The Sun.
London, England, 1819-09-16 00:00:00

I,ll.nnAity ituVint,V.

DUDLEY.

This 3Vueyl, the production
has go little the appearance of art or contrivance,
and is sn gay anti amusing a work, that it might
easily be taken for a piece of authentic biography.
The letters, for it is written in tile epistolary
form, seem to have required no studied prepara-
tion or adjustment, but to have fallen into their
proper places according to the simple order of
Oates ; yet they unfold a savvy of which the in-
terest could not. have been heightened by the most
skilful transformation of them into a regular nar-
_eative. Indeed, by such a process the principal
•charm of the novel would have been destroyed,
since it would have lost the air of reality which it
now possesses, as a series of confidential corre-
spondence. There seems to -be no limit to the
• freedom with which the several writers succes-
sively devdope theit own characters and those of
ibeir they detail 'be afraita and ad-
ventures in which they are engaged, without the
slightest apprehension that- their letters may even
by accident be sullected to public scrutiny. We
may instance the foliowitig sketch which the vo-
latile Lady Alford gives at her sedate sister, to
whose care, in a letter to a mutual friend, she
iecommends their relative Sir Eliot Howard, dor-
. log the first diconsolate hours of his affliction for.
the loss of his lady .

" Believe me, a tniA such as Mrs. Grantley's
is best suited to the irritable state of feelings un-
der which, pour fellow, he no doubt at this time
Tabours. I resemble him ton much to be of any
service toiteards blunting those keen sensations
which a thousand (hilly occurrences mina put to
the proof. 1 should but nurse the disease ; Jane
trill in time cure it ; and with so gentle and lov-
ing a band, so wholly without obtrusion, nay,
almost without intention, that he will find, his
heart healed, and never have telt the remedy.

" I know her site will listen to his ray•
big's, his lamentations, his most bitter complaints,
with the sweetest patience iMaginable, and in the
middle of them .ask him to stoop for her pin-
cushion ; or, as she once did when be was storm-
log againSt a groom, who had lamed his favourite
mare, request him to hold some cambric she was
euttinc by a thread. I wish you could have seen
his face at that moment ; 1 have it now be-
fore my eyes. As lie was not at that time so
well acquainted with her strange manners, imper-
fectly stored with astonishment and incredulity,
to find out whether this turn-off proceeded front
finesse or naireti. (Pardon me, but we have no
synonymous words in our language.) A smile of
conviction followed the stare, and by all the
charms of Omphal, if he did not sit down as•
calm and appeased as a wild boar, and do as he
was bid. Yes, Clonmore, it is a fact, Jane for a
fitll hour will bear him bewail his 1-st.hispiness,.
his present anguish, and future' hopeless pros-
pects, and then inquire whether he thinks Ire-
land, moss or candied horehound best for 111 r.
Grantley's cough.
Now, were I to act thus, lie world fling
from me in superlative heroics, knowing that I
was acting, and make no ceremony of calling me
an unfeeling, frivolous wretch.; hut, conscious
that Jane speaks from singleness ,of heart, be
pauses for a moment, like the high-mettled steed
at the tap of its rider, couples a• sigh with a.
smile, and stoops for the pincushion, holds the
cambric, or prescribes for the cough, or moss of
Horehound."

It is hut justice to odd, that the skill which
Miss O'KEE-FFE has evinced in the delineation of
her characters is equalled only by her versatility
in sustaining their several parts, • and by the ad-
mirable adroitness with which she has rendered
their casual and unpremeditated effusions subser--
view to the narration of 'd rather romantic' but
very delightful vary.