The Sun.
London, England, 1835-12-05 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

THE ANGLER'S SOUVENIR.
Tilt, London. 1835.

The little volume before us is profusely ernbel-
lished with a variety of engravings relative to that
art of which old Isaac Walton, the pastoral
Cockney, was so distinguished a professor.
is a very elegant trifle, by no means profound in its
display of piscatory science; but well worth read'
ing, • from the lively style in which. it is written,
and the mass of anecdotal matter with which it is di'
versified.

FINE ARTS.

GALLERY OF MODERN BRITISH ARTISTS.

Tilt : London, 1835.

The idea of this work is excellent, and the excetP
tion being not a whit inferior to the conception, we
see no reason why it should not meet with such a cis'
culation as shall repay the publisher for the expense'
and time, and labour it must have cost him to bring it
out. The volume, which is a good sized quarto'
splendidly bound in green leather, and possessing
very becoming drawing-room exterior, contains sped'
mens of many of the best paintings of our modern art"
ists, engraved, generally speaking, in a style of superior
ability, and such as conveys a very vivid idea of, the
peculiarities of the originals. We have here Roberts°
fine sketch of Melrose Abbey, immortalized in Scott?,
" Lay of the Last Minstrel," and one of the finest, if
not the finest, monastic ruins in Noah Britain ; Cat'
termole's Warwick Castle, which he who has never
seen, has a rare treat in store for him ; Nash's
Christopher Sly and the Hostess ; Stanfield's well'
known St. Michael's Mount, Cornwall ; Bonnington's
Bruges, one of that lamented artist's happiest and
most characteristic efforts ; Havell's Tivoli ; together
with a variety of other engravings, thirty-five in number'
which will call up agreeable recollections in the minds
of those who have seen the original designs. Of
these numerous and well-chosen engravings our favour
rite is the view of Broadstairs, which has been exe-
cuted by Floyd, from an original design furnished by
Brandard. The cheerful and sunny effect of this pie"
ture, is singularly fclicitolis. The town itself is placed
in the back-ground, the fore ground being made 111)
of the tall, winding cliffs by which you approach it
from Ramsgate ; and its monotonous aspect being re"
lieved by a gracefully disposed group, who are seated
on the heights looking abroad over the world of waters
which stretch away into endless expanse, before and
beyond them. A not less picturesque object is the little
watering-place, with the male and female figures
pacing along its elevated terrace, and its miniature,
wooden harbour, where just one small vessel or two
are lying at anchor. There is, however, one de'
feet in the peice. The cliffs in the fore-ground have
not sufficient elevation ; nor are the sands so readily
visible from the summits as they are here represented
to be. The sketch of Waltham Cross, as this
fine Gothic monument most probably appeared at tile
period of its first erection, forms the subject of .00e
of Clarke's most pleasing designs. Its rich, and
somewhat florid architecture must have cost the artist
much time and trouble ; but he has overcome the di'
fficulty, and represented it in all its minuteness. Hurt
Castle is a spirited sea-piece, not unworthy of Daniel)
by Vickers, and is engraved by Floyd. The water
looks as if full of movement, with a deep, cloudy
shadow hanging on it, which the engraver has repia-
sented with considerable skill. We have mentioned
some of the ablest of these pictures, and shall merely
add, that each is accompanied by .a brief literary ex"planation.

FINDEN'S BYRON BEAUTIES. PAirs 12, 13.

Tilt, London. 1835.

A work on the same principle as the female portraits
of the Waverley Novels, and brought out, if we mis-
take not, by the same indefatigable publisher. The
portraits, of course, are all ideal, but they give one s
very fair idea of the character of Byron's heroines. To
our liking, the best by many degrees in the collection is
Wood's picture of Tereza, for whom Mazeppa formed
that disastrous attachment which occasioned his compul-
sory trip into the Ukraine on the back of a wild horse.
The face is one of most exquisite delicacy, the figure_per-
fect in symmetry, and the attitude full of freedom and
elegance. The extreme simplicity of Tereza's attire
greatly heightens the effect of this agreeable picture.
Of Laura, the coquettish heroine of ‘c Beppo," we
cannot speak so favourably. She looks less like an
arch, sprightly coquette, than one disordered in her
intellects. Her hair, too, is dressed after the presen
absurd fashion, which is an anachronism, and in very
bad taste. The work is one which will bind up very
well with Murray's octavo editions of Byron's Poems'

SWISSERLAND—Parts 16 17.
Virtue, London, 1835.

Among other choice sketches of Alpine scenery'
these parts contain two views, one of Mount Blanc,
from the Jura ; and the other of the Castle of Chillon
by moonlight, which will impress all who have ever
seen the imposing scenes themselves, with a strong
sense of their exact resemblance. The first is marked
by all the sternest features of solitude and deso'
lation. The Sovereign of the Swiss Alps, crowned
with eternal snows, rears his head high above
the region of the clouds ; and from the elevation
at which the spectator is supposed to stand, even
that inland sea, the lake of Geneva itself, seems
dwarfed into the dimensions of a Hampstead or
Clapham pond. The Castle of Chillon is of a milder
and more pleasing character, and the sombre shadows
thrown by the precipitous mountains across the water
are skilfully defined by the engraver. The rest of the
sketches have nothing about them sufficiently marked
to demand especial notice.

THE CONSEQUENCE OF DRIVING THINGS
OFF.—Moon. London, 1835.
A very clever picture, by Chalon, representing 3
family, consisting of a gentleman, his wife, and two
children, shouting and bawling after a stage-coach,
which was to have taken them up at a certain spot 011
the high road, but which, in consequence of their
being ten minutes behind their time, has gone off
without them. You just see the coach mounting a
hill, in the intermediate distance, which of course
adds to the tribulation of the belated family, who are
in hopes, by a series of combined shouts, to persuade
the coachman to stop ; but in vain, for none are so.
deaf as those who will not hear, and honest John is
evidently in this last predicament. The attitudes of
the family—papa hoisting up his umbrella as a signal
of distress ; mama waving her handkerchief above her
head with an energy made terrific by desperation ; and
her little boy standing on tip-toe, squalling with all his
might, as he had been just subjected to the discipline
of the birch—the attitudes of these various figures
are full of humour, and in strict keeping with the truth
of nature. Nor must we omit to mention the boy
coining up with the heavy box on his head, and the
old gentleman with the portmanteau trailing along the
ground, which gives the last finish to one of the most ,
spirited paintings of the day. The engraving is by
Rolls, who has done ample justice to Chalon's idea.

MALVAGNA ; A ROMANCE OF TIIE NINE'
TEENTH CENTURY.—This is
,a stirring and dramatic story's
founded on the remarkable superstition, entertained in the
South (4 Europe, of the baleful effects of being looked upon
by an Evil Eye. It chief interest lies in the details it af-
fords of the revolutionary movements in Sicily and Naples ;,
which have all the appearance of being connected with real,
facts. Brigandage, conspiracy, adventure, perils, love, and
murder, fill the page ; and there is enough of each to carry
every reader of romance along to the finale, with the inte-
roct necessary to their enjoyment,