The Sun.
London, England, 1852-04-10 00:00:00

_St J.N;

THE

LITERATURE.

LENA; OR, THE SILENT WOMAN. By
the Author of "King's Cope," 6-c. 6^e. 3 Vols. Smith.
and Elder, Cornhill. . -
After the endless variety of tales in which all the
personages are of a mature age, it is refreshirfraTilia-
to the fancy and the memory to meet with a-narra-
tive in which the leading characters are " still fresh
with the brightness of youth." Indeed, at the com,
meecement they are mere children, but that time is
rapidly sketched, and the greater part of the work
describes them in their girlhood, just entering on life.
Cecil is the heroine, in point of fact, although the mild
and impressive Lena casts a spell over all her friends,
and her influence extends to scenes in which her pre-
sence does not appear. As may be supposed from her'
style, she is doomed to a melancholy life. A beauty -
and an heiress, the world is not her rest; she finds no
peace in gaiety or bustle, and is glad, after
all her vaunted wealth has been snatched away from
her, to seclude herself in the country, in the village
where she passed the dearly remembered days of her
serene childhood. Cecil is a :witty, arch, and mirth-
loving girl, full of spirits and energy; left an orphan
at an early age, surrounded by envious friends, and
watched over by jealous relatives, she fights on her
own way in the world, which she ever beholds with a
smile, although it has been but a sorry place for her.
At last she triumphs over her enemies, and is left as
happy as this state will permit, a consummation all
must approve of; for she wins all hearts by her truth-
fulness and vivacity. Laura, her youngest sister, is a
most original character, end it is to be hoped, a most
unusual one. Lady Morland, the scheming mother,
is an admirable caricature of those who attempt to
cover worldly craftiness by the cloak of religion, and
ashamed of their actions, always seek other ex-
cuses for their conduct than the real motive.
Lord Hurstmonceaux passes through a variety of ad--
ventures, from being a simple youth at Naples to
becoming the heir of one of the greatest dukes in
England. His adventures are skilfully delineated
when he enters society, and the match-makers beset
him. Wherever he goes he is followed, admired, and
invited, till in despair he retires from the contest and
seeks, relief in the country. On the whole the story
is of a very entertaining nature, and all must
come the fresh and invigorating style which t hare&
terises its pages. Life seems as it is, light and shade ;
the world appears in its true colours, good and bad ;
aed while many mournful occurrences intervene, the
spirit of buoyancy and energy is kept up, the clouds
soon pass away from the scene, and the prospect again
shines brightly
:
"Lena was sitting on the edge of a table covered with
hothouse-flowers, which she was clipping and arranging
in a jar. She was then twelve years old, fair, with that
snowy delicacy of skin seen but once in an age, yes
theta was a pink colour on her cheeks and the tips of her
delicate fingers. Her light hair was drawn back into a
net which confined it in large silken masses, net abininv,
it was too soft; it had not that metallic brilliancy
often seen in fair hair; it was of the palest straw•colour,
her eyebrows much darker, her F ye-lashes black, her
eyes grey, and sot tas ground glass. large, round, and
fully opened; her forehead broad, pale, holy; her
features small, her lips rose leaves. She was slight as
a reed, and as she sat sideways on the table, the foot and _
ankle, hanging_down, were slender almost'to a fault."
" Cecil read and worked and played till she was
weary, and then she thought she would get Mrs. Payne
to show her the old dresses her uncle had mentioned.

The good lady opened a great carved chest on the first
landing, and Cecil soon strewed the floor with brocaded

sacque3, old point, high-Heeled shoes, steel hilted ra-
pier, and all the finery of the last century.
" With the housekeeper's assistance, she transported
what she fancied into the state-bedroom, which was

graced by the portrait of a great aunt of Mr. Morland,

a beauty of the court of Queen Anne, and there sbe
persuaded the goon woman to powder her hair, and
draw it up over a cthhion, and adorn it with buds of
rose-coloured and silver ribbon. A brocaded sacque of
the same colour, and hoop petticoat of white satin; co-
_

vered with large gold flowers, high-heeled shoes of rose
colour, worked in silver, splendid point ruffles and
apron, and; a carved ivory fan, transformed her, Mrs.
Payne declared, into the perfect image of the blsck-
eyed coquette of Knollor. A few patches completed
the effect of the coiffure, and as Cecil looked in the

