The Sun.
London, England, 1852-08-02 00:00:00

MONDAY EVENING, AUGUST 2, 1852,

gather forgotten in the anxieties of publication. Se-
veral miscellaneous pieces were penned, while the
i
author of the foregoing experiment was eagerly
loeking forward to the realization of his hopes; and,
before 1830 arrived, Ainsworth had written, besides
one or two melcdramas, still in manuscript, the open-
ing acts of a tragedy never since completed—thee theme
being identical with that selected by Henry Taylor
as the subject of his masterpiece, tee noble and
eminently dramatic lelstory of Philip Van,Artevelde.
Later on, Ainsworth Started for the, continent,
Visiting the romantic scenery of Switzerland, and
traversing the - picturesque cities of the
peninsula.
During 1831' Isie determined at length, to produce
a work of larger pretension than any upon the com-
position of which he had hitherto adventured. He
resolved that it shsuld ensure some degree of popular
attention by the novelty of its materials and by the
Roman
very manner of its censtruction. His enterprise he
had already faintly indicated in the framework of the
story of " Sir John Chiverton," but a new tale was
now to be written, in which he would venture to
emulate the genius of Mrs. Radcliffe—the scenery
being national instead of outlandish, the style moder-
nized instead, of entiquated. These intentions were
first formed towards the close of 1831, upon the ocs.
casion of a pleasant visit at Chesterfield. Yet it was
already the spring of 1834 when their fulfilment
was rendered visible by the publication of li
/?ookwood. The reception accorded to the work was
triumphant. It fixed public notice upon the
novelist, if it lett him still the task of building up his
reputation. Cuchfield Place in Sussex, he has since
informed us, was the original of the ancient residence
described by him as Rookwood Hall in Yorkshire.
And vidly has he
herein depicted the old manorial
dwellinvig-place ofwhich he bad long meditated the
celebration, with " the trim gardens "—one of those
exquisite gardens he has himself exquisitely
,called
e' Rook: b. 1., ch. iii.) co home out o doors '--tos
gether with the " rook-haunted grovee, the gloomy
chambers and the gloomier gallsriee," he loves to
paint with the sombre tints of Rosa rather than with
the sunlight touch of Lorraine. Unlike " Waverley,"
the story dated back, not sixty, but a hundred years
before the time of its original appearance: It ap-
pealed none the less readily, however, to the sympathies
the and
real weavingand
of the reader—so ingeniously blending the horrible
with
together, as it were,
in a s
the mysterious, as to
elicit soon afterwards the panegyric of one of the
Edinburgh Reviewers. Originatiege as the plot
does, in the crimes of the ancient family of the Rook-
woods, it commences and terminates in the midst of
i t the familiar
woof,
the appropriate terrors of a vault where the murdered
and the murderers are rotting side by aide in their
coffins—one of the most villanous and revengeful of
the house appearing at the outset as the sexton, Peter
Bradley, but ultimately in his true identity as Alan
Rockwood. His grandson, Luke Bradley, eldest
born of Sir Piers, contrasts strangely enough with the
gentle and heroic nature of his ysunger half brother,
Ranulph, his own desperate and sinister temperament
—the main interest of the narrative being centered in
his resolute endeavour to secure for himself the
title and fortunes of Sir Luke Rook wood.
Associated with these, there appears darkly
but conspicuously upon the canvass, the• widow
of Sir Piers and mother of Ranulph-Maud, the Lady
Rookwood ! It is not, however, to these characters
that the romance, by any means, owes its principal
fascination. Neither is it to little Codicil Coates the
attorney, nor to big Titus Tyrconnel the physician,
nor even, with all his astounding " sesquipedality of
stomach,"- to Dr. Polpyhemus Polycarp Small, the
Vicar of Rookwood. It is discoverable even elsewhere
than in the constancy of the heroine Eleanor, or in
the soldier-like self possession of her brother, Colonel
Mowbray. Briefly, the principal charm of " Rook-
wood" lies not among the reputable personages intro.
duced but among the vagabonds ! The interest of
perusal only becomes enthralling when we have
reached the ruins of Davenham Priory, and find
ourselves jostled in the motley horde of the
gipsies owning Barbara Level as their Queen; and
Balthazar as their Patrice. There we are introduced
to the Upright Man, otherwis.e called Magus Zoroas-
ter, and to met Brummell of the "boozing kens
Jerry Juniper—the very pink of tatterdemalions. 'A
pleasant anachronism makes us acquainted, moreover, H
with the redoubtable Knight of Malta, Sir William
Courtenay, who swaggers over the green award as
gaudily bedizened as when be flourished his sword
Excalibur in the archiepiscopal streets of Canterbury.
