The Sun.
London, England, 1852-04-05 00:00:00

AINS WOR TIL

Grimly attractive as ever—after the fashion
of the " Corsican Brothers"—" The Lancashire
Witches" advances in the plot by those two
chapters respectively • entitled "The Phantom
Monk" and " One o'Clock." Another collection of
" Shakspereana" constitutes the next contribution,
and the magazine is further adorned with a continu-
ation of "The Confederates." In lieu of his custom-
ary chapter of " Hester Somerton," Nicholas Michell
favours us with some trite verses on " Napoleon Bo-
naparte." Some very elegant and charming stanzas
by E. E. M. K., entitled . " Songs of the Flower
Spirits" land a seasonable grace to the pages of Ains-
worth, sprinkling over them in turns—snowdrops—
crocuses—violets—primroses— bluebells cowslips I
We shall hope to find an early opportunity for quoting
these stuns our elves, Ellis Yore has a contribu-
tion called " The Snow King," Joseph Anthony has
some " Rough;Notes from his Diary," and we aro
presented, besides other amusing articles, with the
" Chronicles of Baron von Gobble," by Bentham Fun-
blan que.

COLBURN'S UNI7'ED SERVICE.
The chief articles in the present number are " Life
in-St. Petersburgh," an interesting account of sport-
ing adventures on the Cape frontier, and " The
Guardsman's last Campaign. There, are also " Re-
collections of Services in Spain and Portugal," and
" Ten Days' Kangarooing," besides other sketches.

BLEAK HOUSE. No. 11. By Charles Dickens.
Guided by the charming llnd loveable Esther
Summerson, we have at length veritably reached
Bleak House, situated near St. Albans, and from the
first the main object of our destination. Before
effecting this Hegira, however, from the town resi-
dence of Mrs. Jellyby, the reader is made acquainted
with a few more of the discomforts resulting from
her want of housewifery—the poor children tumbling
about all day "notching memoranda of their acci-
dents in their legs, which were perfect little calendars
of distress," and Peepy straying off to Newgate-
market, whence he is brought back ultimately by a
policeman. Before leaving London, moreover,
Esther, Ada, and Richard, accompanied early in the
morning by Caddy before she gets once more into
"a state of ink," are introduced by the Little Old
Lady (a real etch from the life as every frequenter
of the Court of Chancery well knows) into her
apartment—a garret over the old rag and bone store-
shop of Krook, otherwise known as the Lord Chan-
cellor. With his horrid fiend of a cat the said
Krook starts out of the canvass like a dirty effigy of
Dr. Dee, or a sort of a Friar Bungay turned into a
tatterdemalion--even to the last glimpse of him, when
they saw him "standing at his shop-door, in his
spectacles, looking after us, with his cat upon his
shoulder and her tail sticking up on one side of his
hairy cap, like a tall feather." Bleak House proves
to be an old-fashioned mansion, with a host, who, con-
sidering all his good qualities, is, in another sense, "a
host in himself"—the hero of the plum-cake, cousin
John, otherwise Mr. Jarndyce. Another character,
sketched off with a masterly haud, is Harold Skim-
pole—whose arrest, for debt is one of the most
amusing incidents in the number, presenting to
him the delightful 'alternative of gaol or—
Coavinses ! What was the least meritorious
portion of the first number of Bleak House is the
most admirable in the second, namely, the chapter
(and here we drop again from the " autobiogra-
phical") relating to the Dedlocks. The subjoined
passages are altogether too admirable in their truth-
fulness to nature not to be transcribed as demonstrat-
ing anew the keen perception of the humorous in
our incomparable " Boz." He writes:—
" There may to some motions of fancy among the
lower animals at Chesney Wold. 'The horses in the
stables—the long stables in a barren, red-brick court-
yard, where there is a greatlell in a turret, and a clock
with a large face, which the pigeons who' live near it,
and who love to perch upon its shoulders, seem to he
always consulting—they may contemplate some mental
pictures of fine weather, on occasions, and may be
better artists at them than the grooms. The old roan,
so famous for cross-country work, turning his large eye-
ball to the grated 'window near his rack, may remember
the fresh leaves that glisten there at other times, and
the scents that stream in, and may have it fine run with
the hounds, while the human helper, clearing out the
next stall, never stirs beyond his pitchfork and birch-
broom. The grey, whose place is opposite the door, and
who, with an impatient rattle of his halter, pricks his
ears and turns his head so wistfully when it is opened,
and to whom the opener says, Woa grey, then, steady!
Noabody wants you to-day r may know it quite as well
as the man. The.whole seemingly monotonous and un-
companionable half-dcaln, stabled together, may pass
the long wet hours, when the door is shut, in livelier
communication than is held in the servants' hall, or at
the Dodloek Arms;—or may even beguile the time by
improving (perhaps corrupting) the pony in the loose-
box in the corner.

