The Sun.
London, England, 1837-10-19 00:00:00

THE ANNUALS.

EMDEN'S TABLEALX,
Tilt, London, 1837.

This is by far the most beautiful. Annual we have
yet seen. The editor is Miss Mitford, who has con-
tributed, in conjunction with other writers, some grace-
ful prose and verse, in illustration of the different
engravings ; and the artist to whom we are indebted
fot the plates is Finden—in his line one of the most
skilful, certainly the most experienced, of the day.
The illustrations, which arc not less than twelve in
ingetbey, are descriptive of the various costumes and
habits of some of the more prominent European na7
tions, Foremost among them is of course " Eng-
land," which is represented, and worthily too, by a
young female, wird is busily engaged in the good old
English sport of falconry. The figure of this fair
creature, Wlio is in the first bloom of 7.'omanhood,
rselises all our ideas of female loveliness. • She L; tall
and slender, but just sufficiently plump and rounded,
to convey the notion of perfect symmetry. One arm
supports the falcon who is just about to take wing ;
and the other is in a drooping position, remarkable
for its free and unconstrained character. There is a
fine woodland back-ground to this picture, every way
characteristic of our more gentle, English sylvan
scenery. The dying, or rather dead heron in the
fore-ground—who has been pierced by the sharp
beak of the falcon—might, we think, have
been dispensed with for it is at variance with the
peaceful, happy character of the rest of the picture.
The tale, illustrative of this design, is in prose, and
from the pen of Miss Mitford. It is no otherwise
deserving of comment than as containing some spirited
stanzas which, in the chivalrous style of their thoughts,
and the easy flow of their verse, remind us of Walter
Scott's best manner in the Lay of the Last Minstrel.
Castile" is a design picturesque and romantic enough
to drive a poet stark-staring mad with ccstacy. It is
a serene, mellow summer evening ; the sun has
just set behind a distant range of mountains ;
and in the fore-ground, on the banks of a lake,
still and peaceful as the sleep of childhood, we
see a young Castilian maid, leaning over a balcony,
and watching with eager eyes the progress of a little
boat, wherein sits a cavalier, who is evidently making
all posSible haste towards her. The maiden's counte-
nance is full of an expression that no one can mistake
or misinterpret. " I Love You" is written on the rosy
tablet of her lips, and • stereotyped on her blushing
cheeks ; and " Make Haste" is legible in her quick,
restless, sparkling eye. Behind her are two girls,
who are evidently laughing at the fair Castilian's
anxiety, forgetting that what is her destiny to-day may
be theirs to-morrow, for they are both radiant with
youth and beauty, and of course cannot reasonably be
expected to remain a fortnight longer without a
" sweet-heart." In the engraving entitled "Georgia,"
two sisters of form and feature, such as " youthful
poets fancy when they dream," are shrinking with
affright and disgust from a sly, knavish, old turbaned
Turk, who is in the act of making a purchase of them
for his harem. The expression of this fellow's coun-
tenance is repulsive in the extreme, but is wrought out
with considerable skill and force. But the sisters are
the gems of the engraving, and on these accordingly
the artist has laboured with the most effect. The laden
camels, and the preparations for departure, visible in
the distance through an arch-way of the building,
tell the tale of the immediate transportation of the poor
Georgian sisters, who if they had appeared before Paris
on mount Ida, would certainly have borne away the
palm, even from Venus. The poem explanatory of
this engraving is not unworthy of the subject. We
quote the introductory passage, which is very melo.
dious in its versification
" 'Twas evening, and softly the moon-beam strayed
Through the trellis-work of the woodland shade ;
The south wind stole with a murmur sweet,
Like the feathery fall of a fairy's feet ;
And an echo came, from the distant sea,
Of the blue waves mighty jollity—
'Twas evening, and marking the shadows fall
On nature's brow, as a funeral pall,
Watching the clouds o'er the pale moon flying,
Two Georgian sisters were listless lying.
They were young and happy; their life's brief hours
Had passed in that valley, 'mid trees and flowers ;
They were loving and lovely, with arms entwined,
They lay in their thoughtless peace resigned."
This is very smooth and agreeable rhyming, with
but one defect--namely, that there is far too much

" apt alliteration's artful aid," in the fourth line, whit

absiplutely effervesces with " F's." " Scotland" is re-
presented by two young Highland girls, one of whom,
who is in the act of caressing a noble and most saga-

6cm-looking 'wolf-dog, is as beautiful as " Ellen"
Scott's " Lady of the Lake." Her yellow luxuriai

ringlets stream down upon her neck and over her
shoulders, like a shower of gold, and her eyes are full
of the softest and sweetest expression. Wordsworth's
" Highland Girl" must have borne a close resemblance

:a this attractive mountaineer, which accounts for the

`act of her so often haunting the poet's imagination in
ireams. The back-ground of this picture is a rocky

landscape, down some of whose precipitous declivities

wild deer are seen bounding with all the grace a

fleetness of antelopes. Nothing sets off an Englis‘
park, or Scottish mountain, landscape so well as deer

we, however, who have little of the pieturwique in our

composition, prefer them in their wore sophisticate,

state, as venison. We have selected a few of the

more prominent engravings in this gorgeous work o:

Art, but all are worthy of praise. As a whole, indee,

we do not know when we have seen a volume so

every-way calculated to ensure the favourable suffrages

of the boudoir and the drawing-room.

ORIENTAL ANNUAL.
Tilt, London, 1837.

The " Annual" season has just " set in with its
usual severity," as Coleridge once observed of an
English summer. A huge pile of these glittering
ephemera is now lying on our table ; and we take for
granted that it will continue to rain Annuals for at
least a month to come. To this we should have no
objection, were there more variety to be found in their
pages, but, unfortunately, they are nearly all alike—
" Grove nods at grove, each alley has a brother,
And. half the platform just reflects the other."

From this defect, however, we must except the
" Oriental Annual," which if it caters to the enter-
tainment, caters still more satisfactorily to the instruc-
tion, of its readers. It is, in truth, a sober, well-di-
gested work ; penned in a style at once concise and
simple; showing much graphic power in its deserip
tions ; and undefaced by anything in the shape of
tawdry sentiment. There is also abundant variety in
it—that is to say, a piquant mixture of biography,
anecdote, and history. The Memoir of HuMayoon,
the successor of the well-known Emperor Baber,
teems with interest, and in parts reads like some wild
romance, though we are assured it is strictly au-
thentic. On the subject of those gigantic snakes,
which are so often to be met with in the interior of
India, we find many curious and novel details. The
subjoined sketch of the boa constrictor may perhaps