The Sun.
London, England, 1867-06-19 00:00:00

NG', JUNE 19, 1867

LI TARA TITRE.

Harrison Ainsworth's New Story.

Old Court. A Novel. By William Harrison
Ainsworth. Three Vols. Chapman and Hall.
Another delightful fiction has, in " Old Court,"
been added by Harrison Ainsworth to his already
numerous and brilliant contributions to the ima-
ginative literature of England. If a companion pic-
ture is anywhere discoverable among its predeces-
sors, it would perhaps be discernible in " Mervyn
Clitheroe." Yet even there the resemblance can be
regarded as merely superficial. " Old Court" and
"Mervyn Clitheroe" simply fall, so to speak, within
the same category, for inasmuch as they are stories
the time of which is within the knowledge of the
present generation, and the scene of which is here
iu England. Otherwise, they are for the most part
very dissimilar. They resemble each other, apart
from these two considerations of time and place,
no more than they either of them bear any resem-
blance whatever to the other tales told by the same
inexhaustible story-teller. And how various his
themes, and how divers the methods of their treat-
ment, who is there amongst us who does not very well
indeed remember ? " Rookwood" for example—
a work that might be accepted as the very type, as
the very arch-type of pure Romance, ending with
its breathless incident of the Ride to York by
Dick Turpin the Highwayman. Contrasting
vividly with which, we have that picturesque narra-
tive of the early part of the last century, " the-
teacup times of hoop and hood," when beaux
vied with each other " in the nice conduct of
a clouded cane," when brocaded petticoats
rustled among the quincunxes and carvelled yew-
trees of such old-world gardens as those haunted by
heroines like " The Miser's Daughter." Contrasted
yet more vividly again with these—we have a
long array of historical romances penned by the
celebrant of two such astonishingly different
persons, as, on the one hand, let us say, The Ad-
mirable "Crichton," and, on the other, the house-
breaker and prison-breaker, " Jack Sheppard I"
Such historical romances, for example, as those with
which Harrison Ainsworth constrained his readers
thenceforth to associate inextricably fictitious inci-
dents of his own conception with national edifices as
important as "Windsor Castle," and the " Tower
of London," and " St. James's" Palace, and " Old
St. Paul's,"—the romance last mentioned compris-
ing within it events as dire and as enthralling as
the Great Fire and the Plague of London. It were
simply superfluous, however, to undertake here
anything like a synopsis, or even, we will
say, anything like an exact or detailed cata-
logue of the imaginative writings of the author
(among other works) of " Cardinal Pole" and
" John Law," of " The Constable of the
Tower" and " The Lord Mayor of London," of
"Lancashire Witches" and " Guy Fawkes," of
"The Star Chamber" and " The Flitch of Bacon,"
of " Sir John Chiverton," and of " Ovingdean
Grange." Selecting, now one theme, now
another—now one epoch, now another our
alternate Novelist and Romancist would seem
to have shown us long since the whole range of his
capabilities, wide and various though they are.
This, however, he apparently has not done, after
all, nevertheless ! Instance, in truth, this latest in-
dication of his sustained and unexhausted origi-
nality. " Old Court," as we have already inti-
mated, for inasmuch as it is both modern and
English, is so far (but no farther), like " Mervyn
Clitheroe," but, apart from that, it is really and
truly, upon the whole, entirely unlike any one of its
various and numerous predecessors. It is full of
interest—an interest that begins with the very be-
ginning and ends with the very end of the narra-
tive. It is noticeable, by the way, at the outset, in
regard to the construction of the story, that
there is a tragical proem, or prelude, or
prologue, or overture, or introduction, or
however you may like to call it, that rivets the
attention in regard to the work almost upon the
reader's first opening of the first chapter of the
first volume. From this introduction to the
novel or romance proper of " Old Court" we take
cognisance of an incident which furnishes a key
to the whole mystery of the subsequent plot,
a clue enabling us afterwards to thread the most
devious windings of its entangled labyrinth.
Kit's Coity House, in fact, is the scene of an
apparent murder, which in simple truth, how-
ever, is nothing worse than a purely accidental
homicide, in which a Younger Brother falls the
victim of a pistol shot fired during a struggle be-
tween himself and his Elder Brother—the younger
one being armed (and to all appearance with
the most murderous intentions) with the very
weapon by which he himself is, through a pure
casualty, destroyed. Both the brothers are in love
with the same woman—the victim (unknown to his
accidental destroyer) being at the very time of the
fatal contention at Kit's Coity House, secretly this
bewitching creature's husband. Sir Hugh Chet-
wynd, Baronet, of Old Court, is, in point of fact,
the unintending fratricide, Captain Clarence
Chetwynd being his ill-fated younger brother.
Clarence, therefore, it is, whom Amice, the cause
of this fatal struggle, survives long enough to
become the mother of a boy who eventually makes
good his claim, not only as heir to the baronetcy, but
—more than that—to the remorseful adoption of him
by Sir Hugh, as heir to his ancestral estate of Old
Court, and in effect to the whole bulk of his' pro-
perty. This, notwithstanding that Sir Hugh himself
has an only daughter of his own by a marriage
which appears to have lasted but for a very brief
interval, leaving him thenceforth (with his only
daughter) a sombre and saturnine widower. The
natural, the almost inevitable conjecture would be
of course, upon mentioning this, that Ainice's son
and Sir Hugh's daughter espouse each other. Such,
however, is not by any means the case. The pre-
cise manner, however, in which Mr. Ainsworth, with
all his practised skill, weaves together the tissue of
their fortunes—the readers of " Old Court" will be
charmed to learn through a perusal of the book
itself. As affording them upon the instant an
enticing glimpse of its alluring heroine, we will
here give Mr. Ainsworth's intending readers, at any
rate, one of his delicately-pencilled outlines of
Lucetta, as those outlines are drawn in the manner
following