" So, the mastiff, dozing in his kennel, in the court-
yard, with his large head on his paws, may think of the
hot sunshine, when the shadows of the stable-buildings
tire his patience out by changing, and leave him, at ono
time of the day, no broader refuge than the shadow of
his own house where he sits on end, panting and growl-
ing short, and very much wanting something to worry,
besides himself and his chain. So, now, half-waking
and all-winking, he mayrecal the house full of company,
the coach-houses full of vehicles, the stables full of
horses, and the outbuildings: full of attendants upon
horses, until he is undecided about the present, and
comes forth to see how it is. Then, with that impatient
shake of himself, he may growl, in the spirit, ' Rain,
rain, rain! Nothing but rain—and no family here!' as
he goes in again, and lies down with a gloomy yawn.
" So with the dogs in the kennel-buildings across the
park, who have their-restless fits, and *hese doleful
voices, when the wind has been very •abictinate, have
even made it known in the house itself: up stairs, down
stairs, and in my lady's chamber: They may hunt the
whole country-side, while the rain-drops are pattering
round their inactivity. So the rabbits with their self-
betraying tails, frisking in and out of holes at roots of
heat,
trees, may bo lively with- ideas of tho breezy days when
their ears aro blown about, or , of those seasons of
goose, wee stoop:,eetothe.ou-t,
if
we
interest when.-there are sweet young plants to gnaw.
The, turkey in the poultry-yard, always troubled with a
where there
class-grievance (probably Chustrous), may be reminiss
owfhtehnat summer-reorniug wrongfully taken (Torn
it.uhre 'groundr
ho got into the lane among the felled trees,
~_ was a barn.and barley. The discontented
wh©u
tthhee olgdegteawteawyaye,utewteenittys.
only knew it, a waddling
feet high, may gabbl(ts'ass under
is not much fancy
may, there
other -
shadow referenceon
" .1.10 this as it
rise stirring at Chesney Weld.
any odd moment, it goes like If. there be a little a .t.
, a little nois
echoing place, a lon„g way,
arid e in that ol d
usually leads oil' I ;0
ghosts and mystery.
A ghost story is told to Watt and Rosa b tb h
keeper old Mrs. Rouncewell. Our aeuyainet :ells e-
the last number, Mr. Guppy—clerk to Menge 3 bfe g-
away on "an out" from town, goes over thohotto pin-
Chesney Weld, and is startled evidently by e
tin .113 "
semblance to Esther of the portrait of tad_
~ re:
lock, I,lniwportant thcoligh the visit of isir.Yulz '
Y P py

nrby s,e?m as an I ident in the narrative, we have a
presentiment that it will in the elucidatiOn of the
plot by discovering Esther i.dbe, the daughter of Lady
Dedlooir, just a feel cartain that the myste-
rious tr3!.3 lodg-r at, lifriv-V3 will be found to he Tom
Jarndyee who attempted self-destruction. The illus.
trations by Phiz nre, as usual, excellent.

'RASE R.

The presmt number comdleace3 with an article on
the Colleges 'of Oxford: It gives atifaccount: of their
founders, their :regulations,:and the various-alterations
which have taken place in them, contrasting forcibly
o the modern and the medimval Oxford." " Pr,
served Meats" strongly advocates the importation of
food from those countries where it is most . plentiful.
The notice of Lord Holland's "Memoirs of 'the
Whig Party" is one of the most interesting articles,
containing many xketchrs of the most prominent cha-
racters in that worlr. " Ilypatia; or New Foes with
an Old Face," by the author of tho " Saints' Tra-
gedy," is continued; and the.'" History of the
Hungarian IVar" advances to its •conclusiOn. It is
to terminate with the present volume of the magazine.
An " Analysis of the Phmthon of Euripides" will
prove attractive to the studious.

COLBURN'S NEW MONTHLY.
"Pictures of my Barrack Life," is a very amusing
sketch ; it describes the adventures of a German
Soldier. " Young Sam Hall's Heart Aches, and
Horses," is a very ludicrous story, which will doubt-
less prove entertaining to many ; it here com-
pletes the twenty-second chapter. There is likewise a
very long dissertation on the curiosities of Arctic
Travel, and a story of Danish literature; also an
article on Thomas Moore. The following verses by
J. E. Carpenter, are pleasing:—
" THEY DECKED HER BROW WITH FLOWERS.
"They decked her brow with fl)wers,
'Twas a day in early spring,
They brought theta from the bowers,
Where the violets love to cling.
The blossoms on her features.
Seemed to envy her her pride,
Though the fairest gift of nature's,
Was the fittest fur a bride.
" The bridal flovVers soon faded,
Though the bride seemed fair and gay,
Her brow no sorrow- shaded
When the wreath had died away.
Bat all earth's human flowers,
Must fade as Heaven decrees,
And the fairest gem of ours
Full beneath the autumn breeze.

" They bore her geatly, lightly,
The snow was on the ground,
Its feathered flikes fell brightly
Upon the little mound.
But when the woodland bowers,
With early blooms were spread,
They sought the same wild flowers,
And strewed them o'er her bed."

BENTLEY'S MISCELLANY
The present number contains an account of the
" Anglo-Saxons in America," taakveenryfroimnt:'
Bes r°ft's
History of the American Revolution ;" some 1, Me-
moirs of Count de la Marck,"
de-
scription of a " Visit to Baalbee," the Batouth of
interesting
Solomon ; there is likewise a reminiscence of Thomas
Moore, which must gratify all who desire a tribute
to be paid to the memory of departed worth. Some
remarks are made on the work on Nicaragua, by
Mr. Squire, in which the author is severely censured
for his endeavours to excite discord and to incul-
cate ill-will against England.