The Sun.
London, England, 1869-09-08 00:00:00

Harrison Ainsworth's New Novel.

During these last eight mouths the readers of the
Neu' Monthly Magazine have had presented to
them a new serial tale by Harrison Ainsworth, the
author of, we should be puzzled to say, off-hand
how many-popular romances. The mere catalogue
of the principal fictions he has penned during the
last thirty years would be something formidable iu
length. Rook wood—Jack Shepherd—Windsor
Castle—The Tower of London—Old St. Paul's—
Mervyn Clitheroe—St. James's—The Lancashire
Witches—John Law—Cardinal Pole—The Lord
Mayor of London—The Constable of the Tower—
Crich ton—Guy Fawkes—The Merchant's Daughter.
There are sixteen to begin with—but, besides these,
there are a good many others that it would be
simply superfluous to enumerate. Several, such as
Auriol and ;Sir John Chiverton, published
years ago. Several that, during the last
few seasons, have followed one another
with marvel!ous rapidity. Beginning with the first
instalment in the number of the New illonthly for
last February " Hilary St. Ives," a Tale, has
now run on to its eighth instalment in the cur-
rent number of that magazine for September. As
might naturally be surmised, therefore, the reader
of the story is now in the thick of its interest, and
approaching, after many windings and doublings—
as he (the reader) held on by the one sole clue, the
thread of the narrative—appreciably and recogniz-
ably approaching, the very heart of the labyrinth.
There he will, of course, as is almost always the case
in the centre of these mazes of fiction—there, he
will, when the right moment comes, find the hyme-
neal altar ready prepared for the denouement, and
the inevitable couple, the hero and heroine of
the tale, prepared to be united in marriage,
and prepared also thereupon to live happily toge-
ther for ever afterwards. Granted all that, as the
tolerably certain result of the eventual ecclaircisse-
went, we may at any rate, in the mean time, assure
all those who enjoy a clever story, admirably well
told, that in " Hilary St. Ives" they will find one
exactly answering that description. The plot is
moat ingeniously contrived. The incidents follow
one another with enlivening rapidity. The charac-
ters introduced are vividly contrasted, and of very
varied excellence. Hilary St. Ives, needless to say,
is the hero of the narrative. The story opens with a
description of him in the middle of a wild moor--way-
lost—towards nightfall. Attacked by some tramps
when they have led him back to the highroad cross-
ing the common, on the promise of their being paid
half-a-crown a-piece for the trouble, Hilary, robbed
of some valuable papers contained in his knapsack,
is left, bleeding and insensible, by the roadside.
Here he is found, and all but run over by a dog-
cart, taking back Mr. Radcliffe and his nephew
Oswald to the family mansion, belonging to the
former, at Hazlemere. Hazlemere and the neigh-
bouring estate of Boxmore are, for the most part,
the scene of the narrative so far as it has yet ad-
vanced. At Hazlemere, Mr. Radcliffe is the host.
At Boxmore the host is the young baronet, Sir
Charles, who is married, or at any rate affianced and
all but married, to Mr. Radcliffe's daughter and
only child, May—May being beloved, among a
crowd of other suitors, by Oswald, by Hilary, and
by the Marquis of Hartlepool. From Oswald and
from the Marquis of Hartlepool she has offers, but
both are declined. Hilary St. Ives has not yet
mustered courage to ask her hand, but in him it
is impossible not to lecognise at once her future hus-
band. Mrs. Radcliffe, May's mother, is a lacka-
daisical hypocondriac, and, altogether, a very in-
tollerable personage. Myrtilla, otherwise Lady
Richborough, a high-spirited, flyaway, dashing
young widow, Sir Charles's sister, has a touch about
her character very much resembling Lady Gay
Spanker in Dion Boucicault's earliest comedy. It
should be said at once that her brother is killed by
an accident upon the very eve of his marriage—
leaving Boxmore to his betrothed. The mystery
of the tale is associated principally with Mrs. Sut-
ton, the housekeeper at Hazlemere, and with Col.
Seymour Delacombe—those two being apparently
husband and wife, and certainly, so far as the
reader can yet understand, the father ant mother
of Hilary St. Ives. The clearing up of all that, is
what the readers of the serial are now looking for-
ward to very eagerly. So far as the narrative has
yet advanced it has proved worthy of the author of
" Mervyn Clitheroe" and " The Merchant's Daugh-
ter." It shows him to be still in the vigour of
his fertile imagination, and still to have all his old
mastery over the pen for the rapid and vivid deli-
neation of character.

