The Sun.
London, England, 1828-03-10 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

The Art of TYING the CRAVAT, with its INF.
ENCE on SOCIETY. By H. LE
A,LANC,
London, I M2B.
We never yet met with an instance where, in'
point of intellect, an author and his subject were
so completely on a level as in the present publi-
cation. The consequence of this is, that an
impressive con more sort of earnestness pervades
every -page of the volume, which though not
exactly on a par with Livy in splendour of dic-
tion, with Tacitus in profundity, nor with Gib-
bon in research, is yct far from contemptible, in-
asmuch as it is a curiosity which even these startling
times of Literature would find somewhat difficult
to parallel. The Art of Tying the Cravat, with
its influence on Society! ! What a glorious non
sequitur ! It reminds us of a certain polyonomous
tragedy, written some years since, and entitled
(we quote the words of the title-page), " The
Sons of Erin or the cause of the Greeks,
by a native of Bengal." In the peculiar
character of its arrangement, it resembles
still more closely that immortal play of the
" Rovers," where Siccius Dcntatus, three Prus-
sian soldiers, one waiter, two drummers, a beef-
eater, and Frederick the Great, are met by Miss
Matilda Pottingen, marching home together from
the Seven Years War, to the highly appropriate
air of " Oh, the roast beef of old England."
The Preface to this historical phenomenon
sets out with stating, that it is far " from being
an ephemeral production, that it will be found to
contain a mass of useful information, and may be
termed an Encyclopaedia of Knowledge." It
then proceeds to observe, that black cravats at-
tained their acme of celebrity, during the first ten
years of the nineteenth century, a term " replete
with events of the greatest political interest,"
which events Mr. Le Blanc would indirectly
lead us to infer grew out of and were fashioned
by the wear of those aforesaid neckerchiefs.—
This deduction, in which the philosopher and
logician shine forth with equal lustre, goes far to
prove that the cravat, not the intellect, was
the cause of those great moral convulsions which
for so many years alarmed the Continent, and
that therefore it is incumbent on every reader to
purchase (if not to study) a treatise upon so mo-
mentous a subject ; which, besides, " will enable
him to judge whether he has produced the pro-
per effect on his own cravat," and by a necessary
consequence, on society. It is Swift, we believe,
who in that cothprehensive satire, the " Tale
of a Tub," has satisfactorily proved that men
are nothing more than suits of clothes ;
that a Judge is an apt conjunction of ermine and
furs, and a politician, a somewhat shabby coat,
fresh turned every Session. Even the mind,
adds the Dean, is formed of similar materials
—religion is a cloak, honesty a pair of shoes
worn out in the dirt—and conscience a great-
coat, easily and satisfactorily slipped off when-
ever interest or convenience may require it.
Granting this, which no one, we think, will
deny, why should not ambition be represented
by the cravat ? and if so, why should not the
cravat have produced all those important events
so beautifully and logically alluded to in the pre-
sent history ? But to resume :—from Mr. Le
Blanc's first chapter, which describes the "origin
and progress of the neckerchief," we learn that the
Roman Emperor, Augustus, wore a cravat, and
that " Alexander Severus made use of it when
returning from the baths to his Palace ;" two most
important facts, which we are concerned to find
have escaped the sagacity of Gibbon. The second
chapter assures us, that the Egyptians, Persians,
and Greeks wore collars. Mr. Le Blanc does
not state whether they were starched or no, but
we should rather think not, for on referring to
Leigh Hunt's polished Dissertation on Washer-
women, we find that that useful and much ca-
lumniated she-compound of soap-suds and hot-
water, was unknown to the ancient world. The
third chapter treats elaborately on silk-worms,
needle-work, and mulberry trees, which naturally
enough paves the way for a digression on black
stocks (a sort of second cousin to the cravat), in
the course of which our historian significantly
observes, that " at Waterloo, Napoleon wore a
white handkerchief, with a flowing bow, although
the day previous he appeared in his black cra-
vat "--a memorable incident, whick no doubt
occasioned him the loss of the battle.
We now come to " lessons on the art of put-
ting on the cravat," in the first of which we arc
told that the " knot when once formed should
not be changed under any pretence whatever ;"
i. c. it should be like the laws of the Modes and
Persians, immutable. The second dilates on
" that Sovereign of Cravat Ties, the Ncrud
Gordicn," the origin of which (like the precise
date of the Pyramids) is lost in the remoteness
of antiquity. Notwithstanding, adds our histo-
rian, " the laborious researches we have bestowed
on this interesting subject, we have hitherto been
unable to discover the name of the genius to
whom the honor of the invention is due." He
hints shortly afterwards that Alexander the Great
was its inventor, but this we doubt ; to have
conquered India and discovered a new tie in the
neckerchief would have been a triumph of in-
tellect too great for one and the same mind to
have achieved. The third lesson regards the
mode of putting on the cravat ; a stout one, it
seems, should be preferred " as it will offer more
facilities to the daring fingers of the beginner ;"
This is important, and cannot be too strongly
impressed on the mind. After describing a
variety of different cravats, such as the "cravate a
la Byron ;" the " cravate en cascade," (the chief
recommendation of which is, that it resembles
the cascade in the Palais Royal) ; the " cravate
mathematique ;" the " cravate a l'lrlandaise," re-
markable for its spirited defiance of all ordinary
grace and method ; the " cravate a la gastro-
nome," which must we conceive be immensely
unpopular at Guildhall, as it conduces to im-
mediate suffocation ; after describing all these mi-
nute varieties with the practised readiness ofa con-
noisseur, our author concludes by observing, that
when a man of character makes his entree into so-
ciety, all eyes will be directed to the set of his cravat;
if this be faultless (alas, what human set can be
so !) he will succeed to the height of his de-
sires ; if otherwise, he will irrecoverably fail.
" To us, much reflecting on these subjects, it
has always seemed strange" that Mr. Brougham,
notwithstanding his prodigious powers of intel-
lect, should have hitherto obtained so few minis-
terial favours ; now, however, thanks to our his-
torical Udipus, the mystery is solved—he doe's
not adjust his cravat upon Mr. Le Blanc's sys-

