The Sun.
London, England, 1834-09-13 00:00:00

tion it would Lvern that there must have been at these tables
upwards of two hondred thousand persons.
" It was a custom among the Romans, at the end of a feast,
to drink out of a large cup as often as there were letters in the
names of their mistresses."

TWO OLD MEN'S TALES.

THE DEFORMED AND THE ADMIRAL'S DAUGHTER. 2 POLS. Bro.

Saunders and Otley, London, 1834.

This work having had the good fortune to arrive at
a second edition, it is fair to presume it must have
merit of some kind, if we were but ,cunning enough to
find it out ; but there is the rub—there is the nodus
vindice dignus—the rebus, harder than Sampson's—
the riddle,
-- " which he that solved the Sphynx
Would die a-guessing."
Of a verity we cannot help thinking—absit invidia
dicto—that the title is a misnomer, and, instead of the
" Old Men's Tales," it would have been more pro-
perly nominated the " Old Women's Tales,"—not
that we mean, by this correction of a palpable error, to
insinuate anything to the disadvantage of the gossips
feminine ; far from it ; old gentlemen, we well know, can
be dull, and old ladies can be lively ; but then there
is a manifest distinction in their prosings, upon the
same principle that, though wine may be weak as well
as tea, yet the weakness has not the same flavour.
With some occasional powers of language, and some
pathos of incident, there does not appear to us anything
very new either in the subject, or the manner in which it
is treated. The descriptions, however, are occasionally
happy, and it would not be difficult to select many
passages from the work which would convey a more
favourable idea of its . merits than we have expressed.
For instance :

" The apartments in general offered a striking picture of
the contrast between recent and ancient tastes and manners.
Many of them had been fitted up as living-rooms, furnished
and adorned with all the elaborate luxury of our times ;
though, it is true, adapted by the skill of the presiding artist as
far as possible to the genius of the place, so that no glaring in-
congruity might shock the eye. The massive carved and
gilded furniture, the rich satins, damasks, and velvets, were in
harmony with the ideas of antique grandeur inspired by the
vastness of the building; but the splendid mirrors, the extra-
ordinary vividness of the colouring displayed upon the walls
and hangings, the splendid collection of pictures in gorgeous
frames, the thousand forms of elegance and beauty presented
on every side, reminded the spectator that all was the work of
recent art. One wh'ole side of the castle remained, however,
unvisited by modern improvement, and the long suite of its
echoing apartments still retained their character of ancient,
faded, gloomy splendour. The small pointed windows of
stained glass scarcely afforded at mid-day more than a twilight
view of the ponderous, tall-backed ebony chairs ; the wide
yawning chimnies, with their ample hearths, and towering
mantlepieces ; the dark tapestry which waved and,moved when
the opening door admitted the air. Beds were there with
testers reaching to the ceiling, from whose heavily adorned
canopies the long gloomy curtains hung in massive folds—an-
tique cabinets—strange, mysterious-looking chests—misshapen
figures—grotesque and enormous jars—all the treasures of
rude uncivilised ages here assembled, were arranged in the
stiff, undeviating order that had been preserved for centuries—
forcibly recalling those days when life appears to have been a
system of grave representation, rather than of social enjoy-
ment ; where neither companionship, nor gaiety, nor the happy
domestic negligence of our times could find a place.
" The towers had been long abandoned to the owls and
bats ; but those who chose to climb to the summit were re-
warded by one of the richest and most varied landscapes to be
found, among the multitude which adorn this land ; still, for
the gaiety and luxuriance of its scenery, deserving the name
of merry England. The vast domain of Brandon acquired
with all its forests, streams, chases, and rights manorial and
territorial at the Conquest, by the good sword of John the
Long, first Earl, stretched far on every side ; intersected by a
magnificent sheet of water, presenting every variety of sweep-
ing lawn and undulating vale and hill, interspersed with im-
mense oaks and elms, and crowned by the waving woods which
rose in splendid profusion : through the whole extent of the
park the long dark avenue might be seen extending many a
mile, while glimpses of the blue and hazy distant mountains
added softness to this charming picture."