A multitude of other impostors throng the sequesteted '
precincts Of the priory, 1
" Where slutoberea abbots purple as their wines,"
in the Golden-Age uniting the Happy and the Pic-
turesque. There, however, during the last century,
under a baser influence, collected the 'pinions of the i
moon, the nimble whip-jocks and the squalid palliards,
the rufflers, the morts, the dells, and the doxies, the
priggers, the gills, and the jarkmen—those
rogues who were the spawn of Crime and Destitution,
whose descendants have -been nearly extir-
pated by the Vagrant Act, and who are yet to
the romance of those generations what the luzzaroni
are now-a-days to an Italian landscape. Associated
with these rogues of Davenham, but still, altogether
apart from them, are two characters the " bright,
particular stars" of this lesser hemisphere—Sybil the
des k-eyed Gitanilla, beloved by Sir Luke Rookwood,
and another who has already appeared at intervals
upon. the scene, the real hero of the story—Dick
Turpin the Prince of Highwaymen. Immediately
upon his entrance, even under the sobriquet of Jack
Palmer, there is a promise of adventurous excitement
which attains the fullness of its realization in the
crowning incident of "Rookwood"—one of the most
animated ' and inspiriting descriptions within the
range of romantic literature. Everyone who
has once read it bears it in remembrance
like an ode of Pinder or a symphony
of
,Beethoven. Written, within twenty-four hours
from the time of its commencement, it bears evidence
of the inspiration of a continuous and sustained en-
thusiasm. Essentially lyrical in style, the narrative
here partakes in a great measure of the melody 0f
rhythm, the hoofs of Black Bess yielding throurrhou, t
the music of the accompaniment. The Ride-to York,
it must be remembered, was no mere myth, but a
matter upon actual record, a miracle of horseman'
ship -as indisputable as the celebrated feat achieved
by Mr. Osbaldeston. It occurred, aehere recounted,
during an autumnal night of 1737 and marvellcu
though the journey was in itself, it has been altogether
exceeded by the brilliant facility and abounding grace
of its celebration. The rider has been surpassed by
his historian. Eclipse has been eclipsed. Starting
from Kilburn Wells—in the immediate vicinity of
which spot, at a house called " the Elms," the lalis.
terly narrative of Ainsworth was penned—we Let - nut
upon that long and breathless race at about sundown
on a beautiful evening in October. From the outset our
te
sympathies are with the highwaymaner and we long to;
witness, or rather to participate in his triumph ehe
his pursuers—Coates, Tyrconuel, and Pettereonstut.
chief constable of Westminster. Escape is lera-
festly, from the first, a matter of secondary c°L'e'llelack
tion. Besides which, with the fleetness Im.The
I3ess,- it is-so easy as to be absolutely desPise gt fol.
Purpose from that moment is to tantalise tbeerpe
lowera'h.vsith the probabilities of a capture eae
doubt,
alleedootned to disappointment. Sometime% "
ilto hair"
Dick allows his temerity to carry him be oso-
breadth ventures, where success appears to or ex
lutely hopeless—but Dick cherishes a paelioncfe there
citement, and the reader loves it too, and 4enaocaseive
is 1111 inexpressible zest in the agony of every B oueerful
predicament. Throughout the whole of
uth," wonderful
the
ride we are with Turpin, observing etel,oo always
vividness of reality and observing.hieViiburn be-
with a rapturous admiration. Leaving Kilburn
stripe into
hind us, we gallop up Windmillshillt sof Hemp
stead-heath, lane, skirt the lower
part
the pathway
steael-heeth, surmount the acclivity_ her 'oad, and so
leading to North-end, cross the Hendontrar -5
d the en-
hasten on by Crackskull-common tows byeway to
trance into Highgate. Turning dow°,,ek Turpin is
escape the main stn et of the village, i
its proving no
all but teken, from the circumstance of _ e
se e threads the
thoroughfere—but, clearing a 14" ,cuediog past
fields in the direction of Hornsle
o confronted by
Crouch-end and up Duval-lane
unchivaux-de-frize
the lofty ber-gete 'surmounted Y
b- atchino. how Bess
There is a feeling of exultation in we,,,, than ini pre-
bounds over it with scarcely le" taropikesman to
decetsor—elmost causing the hi, emszsneent.
be. trampled to death in t nueltethe green,
Striking into a bye lane, aa, he proceeds
we are with Turpin
egaiufterwards when he
through Tottenhom, . and a i„ing its driver, to
leaps over the donkey-cart • contammonton, and so
the delight, of the good folks
at Edmonton,
pipe of tobacco in
Passes oa until he coolly lights
kimm.ng
i swiftly over
sight of his pursuers, while swe e more with
,the Enfield highway. Away--owe time, perhaps of
Bess and her rider—' of hi%
r,
p hearpal the
any time," says his bioqaPhee
le him sending his
crack rider of Euglend•
taunting eoner before clattering
through
message
bY
the
WaltreetS of Ware, ,where
fresh horses are obtained, a
the darkened empty they are subsequently
obtained at- different afterwards, by Paterson
stss4e6
witness Dick's encounter
and his companions. We
stage--we observe his in-
with the York and London
the bucket of brandy-
genious refresher for the mare,tere.
ik round the bit, at
end-water and the raw '
beeee rleieh House, after having
the little hostelrie near n
and traversed the county
completeki eighty odd milts, in a , I the saddle, we are with
of Northampton.
