The Sun.
London, England, 1839-04-01 00:00:00

BENTLEY'S MISCELLANY

Boa's popular tale of " Oliver Twist" is to a
close this month ; but as we have already noticed the
work in its republished form of three volumes, we need
make no further mention of it liere than just to. olisen c,
en passant, that it deserves the reception it has tr.:A
with from the public. Ainsworth's " Jack Sheppard'
goes on snimmingly, and would be still better—tint in
to say, make a more decided impression on the readers
mind, were the author to take less evident pains v;i7l)
some of his descriptions, and more especially his (lin-
lo;rufs. Too much eltlborateness is as haz;!.rdens to ti:o
effect of a story, as too much carelessness. Mr. Diekena
just hits the happy mean, and consequently carries all
lye-fore him. " Colin Clink," a • now work of fiction by
a writer who signs himself " Mask," sets out with meth
spirit and liveliness. If we mistake not, it will be highly
successful. for the writer appears to have got hold of
some likely materials, and to be resolved to turn them
to account. The sketch of Mistress Clink's bevel ;of
her one "diminutive housemaid," Fanny Woodruff, who ;
" presented the miniature picture, not of what childhood I
is, a bright and jo ful outburst of fresh life into a new-
world of strange attractive things, but of a little pale,
solemn thing; looking as though it had suddenly fallen,
heart-checked, upon a world of evil ;" of the jovial, blus-
tering .Squire Lupton, and his_roguish steward, Lbrig-
staff ;—these several sketches display an acute mind vigor-
ous insight into character. We sejoin a portion of an
interview that takes place between the Squire and leis
Steward, just premising, by the way, that the former has ?.
saddled the latter with the delicate and. difficult task of
prevailing on an unmir. icd young woman, to swear her
illegitimate child, of which the Squire is cvidenlly
father, tQ any one rather than to him. Ur4nek.iii, for
the'iStowiird, the unwedded mother gives hith the honors
of paternity, on hearing which he rushes out of the eve:..
see's office, foaming with rage, and on his road horny, I
encounters the Squire on horseback, when the following
dialogue ensues :
Well, Longstaff," said he, as he carelessly twirled the •
lash of his whip. upon its stock like a horizontal twee':.
" Low is it ended? I suppose you have given a son Ln,ii
heir to somebody or other?"
" It has turned out a deal worse job than I expected,"
_dolefully observed the steward.
" Air I—a bad job is it ?"
" Very, Sir, very I" sighed the unfortunate cro-betwen.
" Why—what—wouldn't she be persuaded,'Longstaff?" I
" Oh, yea," replied the steward, with ;kdeep curse on
Mrs. Clink, " she took all I was authorised to give her.—"
" And gave me the whelp in exchange, eh?" added the
squire.

" No, Sir, no,"—(he inly wished she had)—" wori.o
than that, Sir—a great deal worse."
" Worse I " earnestly exclaimed Mr. Lupton ; " that
impossible. Have you got him, thou?"
Mr. Longsti.4 cast eyes to the ground,. arranp,:ed 177 e
shoe-tie of his left foot with the toe of Lis Fight;, and v-Ith
a dolorous face, drawn nearly as long as his
faintly drawled out, "
" I have, Sir I"
Mr. Lupton burst into-a fit oflaug, . ,t-7o
whole minutes, blew out his >reath'-in
not unlike an autumn blast through an-ow:Apar' kry-hui,,;
and then dashed away, eracLieg
long as he could he hoard.' •-• • - -
Dang the woman "" exclaimed- t:le stcv-val‘kl, ar
began to move off the ground homewards, " I It;A:
and her barn out of house and home to.nigllt, or otov
be

Somehow or other, however, be could not screw up,sue7
cient courage to carry. him immediately home, ::_d, as it
were, into the very jaws of Mrs. Xneasina Loc,hsi,;ic: ii
therefore crossed the corners of two other. welds. mg.:in, 4.0
to the high road, and walked into the Cock and 13ottie,
only inn in Brarnleigh, with the intention of sircrigtherli.g,
his shaken nerves with a respectable potation of braudy
water.

On entering he thought the landlady— wija whom he h::‘,?
always been upon the best of terms, not only because cs
his situation, but also of his excellent moral character.—
looked more then usually distant with him. The
lord, too, cast an eye at him, as much as to say, .6 I
Mr. Langstaff, you have had something unpleasant
mornrig ?" While the maid, who formerly used to smile
very prtttily ahenever he appeared, actually brushed by
him as be went down the passage, as though she thought
he was a better men half a mile off than hest: ;can two such
walls. As he passed the kitchen-door everybody wthiu
turned to look at him; and, %then he got into the palL.--ur,
be beheld four of the village farmers rouid the of
whom were smiling, evidently at something very 'fumy.
Mr. Longst,S, by that peculiar instinct which usually
attends men in suspicious circumstances, knew, as well
if I:e_h,:d been told, that it was at him.

" Vincent Eden" gives us some highly-coloured cictails
of py life in Oxford. The portrait:of the Proctor, Dr.
Burnaby B:rch, is droll enough, but too much earica'-
tured, In the off-hand article entitled " A 8.111 ar the
Tuileries," we meet with a graphic description of the
person:and .manners of Lord Byron's favourite mistress
the Countess -Gait:scion. What a pity that a poet's idol
slonld be " short. and thickish in form," and titat iu r
hair sbotdcL he " horridly approaching to red F' T
ronnct to the "Memory of the Poets" is by i\L.
gent Tahburd. It is worthy of his classic pen,
lieu, or the Conspiracy," is a quizzical,
paraphrase of Sir Lytton Bulsver's popular drama
that name.

" R

MONTHLY LA TV MA GA ZINE,
A well-conducted periodical, appealing, boy: ever,
class, rather than to the generality, of roa(I,:-s.-
memoir of tl:e late Lord Stowell is pet.nA ru a St_. a_
pulously impartial spirit, and does no inore th:to
to his long and arrluctis labours in the Admiralty Court,
The •‘ House of Commons" is a Tory diatrib, in v..117ca
the lash is laid without morey• on O'Cot;n !11. TI:
are the only two remarkable articles in the Numb,,:,..

DEARDE A" S MISCELLANY.
Ti:is is a provinci4l Magazine, being printc(lrncl
dat Not‘iegbnm. It ccntains some
:ales, en(l poems or no mean excellence. O six
the " Clerk ( f Winston" is the most favourable
in the Number before us.