The Sun.
London, England, 1870-05-27 00:00:00

LITERATURE

By Lady Emily Ponsonby, author of " The Discip-

line of Life." 3 Vols. Hurst and Blackett.

Lady Emily Ponsonby in all her works endeavours to
enforce a noble lesson—the lesson so happily ej itomised by
the American Poet—

" Not enjoyment and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way,
But to act that each to-morrow
Find us further than to-day."

•
"The Discipline of Life " wv s the theme of
one of the earliest works of the author of " Nora."
It consisted of two or three very beautifully written
tales, and :.•chieved a considerable success. - The object of
the present work is to exhibit the ill effects of prejudices
and personal antipathy, but the manner in which this very
desirable object is enforced, is to say the least of it somewhat
exaggerated. In the opening of the 'book, we make the
acquaintance of an eccentric and wealthy old bachelor
of the name of Smythe, who, to his indignation
and amazement, is appointed guardian to a youth-
ful damsel. "A little girl, good Heavens!' he ex-
claims,
in horror. Be accepts the responsibility, however,
and does his best, and when the fair heiress is persecuted by
a fortune-hunting visitcr, the poor guardian declares that
his ward must marry, and if sbe will marry
no one else, he will marry her himself. The
young lady, who is one of the most inane, nay-yea
characters, or no-characters, that ever novelist described,
readily agrees, and some time later the unfortunate Mr.
Smythe again exclaims, with new dismay, "A little girl,
good Heavens!" but this time the unwelcome little girl is
no other than his daughter, Miss Annora Smythe. This
young lady, wbc, on becoming her own mistress, simplifies
her name into Nora Smith, is the heroine of the tale. Her
birth disappoints a family of cousins who had been count-
ing on the old bachelor's wealth, and she is in const quencethe
object of very unjust abhorrence. Her young cousin Herbert,
the hero of the tale, is taught from childhood to regard her with
hatred, and his senseless and extravagant animosity is near
akin to madness. The tale is altogether very improbable
in its incidents, and malignant hatred, such as that displayed
by this very perverse family, is not an every-day subject for
the discipline of life. The stor y itself is well written, and
the mystery of the dencrueirten tis preserved to the very end.
Nora" well sustains, but does not increase, the literary
reputation of its author.

Palmer's History of the Parish of St. Pancras. One Vol.
Pp. 322. Samuel Palmer.

A thousand years having nearly rolled by since the origi-
nal formation of the Parish of St. Pancras, that important
and ancient portion of the great metrcpolis has at length
found its historian. Until now the task hue not been at-
tempted, or at any rate, for certain, until now, it has never
been performed. The work of compilation, therefore, under-
taken by Mr. Palmer has been very laborious and compli-
cated. And it is not merely that the writer of this
book has accumulated an immense store of hitherto
scattered, and many of them half-forgotten, data,
for the first time in these pages—he has invested them with
a new interest by reason of the entertaining manner in
which they are recounted, and the orderly and sequential
lucidity with which they are arranged. The parish of St.
Pan' rae, it should be remembered, is one of the very largest
in the kingdom— the largest, by the way, being the parish of
Eling, in the midst of the New Forest, down in Hampshire.
Answering the sylvan character still pursued in a great
measure by the parish of Eling, the parish of St. Pancras
originally formed part of that great forest of Middlesex,
whi h, at one time, extended far into Hertf, rdshire, and the
last remnants of which are still to be seen in the ancient
elms; and oaks, and beech, and holly, trees, constituting the
chief glory, even now, of the loveliest of all our Parks,
Kensington Gardens. The mere area of St. Pancras is re-
markable, containing as it does, 27,000 acres of land, the
circuit of it embracing no less than one and twenty miles—
the population numbering a quarter of a million. St.
Pancras having at last found its historian in Mr.
Palmer, it if wonderful to he ar from him in rapid suc-
cession the right reasons there are- enow and to spare—
why its history, as a parish, should long before now have
been written and treasured up. Here, in St. Pancras, King
John had a royal palace in Tottenham-court-road—hence
its designation. Here, too, in Kentish-town, Queen Eliza-
beth had a hunting palace, whence she used to sally forth
a-hawking, and upon other sylvan sports and recreations.
Here, again, Nell Gwynne, the lowliest born, and the
most beloved of ell the mistresses of King Charles
the Second had, for a while, a 1 rivate residence.
Here, previously, red-nosed Noll (strange contrast to pretty
Nell !), the Lord Protector Cromwell. had a palatial dwell-
ing-house in Hornsey-lane, at Highgate. About the only
unsatisfactory pact of Mr. Palmer's whole elaborate per form-
ance is the account given by him, at pp. 18-22, of the life and
death, just before the close of tie third century, of the
Patron Saint of the Parish, the handsome boy of
fifteen, St. Paucratius. Had it occured to the author, he
might have found more authentic materials for this
little biography " ready to hand" in the la a Cardinal
Wiseman's beautiful tale of the Catacombs, Fabiola.
It is peculiarly interesting to note, in regard to the

old Parish Church of St. Pancras, that, as Mr. Palmer
himself tells us (p. 23), not only is it said to be the
first Christian place 'of worship erected in th• County of
Middlesex, in the eighth or ninth century, but it was " the
last parish church in England i❑ which the rites and
ceremonies of the Roman Catholic religion were performed,
and the last, also, whose bell tolled for Mass after the Re-
formation." The date of this historical building is stated
to be A.D. 1350. Singularly interesting and varied are the
memorabilia here brought together by the researches
of the L defatigable archaeologist who has here labo-
riously gathered together all that is ,most worthy
of note in regard to tho Parish of St. Pancras.

The result of his labours he has respectfully dedicated to a
former rector of the parish whose annals they celebrate
—the very reverend gentleman recently deceased (upon
the very morrow, as it were, of the book's publication),
meaning the late Roy. Thomas Dale, C anon of St.
Paul's, and Dean of Rochester.. Mr. Palmer gives us
a list of the Vicars of St. Pancras from Fulcherius,
the priest, made perpetual Vicar, with an annual pension.
of 2s. A.D. 1183, to the present Vicar, Anthony Wilson
Thorald Prependary of York, appointed (with a slightly
betterannual income than 25.) in 'August, 1869. The
list of churchwardens has a gap of merely six
years unmarked, but is otherwise complete from 1660 to
1868-1869. Much interesting anecdotal matter may
here also be found in regard to many well-known inhabi-
tants, at different times, of the Parish of St. Pancras, in-
cluding among these the Abbe Carron, Samuel Cole-
ridge, the poet, Ned Ward, the poetaster; George
Whitfield, and Major Cartwright; the Rev. William
Harness and the Rev. Edward Irving; Charles Mathews the
comedian, and Charles Dickens the novelist, with a number
of other very miscellaneous celebrities.