•Ag-iaStamford, through 'Lincolnshire.
him—on—through
ound of Rutland, by Mel-
across the intermediate gretnuen, over GOnerbY-hill,
ton MoWbray, by 'Pi past Newaik, past Trent,
down the vale of
theßelvor,
broad shire of Notting-
ham,one through the glades
oft _
waste that wag once a
into the heart of tne
kindred Robin and his merry
forest, haunted by the _
into Yorkshire—past
at„rcbers at, Sherwood: AwaY by the waters of
past Selby,
eseiWtr - ' ey, pa 'tThorne,
the Ouse, over the Aire
the Don, past Saaith, over I

! over the Derwent, swimming across Cawood Ferry-
On—past Fulford, the race, runs with unwearied anis
mtnion, uefisgging ardour, and unceasing variety,
until at day-break the goal becomes actually visible
in Clifford's Keep and Ail Hallows Tower,
and the Minster, with its " serene and Mas-
sive
Pinnaelee" when Black Bess expires
from exhaustion, and Turpin forgets the glory of his
achievement in despair at the death of his favourite.
He is yet weeping over his courser when he hears
six o'clock struck by the deep bell of York cathedral.
The manner in which all` this. is related has about it
something wonderfully fine, partaking in many respects
of the " cestrum of poetic inspiration." Several_of
•the passages descriptive:: of the peculiarities of the
" menage," of the jockeyahip of the highwayman,
and of the sympathy existing between the horse and
its rider' tire:Wor thy of Charles Apperley. The single
chapter dedicated to a panegyric on Black Bess con-
stitutes a more complete and certainly a more exqui-
site tribute to the Arabian, than the whole of
Eugene Sue's extravagantly elaborated love-story
about ``Godolphin." After reading, the narrative
of the ride to York all scruples about
the legitimacy of our acirairatien for the hero of the
achievement vanish—we yield to the vertigo of de-
light he himself 'experienced in its accomplishment,
a sensation as wild and unreasoning as that excited by
the bells of Notre Dame is the heart of Quas;modo.
Insomuch that, on closing _ this record of his lawless
exploits; we are ready to assert that if Claude Du
Val was, as he is" here happily designated " the
Bayard of the Road
then was Dick Turpin the very
,
Alexander, and Black Bess the Buoephalus. It was in
~ Rookwood" that our author first gave public evi-
dence of his plastic and melodious capacity as a lyrist.
To the judicious recommendation of Charles Oilier,
hiraseltfavourably-known as the writer of " Ferrers,"
we are indebtowersed for the development of those
peculiar p ,
blending in verse the incon-
grous charms of music and horror and drollery, in
which Harrison Ainsworth has seldom been equalled,
and, in which, in
our time, he has been alone sur-
Son—Barry loY the Master odf
di
wall. wall. The churchyar tties chaugnted by the sex-
ton breathe of the atmosphere of the charnel-house,
and their rhythm seems to move to the rattle of the
grave-digger's mattock. Several of the refrains
would have done honour even to the "chansons" of
It is to the fragments composed in Pad-
Beranger•ffhighest commendation
let's French, however, that the '
of thee
is due—more especially to the effusions attributed to
the
hearerseof romany
Jerry Juniper, readiestthe...cnn3
ppi eat of these
in "Rockwood. pp "Incomparably 1-
popularized as "Nix my dolly
ultimately
became
pals, fake away," on being admirably set to music
t Rodwell. The celebrity thus at-
by poor Herber
tained by the flash
songs and the slang dialogue of
Ainsworth.
might have provoked the jealousy of
Pierce Egan, as it has indisputably survived the very
questionable fame
once acquired by the vulgar and
f
o Tom and Jerry." Harrison
boisterous mirth o
moreover, in " Rookwood,"
Ainsworth revealed,i
volubility as a lyrist, a delightful
be-
sides this unusual
humorous, and not unfrequently, also, a
sense of the
of the beautiful. His delineation
subtle appreciation
and of the surrounding landscape
of the ruined priorydended even to the pencilling of the
at Davenhath, ordescended
circular, window of the chapel,
great marigolds despoiled of its stained glass blae
which, although.
seed (Book 111., ch. i.) as still re-
zonries, he described
taining entire, "'like the skeleton leaf, its fibrous in•
Occasional VAT
contrived also in his first
tricacies." OCCB VAT vividly in a single sent
romance to sketch manner, s . ,
• when ybil s hand was
tence,- In this .
Rookwood, he observed that it
seiesd in that of Alan
appeared " like the. fingers of Venus in the grasp of
It is seldom,
however, that the style of
a skeleton." ,--
on sparkles into adroit phrases
Ainsworth's celeVe.
It is seldom starred by a wits
or grotesque concerto.term from natural philosophy—it
ticism. Borrowing as
than
crystalline. The pecuniary
is rather amorphou
any, gained by our author from this
advantage,
if successful venture, might be numbered, we
eminently
facts which constitute not the
believe, among those
least remarkable amonthe Curiosities of Literature.
After two or three
editions
had followed each other
4cßockwood" appeared anew in
1836 embellisined
in repid succession, by the inimitable etchings of
Georg,
Popularity had been secured to
George Ceniksh ank' ovelist—it now rested with
his name by the young n
him whether that popularity was to be consolidated
into a reputation.
,
Encouraged bye reception accorded to his
"maiden romance,
-, Ainsworth in 1837 produced
ted as the hero of his historical
Crichton—having seleh
whose name the whole
fiction that wonderful man
world has consented to recognise as that of a Paragon.
