The Sun.
London, England, 1855-12-15 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

The Wanderer in Arabia. By G. T. Lowth,
Esq., with Illustrations.—Hurst and Blackett.
That wonderful East—Egypt, Arabia, the Holy
Land—who has not longed to set foot on its glow-
ing shores, pluck out the heart of its mys-
teries, dream over its mighty rums, and inhale
its balmy air, fragrant as with the virtue of a
newly-ascended god ? That representative East,
within whose confines the most important events
in the world's history have transpired, where the
arts and sciences took their birth, where the work
of redemption was achieved, where history is illu-
minated by miracles, where ruin preaches a resur-
rection, and desolation a hereafter, where the
voice of the Eternal has been heard in thunder, and
the gates of Heaven have opened to receive its king.
That land which to the present hour is so steeped
in the hues of imagination, that simply to describe
its appearance, with the life that is of it, is to rival
the picturings of the poet. Who, we repeat, does
not long to see that land, and who is there
but delights to learn all he can about it ?
If there be such a person he never read the Bible
as he ought, or the Arabian Nights; at all events he
is of no kin to the author of this book, to whom
from his youth the East has been a passion, and
whose whole being seems to have luxuriated in the
entrancement of its atmosphere. Wisely, as we
believe, eschewing rivalry with the authors of
" Eothen" and " The Crescent and the Cross,"
those masters of Eastern travel, he appears to
have set out with the simple determi-
nation to gratify his longing and faith-
fully transcribe what he saw, heard, and expe-
rienced for the benefit of others, without incurring
the charge of pedantry, or aping the inventive
wisdom of the philosopher. The result is an ex-
cellent book, pervaded by a healthy enthusiasm,
novel and varied in its incidents, picturesque in
its descriptions, and running over with human in-
terest. A book for the comprehension of the pre-
sent as well as the past. Beaten as the
track is, he has contrived to avoid the imprint of
others, and to leave behind him distinct, if less
marked, traces of his own. The hearty earnest-
ness and vividity of the work is its great charm ;
had he been more ambitious he would have been
less successful. The journey, it appears, was made
in 1850-51, the author being accompanied by his
wife, to whom, under the uxorial appellative of
"Sitt," or spouse, he refers with a frequency and
a consideration which entitle him to the gratitude
of the sex. Having engaged a suitable dahabeeh,
or Nile boat, together with a dragoman and cook
each, the pink of his class, our wanderer started
from Alexandria, towards the close of the year,
and for three months enjoyed the luxury of beat-
ing up and. down the Nile. During this period,
the pyramids, the ruins, among others, of Sais in
the Delta, of Thebes, of Philm the beautiful, and
of the temple of Epsambul, unique in its way, and
other places of interest, passed in review before him,
and ample opportunity was offered him for be-
coming familiar with the romantic natural scenery
on either bank of the Nile, and the manners,
habits, customs, and condition of the much diver-
sified population in its vicinity. Of this opportu-
nity it is clear he duly availed himself; and we are
presented as the result with a useful and pic-
turesque guide-book into the interior of Nubia.
It is not until we arrive at the second volume that
" the Wanderer" leads us forth towards the arena
of those all-important events to which we have
more particularly alluded. From Cairo we fol-
low him to the shores of the Red Sea, and
woke with him in imagination the Heaven-led
people and the horses and chariots of Pharaoh.
We pass the rock of Horeb, we pursue his stops to
the wilderness of Zin, and gaze around within-
quiring awe for the mount of thunderings
from whence issued the tables of the law.
Onward we follow him step by step in hi, journey-
ings and meditations in the desert and plains of
Arabia, questioning many an Arab Sheikh, and
contrasting the calm, the content, and the beauty of
pastoral life, with the bustle and laborious toil of
European cities, until at last we arrive on the
hill tops of Judea, eager and expectant and hardly
able to separate the present from the past.
Descending from these heights, we trace with a
quickened interest the various mementoes of the
great events of which it has been the scene, and
ii due time contemplate with loving reverence the
birth-place of our Lord, the various scenes
of his ministrations and of his sufferings,
and the site of that Jerusalem he so
beautifully apostrophised while predicting its
ever-memorable fall. As we gaze crowds of trea-
sured memories throng upon us, and the hum, if
hum it be, of the city wafted to the Mount of Olives
seems but a preliminary to the cry of Hosannah
or the yell of execration. Here, rather than at
Alexandria, we leave him commending the reader
to a perusal of the book, assured that the picture
it presents of the present condition of the country
and its inhabitants, its graphic sketches of character
and scenery, its multifarious incident and amusing
anecdote, superadded to the recollection it so suc-
cessfully evokes of the wonderful past, will carry
him along with hardly a moment's weariness from
the beginning of the first volume to the conclusion
of the second and last.

