The Sun.
London, England, 1867-03-11 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Half Round the Old World. By Viscount Polling-
ton. One Vol., pp. 393. Moxon and Co.

In these records of a tour in Russia, the Cau-
casus, Persia, and Turkey in 1865-66 Lord Pol-
lington has given us a very delightful glimpse of the
various scenes through which he passed, and the
men and manners that he encountered in his
way. He has given us, he tells us, almost an exact
transcription of his diary kept during the travels
which he describes, and he has added "no after-
thoughts, and no descriptions of the origin of
peoples, or of the former state of places that have been
laboriously culled from the pages of eucycloi ;alias."
These very judicious omissions, in fact, only add to the
attractions of the book, which is full of interesting
information incidentally introduced, and is also en-
livened with innumerable anecdotes. As, for
example, we learn that in Prussia " the difference
between the several classes of carriages on the rail-
way apparently is, that the first-class only holds
six upon velvet, and the second-class eight upon
leather ; the thied-class, as many as it will hold
upon wood ; and the fourth, as many as can stand
upon their feet." In Russia we find that sparkling
Moselle is called " the Emperor Alexander's cham-
pagne, as that Monarch first introduced it into
Moscow ;" and in Armenia, when remarking upon
the cunning expression of the natives, we are re-
minded of the proverb, " that it takes five
Christians to get over a Turk, and five Turks
to cheat a Greek, fire of these latter are required to
swindle a Jew, but it requires five Jews to ' do'
one Armenian l" These brief little scraps, selected
almost hap-hazard, will be sufficient to demonstrate
the amusing as well as interestingcharacter of these
very pleasant travels " llalf-Round the Old World."

Men I Bove Known. By William Jerdan. One Vol.
Pp. 490. Illustrated with Fac-simile Auto-
graphs. Routledge and Sons.
These most delightful reminiscences of men whom,
by name and repute at least, we have all known,
will be read with interest by many. The natural
easy manner in which the Recollections are strung
together adds greatly to their attraction ; and the
genial kindly spirit of the venerable author is con-
spicuous throughout the whole volume. Various,
indeed, in character and career are the men here
assembled together ; men who, some of them, have
hardly anything in common save their public im-
portance and the kind regard of their biographer.
Side by side with the Earl of Aberdeen comes
Richard Barham, the incomparable " Ingoldsby,"
Thomas Campbell, and George Canning, Charles
Dibdin, and Isaac Disraeli, Sir John Franklin and
John Galt, William Huskisson and Joseph Jekyll,
Sir Walter Scott and Brinsley Sheridan—almost
every man of any repute in politics or literature
during the last century is here commemorated, and
very appropriately and very cordially commented
upon by one who himself ranks among those men
whom to have known is a pleasure and a privilege.

The Story of a Life: and other Works, chiefly
Poetical. By William Alfred Gibbs. One Vol.

A. W. Bennett.

A deeply pathetic story, very tenderly told, is
this story of a life, which we are assured is " an
o'er true tale." It commences with a very charm-
ing description of a happy home, ruled over by a
beloved mother.

Bright, genial, prudent, gaily, kindly wise,
She moved among her children like a queen ;
Wisdom her crown, and for her sceptre, love.

A blight, however, hangs over the happy home.
Intermarriages with too near of kin have
introduced the taint of insanity. The mother
herself is the first victim, and the happy
home becomes a desecrated temple. In the
" sequel" to this sad story, the evil inheritance
exerts its melancholy influence among her children,
and in the "second sequel," even to auother gene-
ration. The moral lesson is verystrongly inculcated,
but the story is a very painful one. So charming
are some of the home scenes, and so vividly drawn
some of the characters, that we should be glad to
have at the hands of the same author a domestic
story with a happier issue.

Sketches by Seymour. John Camden Hotten.

This "Book of Cockney Sports, Whims, and
Oddities" will be welcome to all who remember the
name of Seymour in connection with the earlier
illustrations of " Pickwick." In more than one
awkward amateur of a sportsman we fancy
we detect a family likeness to that immortal
Nimrod, Nathaniel Winkle. More than one hun-
dred and eighty humorous drawings are collected
in this volume, to which is prefixed a very interest-
ing account of the artist and his works. The
publisher has been induced to bring forward these
sketches in the belief " that the present generation
might find some amusement in another issue of the
droll pictures and comicalities which set the world
laughing thirty years since." At the same time, he
comments upon the different character of the
humorous illustrations of the present day, and
remarks that John Leech, more than any
other artist, has assisted in producing this
milder taste in our national fan. " The finer
shades of humour rather than the old broad form
of wit appear to characterise the popular taste of
the present day." The truth of this observation is
very evident upon the merest glance through these
whimsicalities, which were once wont "to set the
table in a roar." The style of wit as contrasted
with the modern Punch, is, as the Belgravian flunkey
complained of the " quisine" of the servant's hall,
substantial but " coarse 1" Nevertheless, as a speci-
men of the fun of a bygone generation, they have
a value of their own, and, yet more, as sketches by
Seymour, the great illustrator of " Pickwick," they
possess a future and permanent attraction.