The Sun.
London, England, 1853-10-04 00:00:00

LITERATUBE.

Ailieford. A Family History. By the author of
John Drayton. 3 vols. Hurst and Blackett.
This is one of those tales that charm by their
natural style, and are effective from their truthful
earnestness. Not that these pages are common-
place records of ordinary events, the annals of the
poor "are not always short and simple." Tempta-
tion and trial abound in the walk of life here de-
picted, and although circumscribed in its limits
of action, passion and suffering may be boundless
therein. The events are all of the past as we be-
hold them ; they are given to us by the solitary
one of the family, who looks down from a quiet
and serene old age on all the strife and strug-
gles of his youthful pilgrimage. On the whole,
melancholy is the characteristic of the story, and it
is as well that it should be so, for the end of such
as Jamie is generally awful. Not that he was so
much sinning as sinned against, but it will be found
commonly that the easy trusting dupe of artful
men falls a victim to their devices, while the origi-
nators of the crime escape the immediate conse-
quences. Although saved from outward disgrace,
the wretched youth, born for better things, could
not surmount the reproaches of his conscience. Not
of so fine a nature, or so feeling a disposition, Tom
Cockburn was able to held up his head, after ho
had endured the sentence of the law. The best
passages are to be found in the second volume,
which describes poor Jamie's gradual downfall
from a high eminence of prosperity, with brilliant
prospects brightening his future, to the lowest de-
gree of wretchedness, an outcast flying from the
light of day, pursuers on his path, his outraged
master tracking his steps like an avenging spirit.
The insinuating progress of the evil ever present in
the conduct of Jamie, although slumbering at times,
and giving rest and peace to their quiet happy little
home, is most ably shown forth. Vain were the
efforts of his brother giving up his projects of a
home of his own for a time, and assisting him with his
scanty earnings, vain the exertions of his unfortu-
nate young wife who strove with all her might to
render him happy, vain too were the prayers of his
mother, the warnings of his friends ; above all, his
own sense of the danger. With everything to in-
duce him to keep right on the one side, and with
only a brief acquaintance with people he disliked
on the other, he chose to rush into the snare. In
the final scenes of the unequal struggle, when the
lynx-eyed Donald Clerk paces night and day by the
warehouse, his interest in Jamie turned to dead:y
hatred, when Sybil sits in their room above convul-
sively plying her needle to cheat the slow hours of
her watch, when Willie enters his brother's
apartment every evening from his work, fearing to
learn the events of the day, while every hour may
bring the catastrophe, the interest becomes intense,
and the excitement is increased when nowhere
can the fugitive be found. Friend and foe
turn night into day, but he is undiscover-
able. At last, after the lapse of some
days, he creeps to his home in the country,
some distance from Edinburgh, and after some con-
sultation it is agreed that Jamie, Sybil, and their
infant child shall depart by night to seek their for-
tunes in some foreign country, but at the eleventh
hour another danger has to be surmounted. Willie,
the watchful brother, sees a light in the garden,
and concealed himself by the shutter at the win-
dow, he beholds the face of the bearer of the lan-
tern—it is that of their enemy, Donald Clerk. The
watchful old man has come to look for himself.
The officers of justice had already searched the pre-
mises, but he steals out by night to seize his prey.
" I went myself to the front of the house, following
Donald Clerk. He had found out already the un-
shuttered, uncurtained kitchen window. I opened softly
the unused 'front door,' which the rounded projection
of the staircase entirely hid ; and gliding out into the
gloom behind him, stood among the trees, watching
what he watched, and with still greater interest keeping
my eye upon himself.
" Marget has drawn her deal table before the fire
that she may see better the business she is now about,
for no candle aids Marget's evening labour. And spread
out upon the table, its long skirts depending, and its
buttons glittering in the fire light, stained with mud, and
creased into many a hopeless' fold. Marget is brushing
with all her might, and vainly attempting to smooth in-
to decent order the great coat—Jamie's well-known gar-
ment—which Donald Clerk has seen coming and going
at his warehouse door for many a peaceful day. All un-
conscious of the eye that flashes out a glow of fierce
satisfaction at sight of this sure token, Marget care-
fully smoothes and brushes with something of the half-
fantastic delicacy of tenderness which dictated to my
mother so many elaborate prepa-a ;;ions for our poor
prodigal's return. And the cheek of the spy without
reddens with excitement, and his eye glows fierce and
lurid under his heavy brow. His prey is in his very
grasp."
Not a moment was left for their eternal farewell ;
they were hurried away only half prepared to seek
a shelter in a new world. Jamie, the child of so
much love and labour, escaped that pressing dan-
ger, and the morrow of that awful night saw him
safe from his pursuers, but he could not escape
from the effects of those horrors. Worn out in
body and mind, he perished after a few years.
William, the brother, who narrates these events,
wandered about for many years abroad. He was
disappointed in the object of his affections, Mary
Burnet, who behaved most unfeelingly to him, and
he was net more fortunate in his attachment
abroad. Greta, the heroine of his fancy, to follow
whom he travelled fro a place to place, was married
to an English trave—er. After a long and wear
life he settled down in peace in the old home of his
youth. His only companion was a son of Sybil L
her second marriage, whom he adopted. The
of Sybil s marriage again is a painful one, and dc..;
not answer any purpose in the story ; she clie:7
very soon after. Elizabeth, the heroine of so many
adventures in her early days, who was taken with
her parents in that perilous midnight journey, en-
livens by her beauty and gaiety the dreary waste
of the deserted home. After her marriage, her
little brother remained to cheer the lonely old
man, who had seen the young, the lovely, and the
loved vanish away from him in succession, till his
home and his heart, alike rendered desolate, could
only be re-peopled by the memories of the past.

Observations on the Mineral Waters of Homburg.
_ _

By F. H. Prytherch, M.D. Third-Edition.

This little volume will be found to prove a
manual of exceeding utility to those who resort for
health's sake to the celebrated waters of Homburg.
A scientific analysis is given of the different " an-
nen," or springs ; their respe3tive efficacies are
clearly explained, and minute directions afforded
for the guidance of the patients who have occasion
to resort to their curative qualities. Some very
valuable observations are contained in the pages of
the work on cuticular and nervous disease:, indi-
gestion, consumption, and many of the ills ich
flesh is heir to. Dr. Prytherch speaks from twelve
years' extensive practice in the use of in'_neral.
waters ; and the results of his observation and ex-
perience are embodied in an intelligent and instruc-
tive form. Visitors to the bracing climate and
mineral springs of Homburg will find him a safe
and agreeable expositor and guide.