e~ai. Had he studied of
science with the deep meditatip&itAlesmes—had
lie acquainted himself hilly VW as various ties,
folds, and sets, instead of poring over the more
inglorious topics of mathematics, jurisprudence,
and political economy, he would long ere this
e witnessed
of
a
DPrrai,ina
have been Lord Chancellor, peradventure even
We have treated this subject gravely, and in
an earnest spirit, because—shall we confess it ?
cravats
.de t Dandyism Minister,
ae tuilien worldim
and tile delighted
the
we have been much struck with its dignified
t too
withand p3Nhiilro. saihßi cl a
no t character.
hat as a
n\
art,NTe have
is
yfeetl
in
its

infancy, and like steam, has its thousand modi-
fications to undergo before it finally settles down
into a confirmed and appreciated science. We
should not omit to add that by way of complet-
ing the attractions of his history, Mr. Le Blanc
has considerately prefixed his own portrait to the
title-page.
" Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona
Multi, sed omnes illaelaymabiles
Urgentur, ignotique loogi,
N.rwte, ca hia Vale oftero.'
This )s ; the :e with our historian, for his
limner has -;rarhed him fur eternity.

LETTERS MIMI CONTINENT.
EY THE REV. W. WALTER.LONDON,

Mr. Walter is a pleasant unaffected traveller,
who gossips with his reader as if seated next him at
the fire-side. He describes scenes and situations
wwe are all familiar, many of us from
hooks Teurs, and still more from personal
observation, with all the freshness of a novice ;
and by his warm cordial mode of description
sheds.over even so stale a subject as Switzerland,.
its Lake of Geneva, Rocks ofXeillerie (tole-
rable only in that work of enchantment The:
Heloise,") Glaciers, Chamouni, and so forth, all
the splendour and fascination of novelty. He is,
however, a mere sketcher, and rambles f'rom sub-
ject to subject lightly and tastefully, with the ease
of the well-booted giant in the German legend.
At one moment we find him halting at
Rotterdam ; then hurrying off' unexpectedly to
Maycuce (of which he gives a neat account) ;
and thence to the Swiss and Italian Lakes,
mountains, meadows, and waterfalls. Perhaps
this sort of travelling harlequinade is better than
the deeper and more elaborate prosings of a pro-
fessed tourist ; at any rate it is more readable.
We would particularly recommend attention to
Mr. Walter's account of the " Source of the
Dantibe,"`it is highly characteristic, but far too

