The Sun.
London, England, 1835-05-25 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

FORD REGIS. 3 Vols. Bentley. London 1835.
These, though amusing and clever volumes, will
certainly not add much to Miss Mitford's reputation.
Pie reason for this is the nature of the subject, which
1' such as to preclude the possibility of her being either
very attractive, or very original. A work is already
before the public expressly devoted to the peculiarities
of a provincial town ; and, as in the present case, it
professes to take nature for its guide, it has forestalled
smuch of Miss Mitford's matter ; for, however it may
have been in old times, one town now bears nearly the
same resemblance to another, as regards the characters
and habits of its inhabitants, as the two Sosias bear to
each other in the Amphitryon of Plautus. The quick
andi• constant communication between the metropolis
411.. X the country, has had the effect of smoothing' down
4)_a uniform polish all the rough edges of provincial
character. There are no Peter Pounces—no Squire
Westerns—no Parson Trullibers or Adamses—few
Stiff, eeuftly old maids, rejoicing in faded brocade, and
favourite St. James's anecdote, to-be met with
licrw-a days. The = dress of London is that of the
%),li!.4fyfoWri*;" the manners of both are the same; the
!aril° its - chit-chat ; the :same, or nearly the same, its
~!PtiAements. -The last, new fashion that you meet this
MO-street, you shall meet the next in Bel-
Yegis.- The last new book that electrifies the
`l3lol':OP9lifen circles, to-day, shall produce the same
effect on those4.heiforddlegis to-morrow. Miss Mit-
,°,r,stherefore, has been unfortunate in her choice of
sect .bnt 'nevertheless has throWn quite Mttylt
74-mess. into it. as was possible. -
, • „
_ilpe,need scat,cet),interm our readers: that Belfoid
!i7143,is Reading, and , that, however it may be with
e acters• the scenic- descriptions are as true to the
, ,
kilAny„coritained, " Our, Among the
fittest of these—perhaps the very finest., because the
most characteristic—is the opening sketch of the town,
-`
with its long ranges of modern buildings in the out-
skirts, mingled with picturesque old streets ; the huge
monastic ruins of the Abbey ; the great river winding
ilkng, like a thread of silver, trees and gardens ming-
-11 amongst all ; and the whole landscape enriched
4:4 lightened by the dropping elms of the foreground.",
sketch lives in every line. That part of it which
hag reference to the Abbey seems to be a prime
favourite with Miss Mitford, for she frequently reverts
t 0 it in her volumes ; and on one occasion expresses
her regret that " there was no guardian hand fifty
Years ago to prevent the introduction of national
schools amongst some of the most extensive and finely
situated monastic ruins in England." We cannot
hold
with this regret, for well we remember, even in
00? school-boy days, when rambling on a summer
laughter
about the Abbey, and hearing the shouts and
14ughter of the charity children, swelling up among its
stern and crumbling ruins, the vivid associations which
lueh unexpected sounds forced on our minds. Melan-
eal)lY and cheerfulness—youth and age—hope and
7sPair—seemed here mingled in fellowship together.
trrne, the contrast was a startling one ; still it was far
t°lll unpleasing, being informed with the deepest sett-
jrnent• Miss Mitford, however, does not regard it in
tlis light ; she looks at the clekrity school with the
eye rather of a painter than a philosopher, and sees
nothing in its erection among ruins but a violation of
the
Picturesque.
The best chapter in " Belford Regis" is " King
'arwooxl," which pourtrays the freaks of a brisk,
s3isffieimis young cit, who comes down from London for
the express purpose of illumining the provincials, in a
vein of pointed, but good-humoured satire. " Stephen
Lade, the Butcher," is another well drawn character,
though, if our memory does not mislead us, we have
i,n et with our fat friend before, in one of the Annuals.
in the Belford " Cheese Fair" Miss Mitford is equally
at,, home, and brings the whole scene of glorious con -
fusion before us, as for seven successive Septembers
,s:e_witnessed it on the Forbury play-ground. In his
Posthumous Memoirs "—one of the most fascinating
hooks, by the way, in our language—Gibbon has ex-
pressly alluded to his school days, as being the most
tniserable of his existence. He would not have said
to, had he known what it was to look forward to a
Belford Cheese Fair; still less, had he ever experi-
enced the enjoyment of that school Carnival—the
Tlionth preceding the performance of a Greek play.
On this branch of her subject Miss Mitford dwells
with peculiar animation.

