The Press.
London, England, 1855-12-08 00:00:00

GIFT-BOOKS.

1. The Rhine and its Picturesque Scenery. Illus-
trated by Billet Foster. Described by
Henry Mayhew.
2. The Keepsake for 1856. Edited by Miss

Power.
3. The Court Album. A Series of Portraits of
the Female Aristocracy.
London : Bogue.

4. Sabbath Bells. Chimed by the Poets.
Illustrated by Birket Foster. London:

Bell and Dally.
Or these gift books two are established
favorites, and two are quite new, the latter
owing their existence mainly, we presume, to
the charming and fertile pencil of Mr. Birket
Foster. Few artists have ever established
their reputation more quickly, and no illus-
trator in our day, with the single exception of
Turner, has ever shown more grace and fancy
in his designs, or has better succeeded in
blending the imaginative and the real. This,
we are sure, must be the verdict of every one
who glances carefully at the plates in the
" Rhine " and the " Sabbath Bells " It is impos-
sible to look at the many and various designs
in these two volumes alone without the high-
est admiration of the invention and spirit they
display, or without being convinced that Mr.
Foster possesses that fine feeling for pic-
turesque aspects, and that susceptibility to
the subtle influences and magic spells of
Nature's beauty, which give poetic inspira-
tion to the slightest touches of the pencil.
Our readers may rely on it that the slightest
sketches of this artist will well re% and—to
apply to art the language of literature—a
studious perusal ; that he is gifted in a high de-
gree with the genius which can both perceive
and portray; and that in him depth of mind
and power of expression—the curious eye and
the skilful hand—meet together in perfect
harmony. We must come to details.
1. " The Rhine" is illustrated by twenty
plates by this artist, and, often as its beauties
have been delineated, they have never been
represented with more grace and truth. In
nearly all these plates the river itself is promi-
nent, and the designs resemble in clearness of
outline, and in happy blending of land and
water, the finest picturesque effects of Stan-
field. The skill with which the artist has
caught the spirit of each scene is especially
noticeable. For example, the views of Cologne,
of Bonn, and of the Lurlei Rock, are essen-
tially distinct, yet it is evident at a glance that
each view is presented under the aspect and
with the accessories most favorable to its
character—the first with its busy craft and
barges, the second suggesting the peaceful
labours of husbandry, and the third, faintly
illumined by the rising moon, showing the
black rock in all its grandeur, with the long,
spectral-like rafts floating on the stream,
partly silvered by the light from heaven, and
partly shadowed by the mighty cliff. The
transient influences of Nature, and the labours

DECEMBER 8, 1855.

of industry, are in each case selected so as to
harmonise and heighten the effect of the view.
The narrative of Mr. Mayhew must be spoken
of with more reserve. The opening, indeed,
is excellent—the description of Rotterdam
embodying the most striking peculiarities of
the country, and being written with great
point. Some of the descriptions are equal to
any that Mr. Dickens has penned. The exces-
sive cleanliness of the Holland housewives is
pleasantly noted
It was morning when we landed, and the servants were
still busy cleaning the handsome blue " millstone " steps
that stand in front of almost every doorway on the quay.
The tall streetdoors were ajar, so that you could just get a
peep of the exquisitely clean halls within, with their white
marble pavements and richly-corniced ceilings looking so
snowy that they seemed like plaster-of Paris models, rather
than human habitations. You could see, too, the holland-
covered stairs at the end, without a speck upon them, and
with their brass bands of stair rods shining in the sun like
strips of burnished gold. Then the maids themselves
were as clean as the houses they tended ; their close caps
were white as the walls, while the ample apron, which they
wore tied tight around their dress, was as spotless as a
charity-girl's " That girl yonder scouring away at
the brass knocker," said we to out companion, as we
walked along to the hotel, " is a prodigy of cleanliness,
from the close white border of her cap down to her equally
white wooden shoes. Just stop for a minute to look at the
little box by her side in which she keeps her rottenstone!
See the wood of it is scrubbed as clean with sea-sand as
her own sabots, and the little bits of brass at the corners
are as bright as new sovereigns." \'e had scarcely
finished admiring the neatness of this maid before we were
forced by the fountain of water projected against the win
dows of one of the houses in our path to direct our atten-
tion to another girl, who stood out in the road pumping
the jet against the house. " There never were such
people !" we exclaimed ; " why, that maid looks as though
she had just been sent home from the wash ; her hair is as
smooth and glossy as a coach-panel ; her cheeks as red
and shiny as apples; and though her skirt is of black
stuff, you can discover as she stoops that her under linen
is white as driven snow ! Look, too, the long brass
syringe that she is working is polished like a piece of
golden dinner-plate, and even the copper hoops of the pail
in which it stands are rubbed up as bright as if they had
been burnished."
The sketch of the " river roadways," with their
floating houses, is also excellent :
How prettily the white smoke there rises, like a cloud
of snow before the wind, from the narrow funnel of the
little raised green cabin, filming over, as with a bloom, the
objects behind it! Yonder is a woman busy washing at
one of the sterns, while her little plump-limbed girl is
playing, like a kid, along the roof of the only house. that
perhaps she has ever known. " May she never know a
worse !" we inwardly exclaimed ; for the tidy white cur-
tains showing at each cabin window, and the bright red.
leaded flower-pots, with the geraniums blooming in them,
ranged along the cabin-top, tell you that, unpleasant as
such a life may appear to us, still Dutch care and cleanli-
ness can convert even a berth on a canal-boat into a place
of comfort—ay, and doubtless to those who pass all their
days in it, of fond and happy associations.
The subsequent narrative is less descriptive,
and too much occupied with " legends." We
are sure Mr. Mayhew would conceive we had
not read his book if we did not exclaim against
his remarks on nobility in the section en-
titled the " Castellated Rhine Pass." Can it be
that he believes in the surly nonsense he has
written ? Possibly so, as clever men have not
unfrequently some crotchet in their brains
perverting their sense. But it is a pity some
friendly critic in the shape of a bookseller's
reader was not by, while the work went through
the press, to expunge all such silly stuff as
that pride in ancient lineage is to find " glory
" in scoundrelism," and that respect for coro-
nets is to " revere the gilt hats which once
" covered very dirty heads." What have such
reflections to do iu this elegant drawing-room
book ? There is no worse class of canters than
the Tartutles of democracy.
2. The " Keepsake" of this year maintains
its reputotim for fanciful scenic engravings,
pretty po. traits, and varied writing. The
liknesses of the Duchess of Argyll, Viscountess
Sydney, and the beautiful Lady Abercrombie,
dispose us to read with placidity the poem of
" The Ordeal," and the story of " The Go-
verness." One of the best contributions is
that by Albert Smith on " Bedfordia," de-
scribed as " the sick man " of the London
quarters. This descriptive sketch sparkles
with wit. Mr. Smith is not quite so fine as
Mr. Wilson Croker—he does know where
Russell-square is; though not even the late
Secretary of the Admiralty could have a more
thorough contempt for it than the lecturer of
the Egyptian-hall.

3. The " Court Album " contains a collection
of beauties well kiaowu in the social circles of