The Press.
London, England, 1856-04-26 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

are also demanded, before an eager public
can be rivetted. Mrs. Hubback, we think,
does herself injustice by narrowing her sub-
jects to genteel sorrows and to girlish pathos.
Her sentimental young ladies and her nice
young men want life and individuality; and
she only manoeuvres her puppet-show through
the trials of life as familiar to all frequenters
of circulating-libraries. She writes prettily ;
her taste appears to be superior tr. her talent,
but she produces her tales so quickly that she
does not do justice to her powers. We recol-
lect that the late Miss Ellen Pickering pub-
lished three novels before she had a decided
" success." Mrs. Hubback's first story (in
consequence chiefly of the immediate interest
of its subject) gained her much notice ; but she
ought to take far more trouble in looking round
her for original character, and in choosing a
striking story with the lights and shades of a
larger social life.

"The Old Vicarage " is a sentimental tale,
in which the conventions of novel-writing are
well kept up; but the two first volumes are
deficient in interest, and it is only in the third
that the authoress touches the heart. She
cannot paint male characters well, but she has
a nice power of depicting feminine feelings.
The following situation will explain itself, and
the manner of the two sisters to each other is
natural and lifelike :
His plans determined on, his mind made up, and his
spirits calmed by resolution and despair, he returned to
Eaton-place to dine with the liarhams ; and, for the first
time since the commencement of his long intimacy with
the family, he made a most marked difference in his treat-
ment of the two sisters. His manners to Dora were
expressive of a desire to please, such as he had never be-
trayed before, and such as excited some surprise and
disappointment in Isabel's mind, which required both spirit
and good breeding to conceal.
How Dora herself received this change of manner might
be gathered from Isabel's speech to her as they stood in
the drawing-room Afterwards.
" Well, Do'll, I really think you are the greatest and most
relentless flirt I ever saw."

"Am l ?" said the younger sister, languidly throwing
herself on a sofa, and turning away her face; " what have
I been doing now ?"
" Flirting to a degree beyond good manners with Mr.
Huyton," said Miss Barham, looking at her own deepening
carnation in a pier-glass opposite to her.
" I was only paying him in kind," replied Dora, un•
dauntedly : " if he meant nothing, nor did I ; if he was in
earnest, I have no objection."
" You don't mean to say that if Charles Huyton were to
propose to you, you would accept him ?" said Isabel, turn-
ing full on her sister.
'` Would not you, Isabel?" was Dora's reply.
"Our tastes are not usually so similar, that that should
be any answer," said Isabel.
" Well," said Dora, starting up, " I mean what I say ; I
was not flirting with Mr. Huyton more than he was
with me."

" And if he were to ask you to marry him, you know you
would say no, as you did to Lord Dunsmore ! "
" No, I would accept him on the, spot," cried Dora,
giving way to a desperate fit of pique and mortified feel-
ing. "You need not look so scornful, Isabel; I mean
what I say."
Luckily you are not likely to be put to the test," re-
plied Miss Barham. " But we must go and dress, or the
countess will be here before we are ready to go with her."
Dora, however, did not follow her sister's example; but
when the other quitted the room, she remained reclining
on the sofa. Her head ached, her heart ached still more;
affection wounded, vanity and pride alike outraged ; sor-
row, real sorrow, a sense of injustice in herself, and of
having been all through in the wrong, made her bosom
throb, and flushed her cheek, and really rendered her quite
unfit for society."
The authoress has more descriptive than
dramatic talent. This is pretty writing :

The sisters' residence at the Vicarage was rapidly draw-
ing to a close. A long farewell had been said to every
well-known forest nook and glade, each beloved haunt of
bygone days : a sad leave had been taken of each pa-
rishioner, each lowly friend and affectionate well-wisher;
many parting tokens had been humbly but kindly offered,
from those who had known them from childhood, or begged
as precious memorials of the late vicar and his daughters,
by the sorrowful parishioners, who still grieved for their
best friend. The last Sunday came, and they knelt for the
last time on the spot where for years their devotions had
been offered up. Every look was now a pain, every action
almost caused a pang, and both sisters ardently wished the
time were come which should put an end to the sorrowful
dream in which they now seemed to move. There was no
outward demonstration of their grief; it wore the calm,
grave, torpid aspect that a dull November day presents
when the sky is all shrouded in a sombre veil of grey, and
the distant hills wear the same heavy tint, whilst no wind
moves through the half-bare trees, or wakens the waters to
life. Over such a scene silence and stillness brood, the
silence of deathlike sleep, made only more apparent as tl:e
soft rustle of a falling leaf catches the ear, or the eye is
attracted by its movement, as it calmly Boats to the dull
earth beneath.

