The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-03-31 00:00:00

By Charles Lever. Walmsley,

Liverpool

number are of a very stirring

The events detailed in tn..
character. The hero loses his friend the French officer, Is
eets with Darby the piper again, who
contrives to give him means to effect his escape. Tem Burke
returns to Dublin, where he encounters Par. Bubbleton once
more. We think the artist has not selected the happiest

made prisoner, and rn

Alustration—or rather, we ought to
:hosen one of deeper interest. For
le scene in tue church-yard would have made an
admirable sabject, as would also the escap roo
fed ingom, or
the
the
deathbed of the French officer. The pcs in
streets of Dublin would have furnished a striking picture.

situation for an effect

that he could have

instance

Coombe Abbey. By Miss Bunbury. Curry, Dublin
Walnosley, Liverpool-

Coombe Abbey has at length come to a conclusion. The
story is founded upon the history of Guy Fawkes and that of
his coconspirators. A love-tale is woven into it, but we
cannot say we admire this part of the work. The au-
thoress has placed a number of difficulties in the way of the
lovers, which in everyday life, she must be aware, would be
cleared up in five minutes ; and the misunderstanding under
which De Lacy and Edith St. Clare are made to labour, is
quits unusual and unlikely in their situation. The last num-
ber la rather spun out ; out, taken altogether, the work is
amusing, and may be read with pleasure. Its decided moral
tendency is a great recommendation. It goes in this parti-
cular further than most works of its class.

_,---
THE LATE SIR ROBT. HOLT LEIGH, BART,

[From the Gentleman's Magazine, Vol. XIX, New Series,
for March, 1843.]
Hall, near Wigan,
Died, January 21, at his seat, Hendley
Lancashire, in his eighty-first year, Sir Robert Holt Leigh,
Bart., a Deputy Lieutenant for that county, and many year's
M.P. for Wigan. This venerable octogenarian was the
eldest son of Holt Leigh, Esq., of Hendley and Whiteley
Halls, Lancashire, by Mary, his wife, younger daughter and
co-heiress of Thomas Owens, Esq., of UphoHand Abbey,
in that county, by Margaret, his wife, only daughter and
heiress of Thomas Bispuatn, of Bispham, Esq., and he was
born at his father's town residence, in Wigan, on the 2fith
Dee, 1762. He was descended from a highly respectable
line of ancestry, who have been possessed of landed property
in the part of Lancashire; before alluded to for several cen-
turies past ; but it cannot be maintained, as Mr. Burke, in
the account of the family in his baronetage, asserts, that
they are Of the same descent as the Leighs of Alderton, in
the county of Chester which is unquestionably an error. In
the surname alone, this inaccuracy is
Lech ; detected, for th
the
at of
the latter family has.always been spelled whereas
branch from which the deceased baronet was descended has
universally been spelled Leigh.
The Public are indebted to the late
baronet's grandfather,
Alexander* Leigh, Esq. of Bretberton, for the ca
This nal whichunifi
ststeads from Wigan to the river Ribble.bble. he m
°en* completed at his own sole expense, under the provi-
sions of an act of parliament, which he obtained in the year
1720- The prosperity of Wigan and the neighbourhood has
been materially advanced by means of this spirited under-
taking. and the facilities of navigation thus afforded. Sir
Robert Holt Leigh was M.A of Christ's Church College,
Oxford ; but, singularly enough, he did not take his degree
st the university until he was seventy years of age. He rep-
resented the borough of Wigan for several years in
in
He was first returned by that constituency in 1802,
and continued to sit xis their representative until the general
election in 1820, when he voluntarily resigned, and was sue_
seeded b Lord Lindsay, the present Earl of Balcarres. He
was a staunch Unigervative in politics, and during his
Mr
par-
liamentary career' was was firm supporter of Mr. Pitt and.
Canning, except on. the Roman Catholic question, on which
he was opposed' to them. On the accession of Mr. Canning
to ofice be was created baronet, by patent dated 22nd May,
1815, with remainder to the issue male of his father, none of
whom, however, are surviving; and the baronet having died
a bachelor, the title is extinct. In the year 1831, during the
agitation consequent on the reform question, he suffered
grevionely from the violence of the mob at the urigan elec-
tion, where he appeared as the representative of his friend,
the late W. Hodson Kearsley, who was one of the candi-
dates on that occasion.
In 1798, when the peace of the country was disturbed by
riots and discontent, a society of gentlemen was formed in
Wigan. called the Wigan Arms Association, of which corps
himself Robert was for many years commandant, and distinguished
considerably, in various encounters, where they were
calledmarupon to act. He was senior trustee of the Free Gram-
as
well
l of Wigan, and took especial interest in its welfare,
with his
as in that of all the other public institutions connected
whilst native town. The latter years of Sir Robert's life
spent almost entirely at his residence, near Wiga9;
where been acknowledged as the "Old English Gentleman
of the w
district.
He has left behind him a very large propertY,
and a splendid library of books, peculiarly rich in the classi-
cal department. in which latter branch of literature be was
well versed. Dr. D
edition of the Greek
aonnneean, in the preface to his fourth
piled whilst on a visit d English Lexicon, (which he com-
Robert
:_he
says---"
Ato Sir Robert) speaks highly of Sir
from the Greek and English the advantages I have derived
more precious than its raving Lexicon, there is none I deem
and, I may with just pride add,
me the acquaintance,
Holt Leigh, Baronet, a gentleman d, the friendship of Sir Robert
lents by refined, well-directed,
who has improved his ta-
lents
acquainted with
g obtained the
and assiduous culture.
languages, and hovin hest writers of modern
knowledge of the Greek Innen., a critical and profound
lencies of which his peculiar turn of
literature—the excel-
o mind enables him to ap-
preciate fully—he still devotes
ge
ntahneso.nasiderable portion of his
studious hours, with glowin trn and untiring ardour,
to the poets and orators who have' bequeathed to us such
splendid and enduring monuments ofe
the acconiplishments of a scholar he has added" genius. To
the advantages
of having visited the most interesting countries of Europe,
eye,urope
surveying their choicest specimens of art wl critical
and observed the characters of men and manners so keenly,
as to justify the application to him of the commendation be-
stowed upon Ulysses by the great poet—
" Potion anthropou uden astea kai neon egno."
Thus far we have endeavoured faithfully to trace the career
of one who has past through a long life with credit to
him-
self, and, we believe, in the conscientious and just exercise
of those talents which have been entrusted
this to hi
memoir
but it is the duty of every biographer to be impartial in his
details, and we cannot, therefore, abstain from some remarks
as to the closing years of the late baronet's life, over which
we would otherwise cast a veil. We allude to the unfortunate
intimacy which, it appears, he formed with the wife of a far-
mer, one of bis tenants, to whom he showed marked attention,
and whose infant son the baronet has, be 0
inheritor of his property. This is ---'

he will

the lamentabl

instances of which we have, unnaPP"),
many, that the follies and profligacy of a
t.:,

years often exceed the fri;olities of Ills youto,
too, may in some measure be palliated and forge