In his accoun of the Admirable
fCrichton, Ainsworth.
view that in
has taken a totally different rom
t
by Dr. Black in has been regarded
which the celebrated Sco.
his biography of Torquato
regarding James Crichton in
Tasso. Instead of - reg
this depreciative aspect,
the romancist has here
'
adopted the opinions advanced in the memorial of
David Buchanan, and corroborated in the " Discoverie
of a Jewel," not the least delightful of the writings
of Sir Thomas Urquhart—better remembered as the
translator of Rabelais, and better admired as a
genuine Pantagruelist. Nothing could be more
graceful than the apology by which our author ex-
cuses himself in his Preface for not attempting to
represent Crichton es an invincible disputant. He
judiciously preferred depicting his hero as .an ac-
complished gallant instead of as a wily dialectitian.
By adopting this course he was enabled the more
readily to depict society at large as it appeared in
Paris towards the close of the sixteenth century—
introducing us to the collet of the polite but heart-
less Henri, where the attention alternates between
the vivacious wit of Joyeuse and the stilted gravity of
D'Epernon. Everywhere throughout the work were
perceptible the : evidences of a very comprehensive
research extending to the mysteries of political in-
trigue, and penetrating the arena of a spurious but then
influential philosophy. The laborious investigations
required in the collection of so many interesting par-
ticulars, while it could not in any respect have
been compensated by the 3501. originally received
for the manuscript of " Crichton," imparted to it
that peculiar value which may still claim some share
in the approval of Criticism—presenting, as the story
does to the mind of the reader, a vivid and accurate
portraiture of a remote, and, in many respects, re-
markable generation. In accomplishing his some-
what difficult undertaking, the writer described the
conspicuous characters with singular minuteness, re-
vealing not merely the heart of the Queen Louise but
the brain of Cosmo Ruggieri the astrologer of Ca-
therine de Medicis, and defining with equal clever-
ness, the absurdities of the King's jester Chicor, and
the charms of the heroine, the beautiful De-
moiselle Esclairmonde. Recently the pencil of
Hablot Browne has somewhat elegantly illumined
the pages of " Crichton" with a variety of illustra-
tions, in some of which the more surprising adven-
tures (such as the Descent of the Pillar) aredepicted
with the kindred tokens of artistic • inventiveness. If
for nothing else, the story would have been accept-
able for the charming songs again, as in its prede-
cessor, plentifully interspersed. Possibly the most
flagrant blemish in the narrative is the confusion and
abeuptness of its close—a fault, by the way, which is
painfully'prevalent among some of the noblest master-
pieces even in dramatic composition. Assuredly the
most notable merit in the work is that it vindicates
the memory of Crichton, by reminding us that he
was the cherished associate of such men as Idassa and
Speroni, and that he was the rival of persons no less
renowned than Mazzoni and Mercenarius—facta jus-
tifying the verdict of Dr. Johnson, that the marvel-
lous Scotchman must be ranked amongst the number
of Prodigies.
During the same year that witnessed the appear-
ance of " Crichton," Ainsworth edited " Nick of the
Wood=," a story just then issued from the American
press by Dr. Robert Bird, of Philadelphia, and to the
London reprint of which his English contemporary
affixed A Preface highly eulogistic in tone, bus dis-
criminating in its meed of approbation. The scenery
in which the events of the tale ore said to he situated
—spreading through the forests at North America—
was enough of itself to fascinate the regerd of such as
had not already been rendered fastidious by those
matchless fictions of Fenniasore Cooper which have
constituted him, in regard to those woodlands, what
hoaest Ciiibert White was to Sclborne—suprsme and
unaPpeeichillse. ' Besides this attraction, the work
harleithers, discernible in the humours of Pardon
Dodge, the Yankee pedlar, as well as in those of the
" horse-thief" Roaring Ralph Stackpole. One
circumstance, however, is altogether beyond
our comprehension, and would
Catlin—namely,
infallibly be
li
beyond the comprehension of George nano y,
how anyone could undertake to edit the writings of a
deliberate traducer of the Red Indians, one who, in
in defiance Of all authority, could venture to malign
the hero-fornned and gentle-hearted, the brave and
eloquent, Redskins. Could. not the English editor of
"Nick of the Woods" have been deterred from such
an enterprise through dread of a visitation from the
ghost of Hsckewelder—cffering him not a visionary
calumet but the taste of a spectral tomahawk ?
A moderate interval having elapsed, Ainsworth
determined to issue another romance, to have been
originally entitled " Thames Darrell." It was adver-
tised indeed Under that name as forthcoming, but,
ultimately re-christened, its chapters began to inak.e
their periodical appearance in. the January Of 1839. e"!
" Bentley's Miscellany," at that period still conducted
by the illustrious writer who had ushered theow file
tine into existence. Shoetly afterward? s n
of
withdrawal of Charles Dickens from the ad ItorshiP
of
the
the Miscellany, the responsibilitisews
who
Ainsworth,
office devolved upon garrison
Awiinth instalments
continued to enliven the publication its completion.
of Jack Sheppard up to the till2P°eßee month in re-
-1 During this period be received 511•ditor and contributor.
