The Sun.
London, England, 1842-01-13 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

A PILGRIMAGE TO AUVERGNE. 2 Vo
Bentley, London, 1842.
Miss Costello is one of the liveliest and mos
observant of our modern travellers. We do
not forget her " Summeramong the Bocages and
the Vines," where, in tbe most attractive man-
ner possible, she made us familiar with all the
strange, wild local legends of the picturesque
districts through which she passed, and described
their towns and hamlets, and the peculiar cus-
toms of their inhabitants, with a minuteness and
accuracy which betokened how extensive and
careful I'vas her observation. In the volumes
before us, which are the results of a tour made,
in the year 1841, through Artois, Valois, Cham-
pagne, Burgundy, and Auvergne, she exhibits
much of the same laudable, inquisitive spirit;
all that is worth visiting and inquiring about, she
examines with particular- attention, and being,
apparently, well versed in the copious, tradi-
tional literature of France, and having a quick
eye to the beauties of landscape scenery, her
descriptions are never wanting in truth and
vivacity. In the spring of 1841 she left Calais,
she tells us, for St. Omer, which, though in
former times celebrated for its gaiety, and the
splendour of its public buildings, is now one of
the dullest towns in France. Here she made
but a brief stay, and then continued her route,
which pointed to Champagne, by Bethune, pass-
ing over one of those celebrated Roman roads
which are still the admiration and wonder of all
who see them. " These Roman ways, however,''
says our authoress, " are now only followed by
the peasantry from village to village, and to
them are known the secrets of their construction
by the Father of Evil, who once exerted his
skill in these parts, hoping to obtain possession
of the soul of a young farmer, who imprudently
taunted him with inability to make a paved road
of a certain extent 'between midnight—the hour
at which they probably met on the march—and
cock crow. So rapidly did the Evil-One set to
work, and so solid and far-spreading became the
road he made, that but for the presence of mind
of the young man's wife, his soul must have
fallen a prey to the Destroyer ; she, however, hit
upon the notable expedient of pulling the cock
by the tail as he sat at roost, and thus caused
him to utter his shrill salutation to day
earlier than usual. The artful one was
defeated, and his road on
_the very verge of
completion, left as a monument to after ages, of
the triumph of female wit." This is not the only
instance in which woman's wit has proved more
than a match for the Devil. While in the neigh-
bourhood, of course Miss Costello did not omit
paying a visit to the famous castle of. Peronne,
so well known in the annals of the feuds between
France and Burgundy, and where Charles the
Simple met his death, and that crafty, politic
tyrant, Louis the Eleventh, was very nearly en-
countering a similar destiny. The castle is now
in a most dilapidated state, but the apartment
wherein Louis was confined, by order of his rival
the Duke of Burgundy, is still in tolerable pre-
servation, and was eagerly explored by our
authoress, who says of it, " hideous and fearful
is the room, lighted by one narrow window,
to which a chain and bars are still attached ;
a breach in the flooring at one end discloses a
grate, through the thick, iron bars of which the
waters of the dull, black river roll along, making
ine gloom still more horrible by its plashing
sound." Every reader of Sir Walter Scott will
remember the admirable use he has made of this
flict, in his romance of Quentin Durward. Of
the castle of Ham, where Prince Louis Napo-
leon is now confined, Miss Costello tells us that
few travellers are allowed to approach the walls,
and least of all the English, who, the French
persist in thinking, instigated the unfortunate
Prince to his crazy enterprise. The second vo-
lume, which is the fullest in point of description,
is, for the most part occupied with sketches of
the grand mountain scenery of Auvergne, the
Swisserland of France. We subjoin our travel-
ler's account of the ascent of the Puy de Dome
—a mountain of enormous elevation, and the
loftiest in the country :
While we were conversing a loud shout was heard
above us, and she started up, imagining that her hushand
was coming down : she hurried before us, smiling and
looking quite delighted; but called out in an altered voice
that it was not him, only a mountaineer with his cows.
Presently we reached the spot where the pair stood,
and a more savage-looking apparition I never beheld
than the herdsman before me. He was sunburnt, with
black bright eyes, and a quantity of long wild black
hair flying about his face from under' his large broad-
edged beaver hat ; his shaggy cloak was hanging in
drapery round him ; he held a long staff, and was throw-
.ing his arms about with vehement gestures. When I
approached, he rushed towards me, and, casting himself
down on the grass nearly at my feet, began talking in a
very high key, and using forcible gesticulations. I felt
quite startled, as I feared he was offended at something;
and appealed to the old woman, who, in a reproving
voice, told him in patois not to make so much noise—
" son Anglaises." At this word our wild man uttered a
shout and clapped his hands ; he could speak a few
words-of French, from which I gathered that he was de-
sirous of affording us assistance, and would with the
greatest pleasure carry us in his arms up the remainder
of the mountain.

[anner.

It is far from agreeable to find so much fault
with Mr. C. Williams, who is really a clever
man and a useful teacher. Indeed, except the
Hills of Bruce Castle and Hazelwood, there is no
family of schoolmasters who have done more
than that of Mr. W. to elevate the business of
school-keeping from a trade to a professiop.
But justice to a suffering and persecuted, as well
as learned and ingenious man, requires that the
wrong done him in the present instance should
be pointed out and censured.

