general benevo-
lence of character, and for the signal proof of it
which they have given, in leaving Atherstone-hall to
minister to our sick and wounded at Scutari.
Au. the convicts in the gaols of Ireland are ordered
to Spike Island.

TIIE

A mustintuts.

MR. GORDON CUMMING'S EXHIBITION.

EVERY one has heard of Gordon Cumming—the
Nimrod of the age, the lion-slayer of the day—and
many remember his interesting and successful exhi-
bition at Knightsbridge in 1851. With a museum
combining all the attractions of that famous collec-
tion, he has now added to his new exhibition, lately
opened at 232, Piccadilly, Haymarket, an evening
lecture, which he delivers in person, upon his several
exploits, illustrating them by a series of dioramic
views of the most striking incidents in his hunting
career. The lecture in fact is a consomme of his two
volumes, receiving as it were his personal verifica-
tion as to the truth of the details there related. In
the delivery of the lecture Mr. Gordon Cumming on
the whole is very successful ; he relates his deeds in
a straightforward, manly tone, and holds up the tail
of his hundred and fourth elephant, or points out the
skin of his forty-sixth lion, in a manner at once
modest and unassuming, as if lions and elephants
were the every-day game of our turnip-fields and
preserves. But his tone deepens and his whole ex-
pression alters when he relates some desperate deed,
some brilliant chase, or some terrible peril, through
which his own indomitable pluck alone carried him
safely. At such times the nature of the lion-hunter
breaks through the thin crust of the white tie and
tail•coat—he longs for kilt and rifle, an open plain,
good horse and dogs, and the "noble beast" striding
broadside past. Upon listening to his narrative, or
viewing the many proofs of his daring—the skulls,
antlers, tusks, and skins of wild beste, antelope,
giraffe, rhinoceros, elephant, and lion—the mind is
struck with the untiring activity, the wonderful
energy, and the daring courage of the man who could
track, hunt down, and slay so many hundred wild
animals and gigantic beasts of prey. To the modern
man of battues, or at best of deer-stalking, it seems
incredible, but the testimony of living lion-hunters
bears witness to the perfect truth of Gordon Cum-
ming's narrative : they themselves in some degree have
often suffered similar misfortunes, escaped similar
perils, and achieved similar extraordinary successes ;
and any man with a love of daring, provided he is phy-
sically capable of undergoing the hardship and fatigue,
and moreover possessed of coolness and intrepidity,
may seek and find the same in Southern Africa. The
illustrations are painted by Harrison Weir, Haag,
Philipps; and Leitch; and, extremely well done, are
valuable additions in aid of the lecture, which is as
interesting as it is amusing, and in a zoological point
of view more instructive than either. The rooms,
since they have been opened, have been very fully
attended every evening; but we would suggest that,
as at a similar "exposition" in the neighbourhood of
Piccadilly, the regulation of light should be entirely
under the control of the lecturer, who, literally speak-
ing, should not be quite so completely in the dark him-
self. With these slight improvements, we have
little doubt that Mr. Gordon Cumming's entertain.
ment will take rank among the first in London.
LYCEUM.

THE Great Wizard of the North, the magician who
has alike charmed and mystified children and poten-
tates, has once more opened his magic chamber for
the benefit and amusement of the Londoners ; but
what pen can describe his sleight of hand, his deli-
cate skill, or his surprising mechanical tricks ?
Suffice it to say that in shaking sugar plumbs out of
handkerchiefs, charming watches through chairs and
tables, burning bonnets and restoring them whole
neatly packed at the bottom of a nest of boxes, or
in producing wonderful bottles which supply every
man's taste and satisfy every man's thirst, besides an
infinite variety of trick and juggle, he still stands
out unrivalled, unsurpassed. But the most novel
and catching trick of all is in his exposition of spirit-
rapping. To those credulous people who, because they
cannot account for their sensations, assume them
therefore to be supernatural, we cordially recommend
Professor Anderson, with his rapping-tables and
ringing-bells, which answer questions in a straight-
forward way, and will as well tell you whether or not
it is a card you hold in your hand as detail its number
and quality besides. But spirit rapping and every
other trick is surpassed by the last, in which three or
four boys and girls of moderate size disappear
through a small table without a cover, one after the
other, and are seen no more ! The house has been
crowded every night, and on Saturdays an afternoon
performance takes place at two p.m. for the younger
children.

SIR R. GAntrNER, late Governor of Gibraltar, and
family, arrived at Southampton on Thursday by the
Peninsular steamer.