glass, her dazzlirg eyes and complexion, heightened by
the powder, all the beauties of her fine figure, rendered
more conspicuous by the exaggerated splendour of her
costume, she could .not help wishing she might look
half as well when sho was presented at court in the

spring.
" But all this took up a good deal of time, and on
looking at the buhl clock on the chimney-piece, she
found it wanted only a few minutes of seven, and not
caring to keep her uncle waiting while she disrobed, and
perhaps not sorry that he should see her looking so very
well, she clattered down in her high-heeled shoes, and
finding the drawing-room empty, seated herself in an
attitude by one of the ebony tables, and wondered whe-
ther she should be so fortunate as to make her uncle
start. But to her dismay, as Me. Morland came in at
one door, Lord Ilurstmonceaux entered by the other,

and though they both stood siill and gazed at her with
the utmost surprise, she wished herself fathoms thep.
under the earth."

THE SCHOOL FOR FATHERS. An Old

English Story. By T. Gwynne. Smith and Elder.
A curious and original tale, which describes the
vain endeavours of a frivolous and heartless father of
the eighteenth century to transform his honest though
unpolished son into a fashionable gentleman. Having
been educated by his uncle, a country squire, he had
acquired all his tastes and habits, prefering fox hunt-
ing and similar sports to any town amusements.
The melancholy conclusion of the tale is somewhat
unexpected, and it points out in the strongest manner
the folly of striving to counteract inclinations and
habits so decided, and removing those who are 'happy
and useful in their own sphere to one for which they
are totally unfitted and in which they, become a
laughing-stock to others and a misery to themselves.
The following extract shows the opinions of the
author :

" Fathers! before you put your sons in any particular
path of life, study, if you oan, their various dispositions,
characters, talents, and capabilities. How often do we
see men in the array or navy, who, had they been al-
lowed to folloW their true bent, would have made excel-
lent churchmen or lawyers; and who, on their father's
death, quit the profession of arms for more genial pur-
suits. Again, how often do we see a languishing non-
chalant clergyman, without feeling for his calling, per-
rishing with ennui, who would have been a distinguished
soldier but for the paternal will which said—' That boy
must go into the Church.' Then, again, we behold a
barrister detesting pen and ink, and close hot rooms, and
law-study and practice, a being whose aspirations and-
talents all pointed to the sea; but his father's taste
pointed to intellectual' profession, and the boy,
without the least love of study, or much aptitude for it,
is dragooned, bon gre mal gre to the bar! You will see
such an one, during his vacation, living in salt water—
yachting, steaming, rowing, voyaging in merchantmen,
and returning to his gown and wig with a weary heart!
Ido not mean that because a boy has read Robser
Crime,' as young gentlemen are wont to pronounce the
,name, that his enthusiasm is to be gratified by being sent
in quest of shipwrecks and Man Friday, any more than
that he should be allowed to be a highwayman—a cha-
racter for which some boys have a great punchant—be-
cause his enthusiasm has been awakened by the life of
Robin Hood or Dick Turpin; but it is a cruel sight to
see a mat.'s life passing by in the daily avocations of a
profession for which he has no feeling—perhaps positive
dislike—and to which a father's will condemned him
before he could walk or tslk!

"Young gentlemen's caprices should not be studied;
but their characters and aptitudes are entitled to some

little consideration."
The book is printed in the old English type, and the
style is lively and pleasing.

THE LILY OF ST. PAUL'S. A Romance of Old
London By the Author of "Prevethlan." Smith
anal Elder, Goraill.