But in the scene in the churchyard, where
Airs. Hepburn meets Charles Huytun, the

401

authoress does not write up to the situation.
It is the best in the book, and in the hands of
a more practised performer on the human
heart it would be made deeply affecting.
Weakness is the fault of Mrs. Ilubback; but
she has a refined style, and a certain graceful-
ness of manner, and a freedom from aught
that is offensive. With a stronger plot, her
talents would appear to more advantage.

Who Wrote the Waverley Novels I London :

Smith and Elder.

WE have waited for the apnearance of this
pamphlet with considerable curiosity and
some degree of solicitude. The question to
be discussed could not fail to be a highly
interesting one, and it might have proved
damaging to the fame of an author whom we
all venerate and love. But, after a careful
consideration of the arguments brought for-
ward in favour of Thomas Scott, Sir Walter's
brother, we are happy to say our faith in the
paternity of the novels remains. That Scott,
like every other literary man, may have occa-
sionally received hints and sketches, we do
not question at all ; but that his was the
master mind which pervaded the whole, and
his the rich stream of humour which runs
tl: -nigh all his Scottish characters, we see no
reason in the world to doubt.

It would be difficult to classify this author's
objections to the commonly received theory,
and we shall content ourselves, therefore, with
stating them in the order in which they occur
in the pamphlet :

Among the few letters from Sir Walter to him (Thomas
Scott), which appear in Lockhart's book, I was particu•
lady struck with the following passages in a letter written
during the autumn of 1814 :
. .

" S;tici me a novel, intermixing your exuberant and
natural humour with any incidents and descriptions of
scenery you may see, particularly with characters and
traits of manners. I will give it all the cobbling that is
necessary, and, if you do but exert yourself, I have not the
least doubt it will be worth 5001.; and, to encourage you,
you may, when you send the manuscript, draw on me for
1001. at fifty days' sight, so that your labours will, at any
rate, not be quite thrown away. You have more fun and
descriptive talent than most people ; and all that you want,
i.e, the mere practice of composition, I can supply, or the
devil's in it. Keep this a dead secret, and look nothing
when Waverley is spoken of. If you are not Sir John
Falstaff, you are as good a man as he, and may, therefore,
face Colville of the Pale. . . . Mind that your MS.
attends the draft. lam perfectly serious and confident,
that in two or three months you might clear the cobs. I
beg my compliments to the hero who is afraid of Jeffrey's
scalping•knife."
There is no denying that this is a very remark-
able statement, and if the writer had brought
forward many of equal value he would have
established a strong case. As it is, we take it
for what it is worth; but, in the face of the
contradictory evidence in the possession of
the world, that is not much. Let it stand on
record that Scott proposed to his brother to
write a novel.

In regard to Thomas's literary qualifica-
tions, or those of his wife, is it, shown that
either had any which Sir Walter had not? Not
in the least. The author is perpetually telling
us of Thomas Scott's humour and Mrs. Scott's
acquaintance with Scotch legends and family
stories—appearing to forget that we have
testimony entirely independent of the novels
to show us that, if there ever was a man
who excelled in these qualities, it was Sir
Walter himself.

The story on which " Guy Mannering "
is founded-- which, by-the-bye, is of Scotch,
and not Irish, origin, as this writer alleges,
the incidents having occurred in the family
of the Browns of Carsluth —is brought
forward as a strong proof in favour of
that novel having been written by Mrs T.
Scutt, who had been born and bred amid
the scenes where the story is laid. It is
really surprising that any critic should gravely
bring forward such superficial reasons to over-
throw so well-founded a reputation. Are we
to suppose that Scott, with his love of romance,
was necessarily ignorant of these events because
he did not live in the part of the country where
they occurred ? The same may be said of the
scenery which Scott is reported never to have
seen—a fact, however, by no means so certain
as is supposed. Is it impossible for a man
with Scott's powers of painting to describe
scenery at second hand with the greatest
fidelity? We really do not see why.