I felt afraid of being seized upon and borne away in
spite of myself by my Orson-like champion, and with
grateful acknowledgments declined his offer. He seemed
surprised, but, after a little more conversation with our
guide, saluted us, and scrambled up a steep path, where
we soon lost sight of him. " There is no harm in him,"
suid our old lady, who nevertheless looked a little scared;
tut these people have no education"
'We soon after met her husband with his party of
three gentlemen, one of whom had a handkercief tied
round his head, as the wind had carried off his hat on
the summit of the Puy. They were amazed at our in-
tending to go further ; but though we required a hand at
this moment to help us over a difficult pass, in the usual
style of modern French gallantry they seemod resolved to
take care of themselves only, and hurried away, while
the husband called after us many bon coacrages, to en-
courage our attempt.
Just where we met them a magnificent point of view
opened before us. We were on a level with the Petit
Puy, and beheld a panorama of the greatest beaut,
stretched out as far as we could gaze ;—rocks, on rocks
mountains on mountains, plains, valleys, and forests at
our feet, peaks whose craters seemed still yawning, with
all their chasms, unseen in the distance, clearly visible,
and opening their huge jaws like some antediluvian mon-
sters. The Nid de la Poule is the most conspicuous, and
presents a large hollow crater of most singular appearance.
We had now arrived at the part from whence the as-
cent is the most difficult: to the crest of the mountain it
appeared almost perpendicular, and all the way was
strewn with the white ashes of its ancient eruption. We
had now a very difficult task, and were obliged to exert
all our energies to reach the summit, which after great
exertion we at length accomplished. The wind roared
round us, and was icy cold; and we hurried to throw
ourselves down in a hollow of the irregular plateau which
crowns the Puy, at the foot of an erection placed there for
observations.

In a few minutes we were able to look about us, and
magnificent was the prospect which burst upon our sight
All the wide extent of La Marche and Le Limousin was
beneath us as in a map; the first elevations of the chain
of the Mouts Domes running far into the distance, and
those of the Monts Dores; the expanse of Lake .Aydat ;
and the vast basin of La Limagne, through which runs
the silver line of the Allier, which the eye may follow
into the Bourbonnais. All this, and much more which
we were assured we could see, we were not permitted long
to gaze on ; for aluiost in an instant clouds gathered
over the mountain, spreading in all directions as if at-
tracted towards it ; the blast howled furiously, and a
dense vapour closed us in, shutting the landscape from
us entirely. There was no hope of its clearing again,
but some chance of a storm, which we had little inclina-
tion to witness ; therefore, hastily gathoring up some
pieces of calcined rock, and a few leaves as souvenirs of
the wondrous volcano, we began our descent. -

PIIRENOTI PIC CHRONOLOGY.
By Mr. C. Williants.
The title of this volume cannot fail to attract
the attention, and rouse the curiosity, of any one
who has attended the lectures of Major Beni-
owski, on his improved system of Mnemonics,
for which he invented the new name, " Phre-
or Brain Printing." Those who have
notypies,
heard his exposition of his system recognise, in
its novelty and originality, the necess,ity ofa new
designation, whereby it maybe distinguished from
that of Feinagle, the absurdities of which the
learned Major has altogether rejected, whilst he
has simplified and improved all that was useful
in it, or practicaeble. When this new term, there-

Prince's clothes," &c.; five ladies of distinction I fore, invented only (as Beniowski states in a
were appointed to the honourable office of recent pamphlet) on the sth of July last, ap-
" rockers" of the Prince's cradle. At the same pears as the title of the book before us, and is
early age the child had a master cook, a fore-
man, and three other servants. He had three repeated six times in the title page—where Mr. " clialmer-chields," one " furnisher of coals,"
W. is described as author of phrenotypic geo-
and one pastry-cook. Five musicians completed graPhY, phrenotypic grammar, &c.—one must
the number of his household. Such was the naturally suppose at once that the book contains
christening of James Stuart, afterwards King of a development of the new system—of Beniowski's
Great Britain.
system. Of the latter the most favourable, al-
though slowly and cautiously, formed, opi-
nions have been expressed in Thv Sun, after
continued attendance at the Major's lectures and
observation of his classes at the Adelaide Gal-
, lery. The titles adopted by Mr. Williams,
are calculated to mislead our readers into the be-
lief that the " Master of the Westminster Aca-
demy" expounds the principles, which in this
paper have been so much commended, and not
those ofFeinagle, which we had, from experience,
r rejected and condemned. But Mr. Williams has
done Beniowski a greater injustice than the mere
plagiary of terms, in transferring them to a se-
ries of contrivances long since exploded, as use-
less and absurd. In the first two maps in
the present volume Mr. Williams gives us one
hundred incongruous and unmeaning symbols,
the perfect committal of which to memory is the
first step in the organisation of his system, and
which must be for ever associated with all ideas
to be afterwards acquired in literature, in science,
or in art. The Tower of Babel (not unaptly the
first symbol)—a grotesque Elephant—a pair of
Fighting Cocks—Robinson Crusoe—and ninety-
seven other unmeaning figures, located each in a
separate compartment of a cruciform diagram,
must be committed to memory in its exact place,
together with the exact number of its compart-
ment, before the student can proceed to learn
" My name is Norval," or the Multiplication-
table, upon these strictly Feinaglian Mnemo-
nics. Let us ask, even if the aid thus afforded to
the memory were effective and permanent (as
we know by experience it is not), of what use is
it to remember the words of a poemy, or of all
the poems of the world, if they must all be re-
called to the- mind in association with images so
grotesque, instead of those for the revival of
which alone in the imagination the recollection
of the words is sought ? Now, those symbols are
entirely rejected in the system called Phreno-
typies; and it is unfair, therefore, to Beniowski, to
he large portion of the press who have praised
and to the public, to adopt his title in this