The Sun.
London, England, 1855-07-12 00:00:00

LITERAT ÜBE.

L Display. A Novel. By Mrs.. Maherly. 3 vols.
• .burst and Blackett.
• It would appear thei4Aprct of this book is to slow
the innate trickery and 7cret.eit that exists on the
social surface, hidden inark of gentlemanly
appearance and courtepits boaring,. Sir Aubrey
Manneriug and Mr. Malcolm were certainly two
most accomplished actors, and it was only a just
retribution that fell upon them when they mutually
deceived each other. Money was their object, and
no artifice was too mean or putty to stoop to in
order to attain that cherished goal. IG forms an
amusing scene when the greedy Sir Aubrey wished
to test the validity of his powtis, and sent for his
marriage settlements. Meanw bile Mr. Malcolm,
who was really the most wicked, although possess, d
of better feelings than his son-in-law, underwent a
torment on his side. By some dexterous manage-
ment lie had contrived to have a copy of the settle-
ments made out after Sir Aubrey had seen a roul h
draft of them. In consequence of this arrange-
ment, which Sir Aubrey believed all right, four
thousand pounds were substituted for forty, which
was the sum promised by Mr. Malcolm as his
daughter's portion. When at last the trut b dawned
upon the mind of the grasping baronet his rage
was excessive. It is skilfully narrated how he
concealed his wrath and kept his indigna,ti on iu duo
bounds until the golden time of his rev cnge
ready. Then when his admired and cove ted relr-
ti ve became involved in difficulty
.and ap-
plied to him, he rejoiced to think of his
triumph, and replied contemptuously. eanwhile
ho took a more deadly revenge in ill-treating and
cruelly using the high-spirited but incautiofus Laura
who had been the victim of her own and her father's
inordinate love of display. Imprudent an d impe-
tuous Laura rushed away from her persecu tor, and.
sought refuge with her father in France. The ex-
citement and misery were too much for her to en-
dure, and the scheming hypocrite and the p ractised
cheat, beheld the first fruits of his deeply-laid
schemes in his daughter's early death. It is to be
regretted that more space is not given to. the his-
tory of the fair Genevieve, the younger sister of
Laura, who possessed her kind heart and good dis-
position free from the taint of worldliness and un-
contaminated by the fatal love of display. Lord St.
Clare is also an interesting character, who is little
seen or hoard of. The only pleasing portion of the
narrative is that in which he or Genevieve appears.
There are some foreigners who are introduced in
the scenes of Baden with great energy and vivacity.
Like many self-willed persons, Sir Aubrey Manuel.
ing soon fell a victim to flattery adroitly adminis-
tered, and he was easily swayed by the clever and.
subtle Count Bergensdorff. His own losses at play
did not, however, make him feel any more charit-
ably disposed towards the extravagances committed
by his thoughtless young wife, and every event
only hastened the catastrophe. It is a ludicrous
sketch that is introduced of Mrs. Somerset Browne
and her two daughters, whose object was to per-
suade the world that all the gaiety and fashion of
the country were to be found at Sycamore Lodge.
The devices to which they had recourse, and the
measures they employed, are sufficiently absurd.
On the occasion of Mr. Malcolm's visit to them the
whole place was transformed, but to very little
purpose, as the practised eye of their guest beheld
in an instant the clumsy contrivances and the awk-
ward attempts at show, yet he need not have
sneered ; they only carried on his favourite game
of "display," with this difference, that their parts
were not so well played as his invariably was.
Lady Windermere is a good instance of a fair
weather friend, and with her fashionable follies
forms an addition to the tribe of exhibitors who
are here ably described. At home and abroad,
in the gilded saloon and the shabby abode, the
ruling passion is abiding, influencing, and direct-
ing. The votaries of " display" are many, and.
their style is various, that the authoress brings
before her readers in these pages, and her work
will doubtless be regarded by many as an addition
to the attractive novels of the season.

Londoner's Walk to the Land's End : and a
Trip to the Scilly Isles. By Walter White.
Chapman and Hall.

