The Sun.
London, England, 1863-04-18 00:00:00

THE ENGLISH ATMOSPHERE.

" Here, in England, whither her good friend had brought
her to get well, the air is damp with sea breezes ; the at-
mosphere is not keen and exciting as it is abroad ; the sky
is more often gray than blue ; it rarely dazzles and bewilders
you with its brilliance; there is humidity and vegetation,
a certain placidity and denseness, and moisture of which
some people complain. To Elizabeth—nervous, eager, ex-
citable—this quiet green country, these autumn mists, were
now life. Day by day she gained strength, and flesh, and
tone, and health, and good spirits.

We must give a glimpse of some of the other cha-
racters of the story. Here is one of Elly's lovers
indulging in very characteristic speculations :

A LOVER'S MISGIVINGS.

"He wonders whether he and Elly will be happy to-
gether P He pictures stormy scenes ; he intuitively shrinks
from the idea of her unconventionalities, her eagerness, her
enthusiasm. He is a man who likes a quiet life, who would
appreciate a sober, happy home—a gentle, equable com-
panion, to greet him quietly, to cars for his tastes and his
ways, to sympathise, to befriend him. Whereas now it is
he who will have to study his companion all the rest of his
life ; if he thwart her she will fall ill cf sorrow, if he satisfy
her she will ask more and more; if he neglect her—being
busy, or weary, or what not—she will die of grief ; if ho want
sympathy and common sense, she will only adore him. Poor
Elly I it is hard upon her thf.t he should make such a bug-
bear of her poor little love. His courage is oozing out at
his finger •ends."
We have not room left for a portrait of Will Dam-
pier, who, if he occasionally did foolish things" did
them sensibly, which is a very different thing from
doing sensible things foolishly. It seems to me,"
adds the authoress, " that is just the difference be-
tween men and women." The pastor Tourneur is
well described ; he belongs to a high order of
spirituality, and is " humble, holy, and self-deny-
ing." Very different is his second wife, Caroline
Gilmour, the mother of Elizabeth. Her portrait is
only sketched in by a few touches, but it is un-
mistakeable, and is singularly repulsive. We lose
sight of Elly at last as she exclaims that
she "does not want to be the only happy woman
in the world," and she hurries out to the porch into
"the fresh rain-scented air," and the door closes
after her; and we close the volume, rejoicing to
leave her happy after all, and yet reluctant to take
leave of her and of her Story.

- - Stanhope
By Piii"PSons.
Poems and 7ranslations.
Blackwood and
TWhoersley.
erian stanza has
into English verse in
.thn a
charming little volume,
here collected together
accomplishedpp . 207
translator. W m .
sp e r"
cHomer's Odyssey
mbyosht omf them, translatea
of B 1 ack tcood. As
i in years past at
enemtPeie vcael sl9v's
Hectoro original
8 contributed
Iteahyneaii 3.
herea agte s all times felicitous.
athfeewfugofit
takes the famous
pa as uncertainstranslatorag_ tiovhfi 3i y .
Andromache. Often
A in the slat Book
Homers Iliad he
descriptive of the
before been rendered into English
From
vaPe:rrsleti,naansd that, too, by scholarly poets no less
gifted than Chapman, and Pope, and Cowper—the
passage comes to us, secure of a fresh and earnest
welcome, penned as it is with so tender an apprecia-
tion of the exquisite pathos and majestic h2auty of
the incident herein so mar vellousiy depicted by the
Patriarch of Poets, and so echoingly repeated in our
own vernacular by the youngest and, in some respects,
the most variously gifted among all his Translators.
But that we have so recently luxuriated over Sir
Edmund Head's delicious version of Propertius'Elegy
on Cornelia, we should have read Mr. Worsley's
more literal translation with still greater
.pleasure
r
than that which it has actually afforded us.
Ed-
mund's is more of a paraphrase or amplification,tsit
t
is true ; but it is from first to lasth exquisitely
translationslsiely
beauti-
ful. Turning,
however, from
duetions themselves, we are a mos
given in this graceful volume, to varioustot tdhiespoorsiegdinaatloperooe-
-1

The Pursuit of Knowledge under Difficulties is
an intellectual course unknown to the readers and
students of Mr. Page's Text-Books. Already he has
inducted them upon that well-smoothed way of his, a
very royal road to learning, a King's highway,
open to all who list—now as a Geologist
now as a Geographer. A qother addition
to the series of Page's Text-Books—perhaps
the most notable amongst them all—is the very
one here submitted to our consideration. It is
the very avant courier, or gentleman usher, as one
may say, to that mighty potentate in the realms of
Modern Knowledge, the Wondrous Kosmos of
Humboldt. It is an index finger, as it were, illus-
trating the almost scriptural text of our English
poet, bidding us " Look thro' nature up to nature's
God !" It is wonderful how much book learning has
here been packed together within so small a compass,
aid so symmetrically—and yet at the same tim a
Nithout resulting in an effect merely superficial.
As an introduction to the science of Physical Geo-
.iraphy, the volume is completely satisfactory. It
is the very companion volume to be thumbed indus•
triously by all those who are but just beginning to
pit at the feet of Mr. Keith Johnston, that Gamaliel
among Physical Geographers. For, of the abun-
dant stores of knowledge squandered over the
ample pages of " the Physical Atlas," this little
Celt-Book is the very microcosm.

