The Express.
London, England, 1847-11-16 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

History of Row for Young Persons. By Mrs. HAYILTON
OILAY.
The accomplished historian of Etruria, wearied,
perhaps,re with addressing an erudite audience, has
devoted her powers and knowledge to the in-
struction of the young learner. There cannot be
fitter school volumes. They are simple, interesting,
each term and thing clearly explained ; while there
is no gratuitous criticism, none of those learned
doubts which have puzzled maturer readers of classic
history, since the advent of Niebuhr. We have descried
but one instance of this prevalent dubiety in Mrs.
Gray. This is, where the story of the Sabine women
rushing in between their fathers and husbands is
rejected as improbable, and this, because combatants
fought at that time hand to hand, and were mach
exasperated. This circumstance affords support
rather than disproof to the story.
Much as we approve of these volumes, we are never-
theless of opinion that the most palatable and inte-
resting form in which such facts and scenes should be
presented to the eye of youth should be rather that of
biography than of history or annals. Old Plu-
tarch is the most interesting of ancient historians
for readers of almost any age. There is not any
paramount necessity for young people at once arrang-
ing what they learn in chronological order. This
may be left to the after-work of the maturer mind.
The storing of young imaginations with facts, scenes,
and characters more in the order of prominence than
of exact succession, is what is most required. Pester-
ing children with chronology is a great mistake.

HISTORIC TREASURE9.—SOOIB valuable inedited
and hitherto unknown letter. of Queen Elizabeth to James

VI. of

between theyeere 1581 and 1804,

and relative to the Armada, ItabingtOn's Conspiracy, the
trial of Mary Queen of Scots, and other public events—have
lately been placed at the disposal of the Camden Society for
the purpose of publication—and will he put to press imme-
diately. They are described as being strikingly characteris-
tic of the royal writer, and constitstang an interesting lath-

tion to the materials which we already possess for
that eventful period of our national bietory.—Athenonon.

/Int girls.

THE NEW PROFESSOR AT THE ROYAL ACADEMY.

—Mr. C. R. Leslie, R.A., is named as the snethaeor of the
late Mr. Howard in the office of Professor of Painting at the
Royal Academy. We have heard Mr. Leslie lecture on
Raphael end some of the Dutch masters, and introduce the
results of his own practice in his set, with great good sense,
and whet is rarer still, with a good deal that was original in
what he said. The Dutch and Flemish schools have never
been done justice to in the Royal Academy lectures, while
all that Vaaari bas said of the Italian schools has been told
twenty times over, and beaten into something inferior to and
thinner than gold leaf.
ROBERTS'S EGYPT AND NUBTA.—Parts six and
seven (in one) have just appeared, containing siz full-sized
illustrations and siz vignettes ; and we have again to com-
mend the admirable effect produced by the introduction of
colour and the always careful matinee in which the archi-
tectural details are attended to. The architect will find
the " Egypt and Nubia" a far more useful work to him in
his profession than the " Rely Land," to which it is a kind
of necessary supplement. The massive grandeur of the
Egyptian architecture can only be understood at home from
Roberts's drawings; while the traveller who has sttn the
temples depicted by the artist can beet appreciate the faithful
transcripts be supplies of the noble structures he has stood
wondering among.
SCOTLAND DELINEATED.—From the grandeur of
Egyptian architecture, the ruins of Karnak and the Temple
of Edfou, it is a change to turn to another serial publication
of the same size—the " Scotland Delineated," with Dowie's
Tavern, Dumbarton Castle, and Dunbiane Cathedral. Yet
the change is a suggestive one ; for here, in Mr. Cattermole's
Duablane Cathedral, we miss all that is valuable in the
architectural details, and we have nothing more than the
site of an apparently featureless building. The number, in
other respects, is a very esoellent one; and Mr. Cattermole
has caught the striking characteristics of " Dowie's Tavern "
and " Flesh market Clore " with all his well known accuracy
and breadth and spirit of effect.

'strafing