The reader of this work is carried back into the
good old times; he is transported from the quiet
humdruim of the present work-a-day .world to the
past in its scenes of romance and riots. Instead of
friars
the all-pervading spirit of commerce that is now ap-
parent, he is introduced to lordly palaces and fair
Y workehde oustto;ryanida
gardens, to a river that is navigated by barges, to con-
vents•
•,,, • .
girl 10, up in the heart of the city, and to
ofaressist!_rs of charity perambulating its tho,
cerned in it
rou
avitehroyugiiinttrhiceatpee,rsobiu,sretnis.:
carefull
ceed each
and corruption
rlitpidly,
oatbreervery numerous, and the events site-;`
straightforvvard.
crimesystemse of
be mpye srtpeertyr at e ,is i
npdeeriefedc, tlyt
heel eaanrc
iaenndt
munachinito:rthruepLtiiolinanf,or so great a
elle centre of civilization,
and yet to remain unsven
isleaene, although her
secet.
does not appear
riar Bernardo':
the heroine,
name is every where met with.
is a very interesting character. TlT:ll),nd' the hero,
fua
n 1
di nhdeiavriidnuga le,
v_
earl;a4
appearing whenTh
are several minor persons,, who are is,
a-.Y sket h re
c ed
Reynold k itzhugh, a dissolute ,
among them,
inso at
ems most
-t
acted,
Reformer, Wycliffe, and the c 1
courtier.
The great e ebratW
are likewise •
John Gaunt, of Lancaster, involved in
the plot, but they er e seldom brought forwatd
Altogether, this is an original style of novel, skilfuli
in its execution and attracting in its intere:t.
Some of the descriptions are admirable, particu.
Italy the following of the old bead master's home and
mode of life, and the picture of twilight falling over
London : night
" Twilight, it was said,then deepening,
was .
, with her
had now fallen upon the vast city, coverint,
its
sable pull its noble mansions, its strong fortresses,
.ts
great monasteries, its hundred and eighty churches,
.ib
with
myriad hearths, its mighty population, penetrating
her
-gloom into the most secret cell of the gigantic hive,
Few spectacles are more impressive than the repose of a
great city.
" bleep, beautiful in the cradle of infancy, or-on the
conch of youth, becomes [sublime when the slumberer is
the metropolis of a nation.
1 t‘ Paternoster-row, even at the date of this narrative,
,
1 1-,es partly ihhabited by the ic‘,,itiwato preourJors of
those patron, of literature who, in more modern time'n
have earned for the lecality.a celebrity as wide as the
world.. It would not be easy now to lay down the pre-
cise topography
0 gi district WWII chugged even AWN

LONDON,

Queen Elizabeth's reign. A great space surrounding
the present Stationers' Hall was occupied by the mansion
and gardens of the Pembroke family, which passed
afterwards into the possession of the king-making Earl
of Warwick, and thus acquired a name which still sur-
vives in the neighbourhood.
"To describe one of these houses is to describe the
general appearance of all—a great house or booth,
capable of being closed in front with shutters, and form-
ing a shop, projected into the street from the ground
ftoor, and was overhung by the upper storeys, of which
each advanced, in the manner still seen in old buildings,
beyond the one beneath, the uppermost being shaded
by the fantastic gable terminating the roof. An inscrip-
tion on the front of the booth told the name and calling
of the occupant, and was illustrated by a sign suspended
over the, road.
"Such a_sign was a gilt rosary next the western end
of the Ham. It adorned booth and shop, along the up-
per, beam of which was written in elaborate old English
characters, Adam Tynwald, beadmaker: and text
writer,' and so denoted an inhabitant whose occu-
pation was of no small importance in the days when
printing was unknown. In its narrow sense, indeed, it
merely designated a writer of alphabets and primers, a
copyist of short prayers or beads, paternosters, and eve-
manes, and of texts from the missal. Such had been the
father of Adam Tynwald. But the present proprietor
of the rosary had aspired beyond those rudiments of
the mystery of publication. He had ventured to
compete with the Scriptoria of the monasteries in pro-
ducing more important works. It was true those printing
rooms, which contributed so greatly both to the preser-
vation and destruction of ancient literature, were formi-
dable opponents to all lay scribes, and had been much
increased in number during the current century by the
friars; but the encouragement afforded to literature by
the polite Court of Edward 111. in some measure com-
pensated for this disadvantage. The romances of Nor-
mandy were in great vogue, tor there was shortly to be
cOmpiled the popular history of King Arthur, and re-
cently. to the horror of the priesthood, Wycliffe had
'adopted the vulgar tongue in controversy, and thereby
wade appeal to that common sense of mankind which
'sooner or later will pass judgment on all literature. He
loved the works which issued from his hands almos

liko children, and parted with them to his customers
with a pang, fur which the price was but a trivial consi-

&ration.. Each was unique, not as now, when the
labour of the artist is multiplied a thousandfold and
yet remains to himself, but Tynwald's parting was
)(it ever.'