The Sun.
London, England, 1865-02-17 00:00:00

LITERATURE,

Dorothy Firebrace; or, The Armourer's Daughter of
Birmingham. By the Author of " Whitefriars."
Three Vols. Bentley.
The history of England in the days of the
Charleses appears to possess a peculiar attraction
for the brilliant author of " Whitefriars" and
" Whitehall." " Whitefriars" is a. tale of the
time of the " Merrie Monarch," and " Whitehall,"
like this new work, " Dorothy Firebrace," refers to
the disastrous days of Charles I. Birmingham is
the scene of the chief incidents of this story, and
the religious excitement of the time, as exemplified
in the fanatical demagogue Wrath-of-God-White-
hall and his companions, is powerfully described.
Here is the introductory sketch of Birmingham at
that period:—
BIRMINGHAM TWO HUNDRED YEARS AGO.
" Birmingham was a very different town in its external
aspects, in 1642, to what it presents at the present day. It
was a manufacturing town, it is true, and had been so from
the earliest ages of English history. It enjoyed almost a
unique reputation in England for all the arts of Tubal Cain
—all the products of the bellows and the forge. But its
size was not in any proportion to its renown ; and, had not
the whole mass of the inhabitants been engaged in the
staple industry of the place, it would be difficult to im-
agine how it could have supplied the wants, even of scat-
tered and unpopulous communities like those of England--
and of Europe in general—at the time.
"Instead of a population of 290,000 living souls, Birming-
ham reckoned scarcely 6,000.
"Fifteen streets and nine hundred houses lodged this
population, according to the lively, but, perhaps, too ima-
ginative, local historian, Hutton. Equal to the demand,
certainly, even if Birmingham had already acquired its sen-
sible liking for space and separation into families that now
distinguishes it. But the lofty chimneys, towering like the
burning genii of the place, in an Arabian tale, did not yet
exhibit their sombre majesty over a sea of murky smoke
and cloud. The smithies, scarcely raised above the gene-
ral run of two-storied houses, and chiefly confined to the
lower portion of the town, sent forth their temperate
volumes of sooty vapour, each from its separate range of
open timber-work, to the streets. Everywhere else, Bir-
mingham presented the aspect of a quiet country town, re-
posing in the midstof fields and woodlands, not yet stripped
of vegetation and verdure by the flaming breath of a thou-
sand furnaces."
It is at Birmingham, in the midst of a fanatical tu-
mult among the townspeople, that we encounter the
charming Dorothy, and here, too, she is first beheld
by the heir of Aston, the hero of her life's romance.
The following extract is a happy specimen of the
style and character of the tale, and the author's
descriptive power:—

THE OLD CROWN HOUSE.
" The armourer's daughter and her cavalier protector had
now, for some time, been wending their way through Dig-
beth—which abounded in tanners and dyers—into the
quarter of the smiths, as Deritend might very properly
have been styled, since nearly all those of Birmingham at
this epoch resided in it—a quarter by no means then merit-
ing its unhandsome modem nickname of Dirty End, the
true etymology of the term being probably The-Rea-Gate-
End, from a toll-gate established at the bridge over the river
Rea, where certain entry-dues of the Lords of Birmingham
were le-Tied. •
" It was, in fact, one of the most substantial and wealthy
districts of Birmingham at that time, the principal trade
of the town being thus chiefly exercised in it—the Edg-
baston of its day, in some respects, though not in the
articles of external beauty and embellishment, in conse-
quence of the nature of the business carried on in it.
But here the masters of the Birmingham manufactures
and principal men of the town resided in the midst of
their work and work-people. Our simple-mannered and
congenial ancestors had not yet dreamed of the habits
of seclusion and separation between the classes of society
which modem luxury and super-refinement have intro-
duced.: On all sides Deritend accordingly resounded
with the music of hammer and anvil, although the general
style of the buildings was that of the most substantial resi-
dent citizenship. On all sides—from deep caverns of soot-
hung timber-work—blazed the fires of unnumbered forges ;
on all sides could be heard the laborious pantings of hun-
dreds of pairs of bellows, like that of the lungs of giants
engaged in some mountain-heaving taskwork.
"And so the young pair, whom chance had thus mated,
paused 200 years ago—as any of the myriad toilers of Bir-
mingham may at this day—under the eaves and before the
wide porch of the mansion and workshop of the Firebrace
Smiths, known as the Old Crown House. And the careful
restorations recently effected as a labour of love by the judi-
cious antiquarian proprietor, probably leave the structure
much as it appeared to Edward liolte when he raised his eyes
upon the announcement with which Dorothy Firebrace
broke what was becoming an embarrassing and entangling
conversation, in spite of the secret feeling of satisfaction
and pleasure in each other's good looks and congenial
society that certainly ran through their whole brief asso-
ciation hitherto."
The story of Dorothy and Edward Hoke is inte-
resting and attractive throughout, and the historical
scenes are skilfully interwoven with the romance;
but while we award due commendation to the
chief hero and heroine of the tale, we cannot ad-
mire the extravagant episode of the loves of the
haughty Arabella Holte and the deformed
blacksmith, Tubal Bromycham, " the lord
of Birmingham." Eliot Warburton would have
regarded with dismay the portrait of Prince
Rupert as depicted by this author. The
Rupert classed with " the Cavaliers," by the author
of " the Crescent and the Cross," is here portrayed
as nothing else but a butcher and a ruffian. His
pursuit of the insane Arabella and her " sensa-
tional" destruction is unworthy of a writer so well
able to excite an interest in the legitimate province
of historical romance. The following passage, how-
ever, requires no comment :