There were many lovely girls dancing, but one eclipsed
all the rest. So singularly graceful was she, that it was a
positive pleasure to watch her movements. Her figure
was perfectly symmetrical, and its exquisite proportions
were now admirably displayed in the mazy dance. She
was tall and slight, with the tiniest and prettiest
feet imaginable. We have not said a word as yet
about her features, but they corresponded with' her figure,
and were of the highest order of beauty—a lovely oval
face, lighted up by black eyes of Oriental size and splen-
dour, exquisitely pencilled brows and luxuriant black
tresses, taken back from a forehead smooth and white as
Parian marble. Her features were of a pure classical
mould, with a beautiful mouth and proudly-cut chin ; and
when her rosy lips wore parted by a smile—and what an
enchanting smile it was—two rows of pearls might be
discovered.

Beginning, as we have seen that the book does,
with a startling and melodramatic Homicide, it
closes with an enthralling description of a Fire at
Old Court—a fire that at one tima seems to
threaten the whole of that picturesque and
ancient edifice with destruction. All ends
happily, however—(thevillain of the tale, La Hogue,
meeting a dreadful death the while)—Capt. Fan-
shawe and Lucetta being married at the same time
that the heroine-number-two, by name Ida Fan-
shawe, is taken to wife by Sir Clarence Chetwyn,
the new baronet, and as such the new master of Old
Court.

A MAN Tonx TO PIECES.-011 Saturday Win.
Pickard, aged CO, was oiling a shaft at the corn mill of Mr.
Benjamin Murgatroyd, near Bradford, when his clothing
becoming enta,nglod, ho was taken up and dashed against a
wall, his head being instantly smashed to pieces, and his
arms and legs torn off.

THE Moolts.-IVe are glad to be able to state
that the fatal disease prevalent among grouse in other
parts of the country has not yet penetrated to any of our
northern moors. On the contrary, wo are informed that
grouse have not been so abundant for many years. On the
extensive moors of Badenoch, Strathspey, Strathdearu, and
Strathnairn, the prospects of the sportsman were never
brighter. The young birds are strong and healthy ; the
coveys numerous, and averaging from eight to eleven in
each.—lttrerness Cotner.

LATEST INTELLIGENUB.

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

AMERICA.

ARRIVAL OF THE CITY OF LONDON.
NEW YORE, June 8, 5.50 a.m.

General Sickles has issued an order requiring
all civil officers charged with the maintenance of
the peace in his district to report to and obey
the paramount authority of the Provost Marshals
in their districts.

General Sheridan has appointed Mr. Benjamin
Flanders Governor of Louisiana, Mr. Durant de-
clining to accept the office.
It is reported that President Johnson is about
to issue a proclamation declaring that military
district command,:rs have no right to remove or in-
terfere with Southern State officials.

President Johnson arrived at Richmond en route
for Washington, yesterday. On Thursday he
visited the University of North Carolina, and deli-
vered a brief speech, reiterating his formor declara-
tions to defend and obey the constitution, and
protested sincerity in his actions.
Numerous Conservative meetings have been held
in Georgia, Alabama.
Chief Justice Chase opened the Circuit Court at
Raleigh ou Thursday.
Mr. Davis has returned to Montreal.

Advices received here from Mexico state that
Juarez and his Cabinet held a consultation at San
Luis on the 17th May relative to the disposal of the
Emperor Maximilian, but the result is not known.
It is reported that the came of the fall of Quere-
taro was the bribery of the commander of the prin-
cipal'fort.

The Emperor Maximilian stipulated that he should
be treated as a prisoner of war, but that if anybody
was shot he should be the first.

Escobedo has ordered all Imperial officers now
refusing to surrender to be shot.

The Inman steamer City of London, from New
York on the Bth inst., arrived at Queenstown at
4 a.m. to-day (June 18) with 121 passengers and
P 14,538 in specie. After having landed the mails
and passengers, she proceeded for Liverpool at
4.20 a.m.

NEW YORK, June 18.
The steamers Tarifa, City of Cork, and Louisiana
arrived out to-day.

TURKEY.

CONSTANTINOPLE, June 18.

A collective Note, from France, Russia, Prussia,
and Italy was presented to the Porte on Saturday,
urging the suspension of hostilities in Crete, and an
inquiry into the grievances of the islanders, by
commissioners appointed jointly by the great
Powers and the Porte.

The Imperial Ottoman Bank has published the
half-yearly statement of the Government debt ac-
count, showing that 117 millions of piastres have
been received in cash, and that 27 millions will be
dua on the 13th July, and 45 millions after that
date. Of these amounts there have been remitted
to Europe 103 millions on account of the Foreign
Loan Service, and 86 millions still remain here on
account of the general debt service.