The Sun.
London, England, 1860-04-19 00:00:00

LITERATURE

Stretton of Ringwood Chace. A novel. 3 vols.

Hurst and Blackett.
This is a light and easy story, which furnishes
some pleasant reading, and the plot is ingeni-
ously arranged, the double mystery being very
cleverly disclosed at the last, Some of the persons
met with are sketched in an adroit manner, and of
these, perhaps, Mi's. Stretton is the best depicted.
We seem to behold the very impersonation of a
proud woman, yet also a very sincere and upright
one. She had never rested till she had redce'ncd
the estate of her ancestors, where she ruled with
sovereign sway, feared, yet beloved. She had to
endure a hitter mortification in finding out that,
after all, the property really belonged to some other
members of the family. The passage which refers
to Catherine's suddenly turning out to be the heiress
is very dexterous, and is one of the best points of the
story. The family of Mr. Stretton, to whom we
are at first introduced, is a pleasant prospect to dwell
upon, and there is something fresh and genial in
all we afterwards hear of them. Edward, the son,
has a good deal to contend against, but he has a
very fine character. Mabel, the heroine, is:of a very
peculiar style, but still one cannat fail to become
attached to her. She was very unfortunately
placed, for one of .her susceptible tempera-
ment and affectionate disposition, for no
sooner had she become attached to any or found a
friend in any place than she was called upon to
change and depart. She seemed destined to feel the
truth of the warning that here we have no abiding
city. However, she seemed at laSt in a more pros-
perous state; and we leave the young friend whom
we have watched through so many trials in the sure,
hopeful, confident expectation that some years of
happiness are in store for her, and that a brighter
meridian will succeed to the cloudy morning of her
day, and a softer atmosphere surround her onward
path than the dark storms which had lowered over
her young footsteps. Without being in any way
remarkable, this work may be thought of favourably,
for it fulfils to the uttermost the prospect and pro-
mise of its opening pages. The whole course of the
complicated events, and all the different persons in-
troduced, bear entirely on and are intimately con-
nected with the fortunes of Ringwood Chase. That
fair and goodly inheritance which had been held in
pride through long lines of worthy representatives
was in a state of abeyance, but it is satisfactory to
find all things arranged in a quiet manner at the
last, so that there was none of that " civil bickering
and debate" which so often occurs in families,
and which jars so painfully on the feelings. The
high sense of honour and the great sym-
pathy for the feelings of others which
seemed to be the inalienable birthrights of the
Strettons would have done honour to the
first fatr,ily in the land, and each great
and glorious attribute would have outshone
in splendour their parade of titles, and dimmed in
its lustre their most smiling possessions. There was
none of that race who was not a worthy member of
society, and an honour and a credit to their family.
There is something interesting to all elevated and
refined intelligences in the attachment that clings
tenaciously to the roof-tree of some old mansion
that to vulgar eyes may be a dilapidated ruin and a
dreary wilderness, but which to the family
must ever remain a hallowed spat of sacred remi-
niscences and the holy shrine of their household
deities. The spirit which will live on in such a
ruin has other and finer qualities to distinguish it.
In these days of levelling denouncers and utilitarian
demagogues it is the fashion to sneer at such themes
as effete and ridiculous, but human nature is the
same now in its tears and its griefs as in the days
of feudal laws, the eras of chivalry, and the
reign of romance. There is much of the clinging
feeling that will hover round the spot that gave
one birth infused into this story,pnd it has so many
other claims on notice that it may in confidence be
recommended to the reading public. " The Stret-
tons of Ringwood Chace" will delight the lovers of
the mysterious, and really in some parts the story
reminds one of the old romances that went on from
one generation to another, and were attractive exer-
cises to the brain and memory with their genea-
logical marvels.

Conquest and Colonisation in North Africa, One
Vol., pp. 246. By George Wingrove Cooke.
Blackwood and Sons.
Mr. Wingrove Cooke has here contributed another
apparently fugitive, but really valuable addition, to
our continually widening historical literature. As
in the instance of his delightful voldme upon " China
and the'Chinese" in 1857-1858, so it is now in 1859.
1860 in the instance of an equally interesting and
readable book upon the "Moors and Morocco." Both
works are revised reprints of " letters" there-
upon, in their collective publication re-christened
" chapters"—originally given to the public piece-
meal through the columns of the Times newspaper
as the effusions of a Special Correspondent. They
are productions consequently that have already
obtained the meed of an extended popularity, and
that have severally received the timbre of popu-
lar approbation. Written throughout not only
currente calamo, but with a pen that, while flying
over the rapidly-turned pages of the traveller's
note-book, leaves upon every scribbled leaf the
vivid and graphic impress of the voyager's innate
keenness of observation, and of his practical skill
in its manifestation—the volume possesses some-
what of the charm appertaining to one of the most
famous of the children's story books of Hans An-
dersen, the one entitled (as this might really have
been without any risk of a misnomer), " A Picture
Book without Pictures." The series of papers here
reprinted from the limes will be found to have been
considerably enhanced in value to the student of
history and of geography, by two comprehensive
additions in the form of an Introduction and a
Supplement—an introduction and supplement
contain:Lg the most recent information derived from
French and other sources, in reference to the Moors
and Morocco. It appears from Mr. Cooke's explana-
tion as to his recent wanderings in North Africa, that
he proceeded thither simply with an eye to recrea•
tion, and that the correspondence was in truth a sort
of after thought—the unpremeditated result of one
of those long vacation rambles, "in which," says he
in his introduction, " I have for many years annu-
ally indulged." He appears to have been, accord-
ing to his own account, so profoundly impressed
during his peregrinations by what he picturesquely
calls "those wonderful vestiges of a popula-
tion passed away ; those great silent plains
strewn with the broken tablets of history,"
that he writes, " I changed my recreation into
a study ;" adding simply—" As I went on, I
composed a series of letters, and the conductors of
of the Times thought them worthy of publication."
ILTice this very curious, and valuable, and, we may
add, singularly attractive volume of" Pen cillings by
the Way" anent the Moors, and the Arabs, and the
Kabyles, in respect to Batna and Lambessa, in re-
gard
to Setif and the Metidja, above all, in relation
to the past, present, and future of Algeria and
Morocco. The work is no mere prim and flimsy
compilation, but the bold frank record of the
results of a series of sustained and searching per-
sonal observations. It has the merit of minute
truthfulness belonging to a succession of stereo-
scopic photographs;