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

LITERATURE.

HOMES AND HAW%TS OF THE MOST
17:,iIHVEN1' BRITISH POETS. 2 Vols. By
Widiam Howitt.

previous writings of Wil-
iam Agreealiho as have be: n the
iiowitt, this is unquestionably the most delighful
work he has yet produced. There was a necessity,
moreover, fur a book of this description, a book forming
a topographical illustration to the inimitable biographies
Dr. Juhrson, and perpetuating as far as possible the
remembrance of the scattered localitics 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 the incidents by which their lives had 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 composi
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 memofials of our distinguished prede-
cessors are for 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 fortunes, 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 ourselves have been con-
scious. It is like the realisation of a dream; it is precisely
that 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 in Switzerland when evening
was 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
bai known it in connexion with some appalling murder,
and in a previous state of existence. Strange and bewil-
dering 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
pleasant 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
our 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 have derived the whole
colouring and bias of their intellects. What, for ex-
:apple, would Drummond have been had he resided
elsewhere than in Havkhornd'en ? What would have
beea the result had Falcon(-r never

-"Sailed along the deep,
Where the stormy winds do blow;",
had Wordsworth never trod the herbage bf Grasmere

or Rydal Mount; had Burns never stirggere.l through
the streets of Dumfries ; had Shaltspere never poached
smong the fern of Stratford, or strayed into the parlour
of the Mermaid Tavern, Friday-street, Cheapside?
ehould we have heard ought. of the Shipwreck, of the
ural sonnets, of Tam O'Sh,inter, 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 ; jiad 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 the fields, and the
streets sanctified by the footsteps of genius. Hence
the researches of William Howitt, in the neighbourhood
of Belvoir, when coilecting 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 blemishes
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 kind in the language;" half-a-dozen lines
lower down, "one of the loveliest poems in the
language:;" p. 448, "gems of as noble and perfect
poetry as any in the language ;" p. 461, " amongst
the most perfect things in the language ;" and
so on over and over again. Otherwise the
composition is simple and vivid. Occasionally, too, Mr.
Howitt, 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
disposition. As specimens of this treatment, we may
refer with a very sympathetic indignation to the articles
upon Thomas Campbell, Sir Walter Scott, 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 Athentruni 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. Howitt;
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
this ungraceful aspersion, Mrs. Southey observes,
that she has never read a syllable of the "Homes
and Haunts," and remarks that she shall probably never
even see the book ; as much as to say, it is too con-
temptible a production. It were well if Mrs. Southey
had read the beole before writing as she has written; had
she dune so, we would wager that she would have written:
otherwise, and might probably have abstained from
,vriting at all upon the matter. For Mrs. Southey would
have found that obnoxious article to have been dictated

in the kindliest spirit towards her Inishand,-;diniiii:
noblest manlier towards herself. The close of the
paper ind,ed amounts to a panegyric upon Mrs. Southey-.
As a proof of this, take the following simple sentence,
vol. 11., p. 247—" Such a woman," (Airs. Southey) "who
has adorned the literature of her country with some of
its most exquisite contributions, and sacrificed every-
thin:: to render the lastdays of one of its finest writers
as serene as pessable, ought not to be left to wear awav-
the retnain4er of her life in the res angusta domr,
stripp'td of those simple elegancies and enjoyments to
which, as a gentlewoman, she has always been accus-
turned !" It were well it Mrs. Southey had read
the article of which that is a solitary sentence.
In that article Mr. Hewitt awaris a thousand folftmore
praise to Southey as a poet than we ourselves'eonsidered
to he deserved. The onlpoiot in which he speaks in
depreciation of the " Like Poet," is in reference to his
suddQn transformation from a .liberalist and a revolu-
tion into a tory and a bigot. And what honest man could
speak of Oat mournful and suspicioui charge in.other
than language of depreeiation. De ntortuis nd nisi bo' num,
has always appeared. to us a very sickly and maudlin
sentiment Acting upon it, we should become the
panegyrists of the most depraved and vitiated. Give us
the manly nil nisi verion ; give us the man who can call
things by their right names without any spurious
modesty, or any bowing down before the idols of Con-
ventionalism. That Southey was nothing better than,
avewthaes an arrant renegade as a politician, no
metamorphosisowi3clesirgileting it by lla.nliy other
too m (.rity
abrupt or rtii allow idiotism 0
ft o
our designating
epithet ; and consequently it became incumbent upon
pohna,tiacsalhley in reprobation.
of that
i °Lint ts
monstrous
usspteearks
gitseresmatii
of S,uthey's virtues and abilities. We h does in approval
plainly, because of the fallacious and i 'adve spoken thus
the charge levelled at Mr. How', cvi uous nature of
from these fascinating volumes it. Any. quotation,
testimony of the talent b • whichwould be insufficient ass.
We shall content
biographical sketch
in the collection" itho
as discriminatin • ourselves). they are characterised..
of
s. with observing that the,
as
it is
Scott is among the most brilliant
eulogium upon Tennyson is
is daintily embellished
g it is deserved; that the publication
it is ti with
equally ornamental '
as a critical composition. wood-engravings ; and that
in appearance, and excellent
...

A REVENUE tUTTER SUNK AT SKA.—BetWee', two
and three o'clock qn Friday afternoon, the 19th instant, for ,
Nimble cutter, Mr. J. P. Blundell, commander, was standir Jo.
along shore, between Berry Head and Dartmouth, in el .1 a see
of a small smack, when her progress was suddenly arr • Est ed
by a sunken rock, and caused a rapid leak; the vess,4 f: an
' over on her starboard aide, drifted from the rock, a'Ad ;•-a,'"'
stantly Sunk, in an upright position, in deep water. fife c 0 e;
were eared by hastily cutting away the 'lola from
;the
tackles, but wiibc,lt clothes, bags, or bedding. It is s•••ici ; he
fatal rock is not laid down in any chart, and that #' ' '-
wander is a zealous officer and highly respected, rile c% al-