The Sun.
London, England, 1857-06-05 00:00:00

Collections, &c.

LITERATURE.

By the Very Rev. Geo. Oliver,

D.D. Bvo. Dolman.
`Robert Southey, who himself projected ,a " His-
;ory of ihe Monastic Orders"—an intention the

non--realisation of which we remember to have been

feelingly lamented some few years since in the
Edinburgh by Sir James Stephens, in the course of
a learned and genial biogi aphical criticism upon
"St. Francis of Aszisi"—,Rohert Southey would
have welcomed with unaffected delight Dr. Oliver's
goodly book of Collections. It would have been a

olum- e after his own heart—truthful, earnest, new,
scholarly, gossipping, discursive, and anecdotal. A

repertory of curious and out-of-the-way fragments
of archaeological information. Not a lumber-room
no much as a cabinet—A cabinet carefully pigeon-
holed and exquisitely arranged. Itob&it Southey's

chief attraction in the Cook would, however,
without doubt have been the Supplementary No-
tices appended to it " iNotices the _Do-
Titinican, Benedictine, and Franciscan Orders
in England." For these Notices would have

furnished the literary antiquary of Keswick

with an inestimable store of materiel for the build-

ing up of that beautiful "Castle in the Air" already
particularised as among the number of poor Sou-
they's manifold and diversified day-dreams. Not
by any means, however, that those supplement ►ry
notices constitute the only or the chief part of the
attraction to be found in Dr. Oliver's strangely inte-
resting tome of " Collections." Those collections
themselves the learned and ingenious author has
divided into two distinct parts, one illustrating
historically, the other biographically, particular por-
tions of ecclesiastical hist( ry in the six weste(n
counties, Cornwall, Devon, Dor3et, Somerset,
Wilts, and Gloucester. As an ecclesiastical historian,
antiquary, and archasologist, Dr. Oliver has long
enjoyed throughout a considerable portion of those
six counties, a very high and a deServedly high
reputation. It is no lesS than thirty-seven ye.irs
since the date of his publication at Exeter
(namely, in 1820), of his remarkable " Historic
Collections relating to the Monasteries of Devon."
It was between the years 1839 and 1842 that he
gave to the world his three remarkable volumes en-
titled " toC!esiastical Antiquities in Devonshire."
It was subsequently, in 1846, that our venerable
author produced his noble folio volume " Mon4stic
Dicecesis Exuniensis" a worthy continuation of
Dogdale, and as such already recognised as authori-
tative. Other hardly less laborious compositions
from the Sa;aie pen, works displaying an extraordi-
naryamount of research, sagacity, and perseverance,
have also at intervals made their appearance. Con-
spicuous.ainong these, his popular volume entitled
" Cliefordiana, of which we are not surprised t o
observe that another and enlarged edition is an-
nounced to be in preparation. Ihe " Collections"
now before us will not fail—we res t pet fec tly assured
of this, after carefully scrutinising the contents—
will not fail materially to confirm, and at the
same time to extend very considerably Dr.
Oliver's reputation as an ecclesiastical antiquary
and al-Oncologist. We accept the volume as a fresh
earnest of the advent at last to the world of letters
of kis long anticipated and carefully-prepared work—
very soon, let us hope, to see the light—" The His-
tory of Exeter Cathedral." A work which the late
John Britton would have welcomed as eagerly as
we have already remarked the late Robert Southey
would assuredly have hailed this interesting and
alluring octavo of "Collections." Dr. Oliver's foot-
notes—we may illustrate the value ofthis latest of his
I.terary productions thus succinctly ex pede IL rculent
—are very often a great deal more interesting than
many another writer's text. Ex. gr. his little
anecdotal " aside"—commemOrative of a character-
istic incident in the annals of the " Benedictine
Dames," here spoken of as the Ladies of Canning-
ton. In the course of Dr. Oliver's sketch of them,
having mentioned their temporary reception at
Marnhull House, in the county of Dorset, our
learned author allows his pen to jot down in the
margin of his narrative this amusing little foot-
note :
" During their twelve years' residence there, a credulous
magistrate, of the name of Frampton, waited upon these
religious ladies, and informed them that he must search
their premises for Napoleon Buonaparte, who he was
credibly instructed lay concealed there,—that ho had a
painful duty to perform,—that resistance was unavailing,
as he had abundant force to back him, and demanded their
keys and aid to apprehend the king's enemy. The search
was rigorously made, but proved abortive. On quitting,
the prioress assured him she was not surprised at the re-
sult,—that her convent at Paris had been as strictly
searched for William Pitt by the French authorities, and
with similar success !"
Speaking of even these footnotes, we may say
ex vito disce omncseath fragmentary por-
tion has its value and its interest. Much more,
therefore, may we say the same, of thetext Whichthose
notes merely serve, of course, either to embellish
or to explain. It is this blending of value and inte-
rest which constitutes the charm of _Dr. Oliver's
" Collections"—as, indeed, of all his various
works, antiquarian and archeological.