I turn for his united labours
38Last mentioned romance-
-1 Until the conclusion of the
„ea the most remarkable
in several particulars, peeh"re,h_eit remained in the
among the fictiousbf AinsaeOri

I undisputed enjoyment of an extraordinary amount of
popularity. Once transferred from the magazine to
the different theatres of the metropolis, it was dif-
ferent. " Mr. IL" was, then, not more infallibly
" damned" than "Jock Sheppard." The reason for
this, however, was diametrically opposite—the force
was damned because it was unsuccessful, and the me-
lodrama became it was eminently successful when
dramatised. Thousands crowded to witness the acted
version of the story, which thereupon became
a byword among a certain class of hyper-critie
and pseudo-religionists. According to their view
it would have appeared as though the narrative had
become essentially changed when illustrated by t the
designs of the scene-painter, instead of by the mas-
terly embellishments of Cruikshank. An outcry was
raised against the romancist. His production was
vilified as demoralizing. His unquestioned abilities
were said to have been grossly and shamelessly per-
verted in exalting felony, through the idealization of
a housebreaker. It seemed to be forgotten that crime
—the basest, as well as the loftiest—has always been
the fitting theme for the more tragic examples of imagi-
native literature. It appeared lost to remembrance
that Eschylus portrayed an adulterer in Cly-
temnestra, while Shakspere kindled our sympa-
thies in behalf of Othello, although he was the de-
stroyer of his wife, and in behalf of Macbeth, although
the usurper was nothing better than a midnight as-
sassin, stabbing his guest under the screen of hospi-
tality, and that guest his anointed sovereign.
Availing themselves of the examples thus afforded by
their immortal predecessors—Fielding had already
penned his history cf " Jonathan Wild," Godwin had
recounted the mingled sorrows and infamies crowded
together in the records of " Caleb Williams," while
Scott had in Dirk Hatterick revealed a meanness and
ferocity as flagrant as that which Homer united in the
nature of Thersites. Among the distinguished con-
temporaries of Ainsworth it must he allowed that
two at least have largely participated in the obloquy,
to the brunt of which " Jack Sheppard" was, for some
Unaccountable reason, principally subjected. Bulwer
Lytton has been vilified as the celebrant of the
career of Aram the homicide, and of Lucretia the
poisoner, as Dickens has equally been assailed for his
delineation of the murderer Bill Sykes and of the
entdhe all
prointhoiepr ai novelists,viotanparricide Jonas Chuzzlewit. But Ainsworth, be-
yond
appears
invoking
thesehave been
speciousselectedb
u
as t
ignorant vituperations. apparently the only cause
for this lies in the circumstance
of of his having Selected
for his hero a burglar insteada
some, h
h owc d
t b
s hoe
crab-like
fir k a
reason, it must be admitted, n
and insequential. Happily
capable
the common sense
of the community is wi
influenced by the noisiest of
After
these preetefndbeeidnagpolsotnlegs
tabooed in obedience to their terbeing
clamour, the romance
for a while
of Virtuous Indignation.
continued gradually to extend the limits of its popu-
beenAtranslated into German
popu-
larity : and now, having
m.erica, it re-appears
and scattered widely through
upon the stage of the Adelphi in the well-known
version dramatised by Buckstone, thirteen years after
the period of its original representation—still, hap-
pily"
as the;l housebreaker.
with " glorious Paul Bedford"
with " clever little Mrs. Keeleyueskin, and
Surely this is the very hydra of romances and the
very phcenix of melodramas.
A more enthralling tale was perhaps never written
than this same rascally "Jack Sheppard." The
attention becomes fastened upon the thread of the
plot at the very commencement, and follows it up
with eager and unflagging curiosity to the very mo-
ment of its conclusion. Thoroughly awakened by
the wild and masterly description of the storm upon the
river, this curiosity only becomes appeased when we
reach Tyburn and see the body of Jack—shot by the
military rather than strangled by the hangman—borne
over the heads of the multitude to the carriage of the
Marquis de Chatillon. Divided into three epochs-
-1703, when the hero was an infant; 1715, when he
was a boy, and 1724, when he was still a stripling—
the story reveals very cleverly the aspect of London
at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Its inte-
rest, although diffused, in nune measure, among a
variety of different characters, is yet principally con-
centra:ed upon the prominent figure in the canvass—
Jack Sheppard—a figure strangely individualized by
the pen of Ainsworth and the pencil of Cruikshank.
His slender and supple frame, his bullet-shaped head,
his black hair closely crcpped, each detail and adjunct
is minutely
delineated, as if transcribed by a penta-
graph from the original portrait taken by Sir James
Thornhill, n the presence of Figg the pugilist, Gay
the poet of Macheath, and Hogarth the painter of the
Idle Apprentice. And the face does in reality, as
here asserted, possess all the unaccountable fascination
of one of the " vagaband heads of Murillo," beam-
ing at gaiety of an English scape-
graceand drolleryhe of a Spanish piccarocn."
onceowthieth t
Generally speaking, the other individuals introduced
in the story are cleverly discriminated, some of them
being rather ingeniously contrasted with eachother.
