The Sun.
London, England, 1864-12-16 00:00:00

I KITCHEN FOR A DUTCH FAINTER.

It was hung round with ornaments not brighter to look
at than useful to use, tin saucepans and copper stewpans,
which, with the rows of plates and dishes on the shelves,
the stoneware jugs and basins on the dresser, the duck on
the spit turning before the blazing fire, and the slices of
apple and the ribbons of paring on the table, would have
constituted a pioture in a Dutchman's eye, worthy the
minute pencil and elaborate finish of a Gerard Dow.

A garden.scene to match—both by reason of its
beaaty and of its brilliancy—is the following .
The Colonel had just discerned the peacocks displaying
their pluramage in the lower terraces, and his mastiff sun-
ning himself on one of the steps, when he was made aware
by a chorus of barking that his approach had been dis-
covered, for with a tumultuous rush, down each staircase,
came dogs of very various descriptions; the glossy King
Charles, the silken Maltese, the delicate Italian greyhound,
the grim-featured pug, the long-coated Skye, and the sleek
black-and-tan terrier.

As exemplars of his widely contrasting manner,
in the delineation of his different characters, take
fleet of all. this graceful portraiture of the heroine
of the tale, Mabel:---,

She had then attained her full stature, and looked com-
mandingly as she swept along, resembling the figures of
angels seen in Flaxman's drawings, "trailing clouds of
glory as they come,"
The thin material of her dress falling in graceful folds
about her lithe figure displayed its proportions to the greatest
advantage.
The horrible fashions of a later date were not then in-
vented, which disfigure a woman, and mar the outline that
nature has dictated and art accepted as the Beautiful.

And next, as a vivid contrast to the foregoing,
this incidental humorous limning of an aged dandy—

The Honourable Archibald Cavendish was well-known
in Rotten Row, at the Opera, and elsewhere in fashionable
life. He was indebted to the Burlington Arcade for his
hair, to Bond.street for his whiskers, to Cavendish-square
for his teeth, and to various other well-known localities for
other artificial attractions ; and, at the age of sixty-five, the
restorers of faded humanity there carrying on their several
vocations, flattered him with the assurance that ho made
up admirably for a man of forty.

Occasionally the Rev. Mr. Bellew rather startles
us, we will confess: as where he asks gravely, " Why
dbouid Lady Godiva no longer ride into Coventry ?"
Hardly ever does he condescend to such worn-out
tricks of style as where he begins one of his chap-
ters—

'I he Royal Grammar School of Launcoster was a vene-
rable building, with a venerable Head Master, having
venerable forms and desks, and adjoined the yard of the
venerable church.

ltdrely do we fiad him tripping (even typo•
graphicaiiy, without an erratum) as when quoting—

" Quando corpus morietur
Fac, u 4 animo donetur
Farad's' gloria."
Instead of "ut anima donetur." Besides which, a
Catholic Priest would hardly require to turn to his
breviary in order to read a familiar verse like that in
the " Siabat Mater." Dr. Clifford—the priest who
is described as doing this—is, by the way, it should
be said, one of the most charmingly delineated of
all the characters introduced by Mr Bellew into his
novel. In the outlines, and in some of the colours
of this portraiture, there is a hint of a resemblance
to Dr. Lingard, the Historian of England.
Blount Tempest," let ns say, in conclusion
is chiefly remarkable for its abundant display of
►ife-like personages, of all grades and conditions,
many of them described with a rare and delightful
numour. The lady inhabitants of Hampton Court
Palace—particularly among them a sort of fat
cousin-german of Elia's whist-playing Mrs. Battle,
of immortal memory—are pourtrayed with a drolo
lery in its way quite inimitable. The Baronet, the
Colonel, the Goal Chaplain, the Lawyer's Clerk
Creevy, the Basso Profundo, the Shirleys, the junior
partner Trigg,t hesenior partner Probyn,theßrothera
Blount and Geoffrey, the fair young heroine Mabel,
all are admirably clever, real, life-like delineations.
Mr Bellew has, in this first venture of his, fairly
made a hit as a Novelist. And, upon his having
dune so, we may fairly, both as Reader and as Critic,
frankly offer him our congratulations.