long for extract. —Next in interest, perhaps, to
this chapter, arc the scatterecrnotices of the Lake
of Corn°, from one of which we give the follow-
ing account of a storm upon its waters :

7" We have seldom rain without thunder, and that the

loudest. I ever heard : the very mountains stein to shake
under its influence. These storms sometimes approach
with a grandeur, which it would require the poetic pen of
Thomson to describe. Ploughing up the surface of the
lake, which a moment before perhaps was as smooth as a
sheet of glass, they advance with inconceivable rapidity ;
the thunder meantime rattling over head, and the winds
bellowing and struggling with the opposing woods, seem as
though they would tear theta up by the roots and plunge
them into the troubled waters beneath. Woe betide the
unwary boatman who is overtaken by one of these hurri-
canes in the middle of the lake; if he endeavour to force
his boat against the tide he must inevitably sink, his only
chance is to scud before the wind and make the shore as
soon .as, he can, without considering wher. About six
weeks ago, I gave permission to my servant to take the
children and nursemaid out upon the lake for a short time:
the day was as fine as a summer's day can be: having been
up the greater part of the preceding night, I threw myself
on my bed and soon fell asleep ; but in about an hour 'was
awoke by the banging of doors, and the rushing noise of a
furious storm. I got up immediately and ran down to the
lake to see if my children were safe. Not a boat was to be
keen, the waves were breaking furiously on the opposite
Shore, and I was convinced that a boat like mine could not
live in such a sea. I inquired of the peasants who lived
near if they had seen it ; they replied, it had been observed

about an hour before, going out, but they, none of them,
could tell which way it had gone. To send in pursuit was
therefore vain, and I was under the painful necessity of
waiting in the most anxious suspense. By and by the lake
resumes: its tranquillity ; one hour passed without bringing
any intelligence; another elapsed and increased my anxiety :
the shades of evening closed in, and I gave up my children
for lest. In the meantime boat after boat had passed,
which had been compelled to take shelter during the storm
at length we descried a boat slowly advancing ft-mil the
opposite side in the direction of my house, having another
empty boat in tow : I watched it with an intenseness of
anxiety which I cannot describe : on its nearer approach, I
perceived, to my unspeakable joy, that all was right, and
need not add the rest. My Italian servant was so over-
come that he could hardly give me an account of what had
happened. I gathered from him, however, that he hsd
rowed the boat into the middle of the lake, and there being
taken up by looking at the steam packet which was then
passing, the gathering storm had escaped his notice ; and
when he would have returned to our own shore he
found it too late ; the hurricane had already taken posses-
sion of that part of the lake which intervened between
them and our villa ; and he found there was nothing left
for him but to take advantage of the wind and hasten to
the opposite shore : there he fortunately arrived, got the
nursemaid and children on shore, when a wave came,
drove the boat upon a rock and filled her with water : a
moment later and they must have been drowned ! the boat
was so bruised that they could not venture to trust them-
selves to it although the storm had ceased, and the neces-
sity of procuring another had occasioned the delay."
Mr. Walter has thought it worth his while to
devote some pages to a prose transcript of one
of the most hackneyed " Legends of the Rhine,"
which Mr. Campbell has versified, and Mr.
Manche done his best to spoil. This is surely
an error in judgment. The Legend in question
is known to every school-boy, and possesses, in
fact, as little novelty as the well-known " Thirty
days hath September." Should the work reach
a second edition (which we think not unlikely),
we would recommend Mr. Walter to grant a dis-
pensation to this chapter.