Goodnatured Owen Wood, the carpenter of Wych-
street, and ultimately the retired tradesman of Dollis-
hill comes before us, for example, only the more agree-
ably from his association with a shrewish wife and a
jolter-headed coxcomb of a friend like the Jacobite
draper, William Kneebone. His unwearying kinds
ness to Jack's mother secures to him, moreover, the
fulness of the reader's sympathy—a peculiar interest
being attached throughout to the circumstances of
the unfortunate widow, an interest equally profound
when she is chained as a maniac in one of the wards
of Old Bedlam, or when she is living peaceably in a
little cottage at Willesden. Among the surprises of
the romance can scarcely be numbered, for this
reason, the discovery of Constance Trenchard in the
person f Mrs. Sheppard—Joan having re-
vealed from the outset a superiority over
the squalid crew to whose companionship she had
been evidently throughout degraded by misfortune.
p
Without question the most powerful incident: in the
story is that of the revolting murder of her brother
Sir Rowland in the " well-hole, by the infamous
Mendez, his
f
Jonathan Wild, assisted by Abraham AA.
almost equally execrable J-ew-satellite.
tine por-
traiture of the great thief-taker—one of
atrocious monsters that ever disgraced hum anity—
must be commended as we would commend
one df the
ghastly phantom-visages
e energy (morbid
ing as every evil lineament does t
pencilled by Blake, betray-
the
if you will) of the creator's
vigorous and daring
imagination. A terrible horde of
miscreants obedient
to the rule of Baptist Kettleby, the Masher of the
I s tern.seor'd, the
the auth
Mint, or, as the locality was sowed
island of Bermuda—reveals anew
markable aptitude for the delineation of vice in all
its varieties. But the most odious ruffian in the
0 lynheer
whole gang, from Quilt Arnold the principal among
the myrmidons of Jonathan,
Rykhart Van Galgebrok the skipper of the
Zeeslang, dwindles into insignificance beside the
preternatural guilt of the " thlef-teker," or us he is
here aptly called by Ainsworth, "the Napoleon of
knavery: In spite of all his brutality, one• cannot
help entertaining a "sneaking kindness" or poor
Blueskin, because of his faithful and entlausitastic at-
tachment to Captain Sheppard. Surroundet I ris they
aro by so many despicable criminals, Thames. Darrell
and the daughter of the carpenter appear pander a
guise of irresistible fascination. Winifre ,at all
times charming, is perhaps the most sn on lber first
appearance, where the author exclaims (Epactd IL oh.
vi.) "Beautiful is the girl of twelve," eatni tidirg.
us
of that simple but exquisite query of the Ettrick
Shepherd, in one of his prose stories, " Aar ho loves
not a little girl of thirteen ?" As in " Rot rlewaad
the interest of the romance attains its neigh;in the
t
account of the famous ride to York, bet
wee, n.
sunset
and sunrise, so with " Jack Sheppard',
the interest
advances with a perceptible increase
inten-
sity
from one escape to another until o e
its climax in the last—of all the it reaches
it is of all the most celebrated. most
wollitklfcl' es
how Jack successively broke
of Havingt observed,
l
House, out of the Cage at wil, Sr. Giles:Ta Round
asden, out of the New
Prison at Cletkenweli, and out of the Ct si idemned
Hold in Newgate, arrive
adventure with
an- attention at the record (d' his lots:.
prepared for sot xte.recter!
more than usuelly extraordinary.
tinence of his former achievementswary. The vet Lthintlo a
feeling piques 3 u
n of admiration for that union of cunning,
audaci".,- •, , it,genuify, perseverance, and se flosses-
l'ieri" Jack's incomparable coolness in 2144 ng any.
from Newgate, under the very noses of Au tin/ rna
toe, and Lan; le cerberus of turralt s'sY.s"s;eara
when only assisted by the connivance of: .71
awakens
ling, and by the presence of his param.actoltiont,
2f the re-
in the mind of the reader an sing snit ety for his
sources of the prison-hreaker.enegneed, when he
subsequent success becomes n
threatened s ripper •at
coolly strolls into the
cooly appal viled in
,Kneebone's, himself goerrgiod, followed by his
the costume of theancr accompanied )y Edge.
lieutenant Blueskinrte. _e,
e and by I "tell Meg-
worth Bess in a scrilaliatg.7-0
carou eel being
got in a blue the the ludicrous trick von Shots
merrily closed
..,„ mi dby Jonathan, Jack, Ere neav•
il
bolt.
than ever,urea
is confined for greater sa Ezty in the
ward called the Castle at ew t
ired th
N E—whence. he makes
A most naemorabl
his final 51)-*-h' e escape from i nearcerto
is in tracking throughout thi a; marvel-
lous incident that we recognise
lons • the peculi ter skill of
the romancist.Having watched the prist so-breaker
arm himself with the broken links of his cl ssi• n, with
an iron bar, and a rusty nail, we follow him with
breathless anxiety up the chimney, into the P d
room, along a passege, into the
chapelthrough
another passage, penetrating two wails of solid
masonry, and bursting open seven doors
In
succession. From the lower leads to
tower, end from the leads of the gate to the
northern.
