The Sun.
London, England, 1844-12-05 00:00:00

BRIGHTON.

The weather here continues eautiful—bright and
cold, but very invigorating. The town fills very fast
with fashionables, and the drives along the coast con-
tinue to be crowded with splendid equipages.
The County Hospital Ball on Wednesday evening
last was the best and most productive of any since
1836; it yielded 2231. Is. to the hospital funds; 411

persons were present.
The packet intercourse with the opposite coast has
ceased for the winter season.
INSTITUTION FOR. THE DEAF AID DUMB.—The
annual examination of the scholars in this institution
was held in our Town-hall yesterday, when the
large room was crowded with a most respectable
assembly. The Rev. J. S. M. Anderson occupied
the chair, in the unavoidable absence of the Rev.
H. M. Wagner, and the examination gave the greatest
satisfaction.
THE BOROUGH REGISTER.—The register of voters
for the borough of Brighton has just been published.
It contains 2,482 names as voters in Brighton parish,
being 139 more than last year. The Hove list con-
tains 141 names, being 20 more than last year. The
number of voters altogether for the year 1844-5 is
2,623, being an increase of 159 upon the last register.
One of the lions, on a petit scale, of our fashionable
town, is to get a peep at the sanctum sanctorum of Mr.
George Robins, at Kemp-town, immediately en face
the Duke of Devonshire's. It is just arrived at its
completion. The front presents a most inviting and
a very imposing appearance. The balcony and ve-
randah are of immense extent, giving very great fa-
cility to the sea views, which seem to have no ter-
mination. Indeed, from the conservatory (which
displays unusual tact), the Isle of Wight is:distinctly
seen. The interior of this bijou (for it is not a large
mansion) is fitted up in such exceedingly chaste and
correct taste, that it has no fear of rivalry from any
pretending contemporary. The offices are said to be
quite perfect, and the stable department (over which
good sense has placed the bed-rooms for the male
portion of the establishment) is faultless. It is re-
ported Mr. Robins has expended more than five thou.
sand guineas in its completion, and the moderate rent
required is but two hundred and fifty guineas a year.
The Duke of Somerset is said to be among the latest
inquirers after it.
ARRIVALS.—The Earl of Beverley, at 31, Sussex-
square ; Lord and Lady Haddo, at 7, Arundel-
terrace; Sir Edward Lytton Buiwer, at 76, Grand-
parade ; the Duchess of Calabritto, at 17, Brunswick-
terrace ; Lady Ann Dashwood, at 46, Marine-parade ;
Lord Colville, at 42, Marine-parade; Lord and Lady
Dillon, at 17, Brunswick-terrace; Lord Churchill, at
9, Cavendish-place; and Lady Brownlow, at 15,
Brunswick-terrace.

LITERATURE.
THE CHEVALIER. 3 Vols. Bentley, London, 1844
We are indebted for this historical romance to the pen
of Mrs. Thompson, who has already acquired some
repute by her " Ragland Castle," and other works of
fiction, which evince inventive talent, if not of the
highest, at any rate of a respectable, order. In the
tale before us she takes the same subject—namely,
the rebellion of 1745—which Sir Walter Scott has
treated with such consummate skill, in his first and
best novel of " Waverley." But she has the tact to
avoid touching on that portion of the theme which
Scott treated with such unrivalled spirit—namely, the
rising among the highland chiefs ; and lays her scenes
exclusively in England, and does not introduce us to
Prinee Charles Edward till he has advanced with his
gallant band of adventurers as far as Derby, where
the hero of the piece, Ellen Morton, is introduced to
him. This character is by far the most consistently-
maintained in the narrative, and the account of the
rise and progress of her ill-starred affection for, and
ultimate marriage with, Francis Radcliffe, the son of
the Jacobite Earl of Derweritwater, is given with truly
feminine tact and delicacy. The earlier chapters of
the " Chevalier," with the sketches of Mrs. Abbott's
provincial school, are heavy and languid, but the tale
improves the instant the Pretender and his army are
brought upon the stage, and keeps alive the reader's
curiosity and interest to the close. If Mrs. Thompson
were a little less diffuse in her language, she would be
a far more effective writer of fiction.

THE BORDER WARDENS. 3 Vols.
Mortimer, London, 1844.
The period at which the leading incidents of this
tale are supposed to have occurred, is the reign of
Elizabeth, and the scenes for the most part are laid
in the northern border between England and Scot-
land. The principal personages—or at any rate the
most interesting—of the story are Rona Forster, the
wife of an honest, open-hearted Northumberland
farmer, and Geordie Bourne, a notorious Scottish
freebooter, who is constantly making forays into the
English marches. This reckless adventurer, having
accidentally met Rona at the Berwick Fair, falls in
love with her, and she with him, but she is shortly
afterwards compelled to marry the Northumberland
farmer, Forster, with whom, though he is uniformly
kind and attentive as a husband, sbe leads a wretched
life, until he is surprised one evening by a party of
Scottish marauders, and hanged before the door of
his own farm-house. The same fate ultimately befals
the widow's early lover, Geordie Bourne, and she
then dies of a broken heart, attended to the last by her
venerable father, who had but recently discovered his
relationship to her. This episode in the story forms
by far the most attractive portion of it ; and we may
add that it is related with pathos and simplicity, and
that throughout the narrative the author's descrip-
ions are uniformly graphic and spirited.