This is well said. There is great truth and vivid-
ness of colouring in the picture ; but a hundred such
passages, even had they ten times the merit that this
really has, will not make a first-rate novel. We have,
however, cited it in justice to our author, who has a
right to demand, that while we point out his defects to
the reader, we shall fairly quote whatever may tend to
redeem them. We are no more than judges, bound by
our office to' sum up the testimony on either side ; the
public is the jury, with whom must rest the final
award of reputation or oblivion, and in the literary as
well as other courts, it has not unfrequently happened
that judge and jury have come to very different con-
clusions on the same evidence.

The second tale is decidedly the best, both as re-
gards story and character, though it bears strong signs
of some French melo-drama—not actually borrowed
from one, but as having caught its tone from the study
of that not very desirable model. It is, we suspect,
precisely the sort of food which suits the irregular
appetite of a novel-reader, full of sentiment, plot, and
that false glow of generosity, which, confounding all
things in its preternatural light, leaves vice and virtue
perfectly indistinguishable. The best of friends is
unhappily a traitor, and the most loving of wives is,
no less incongruously, an adultress, and all parties die,
notwithstanding these peccadillos, after a most amiable
and edifying fashion. It was not thus that Scott and
Fielding wrote.

THE ROMANCE OF HISTORY. VoL. XXIII.

Bull and Churton.

The novel-reading part of the public have no right
to complain of being stinted in their lterary proven-
der. New books, and old books in new forms, pour
from the press with alarming rapidity for those who
have the misfortune to be stationed on the look-out to
report the appearance of such merchandize: One is
absolutely pelted to death with novels ; and, at this
very moment, there is enough of them lying upon
our table to burn the grandfather of all critics.
Mashallah I--for Christian adjurations are ' too faint
to express the variety and poignancy of our feelings—
Mashallah I what is to become of us, 'and bow are
VV,I to bide the pelting of this pitiless storm ? 'We may
sly with Virgil—" nocte pluit tots," and' a. tremend-
ous shower it is ; of which, as we certainly do not re-
collect the beginning, so we have very little hope of
witnessing the end. The worst of it is, that the love
for the lighter and more poetical parts of fiction has died
off from among us ; the present taste is, for the very
dregs of the cup, the vapid residuum of the wine,
when all its zest and sparkle have passed away ; ex-
travagant horrors are all the fashion, interspersed with
maudlin pictures of high life, as it is absurdly called—
that is, of a narrow circle of men and women, more
idle, more ignorant, and more luxurious than the rest
of the world, the impudence of whose pretentions is to
be matched only by the littleness of their actions.
Having thus fairly, or unfairly expectorated our bile
against all the novels, that ever were, or will be written,—
a few of the very best alone excepted,—we must do
Bull and Churton the justice to say that this is a very
pretty publication, cheap
in price, and neat in the
manner of its getting up. To those, who love light
reading, it will prove an acceptable present, besides
that from its fashionable exterior, it will do well to
grace a lady's cabinet by the side of the gawdy an-
nuals—those beau Brummels of the literary world.
There is also another advantage attending works of
tais kind, which are built on an historical basis ; the
lounger, who sips them up with his chocolate may in-
dulge in the pleasing illusion that he is actually reading
history, and thus have all the credit, without the
fatigues, of application. If, too, he is at all dexterous,
he may pick up enough of Italian chronicle, from the
summaries, appended to each tale, to pass muster with
tolerable eclat in the salons of London.

STATE OF TRADE IN MANCHESTER.---There
has been nothing peculiar in the commercial transactions of the
week. Prices keep up, but there has not been much business
done. A decline in prices may be expected as the shipping
season draws to a close, and the new crops of American cotton
arrive. The mills and factories in the neighbourhood continue
in full work.