The Sun.
London, England, 1866-08-31 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

The Mother's Favourite. By S. Russell Whitney

3 vols. Hurst and Blackett.

The Mother's Favourite is, as might reasonably be
expected, an individual very unworthy of such a
privilege; how unworthy, however, few readers will
be likely to surmise before they become acquainted
with the frightful catalogue of crimes callously
committed by Sir Henry Hargreave, afterwards
Earl of Merwyn. As the third volume of this highly
sensational story commences, the hero is conducting
his wife and child to a lonely house where he has
assassins ready to make away with her. The un-
conscious lady, as the train approaches the destined
station, complains of some undefinable presentiment
that hangs over her, and her tender husband cheers
her spirits and laughs away her fear ! So much for
the hero, the Mother's Favourite. We cannot say
that we have much liking for the other hero, the
elder brother and rightful heir who had been sent
into exile by the machinations of his step-mother,
and who returns to assert his rights at the proper
moment. This meritorious gentleman is, of course,
the lover, the favoured lover of the heroine, but
notwithstanding this circumstance we find him,
during a visit to Paris in order to pass the time, and
divert his thoughts from his beloved, entering into
an intrigue with a fair Countess whom he meets in the
Bois de Boulogne. The Countess is.represented as
highly virtuous, and her lover as highly principled,
and her waiting-maid as treacherous, and her hus-
band as unjustly jealous ; but the whole episode is
very disgusting, and in no way elevates the character
of the moral hero of the story. After what
we have said, it is hardly necessary to add our con-
.viction that " The Mother's Favourite," either as an
individual or as a novel, is not likely to be a very
great Favourite with the majority of novel-readers.

The Journal of a Waiting-Gentlewoman. Edited
by Beatrice A. Jourdan. One vol., pp. 235.
Sampson Low, Son, and Marston.

Beginning on the 27th of May, 1677, in the quaint
and somewhat formal manner of the time, fair
Mistress Cicely, the waiting-gentlewoman of Lady
Anne'Freeman, daughter of the Earl of Drayton,
details to us from the records of her own private
journal some remarkable events which took
place during the visit to Eversfield Hall, the
seat of Samuel Eversfield, Esquire, of Lord Drayton
and the Lady Anne, and the waiting lady and
" two black servants," namely, Carlo, the dog, and.
Pompey, the page. An interesting little story is
interwoven in these records, which very cleverly
illustrates the modes and manners of the times. How
the fair Lady Anne is supposed to be bewitched,
how Pompey (being black) is suspected, and Carlo
(being also black) is shot, hlw Mr. Samuel Evers-
field, the Justice of the Peace, ignores both peace
and justice in his dread and horror of witchcraft,
and how the genial presence of Lord Drayton, re-
turning after, an unlucky absence, disperses the
clouds, is very effectively and happily narrated by
the anxious and alarmed Cicely. The good earl
effectually puts an end to all the alarms, and_
threatens to box his daughter's ears if he sees any
further evidence of her being bewitched, a threat
which meets with deserved success. The Lady
Anne screams no more, and the unfortunate Goody,
the supposed witch, is allowed to die in peace in
the prison to which the caution of the wise justice
had consigned her, while with regard to the fair
Mistress Cicely " All is well that ends well."