RECENT WILLS AND BEQUESTS.

(From the Illustrated London News.)

The will of Miss Hester Walker, of Weybridge
Park, Surrey, was proved in the London Court under
£90,000 personal property, and probate granted to
John Walker, Esq., her brother, and Francis
Walker, Esq., her nephew, who aro the executors

and trustees. The will bears date 1856, and a
1863. The testatrix appoints her brother,
who is her executor, the residuary legatee of her
personalty, and directs her real estates to be sold,

and the proceeds arising therefrom to be divided
amongst her said nephews and nieces, to whom
iiberai legacies are bequeathed. Legacies are also
left to her servants—to three of them £lOO each.

Miss Walker forgives all persons who may be in-
debted to her in any sum. The following are her
bequests to charitable institutions—To the National
Benevolent Society, £2OO ; the Blind School, St
George's-in-the-Fields, £2OO ; Deaf and Dumb
Asylum, Old Kent-road, £200; and the Infant
Orphan School, Wanstead, £2OO.
The will of Sir Matthew Blakiston, Bart., of
Sandybrooke Hall, near Ashbourne, Derbyshire,
was proved in London on the 2d inst. by his son,

Sir Matthew Blakison, Bart., and the testator's

nephew, Matthew Folliott, Esq. The testator was
formerly in the Indian army, and is of an ancient

and distinguished family long settled iM Derbyshire.
Sir Matthew was in his eightieth year, and died on
the 23d of December last, having executed his will

only three days prior thereto. After making spe-
cific bequests to his wife, Lady Blakiston, he directs
that her ladyship may select such plate, books, and
linen as she thinks proper, and that his servants
may each receive a year's wages over and above
what may be due to them. The testator then be-
queaths the rest and residue of his property to his
eldest son and heir, who inherits the estate and
baronetcy.

The will of Admiral Sir James Whitley Deans
Dundas, G.C.8., late Burton Court, near Hunger-
ford, Berkshire, was administered to in the
London Court by his son, the Rev. James Whitley
Deans Dundas, M.A., Vicar of Kinthury, Berkshire,
the residuary legatee, to whom the grant was made
from the circumstance of the excutors who were

appointed—namely, Major-General Sir William
Brereton, K.C.8., K.H., and S. B. I.llerriman, Esq.
—having renounced probate. The personalty was
sworn under £16,000. The will bears date Decem-

ber, 1859 ; and the gallant Admiral, who had won
distinguished honours and several orders, as appears
from the stars preceding his name in the "Navy
List," attained to the age of seventy-two, and died
at Weymouth in October last: Sir James had held
the high appointment of a Lord of the Admiralty,
and had represented Devizes in Parliament in
„ er each
1836 8, and Greenwich in 1841.52 ; he was also a
magistrate and Deputy-Lieutenant for Wiltshire
and Berkshire. The will is purely of a family
nature. To Lady Dundas, his relict, he leaves, iy
£2,50D, and to a grandson and EgaCy of
grandaue,ht
a legacy additionotfo
.Lhelr,OrnoOar;riaangde
residue of his property h
—e leav€s‘o his butler. The
he has devised all his real to his son, to whom
trusts as the settlement estates, under the same
Court. of his estate at Barton
ise6totloon: settlement,
a I es,
_a

alberg
«' is
is now in Paris, on his way here ; and
the violinist,
llATHAlvl,isAeNxtectecl.
LONDON, C
DOVER RAILWAY.—.
OPENING OF
CR
es
THE GREAT TUNNEL -UNDER THE
YSTAL PALACE. Y t
erday afternoon the completion of
one of the most important portions of the works in connexion
With the metropolitan extensions of the railway system
(under the auspices of the London, Chatham, and Dover
Railway Company), was celebrated at the Penge Wood end
of the great tunnel running from Dulwich, under Sydenham-
hill, to that place. The chief engineer of the company, Mr.
F. T. Turner, accompanied by Mr. Betts, one of the con-
tractors for the construction of the line, Mr. Watson, and Mr.
Baldwin, both of whom are heads of departments under
Messrs. Pete, Betts, and Crampton, together with several
other officials of the company, assembled at the cuttingneaorf
the Alleyn's llead, Dulwich, and proceeded to the mouth
the tunnel, where they were escorted by a number of
details of
work-
men bearingffunbeaux, and minutely inspected thet
way
hero
the construction of this most gigantic work. I
important xorks
be mentioned that this is one of the most . 0
even excluding tir,
on the metropolitan extension linos,s
and the features oi
bridge over the Thames at Blanktfreiraerst,ing
character. The
its progress are of the niost
yards in length; there at a
tunnel itself is no less than
2,2oobeing 182 feet below the level,
' eleven shafts, the deepest ono
t s and other officials haw.ng
staff, contrac orr
The engineering ed at the last junctirin of
d through the tunnel, eme g r
platform was or ected•
passe
large ten:Torn 9
the brickwork,where a
of persons had assemble d, and
At this spot some hundreds
rho inspection ascex tied
who had made the
the gentlemen
seoffolding, when I
Mr Turner, the chief engineer 9 had the
. the completion of this
gratification of eiTectiirft
brick,
ia the grewt railway
•
work. by laying the a operation of which he
cheered,
was lattuaroelY