The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1855-05-05

klNGLEY'S NEW ROMANCE.
- The scene of ''Amyas Leigh or "Westward
lio, by Tcknor & Fields, is laid in England during
the time of Elizabeth. 1t is splendid story of the
naval and commercial glory, the time when Drake
Raleigh and Gilbert we're the great actors in the
life-drama Of Britain. The author says of his new
work:
ut is in memory of the men of Devon, their
voyages and their battles, ,fheir faith and their
valor, their heroic lives and no less heroic
deaths, that write this book and if now
and then shall seem to warm into a stvlc
somewhat too stilfed and pompous, let me be
excused for my subjects sake, fit rather to
have been sung than said. and to have pro-
claimed to all true English hearts, not as a
novel but as az epic (Which some man NAV
yet grid himself to write,) the same great
message which the songs of Troy and the
Persian wars, and the trophies of Marathon
and Saamis, spoke to the hearts of all true
Greeks of old"
"llypata" and Alton Locke" lead us to
expect admirable things from the same zen,
and We predict for "Amyas Leigh a striking
success. Here is glimpse OF the young he
ro of the romance in the beginning of the
volume. 1t is as pictorially fine as anything
in Scott:
AT one turn they could catch, over the
wcste n wallsa glimpse Of fthc blue ocean tlcck
ed with passing sails and at the cxt,sprcad
far below them, range on range of tc tile
park, stately avenue. yellow autumn wood
land, and purple heather moors, tapping over
and over each other up the valley to the old
British earth-work, which STOOD black and
furzegrown on its conical peak and standing
out agains; the SKY on the highest bank of hill
which closed the valley to the east, the lofty
tower Of KiIkhampton Church, rich with the
monuments and offerings of five centuries of
ErcnyilrS. \ yellow eastern haze hung soft
over park, and wood, and moor: the red cat
tie lowc,. to each other as they stood brush
ing away the flies in the riyuct far below =
the colts in the horSe-park close on their right
whlnnlcd aS they PLAYED together, and their
sires from the Queens park. on the opposite
hill, answered them in fuller though fainter
VOICES. \ rutting stag male the still wool
land rattle with his hoarsc thunder. and a ri
val far up the valley gave back trumpet
note of defiance, and was himself leficd from
heathcry brow> which quiycrcd far away a.
bovc, halt seen through the vel! OF raS-
tern mist. And close at home, unOn the ter
race before the house. amid romplng spaniel>
and "oden-ha:red children, sat Lady Grcn-
,ic herself, the beautiful st Lcscr of An
merry, the central Jewel of all that glorious
place, and looked down at her noble children
and then up at her noble husband, ami round
at that broad paradise Of the West, till lie
seemed too tu!! of happiness, and Aeaycn OF
light.
SO Amyas goes up between the rich lane
banks, heavy with dropping ferns and honey
>ucklc; out upon tie windy down toward t',v
old Court, nestled amid its ring of wind-,lipt
oaks: through the gray .a'rwav into the home
close, and then h.. ''au>cS a moment to look
around; first at the wide bav to the westward
with its southern wall Of purple cliffs; then
at the dim Isle Of Lundv far away at sea =
then at the cliffs and downs of Morte and
Eraunton. right in front of him then at thu.
vast yellow sheet roilin. sardilI and or, N
aluvial plain dotted with red cattle, at his
feet through which the silver estuary winds
onward toward the sea Eenrath him on his
right, the TcriiIyc. ike a land locked lake.
sleeps broad and bright between the old Park
of Tapclcy and the charmed rock of the Hub
bastonc, where, seven hundred years aco.thc
Morse Rovcrs landed to Law siege to kcnwith
Castle, mile away on his left hand: and
no; three fields awav are the old stones of
The Bloody Corner" where the retrcatin.
Danes, cut off from their ships, made their
last fruitlcsS stand against the Saxon sheriff
and the valiant men of Devon Within that
/ charmed rock so TOrridye bOatmcn tell sleeps
now the old Morse Viking in his leadcn coffin
with all his fairy treasure and his crown of
gold; and as the boy looks a: the sp?t, he
tancifs, and almost hopes, that the day NAV
come when he shall have to do his duty against
the invader as boldly as the men of
Devon did then. And past him, far below,
upon the soft south eastern breeze, the state
Iy ships 90 gliding out to sea. When shall
he sail in them and see the wonders of the
deep? And as he stands there with beating
heart and kindling eye, the cool breeze whist
ling:hrough his long fair curls he is symbol,
though he knows it not, of brave young Ing
land, longing to wing its way out of its island
prison to discover and to traffic, to colonizc
and to civiize, until no wind can sweep the
earth which does not bear the echoes of an
English voice. Patience, young Amyas =
rhOu too shalt forth, aud westward no. be-
yond thy widest dreams. and see brave sights
and do brave deeds, which no man has since
the foundation of the world. Thou, too, shalt
face invaders, stronger AMI more cruel far
than Dane or Norman, and bear thy part in
that great Titan strife before the renown of
which the name Salamis shall fade away.
From the German