The Sun.
London, England, 1856-12-18 00:00:00

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ItW9 E C yam.l3 18 5

LITERATURE.

Clover Cottage ; oi, I Can't Get In. By the
Author of " The Falcon Family," &-c.,
Chapman and Hall, Piccadilly.
We accept this little volume with smiles and
thanks. It is of simple, yet somewhat original
construction ; and will help to pass away a dark
long evening very pleasantly. The incidents and
interest lie in the futile endeavours of Mr. Wind-
fall, a generous, sensitive gentleman, to get resi-
dential possession of Clover Cottage, a perfect
"love" of a place, lately left him by his godmother;
which said cottage the said godmother had lent to
a clever and pretty little widow, Mrs. Wily. The
widow is, of course, reluctant to. experience the
fate of her first parent, and be turned out of Eden
—so adroitly parries all Mr. Windfall's attempts at
ejection, until Cupid draws up Articles of Peace,
ratified by the seal of Hymen. With the acces-
saries of a dinner-loving friend, an honest lawyer,
a village Poet Laureate, a lady confidante, and a
few other scene-shifters, the drama is fairly sus-
tained and agreeably concluded. Clover Cottage
is thus rhapsodically described by "Florio," the
sentimental minstrel, who strikes his " wild
guitar " whenever a pic-nic or holiday feast is in
the ascendant. On the strength of this extract it
may be imagined that the book is very read-
able :

" Imagine the rosiest, cosiest, sunniest, honeyist, love-
liest and do ;finest, balmiest, and lamb-iest, neatest, sweet-
est, and completest cot, cottage, nest, nook, den, hermit-
age, or whatever else there is at once snug and beautiful
in all the world—imagine that, and you have Clover before
your mind's eye as perfectly as it was a picture by Gains-
borough.'
" Or figure to yourself, if you prefer it, an extract made
by Atkinson or Rowland from as many charming rural re-
treats as there are perfumes that go to the composition of
" milles-fleurs." Clover was not so much cottage as otto,
or concentrated essence of cottage. It was just the bonny
thing that Mab would choose to tickle your fancy with,if
she wanted to drive you cottage mad. You know that
form of insanity? The Sylvios and Pastorellas are very
subject to it at tender ages, and the fit generally comes on
when the 'young May moon is beaming,' so that there is no
question of its being a form of lunacy, though one of the
mildest.
" Clover, you must know, had the most powerful natu-
ral orchestra that ever ravished the human ear. Black-
birds, thrushes, larks, linnets, finches, and doves, in short
all the Sweet Unpaid, sang, piped, warbled, and cooed
the livelong day in the woods and meadows that encom-
passed it ; and the moment night came, the nightingale—
melodious row—turned it into day again with his inces-
sant nocturnal performances. Moreover, combining sub-
stantial comforts with airy delights, this fortunate spot
could boast of the happiest family circlet of cows and
calves, kids and rabbits, pigs and guinea-pigs, lambs, lamb-
kin; and lambkinets, that ever bleated or grunted, frisked
or capered, nibbled or browsed. Then its flower-garden,
which hung on a southern slope, was a wilderness of sweets
and a blaze of colours ; to what can I compare it but a
variegated robe suspended in the sun, or an eastern carpet
on which my lady's maid has spilled a whole casket of
odours? The kitchen-garden was. the flower-garden re-
peated or prolonged, with the necessary substantial differ•
ence of containing all manner of delicious fruits and escu-
lent roots and herbs, from the melting peach to the hot
horse-radish, which grew, let use tell you, at a prudent
distance from the monkshood. The side of the dell oppo-
site to the garden was not covered with green velvet, but
with a smooth verdant turf that looked as like green vel-
vet as possible ; and finally, down in the bottom of this
romantic hollow ran, sparkling and foaming, a stream
abounding with trout of the finest flavour, while across it
was flung a rustic bridge, uniting the two aides of the
valley, and completing the loveliest picture in the loveliest
shire of the loveliest country in Europe."