BEL

flip !an cy," says she, "a quick and lively boy, learning to tread
entgly, and carry himself demurely, and move gently, and
eartsey modestly, and speak softly, and blush, and cast down his
yes, and look as like a girl as if he had all his life worn petticoats!
tley the vain attempt, by cold cream and chicken-skin gloves
rue
iernove the stain of the summer's sun, and bring the coarse
paws into a semblance of feminine delicacy Fancy the
rebellion of the lad, and his hatred of stays, and his horror of
:Paint, and the thousand droll incidents that, partly from acci-
te'" and partly from design, were sure to happen at each re-
Irsal (the rehearsal of an English tragedy at a real theatre
comical enough, heaven knows 1), and it will not be asto-
ti
1,..164 that, in spite of the labour required by the study of so
b.7Y long speeches, the performers as well as the guests
ote;d the scenes were delighted with the getting-up of the
el plays."
ti This sketch leaves us nothing to add, except that it
ot unirequently happened that the unhappy boy,
whose lot it was to distinguish himself in the part of a
w °4l'an, in the Alcestis or the Medea, was compelled for
111
°'-itths afterwards to fight, at least, one pitch-battle a-
:?, in order to rescue himself from the heinous accu-
\l°l4 of effeminacy. We must not omit to notice
o 18z .Mitford's descriptions of the scenery about Bel-
frid, Which are full of that rare creative power which
ee %hied us so much in " Our Village." But how
viiTft it that she says nothing of the neighbouring
age• tof Caversham, than which Thames, in all his
Nv
sellicliptga from the Gloucestershire hills to the Nore,
h ell,nt)thiog more sylvan or picturesque ? She might
ere't()o, have picked up one or two odd characters—
fe'le samples of the old English yeoman—and not a
lbastdultaatod old maids, the like of which are now
rarelyo to be met with, beyond the bounds of some such
ijuktet, secluded hamlet, as Caversham. The parts we
least in Belford Regis, are those wherein Miss
ltforil enters the lists against Miss Austen—as, for
Ititanc• 2, in her sketches of the Harwood Family, and
lic'te et specially, in her chapters'entitled " Suppers and
ally," and " Belles of the Ball-room." Here she
us " as with a difference" of the racy old
ti:gliBht :novel " Emma." But what was life in the
p-378 D.liss Austen, has ceased to be such in the
tirnvs. Within the last twenty years a change
ta", .c. tme...01,t.r the doniesticmanners. of' England, as
1.,,ti ,gdern'and startling, as any that has takemplace for a
411
.tteti.e'tutury before.. Those, therefore, who wish
vie\ re eminence in the difficult art of sketching
4:441: eter-, must rely, not on their :.recollection, but on
cii.servation. •

.`' ~Tj

v: Y LIPB;7! BY THE AUTHOR OF " STOWE'S
c v"! ZRLOcs."—" Since the publication of Miss Edgworth'S'
stle RaCkrent,' we have met with no work of fiction, nor,
e0i1.,70 of fact, containing a description at once so rich and 'so
``.l"," of -the, state of society and manners in Ireland ,some
froz:r si::-and-thirty years ago, as that which is to be collected
the _lttes of this most amusing and spirited narrative.
Ithua,ave..been much entertained by the characteristic sketches
ItotiroVrotiS'iritidents of the author of 44 My Life.' His-
, tirt tt.O"terit; ' independently 'of the truth and correctness of Ills
'i-.011412.1474, 41' poini,:isiS in'the intenseness and`reality 'of indivi-
%lift eiraradt - Nor is this all. The author's Merit is not
l),,`,"01 to individtial portraits, nor to the national dmpery‘iii'
,I*-F
I they a.we :enveloped. His descriptions. of some of the"
~iteriinttg events' which belong to the history of tbat -disastrous
The-- u'' 'ix exceedingly. vivid and graphic. The battle, or re- •
`'',,,The--
.I', to Utf Of Castlebar, is described'with a power, a drn
Port; tf-foot,t'ind acknowledge of details, .which give to that
Wig; ", of the book all the attraction of romance, combhibi
'loe authority of historical truth."..—Morning Post.