MARKET NEWS.—(This Day).

COVENT GARDIIN.

We were well supplied with both fruit and vegetables
to-day. Generally speaking, the trade ruled steady, at
full prices.

FRUIT.—Pine apples, English, 4s to 7s per lb; colonial
do., Os to Os each ; hot-house grapes, 3s Od to Os Od per lb ;
foreign ditto, Od to Os ; melons, 2s Od to 4s Od each;
' peaches, 2s Od to Os j nectarines, is Gd to 4s per dozen ;
apples, is Oct to 3s Od per half sieve ; pears, 2s Od to
tis per half sieve ; plume, Os to Os per sieve ; green gages, Os
per punnet; apricots, is Oct to 5s Od per doz.; common plums,
Os Oct to Os Od per sieve ; cherries, Od to Od per pound ;
lemons, 4s to 8s Od per 100 ; oranges, 5s to 10s per 100; fil-
kerts, Os to Os per doz. lbs ; cobnuts, 10s to Os ; almonds,
Os to Os per lb. ; walnuts, 8d to 10d per 100; figs, Os 9d
to is 6d per doz. ; strawberries, Oct to Od per pottle ; goose-
berries, Os Od to Os Od per half sieve ; currants, Os Od to
Os Oct per half sieve ; raspberries, Od to Od per pottle.
VEGETABLES.—Greens, is 6d to 36 Oil per doz, bunches;
Savoy cabbages, 9d to Is 6d per dozen ; red ditto, 3s to
5s Od per ditto ; brocoli, Gd to Is 6d per doz. ; potatoes, 85s
to 115 s per ton ; vegetable marrow, Od to Os per doz. ; peas,
3s to 5s Od per bushel ; broad beans, is Od to is 9d per half
sieve ; tiuvips, 2d to 4d per bunch ; carrots, 3d to 5d per
bunch ; cucumbers, Os 2cl to Os Gcl each ; garlic, Gd to
Os 8d per pcund ; spinach, is 6d to 2s Od per sieve ;
old onions, 4s to 5s per bushel ; new ditto, Os Od to Os per
doz, bunches; leeks, ld to 2d per bunch ; shallots,
4d to Gd ; horse-raddish, 2s Oct to 4s Od per bundle ; parsley,
2d to 3d per bunch ; celery, Os Od to is 3d per
bunch ; endive, is 3d to 2s 3d per score ; beet, is Oct to 2s
per doz. ; parsnips, Os 6d to is Od per dozen ; small
salad, 2d to 3d per punnet ; mushrooms, is 3d to is 9d per
pottle ; artichokes, 3s to 4s per half sieve • cabbage lettuces,
9d to is Oct per score ; sorrel, Gd tois
per half sieve ;
radishes, is to is 3d per dozen hands • tomatoes, 3s to 4s
per half sieve ; chillies, is to is Gd' per 100; Brussels
sprouts, Os Od to Os per half sieve ; capsicums, is Od to 2s
per 100; walnuts pickling, 6d to is per 100; cauliflowers,
s to Gs Od per doz.

NEWGA.TE AND LEADENHALL.
Turkeys, 4s Gd to Ss 6d ' • Geese, 5s Od to 6s 6d each ;
;
Ducks, 2s 3d to 2s 9d wild ditto, is 3d to is 9d ;
rabbits, is to is Gd each ; Pigeons, 8d to 10d each ;
large Surrey Fowls, Os Od to Os Od ; middling, 2s Od to
38 Od ; Chickens, is Gd to 2s 6d ; Capons, 3s Gd
to 4s 6d ; Hares 2s 6d to 3s 6d ; Grouse, is 9d to 2s Od each ;
Pheasants, 3s Od to 3s Gd ; partridges, is 3d to is 9d each ;
Guinea Fowls, 2s 6d to 3s Od each. Ostend fresh butter, 12s
Od to 13s Od, and English 12s Od to 15s Od per dozen lbs.
English Eggs, 10s Od to lls Od ; French ditto, 7s Gd to ga 61,
per 120.