The Sun.
London, England, 1860-04-09 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

The Autobiography of Leigh Hunt. A new edition
One vol. Pp. 452. Smith, Elder, and Co.

Very welcome will this new edition of a delight-
ful work, by an incomparably delightful writer, be
to many hundreds of thousands. Its interest is
enhanced in a melancholy manner by the recent
decease of the amiable and rarely accomplished
autobiographer. Immediately prior to his calm
demise, however, Leigh Hunt—holding his pen
lovingly to the last, and only dropping it as it were
half unconsciously, to sink back into the tranquil
exhaustion of dissolution—had just finished the
final touches of revision, in preparing for the public
the proof-sheets of this new edition of his auto-
biography. At the period of its first publication
in three volumes, more than ten years back, we
subjected the work (we well remember) in those
columns to a careful critical examination. It will
be sufficient if we here observe of the revised
reprint (in which the three volumes are con-
densed into one) that it possesses several
additional attractions. It contains two addi-
tional chapters written by Leigh Hunt him-
self —as we have intimated —just before he
breathed his last peacefully in the arms of those
he loved best upon earth. Chapter X XV. is en-
titled " Play-writing conclusion. " Chapter
XXVI., " Life drawing towards its close." To
the end of this concluding fragment of the auto-
biography, the eldest son of the poet-essayist
appends a little over a page of " Postscript." Be-
sides which, the same editor prefixes to the work
a charming prefatory paper by way of introduction
to the autobiography. As a frontispiece to the
volume we have a deeply interesting portrait of the
charming author—like Goldsmith—one of the most
beloved writers in our English literature.

Examples of Modern Alphabets. By F. Delamotte.
One vol. E. and F. N. Spon.
An excellent sequel, this is, to Mr. F. Delamotte's
" Book of Ornamental Alphabets, Ancient AND
Modern"—to which we have already in these
columns awarded our commendation. Within the
compass of forty-eight royal Bvo. oblong pages, the
artist has collected and delineated, with a faithful
pencil, examples of "Modern Alphabets," both
Plain and Ornamental, including among them Ger-
man, Old English, Saxon, Italic, Greek, Hebrew,
Tuscan, Riband, Gothic, Rustic, Engrossing, Per-
spective, and Arabesque. The work will be found
particularly useful to Masons, Carvers, Painters,
Engravers, Surveyors, Decorators, Draughtsmen,
and Lithographers.

The Embroiderer's Book of Design. By F. Della-
motte. One vol. E. and F. N. Spon.
Here, too, the same artist and collector has in-
dustriously brought together within the small com-
pass of nineteen oblong royal octavo pages—initials,
emblems, cyphers, and monograms, ecclesiastical
devices, and ornamental borders; among other em-
blems, those of a peculiarly national character; and
besides all these a variety of modern and media3val
alphabets. The book will be found a delightful
and most useful auxiliary to the graceful labours of
the embroiderer.

Cunseroux's Bust of Brunel.
In the vestibule or outer apartment of the
suite of rooms—constituting the well-known
Suffolk - street Gallery there is noticeable
among other meritorious products of the
Sculptor's Art, an admirable and (although a
colossal) a most life-like effigy (No. 866) of the late
distinguished engineer, Isambard Brunel, to whose
genius as an engineer England is indebted (among
many other gigantic productions) for the Great
Western Railway and the Great Eastern Steam-
ship. The young sculptor, Mr. S. G. Cameroux,
whose hand has contributed this noble Bust of
Brunel to the newly-opened exhibition of the
Society of British Artists, has done far more than
merely delineate accurately the form of the head
and features—he has caught with true artist-skill
that soul of the " human face divine "—the expres-
sion !