The Sun.
London, England, 1856-11-01 00:00:00

MAGAZINE DAY.

I Blackwood.—Mrs. Oliphant carries the chief per-
sonages of her story at last to the long-talked of
Oldwood Lodge. Charley, however—a very "big"
personage in this Tale of " The Athelings," if we
are to judge of his size by the frequent repetition
of that adjective in his regard throughout the fic-
tion--being left at home at Bellevue, while the rest
of the house go a•pleasuring to the sylvan bequest
of poor old Aunt Bridget. There they speedily make
acquaintance with the Hon. Anastasia Rivers, a
sort of an aristocratic double of Aunt Betsy in
"David Copperfield"—with the exceedingly High
Church clergyman of the parish, who carries his
head in the clouds, and talks over the noddles of
his rustic congregation—with Hannah, the old
maid's old maid, whimpering for her dead mistress,
and doating on the dumb twins (for they have never
once opened their lips yet that the readers of
" The Athelings" have yet heard of) Belle and
Beau—above all, with the mysterious Rachel's
mysterious brother Lewis, a young gentleman
quite a king in his own conceit, although
occupying a most equivocal position in
the narrative as the reputed bastard of
the licentious Lord SYinterliourne. It is easy
enough to conjecture the ultimate turn to be taken
by our authoress in the unravelling of the tangled
plot of " The Athelings." Of course—Charley the
big boy is destined with his legal lore to unferret
the vermin Evil of the story. Of course—Lewis
will turn out to be the rightful heir, and his sup-
positions father the wrongful heir to the title and
estates of Winterbourn. Of course—Marian is to
be his wife, and Rachel probably the wife of
Charley. Of course all this, and a great deal more
quite as obvious and inevitable, is to be the case—
unless Mrs. Oliphant is determined to violate every
one of the exceeding " probabilities " she herself
has marked out in the ingenious scheme of this
very charming tale of hers about " the three gifts"
of the three Athelings. Al earlier paper in the
November number of Blackwood is capital—a fine
arts criticism, suggestively entitled "Mr. Ruskin
and his Theories—Sublime and Ridiculous !" Full
justice is done to the undeniable abilities evidenced
throughout the whole of his eccentric and remark-
able career by that most eloquent sophist, John
Ruskin the Oxford Graduate. The reviewer
appreciates the genius without being blinded
by the extravagances and errors of the not-
able author of " Modern Painters." The
now familiar and apparently all but intermi-
nable serial of " The Scot Abroad," introduces its
readers this month to such " men of art" coming
under that category, as Allan Ramsay, the son of
the " Gentle Shepherd!" and as Sir Robert Strange,
incomparably the greatest of all our native engrav-
ers. "Scandinavia" is the theme of a geographi-
cal disquisition, suggested by recent volumes given
to the world by the Rev. Messrs. Newland and
Metcalfe. " A Cause Worth Trying"—is an arti-
cle worth reading—a genuine magazine article, full
of interest, an interest, indeed, instantaneous and
sustained, novel and enthralling. " Touchiag
Temporalities" is a sort of half-comical, half-scho-
larly goSsip de omnibus rebus, &c., indulged in
through the medium of a " Letter to Irenmus,"
by his indefatigable correspondent, with the teeth-
and-lips-puzzling name of Tlepolemus. Another
group takes place immediataly afterwards between
imaginary interlocutors, such as Albany, Temple,
and Chatterton, about the sights, scenes, and per-
sonages arresting the attention of the autumnal
visitors to " Baden-Baden." Among those visitors,
who can mistake the following callotype of Albertus
Magnus—