The Sun.
London, England, 1866-08-21 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Lords and Ladies. By the Author of " Margaret
and her Bridesmaids." 3 Vols. Hurst and
Blackett:
The charming authoress of " Margaret and her
Bridesmaids" has selected for the theme of her new
story an incident as improbable, not to say-impos-
sible, as can well be imagined, but the clever man-
ner in which she has concocted her little plot, and
the truly pleasant style in which she has detailed
it to us, go far towards inducing us to overlook the
slight fundamental error above alluded to Among
our lady novelists there is perhaps no one who for
playful vivacity of style and lively, graceful gossip,
excells the favorite authoress of " Margaret and
her Bridesmaids," and " the Queen of the County,"
and some other pleasant works. " Lords and
Ladies" will, at all events, interest the fairer and
better half of novel readers. It is just the book
for a companion in the busy idleness of the sea-
beach or the country-side. The interest is not so
exciting but that it may be laid aside upon occa-
sion, but whenever taken up and wherever opened,
the reader will find pleasant matter to wile away
an agreeable hour. Neither will the time so spent
be wasted time, for the gentle, homely moral incul-
cated by the little drama enacted by these wilful
lords and ladies is one well worthy of general
application. The motto on the title-page, from
Tennyson

"Musing on the little lives of men,
And how they mar this little by their feuds"—
is well enough, but almost too serious for the
theme, as the altercations between the heroes and
heroines of the tale, although startling enough in
their consequences, hardly amount to " feuds."
More appropriate would have been those charming
lines of Moore's, beginning
" Oh, ye who have the charge of Love,
Keep him in rosy bondage bound."
The truth contained in that well-known passage,
which it is unnecessary to quote at length, is the
keynote of this amusing serio-comic history of the
discussions and divisions of these lords and ladies :
" A something light as air, a look,
A word unkind or wrongly taken,
Oh, Love, that tempests never shook,
A breath, a touch like this hath shaken."
The cause of the famous " challenge" given
and received in this veracious history arises,
as the first chapter tells us, " like a cloud of
smoke." Rather, it should be said, it occurs
because the cloud of smoke does not rise. Mrs.
Joscelyn, at a dinner party at her newly-decorated
mansion, objects to any smoking in the dining-
room after dinner ! The consequences of this ob-
jection, and the gentleman's objection to that objec-
tion, are altogether so serious and amazing that we
must refer our readers for a full account to the
pages of the history itself 1 Mrs. Joscelyn, " the
head and front" of this offending, is herself so all-
perfect and fascinating that it is a marvel how any
request of hers can be so ill received. But the
Squire, good man as he is, is suffering at the moment
under a sudden irritation of the nerve Opiniatum,
which nerve, our authoress tells us, although little
mentioned by anatomists, "runs from the brain to
the feet—in some subjects it overpowers and wholly
subjugates every other nerve in the body ; the
slightest touch starts it into instant life, and during
the time it quivers and lives, the reasoning faculties,
the moral powers, the higher virtues succumb before
it !" Such are the dread effects of any interference
with this deadly nerve, as Mrs. Joscelyn has reason
to know. The Squire, when this troublesome nerve
is at rest, is a delightful companion. Even on the
desert island, where he and his companions betake
themselves during the freak, he suprises his brother
travellers by dressing for dinner, even although no
ladies (of course) are present. When reminded by
his friends that such social observances are now
unnecessary, he rejoins, " I have a certain respect
for a fellow called Jack Joscelyn, and I always pay
him the compliment of a clean shirt, hands, and
face, even when he and I dine alone !" The sequel
of the quarrel is very ingeniously arranged, but we
should be loth, by a word, to reveal the mystery
of the result. Suffice it to say, that "all is well that
ends well;" the " Lads " and the " Ladies" derive
profit from their experiences, which are likely to
afford considerable amusement to their readers.

The New Victoria Bridge.

It is expected that the new Victoria-bridge over

the Thames at Battersea will be opened for public
traffic before the close of the present month. It has
passed the inspection of Captain Rich repre-
senting the Board of Trade, and has stood the test
to which it has been subjected in such a manner as

to satisfy those most interested in its ultimate suc-
cess. Eight of the heaviest engines belonging to
the London, Chatham, and Dover Company were
driven over it during the trial, with the result that
the greatest deflection of the loaded rib-175ft. span
—was seven-eighths of an inch,while the simultane-
ous rise of the corresponding ribs of the next span
was only one-seventh of that amount. This great
structure, which is 912 ft. long and 132 ft. wide—
being the widest railway bridge in the world—con-
sists of four river spans of 175 ft. in the clear and
two land spans of 65ft. and 70ft. respectively. The
spans and rise are the same as those of the original
bridge, hitherto used jointly by the two bodies for
which the present work has been undertaken—the
London, Chatham, and Dover, and the London,
Brighton, and South Coast Railway Company—but
the foundations and ironworks are perfectly distinct.
The great additions made to the capabalities of the
two companies will be easily understood when it is
stated that the bridge will hold two mixed gauge
and two narrow gauge lines for the London, Chat-
ham, and Dover, and one of the London, Brighton,
and South Coast. Besides, the space of 33ft. Gin.
by the up and down platforms is at present so
arranged that it will be available by a small addi-
tional expenditure for three more narrow-gauge

;nes ; so that altogether, with those already ex;sting
on the old bridge, there win. be ten separate means
of access to the Victoria station, each having a
distinct and independent approach. The bridge
forms the key to the intricate net-work of high-level
lines at Battersea, which is now. nearly completed,
and will doubtless obviate the difficulties which have
now for some time impeded the 'working of the
traffic of the companies by whom it has been built.
The details of the structure are so numerous that it
is impossible to notice them one by: one, but there
are some peculiar features connected with it‘which
deserve special mention. For iustalice, the 32-arch
ribs in the four spans are so arranged as to act as
cantilevers, while the horizontal girder connected
with them by spandrils is riveted up, and thus forms
one continuous girder from end to end of the bridge,
which, as has been stated, is 912 ft. in length. Again,
the ribs abut on cast-iron skewbacks, from which,
on the piers, cast-iron standards are carried up to
support the horizontal girder ; so that the bridge is,
in fact, an uninterrupted structure of iron, without
intervention of masonry or brickwork of any kind.
The cylinders beneath have been filled with concrete
in cement and brickwork, loaded with pig iron, so
as to equal the weight of the superstructure when
occupied with locomotives—being in the case of the
cylinders next the old bridge as much as 1,260,
while in the remaining ones it was 1,000 tons. It
may be added that the greatest settlement in any
part of this section of the great structure was not
more than of an inch. The works connected with

the bridge on the south side of the river are chiefly
lofty viaducts and represent a total length of ten
miles of double lines. It has been decided that there
will be four new stations—namely, Grosvenor-road,
York-road, Battersea-road, and Queen's-road, thus
opening up a new and important district which will
doubtless add a large contingent to the pas-
sengers :travelling by the lines upon which
these stations are situated. Altogether this.
new medium of uniting the southern and south-
western districts of London cannot fail to afford
largely increased facilities for the immense traffic
which the Victoria Station daily receives.• The
work has been completed in a very short time con-
sidering its magnitude and intricacy, the foundation
stone having been laid in February, 1865, and the
Government inspection having taken place in August,
1866. The Chatham Company's and the South-
Western Company's portions of the work have been
constructed by Messrs. Peto and Betts; the Brighton
Company's branches by Messrs. Pickering and
Heywood; Sir C. Fox and sons being engineers and
superintendents of the whole,