The Sun.
London, England, 1847-02-26 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

HOMES AND HAUNTS OF TEE MOST
EMINENT BRITISH POETS. 2 Vols. By
William Hamill.. •

Agreeable as have been the previous writings of Wil-
liam Elowitt, this is unquestionably the most delighful
work he has yet produced. There was a necessity,
moreover, for a book of this description, a book forming,
a topographical illustration to the inimitable biographies
of Dr. Johnson, and perpetuating as far as possible the
remembrance of the scattered localities in which the
poetic genius of England has resided. Without some
clue to the abodes of the departed illustrious it were
difficult to form any conception of their domestic habits,
of theincidents by which their lives bad been diversified,
or of the natural and artificial objects by which they
were continually surrounded ; and without some know-
ledge of those habits, incidents, and local characteristics,
it were almost impossible to conceive to ourselves the
idiocyncracies, the dispositions, the partialities, or the
prejudices of those men otherwise than from their compost.
tions. That would indisputably have been a lamentable
toss to humanity, for it is from the contemplation of the
biographies of remarkable persons that we derive some
of our most salutary and benign impressions. From the
perusal of biographical works we derive a plenitude of
experience ; the memorials of our distinguished prede-
cessors are fir us fountains of the purest wisdom. In
this respect biography is superior to history, and it is
superior to history because the vicissitudes of in-
dividuals come more home to each of us than the
vicissitudes and revolutions of empires. The story and
the moral of biography is more applicable to our con-
fined fortune's, that the story and moral of those records
which relate to the progression of entire races. To the
statesman, the legislator, and the anointed sovereign,
history furnishes an inexhaustible instruction ; to every
one, without exception, biography teaches truths that
are essential for the happiness of mankind. It is in
consequence of these immutable principles, it is from
our intimate relationship with one another, the prince
with the mendicant, the sinless infant with the most
reprobate felon, it is from the similarity of the
human character in all grades and positions of society,
that biographical compositions are invested with such a
peculiar fascination. In the narrated peregrinations of
the great, we find reminiscences of our own wanderings;
in the utterance of their homeliest sentiments we listen
with rapture to the thoughts which have floated through
our own imaginations; in the troubles by which they
have been buffeted, we discover a striking similarity to
our own misfortunes; in the joy which they have ex-
perienced we frequently recognise something parallel to

the emotions of which we ounelves have- been con-
scious. It is like the realisaticn of a dream; it is precisely
chat mysterious sensation, sometimes of awe, sometimes
of delight, which agitated the heart of Charles Dickens
when as he tells us in his little volume upon Italy, he
came upon a secluded spot is Switzerland when evening
wsis closing in, and his carriage was toiling up the hill
at some distance behind him—a quiet scene which,
though of very ordinary features, thrilled him with
the most unaccountable feelings of awe, as though he
had known it in connexion with some appalling murder,
and in a previous state of existence. Strange and bewil-
,lering as these things are, they are nevertheless by no
means unfrequent ; and it is nearly impossible to read
much or to talk much without being sometimes affected
in a similar manner. But biography does not only afford
us these eccentric sensations, it gives us lessons it is
ilea-ant and useful to con; it presents us pictures fraught
with wholesome truths; and it almost enables us to live

in imagination many times instead of once. The work
to which we would here especially direct attention is to
,iur mind an addition to our national biography as va-
luable as it is novel. It comprises, indeed, some of the
most essential elements and rudiments of biography, for
it is descriptive of those homes and haunts from the
peculiarities of which our poets hare derived the whole
colouring and bias of their intellects. What, for ex-
ample, would Drummond have been had he resided
elsewhere thin in Hawthornden ? What would have
been the result had Falconer never

"Sailed along the deep,
Where the stormy winds do blow ;"
had Wordsworth never trod the herbage of Grasmere
or Rydal Mount; had Burns never staggered through
the streets of Dumfries ; had Shakspere never poached
among the fern of Stratford, or strayed into the parlour
of the Mermaid Tavern, Friday-street, Cheapside?
Should we have heard ought of the Shipwreck, of the
rural sonnets, of Tam O'Shanter, of Jacques, or of Bar-
dolph ? Would Spencer have ever imagined Gloriana,
or the Shepherd of the Ocean, if he had never

loved the woodlands or encountered Raleigh ?
Had Chaucer never known the Tabard Inn, in
Southwark, where would have been his priest, his
reeve, and his miller? Because these men received
particular impressions in their most impressionable mo-
ments from the scenery, whether of their homes or of
their haunts, they wrote as they did ; had they never
beheld that particular scenery at those particular times,
they would have written otherwise, and perhaps not at
all. hence we are satisfied that we are gratifying
more than a merely idle curiosity, when we seek
after the houses, and the fields, and the
streets sanctified by the footsteps of genius. Hence
the researches of William Howitt, in the neighbourhood
of Belvoir, when Co!lecting materials for his paper on
Crabbe, of Laracor for Swift, of Sandy-knowe for Scott,
of Sloperton for Moore, and of Sheffield for Mont-
gomery, have a purpose higher than that of pandering
to some unprofitable appetite of the multitude. So
satisfied are we with the labours of Mr. Howitt in