THE CRUISE OF 711 E LORDS OF 711 E
ADMIRALTY.

GIBRALTAR BAY, Sept. 2.

Signal has been made to the combined Fleet to
prepare to sail from here at daylight in the morn-
ing, and the coaling:of the ships will be completed
this afternoon.

The Monarch, which was left by the Channel
Fleet outside the Straits repacking glands, to pre-
vent an escape of steam, arrived in the Bay early
on the morning yesterday, after the arrival of the
other ships.
The Fleet is composed of six armour-plated iron-
built ships, six armour-plated wood-built ships,
one unarmoured iron-built frigate, one un-
armoured wood-tuilt sloop, and one paddlewheel
despatch steamer, manned by 8,121 officers and
men, armed with 233 armour-piercing, muzzle-
loading rifled guns (the light 61-pounder and
other guns not possessing armour penetration in
the Fleet I have not included in this number),
propelled by a gross nominal engine -power of
13,220-horse.

The stay of the Fleet here since the Channel Divi-
sion joined on Tuesday afternoon will have been
but a short one, but a good deal will have been done
in the time by the First Lords. On Tuesday even-
ing their Lordships entertained Sir Alexander
Milne and his personal Staff and officers of the
Fleet at dinner on board here, and yesterday
evening Lieutenant-General Sir Richard Airey and
the officers of his personal Staff dined on board
with their Lordships. As early :as half-past six
yesterday morning the Admiralty bargo had left
the Agincourt, conveying Mr. Childers and Sir
Sydney Dacres to the dockyard and coaling jetty
at the New Mole, where some time was spent
in an examination of the existing arrangements
of the works in progress there. On returning
from the dockyard a visit was paid to Vice-Ad-
miral Sir Alexander Milne on board his flagship,
the Lord Warden, and afterwards their lordships
went on board each of the ships of the Mediter-
ranean Division under the gallant Admiral's com-
mand. It is enough to say at present with regard
to the Mediterranean ships, that the magnificent
order they are in deservedly elicited the warmest
expressions of admiration from their lordships. In
the afternoon the official Admiralty visit was made
to the Governor of Gibraltar at his summer re-
sidence, the Cottage, at Europa. On their
lordships landing from their barge at the new
Mole the battery at the head of the Mole fired a
salute of 19 guns, and a guard of honour of the
13th Light Infantry, with the regimental band and
colours, was drawn up to receive them. From the
Mole the carriages of his Excellency conveyed his
distinguished visitors to the Cottage. This morn-
ing by half-past seven the Psyche, with the Lords
of the Admiralty, accompanied by Sir Richard Airey
and Staff, crossed to Tangiers, and were rec.2ived at
the Legation by the Foreign Minister of Morocc,), in-
troduced by Sir John D. Hay, afterwards returning
the Minister's visit at his palace. This evening Sir
Richard Airey gives a grand dinner on shore to the
Admiralty Lords and the Admirals commanding
the two divisions, and to which a large party of
officers, naval and military, are invited to meet
them.

The Peninsular and Oriental Company's screw
steamship Tanjore arrived here last night at 7 p.m.
from Southampton, with the mails, and resumed her
voyage again this morning for Malta.
A French screw corvette arrived in the Bay this
morning from Tangiers.