This unpretending volume is the description of

a pedestrian excursion through the three south-
west counties of England—Dorset, Devon, and.
Cornwall. Being released from the pressure of
business engagements, and having a month's leisure
to dispose of, the author determined to set out on
this somewhat formidable expedition on foot. The
satisfaction ho derived from his journey,• and the
agreeable narrative he has given us of it, may per-
haps induce some adventurers to follow his ex-
ample. One advantage derived from this mode of
travelling is the acquaintance with local peculiari-
ties and character, and. with the comparatively
unknown spots which are out of the line of rail-
ways and steam-boats. Leaving Southampton,
the traveller journeyed along the coast until he
reached St. Austell. His descriptions of the
Cornish and of the Scilly Isles form the
most novel and striking feature in the volume. In
Cornwall a strong feeling of distinct nationality is
still maintained. A few years ago a lecturer argued
that the county should be treated as an island.
" One and all" is their motto, and this clannish
feeling was strongly exhibited in the days of James
the Second, on the imprisonment of Bishop Tre-
lawney, who belonged to one of their most ancient
families. The famous song which they sung on
that occasion is still sung in Cornwall, beginning—
«A good sword and a trusty hand,
A merry heart and true,
King James's men shall understand
What Cornish lads can do."
And ending with the chorus in allusion to their
family names—

" And shall they scorn Tre, Pol, and Pen ?
And shall Trelawney die?
Here's twenty thousand Cornishmen
Will know the reason why."
The writer supposes them to be of Celtic origin.
They certainly appear to possess the northern.
energy, for Mary Kelynack, whose walk to
London to see the Exhibition excited so much
astonishment, was a Cornishwoman. One of the
inns near the Land's-end bears on one side of
its signboard, " The first inn in England,," and.
on the other, " The last inn in England." Sad to
relate, another has been built still nearer the point,
so the ingenious inscription is incorrect. There is
a tradition, which has excited some speculation
among antiquarians and geologists, that a fer-
tile district, well populated, and known as
Letho wstow, or Lyonnoss, once connected the coast
of Cornwall and the Scilly Islands. It is said to
have sunk into the sea, leaving only the Seven
Stones, which are still called " The City,," and
among which fishermen are said to have found
some pieces of casements and stone moulding.
The Trevillian family have a white horse as a. crest,
to commemorate the escape of an ancestor by swim-
ming to the mainland on horseback. Yet, extra-
vagant as this tradition may appear, it has a. better
foundation than might be imagined. The waters
of Mount's Bay now flow over what has be ;en dry
land in the memory of man ; and in a great storm,
in 1817, fears were entertained that the sea would
break through the St. Ives- Bay, and leave the
i Laud's End an island; and at Par blocks of granite
laid for a bridge were found at a depth of twenty
feet. So many instances of the changes of nature
naturally tend to increase the belief in the old
story. Tennyson places the scene of King AL-Limes
last battle in this vanished region.
" So all day long the noise of battle rolled
Among the mountains by the winter sea,
Until King Arthur's table, one by one,
Had fallen in Lyonness about their lord."
Mary's, is only.
The largest of the Scilly isles,
islets,. but only five
alto-
gether three hundred isles an
being about
are inhabited, the total
two miles broad, and three lodngSt. There aro
population'ants have fever
they call
been to the " main," as
.England,
Their chief trade is
though so near it.
2,700. Many of the inhabit
baskets had
been
Fifteen thousand d.
the commencement of the
Knee_
those are the early potatoes.
season. Som© of pound
in
psoetna
ttoaesw.ay
that bring half-a-crown a in Covent-garden
market. In 1853 the people of
St. Martin's got
2,0007. for their crop. They are of a very early
kind, and originally came from some given to a
pilot by a Spanish captain. Though they are de-
scribed as -"a close-fisted set," they subscribed
2501. to the Patriotic Fund. The author returned
by Devonport, Exeter, and Taunton to the metro-
polis again, highly satisfied with his month's
ramble. His •
impressions of it are best conveyed
in his own concluding words :
" And so ended a tour in the course of which I had
walked four hundred and twenty-five miles, with none
but happy results. It is no small privilege to be able
thus to employ a holiday ; to come home with recollec-
tions of majestic headlands and foam-fringed bays ; of
breezy moorlands ; of heath-clad hills and sheltered
valleys ; of pleasant field•paths and of lonely lanes, whs
streamers of hay filched from passing wains hang on the
hedgerows and overhanging trees ; and, not least, of
kindness among strangers. To shake off the social
hamper once a year and ramble at pleasure enables a
man to keep account with himself—to remember much
that he forgets amid sedentary occupations and mono-
tonous routine. Courage comes back as well as vigour;
and the morbid feeling with which we are apt to regard,
life and its duties, yields to the health-fraught influences
of air and exercise. But only he who trusts to his own
legs, ready to rough it, changing his horizon day by
day, can fully appreciate the charm of home-travel. I
never feel so content with my lot as when returning from
a holiday ramble. Who would be querulous that, with
ten pounds in his pocket, and knapsack on shoulder
can go forth, wander lovingly over his birthland, and
live for a month amid euntibine and beauty