tower, wa trace his progress with 'rapt solicitude
—until, having returned to the cell for hi a blanket,
Jack lowers himself down front the
extrerr ti ty of the
building immediately fronting Giltspur-3 t eet, and,
dropping upon the roof of the turner's
through a garret door into comparative sa ii ty. His
subsequent adventure, his flight from Seac to al-lane to

the meadow near Sir John Oldcastles, his being re-
leased from his irons by a blacksmith at Tottenham,
and his final seizure by Wild when attending his
mother's funeral in the churchyard at Willesden, are
recounted in a manner the interest of which only
terminates at Tybarn, on Monday the 16th of No-
vember, 1724, with the incident of Jack Sheppard's
execution. In reference to the plot, perhaps the
is the
tl.
aie distressing
!al niot.ht
which
the
hbelreem blemish
eache
escaping from confinement. In reference
to the
composition, it may be remarked that the dialogue is
recaptured repiadfitteyr
occasionally sparkling with appropriate
in the way of axioms, such
witticisms
remark to Jack that ~ s the carpenter's
a fees .. a white wall is
paper," and to Jack's mother that
" Gin-lane is the nearest road to the churchyard"
—all of
which aphorisms are selected wit • h
to congruity.
About the gallows the writer an
eye
be-
comes of course appositely f • acetious—for, having
called it in " Rookwood" the " three-legged mare," he
designates it in "Jack
Sheppard " the " horse foaled
by an acorn." About the drollest sentence in the
narrative is humourons principally by alliteration—
where it is said that Jineebones
B father " lost his legs
and his life" at the battle of the Boyne, leaving little
more than his "laurels and his loyalty" to his de-
scendants. Amocg all the literary
offspring of our
romancist, "Jack Sheppard " has been received by
the majority of his admirers with the most sedulous
consideration—possibly upon the same principle by
which the scapegrace of a family is generally the
favourite.
During the following year, 1840, two fictions of
an entirely different character attested the fruitful-
ness of our author's imagination. Their appear-
ance which was (ia periodical instalments)
simultaneous was, likewise, in each in-
stance, followed by a collective republica-
tion. The Tower of London, issued separately in
monthly parts by Bentley, and superbly illustrated
by Cruikshank, seems to have been productive in this
manner of nearly 7001. respectively to author, artist,
and publisher. Ingeniously intended by Ainsworth
to reveal the whole of the internal and external ar-
rangements of the celebrated structure from which it
derived its designation, the work, by a succession of
alluring incidents, conducted the reader through al-
most every nook and crevice of the building, through
its " towers, chapels, halls, chambers, gateways,
arches, and drawbridges," clambering the loftiest
parapets, and threading the obscurest corridors, and
occasionally penetrating those subterranean dungeons
where the victims of tyranny were in former ages so
frequently subjected to incarceration. It was thus
adroitly that the Tower was displayed in its three-
fold capacity. as n a palace, a prison, and a for-
tress," the principal characters involved in the plot
being partly historical and partly fictitious. Promi-
nent among the incidents of the narrative, is the
tragic episode of the Lady Jane Grey—the pathos of
whose career was so obviously enhanced by the
guilelessness of her meek and fatal usurpation. Hap-
piest of all our author's efforts in the delineation of
character must be ranked the Mephistopheles of the
tale, Simon Renard—subtlest of Spaniards and wiliest
of ambassadors. Maugre the headsman figures upon
the scaffold more than once, as a sort of Elder Dennis
—while the eldritch figure of Xit the dwarf contrasts
.
as strangely with the jovial giants Og, Gog, and
gog as a visitor from Lilliput might have done
ed hen domesticated in a family from Brobdignag. Guy
Fawkes, the other serial already referred • .
to indirectly,
was originally issued by instalments. a
in Bentley's
Miscellany"--securing to- it•s writer the sum of 1,5001.,
end at the same time grnater' ] increasing his repu-
tation. Embellished by CruLaiksYhank, it revealed under
an aspect the most picturee ue
and more extraordinary in ins naturea plot more daring
h than any of which
ancient or mcdern historians
The punctilious truthfulness with which any cognizance.
ay
cognizance.
this intri-
cate and delicate subject is hero treatede
by Harrison Ainswcrth, is in the very hi throughout
g t
entitled to admiration. As his authority e
hes judi-
ciously cicahly selt,,c.ed the impartial and luminous annals ofi
Liugard—gracethlly portraying in the character of
Viviana Radcliffe the loyalty and devotion of the
Catholics. Scanning the vivid record here given
of the celebrated Gunpowder Conspiracy, we oars the
more readily appreciate the humorous regret of Elia,
that by its premature disclosure posterity was un-
fortunately denied what must otherwise have been
such a magnificent thunder-clap in History ! For
minute exactitude, sceircely anything can be finer
than the lineaments here pencilled of the chief per-
sonages involved in the intended treason—the novelist
more especially disclosing his accuracy in his
portraitures of the aspiring End audacious
Catesby, of the fervent but fanatical Gar-
net, and of that "gloomy and supersti-
tious enthusiast" whom be has chosen naturally
enough, if only for the criminal magnanimity of
his self-sacrifice, as the hero among the conspira-
tors. As the symbol of the elevated purpose of this
effusion the author has himself selected one word—
and that word a talisman—Toleration.
