The Sun.
London, England, 1827-05-01 00:00:00

MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

gg Water Companies," notwithstanding its sub-
ject, is a dry article ; whereas it might have been
made a very humorous and entertaining one. " The
Old Warrior's Grave," by Mrs. Hemans, is, like all
her poetry, worth attention : it is not, however, one
of her happiest effusions. " The Four Nations" is
an incorrigibly dull paper, and characterized by a
sort of persevering steady stupidity, which-would
produce sleep, were it not for the active irritability
which the fatigue of reading it occasions. When
fatigue is carried to excess it totally dispels drow-
siness. Miss Mitford's paper on" Village Rambles,
No. 1. Wheat Hoeing," is a pleasant faithful sketch,
with all the freshness and the spirit of the country
about it. We give an extract :

W EAT- H OEIN G.
May rue 3n.—C7ld bright weather. All within doors,
sandy and chilly ; all without, windy and dusty. It is
quite tantalizing to see that brilliant sun careering through
so beautiful a sky, and to feel little more warmth from his
presence than one does from that of his fair but cold sister,
the moon. Even the sky, beautiful as it is, has the look
of that one sometimes sees in a very bright moonlight
night--deeply, intensely blue, with white fleecy clouds
driven vigorously along by a strong breeze—now veiling
and now exposing the dazzling luminary around whom they
s 11. A beautiful sky ! and, is spite of its coldnew, a
beautiful world ! The effect of this backward spring has
been to arrest the early flowers, to which heat is the great
ar,erny ; whilst the leaves and the later flowers have, never-
4ihrims, ventured to peep out slowly and cautiously in sunny
elaceN,ATAiiiitiwis itl tat s cores and Indge-rvws, 4 pls&-

sant mixture of March and May. And we, poor chilly
mortals, must follow, as nearly as we can, the wise ex-
ample of the May-blossoms, by avoiding bleak paths and
open commons, and creeping un the sheltered road to the
vicarage—the pleasant sheltered road, where the western
sun steals in between two rows of bright green elms, and
the east wind is fenced off by the range of woody hills which
rise abruptly before us, forming so striking a boundary to
the picture.
How pretty this lane is, with its tall elms, just drest in
their young leaves, bordering the sunny path, or sweeping
in a semi-circie behind the clear pools, and the white cot -
tag-es that are scattered along the way. You shall seldom
see a cottage hereabout without an accompanyinc, pond, all
alive with geese and ducks, at the end of the littleb garden.
Ah ! here is Dame Simmons making a most original use
of her piece of water, standing on the bank that divides it
from her garden, and most ingeniously watering her onion-
bed with a new mop--now a dip, and now a twist !
Really, I give her credit for the invention. It is as good
an imitation of a shower as one could wish to see on a
summer-day. A squirt is nothing to it !

The Borderer's Leap," is powerfully written;
here and there, indeed, it shows symptoms of the
usual Magazine sublimity, such as " the glare of
rage illuminating despair," and so forth, but as
the incident of the tale is well and strikingly con-
ceived, we will not quarrel about a phrase. The
Letter from a Gentleman in Town to his
Friend in the Country," is good-humoured and
anecdotical : in short, the whole Magazine exhi-
bits striking proofs of diligence and merit.