the production of the two volumes now under notice,
that we are solicitous the subject may be completed by
one who is . evidently so well qualified for it by
his industry, his literary enthusiasm, and his graceful
and fluent style. There are, of course, minor blmishes
in the book, such for example as the monotonous repeti-
tion of the same phrases, Take as an instance the fol-
lowing iterations occurring within scarcely one hun-
dred pages of the second volume .—p. 365, " the scene
in the gardens and the pavillioni s not surpassed by any•
thing of the hind in the language;" half•a-ch zen lines
er down, "one of the loveliest poems in the
larguage';" p. 448, "gems of as noble and prtfect
poetry as any in the language ;" p. 461, " amongst
the most perfect things in the language ;" and
so on over and over again. Wierwise the
composition is simple and vivid. Occasionally, too, Mr.
Elowitt, evinces an acerbity that jars in upon the subject
treated of, very unpleasantly. It must be acknowledged
that he encountered in his gentle and amiable inquiries
after the homes and haunts of the English bards treat-
ment enough to irritate the most gentle and amiable
thsposition. As sp. cimens of this treatment, we may
refer with a very sympathetic indignation to the articles
upon Thomas Campbell, Sir Walter Seott, Shelley,
and Mrs. Tighe—a poet, by the way, not very appropri•
ately introduced among such illustrious and immeasurably
superior minds. Since the publication of Mr. Howitt's
work upon the British poets, we have seen with regret
a singularly ungenerous and undeserved attack upon
him from a correspondent of the Atheneeum newspaper
—that correspondent being none other than the widow
of Robert Southey. We are altogether unacquainted
with either Mrs. Southey or Mr. Howitt personally;
to our knowledge we have never even seen
them ; our remarks, therefore, are uttered with
the most disinterested feelings. Mrs. Southey on
the bare representation of an anonymous critic,
chooses to become very indignant with Mr. Hewitt;
for, inasmuch as she has been assured by the said critic,
that her deceased husband is spoken of with undue
harshness in the work entitled "The Homes and Haunts

Of the English Poets." Beyond this, Mrs. Southey
couples the expression of her indignation with a petulant
insinuation, that Mr. Howitt speaks thus harshly of her
dead husband, out of revenge for the refusal of
his widow to supply him with anecdotes of the
private life of Southey. And, as a climax to
,his ungraceful aspersion, Mrs. Southey observes,
that she has never read a syllable of the " Homes
and Haunts," and remarks that she shall probably never
ev( n see the book ; as much as to say, it is too con-
temptible a production. It were well if Mrs. Southey
had read the book before writing as she has Written; had
she done so, we would wager that she would have written
otherwise, and might probably have abstained from
writing at all upon the matter. For Mrs. Southey would
have found that obnoxious article to have been dictated
in the kindliest spirit towards her husband, and in the
noblest manner towards herself. The close of the
paper indeed amounts to a panegyric upon Mrs. Southey.
As a proof of this, take the following simple sentence,
vol. IL, p. 247—" Such a woman," (Mrs. Southey) "who
has adorned the literature of her country with some of
its most exquisite contributions, and sacrificed every-
thing to render the last days of one of its finest writers
as serene as possible, ought not to be left to wear away
the remainder of her life in the rcs anqusta domi,
stripped of those simple elegancies and enjoyments to
which, as a gentlewoman, she has always been accus-
tomed !" It were well if Mrs. Southey had read
the article of which that is a solitary sentence.
In that article Mr. llowitt awards a thousand-fold more
praise tge Southey as a poet than we ourselves consider!!
to be deserved. The only point in which he spetakos_c
depreciation of the " Lake Poet," is in reference to
sudden transformation from a liberalist and a I_ _
honest man could
tion into a tory and a bigot. And what
speak of that mournful and suspicious
Dmortuis nil nisi bonum,
change in other
than language of depreciation. De
very
sickly and maudlin
has always appeared to usit, we should become the
sentiment. Acting upon
panegyrists of t!)e mo:snit a.nepraved and vitiated. Give us
give us the man who can call
the manly nil nisi tr
things by their right'names without any spurious
modesty, or any bowing own before the idols of Con-
vectionalistra That Southey was nothing better than
an arrant renegade as a politician, no one will have the
tmerity or idiotism to deny. The metamorphosis was
too abrupt to allow of our designating it by any other
epithet ; and consequently it became ineumbeta upon
Mr. Howitt to speak as emphatically in reprobation
of that monstrous teregiversation, as he does in approval
of S, uthey's virtues and abilities. We have spoken thus
plainly, because of the fallacious and inviduous nature of
the charge levelled at Mr. Howitt. Any quotation
from these fascinating volutnes would be insufficient as a
testimony of the talent by which they era characterised.
We shall cuntent ourselves with observing that the
biograOlical sketch or Scutt is among the most brilliant
in the collection ; that the eulogium upon Tennyson is
as disc:itninating as it is deserved; that the publication
is daintily embellished with wood-engravings ; and that
it is equally ornamental in appearance, and excellent
as a critical composition.

A REVENUE CUTTER su AT SEA.—Between two
and three o'clock on Friday afternoon, the 19th instant, the
Nimble cutter, Mr. J. P. Blundell, commander, was standing
along shore, between Berry Head and Dartmouth, in chase
of a small smack, when her progress was suddenly arrested
by a sunken rock, and caused a rapid leak; the vessel fell
over on her starboard side, drifted from the rock, and in-
stantly sunk, in an upright position, in deep water. The crew
were taved .by. hastily cutting away the boats from the
tackles, but without clothes, bags, or bedding. It, is said the
fatal rock is not laid down in any chart, and that the corn-.
mander is a zealous officer and highly respected.