Early in 1841 there began to appear in the
" Sunday Times" the successive chapters of a tale,
entitled Old St. Paul's, in which Ainsworth recounted
anew the horrors of the Plague and Fire, and in
which he celebrated, as the name promised, the
splendours of the ancient cathedral. For the work
thus published he received 1,0001. from the pro-
prietors of the newspaper, and thereby appeared
likely, for a while, to transplant to this country a
school long indigenous, among the writers of France,
the school of the " feuitletonistes." Ultimately, when
completed, the story was reprinted in three volumes,
profusely and execrably illustrated by John Franklin.
Its facts in reference to the dread calamities which
visited the metropolis towards the close of the seven-
teenth century, were variously derived from the careful
Diary of Evelyn, and from that thrilling volume
penned by Defoe in which he drew his chief inspi-
ration from the haggard recollections of his childhood.
The interest investing the household of Stephen
Bloundel, the grocer of Wood-street, at the com-
mencement of the story, becomes speedily extended
from Amabel, his daughter, and Leonard Holt, his
,apprentice, to Major P illichody and Sir Paul Par-
ravicin. The grave-digger, Anselin Chowles, and the
madman, Soloman Eagle, appear at intervals like the
ghostly phantasms of a nightmare—the latter casting
a wierd light from the cauldron of b •coals upon
burning
his'head, as in the sublime • •
painting of Paul Poole—
one' of the noblest works of art ever produced in
England. Although perhaps the least
" Old meritorious
among his compositions, Saint Paul's" retains
the charm for which Ainsworth . .
as a romancist is at
all times remarkable—the charm of a rapid and
se-
quential chain of incidents, combining these the
horrid sense of an aver-present d with
danger, a .
charac-
teristic in like manner
always
possessed of fascination.
Abuott immediately upon the completion of " Guy
Fawlies," Ainsworth ceased, in 1841, to preside over
the editorship of " Tee tl ' nee eand in the
n et s ,iscellany,
February of 184'1 'ehere appeared the initial number
of Ainsworth's Magazine. Upwards Of ten years
have, since then, elapsed during which the venture
has continued to be numbered among the catalogue of
established eriodieels. Favourably introduced to the
world under the name of its joint originator, editor,
and proprietor, its reception was such as. h.earneu.e.r
been accorded so instantaneously to any.vstainn.ll3
ep b
the
lication. Besides, to the foregoing.a tg ?
attribut-
able of this reception was Principally
magazine being
able to the circumstance cf the ,
tale called The !Miser
s Daughter,
opened with a new d
htedly our author's
for many many reasons., un
charming production, Ainsworth de-
piece. .11i this coargnd
customs of English society,
plated the mannersht
say,
of London society as it ap-
or rather
we cr-gsofourgreat.grandfathers. Ahundred
pearedin the
92:ed to have elapsed since the period
years are SUPpb--
ias, and with its beginning we watch
when the tale
,eg .
f the vices of the capital upon the hero
the influenc6i,:w interested in observing him pass
Raodulph 'lt many temptations. The action
5c
action
scatheless throng so
"a
of the plat - i 3 at first almost equally divided between
his uncle's house at Lambeth—where we become ac-
quainted with Abel and Trussell Beechcroft, the
former sour but kindly-hearted,
the latter well-na-
tured but of lax and worldly principles —and
the
wiser'—ans desolate dwelling in the Little Sanctuary at
:Westminster. Under this rooftree, besides
Clinton, a nonentity of a maiden aunt, d Mistress
honest,
ugly Jacob Post, the miser's servant, resideeu
himself (Starve, otherwise called
Searve by his
neighbours), and the heroine Hilda, his
beautiful beloved of Raadu.l- h. Several daughter—the
per-
sonages living immediately opposite 13 of the .
contribute largely
to the drollery, and sometimes
indirectly to the se-
rious plot of the narritiv.—
:spicuous among them,
Peter Pokerich the barber perruquier, Deacle the
mercer, and his merry little offspring the Fair Thome-
sine. A. fashionable groups first recognised in St. -
Jamey's-park co :tributes several important cha-
racters to the narrative—such as Clementine,
and her mot her the Lad Brabszon, and
the old gallant Sir Singleton Sinynke and that incom-
parable pink (or in-carnation) of exquisites Beau
rack-
Villiers—not forgetting the Beau's valet, Mr. C
enthorpe Cripps, the nephew of Uncle Abels buirtr.
Mr. Josiah Jukes, the admirer of phunP.M
rai
thee
tleship, and consequently as such the rival
_o
sturdy chandler, Mr. Rathbone. A cluster of Jaco-
bites. conspirators, including the purple-faced ii,
Bulkeley Price and the methodical Sir Norfolk Sa-
lusbury, infuses into the otherwise domestic fiction
the excitement of political adventure. Paramount in
Cordwell braa ex-
influence over these Jacobites, Fir
excises a scarcely les powerful command over the
destinies of Hilda and
Eandulph . His machinations
t t
become, therefore, from. the.. outset as much matter for
i tp Frewin are of disgust, or
curiosity as those of Philip I
as those of Diggs the attorney are of abhorrence.
agreeable, however, dogging
the more than.
the footsteps
of the latter miscreants, is it to join in
the select supper-parties given by Kitty Conway, the
bewitching actress at the little theatre in the Barna!'"
ket. Regarding the work simply in reference to the
style of the composition it is impossible not to accord