402

A good deal is attempted to be made out of
Sir Walter's denials of the authorship. But
he also asserted it with equal directness
Thus, even on the most moderate view, the
two statements would cancel each other. But,
in reality, the affirmation ought to be received
with much greater confidence than the denial ;
for the former was made to the public for the
sake of his creditors, when to have falsified
the facts would havo passed from a mere
literary fiction into a business fraud.
It is further urged that the rapidity with
which these novels were issued from the press
is destructive of the hypothesis that they
were written by Scutt alone; and especially
that the story of " Guy Mannering " could by
no possibility have been written in a fortnight,
which was all the time Scott is supposed to
have bestowed upon it. But this is a ques-
tion which we think no man can undertake to
determine ; while every man may speak
of composing a work in a different sense.
He may mean, of course, writing it de novo, or
he may mean putting together his materials;
and we know of no evidence to show that
Scott meant anything more than the latter
when he spoke of having written " Guy Man-
nering " in a fortnight.
The evidence of T. Scott's brother officers
in Canada is perhaps entitled to more weight :

" In those days," said Colonel W—, " a regiment was
one large family, and officers were really brother officers."
Colonel W— used to be constantly in and out of the
house, and be scarcely ever entered without finding Mrs.
Scott at her desk, with a heap of MSS. before her. What
was the destination of these writings he knows not.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Scott abounded in anecdote. Colonel
W--'s recollections state, that it was not until after Tom
Scott's death at Quebec, and when there no longer existed
any doubt in; the literary world concerning the supposed
author of the " Waverley Novels," that he had any suspi•
cion of Tom Scott and his wife having had any hand in
them. He and some other officers then called to mind his
having said one evening, after having drank pretty freely,
addressing some of them, " Ah, you'll be astonished to
find yourselves some day or other in print." Thomas
Scott was a bon-vivant. I)algetty was a gay, lively fellow,
but rather an indifferent soldier. Among the many com•
munications from Walter Scott, which were continually
arriving, were remittances of money, though not to a large
amount. Colonel W—'s impression is, that neither
Thomas Scott nor his wife wrote any of the novels ; but
that they assisted their brother considerably in supplying
anecdotes, traits of character, &c. &c.

There are (me or two other points of this sort,
of which all we can say is, that they are not
irreconcileable with the ordinary theory ;
while the new theory necessitates the adop-
tion of conclusions far more difficult to swal-
low than a belief that nothing was, after all,
meant by the above passage.
Nor is the pamphleteer's case any stronger
when he addresses himself to the internal
evidence. In the first place, he makes a sin-
gular blunder about Mr Adolphus :

"In every warlike scene that awes and agitates, or
dazzles and inspires," observed Mr. Adolphus, " the poet
triumphs; but where any effect is to be produced by
dwelling on the magnitude of military habits and disci-
pline, or exhibiting the blended hues of individual hu-
mour, and professional peculiarity, as they present them-
selves in the mess-room, or the guard-room. every
advantage is on the side of the novelist. I might illustrate
this by tracing all the gradations of character marked out
in the novels, from the Baron of liradwardine to Tom
Halliday ; but the examples are too well known to require
enumeration." Mr. Adolphus went on to say that Scott
" must have bestowed a greater attention on military sub-
jects, and have mixed nr.,re frequently in the society of
soldiers. than is usual with persons not educated to the
profession of arms."

But had our author read the whole of the
passage from which this is taken a little more
attentively, he would have discovered that the
conclusion drawn by Mr. Adolphus is exactly
the reverse of the one he supposes. Mr.
Adolphus contends that the very excess and
carefulness of detail in Scott's military descrip
tion is such as to denote a writer unfamiliar
with such subjects, and contrasts the free and
confident manner of all his legal passages. He
instances the storming of the pass in "Rob Roy"
as a more particular instance of this failing
The argument drawn from the beauty of
Scott's female characters, which it is urged no
male writer could have produced, is clearly a
mere begging of the question, and we there-
fore pass on to his final topic—the coincidence
of names in the "Waverley Novels" with the
names of officers who were in Canada with
Thomas Scott.

The author brings forward an imposing
array of names, which upon examination, how-
ever, melts away to almost nothing. Mauy of