_Rosa of Tannenburg. By Christopher Von
Szbmidt. Pp. 181. Dolman.

A translation from the German of an exquisite
story related by an exquisite tale-teller—" Rosa
of Tannenburg' —can never fail in any version,
English, French, Spanish, Italian, whatever fo-
reign tongue it may be rendered into, it can never
fail, we say, to increase Canon Schmidt's beau-
tiful and enviable reputation. Everybody who
reads a novelette by Canon Schmidt is the
better for it. And the dear old canon of Augs-
burg does us good, thus, so delightfully! Me never
sermonizes. He tells all that he has to tell so
simply—we hang upon his every word while he is
talking. And the lovely under-meaning of the
narrative, whatever it may be, only comes
fully and distinctly upon us when we have reached
the conclusion. While we are reading one of these
charming tales by Christopher Von Schmidt,
Canon of Augsburg, we are thinking only of the
tale itself. It has always such a sweet and alluring
fascination. It is only in the remembrance of it
that the moral of the story presents itself vividly
and distinctly to the judgment. And by that time
it has found its way tenderly, irresistibly, into our
heart's core—and is not then to be shaken out of
it. For what is that wits° of Keats ?—inscribed
the other day over the porch of the Manchester
Art Exhibition—the first line of the first poem
poor John Keats ever published—

"A thing of beauty is a joy for ever I"
A delicious thought, thus contimr.d—
-" Its loveliness increases, it will never
Pass into nothingness, &c."
We cannot forget these little stories, told by the
tongue of genius, even if we had the heart to wish
that we could ! Who that has onceread them can ever
forget Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe," or Goldsmith's
" Vicar of Wakefield," or Voltaire's " Zadig," or
Dicken's " Christmas Carol," or St. Pierre's
" Paul and Virginia?" And Canon Schmidt's
beautiful little tales, in their way, though not quite
of the same world-wide fame, come (for such as
they are), prettyimuch within the same category.
Welcome, therefore, to all English readers of idis-
ceroment will be this good Christopher Von
Schmidt's story of " Rosa of Tannenburg," trans-
lated from the German into our own vernacular—.
this dear little " Tale of the Olden Time," wr,tteu
by the bright-eyed, warm-hearted Canon of Augs-
burg, at once for parents and for children,

Edith Mortimer. By Mrs. Parsons. Pp. 168,

Dolman.

The authoress of this thoroughly readable narra-
tive is already favourably known to a rather large
cireln- of readers by her former historiette of
" Thornberry Abbey.'' Mrs. Parsons, we doubt
not, will find her reputation enhanced, and her
influence extended, by "Edith Mertiwer, or The
Trials of Life at Mortimer Manor." It is an
improVement upon " Thornberry Abbey," as that
again was an improvement upon her earlier produc-
t Opf3. It relates as pleasantly and alluringly as
need be "The Trials of Lite" to Edith Mortimer
herself—the wayward heroine of the story, whoso
self-will is ultimately, . under the chastening influ-
ence of those trials, transmuted into sweetness of
temper, and all but absolutcly perfected resignation.
The narrative, which is divided into thirteen chap-
ters, introduces us to " Fr:ends" and " Neigh-
bours ;" to the "House of Mortimer"—both
Manor and Family ; to " The Rich Widow" and
to` "Those who Work ;" to " Hard Truths"
and to "Love Scenes;" to " Stangro re
Park," and, among other individuals wh se
characters are admirably well drawn, to one of the
most clearly defined characters in the story (always
excepting, of course, Edith herself) Lady Sarah
Tregenna. Our authoress, we may observe, dedi-
cates her little story in graceful terms to " Lady
Charles Thynne," intimating, while she does so,
that it was written at Lady Charles Thynue's sug-
gestion for the entertAinment of her Daughter.

The Irish in England.By William L. Todd, a D.,

Pp. 40. -Dolman.
An impressive article, originally published in the
Dublin Review, and now reprinted in a separate
form " with additions." It may be regarded, to a
certain extent, as a running commentaryr on an im-
portant section of Henry Mayhew 's " London La-
bour and the London Poor." Dr. Todd frequently
takes occasion to quote Mr. Mayhew, and one of
not the least effective extracts made in these pages
in reference to " The Irish in London "
one of not the least effective extracts from
the pages of that 14istorian of our Street Sellers, is
certainly the following. It is the confession of a
poor Lush servant girl, made to Mr, Mayhew im-