Fremont journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County [Ohio]) 1853-1866, 1857-08-07

capacity for enthusiastic feeling and coura-
yeous action. He has just entered Paria- c
ment, and broke down the other day in his '
irst spcech-but it is failure which only
stimulates his friends to believe the more :
firmly in his future success. Ho is now
writing a History of the Crimean War, all {
Of which he saw, sharing its dangers with {
the same steady nerve which he opposed to
the infection of the Plague, in Carlo. Lay
ard is a man of forty, with frank, open,
face, clear gray eyes, and hair
prematurely gray about the temples. He
has just astonished the artistic world by
some very remarkable researches which has
been making in Italy during the past two
years. Taking Vasari as his guide, he set
off upon the hunt of the frescoes of Giotto
and other painters of tho Pre-Raphaelite
period, and now brings back seven hundred
tracings of works, the existence of which
has been hitherto unknown. Some Of these
will shortly be published by the Arundel
Society.
Last night | heard Dickens read his
"Christmas Carol" in St. Martins Hall, to
an audience so crowded and enthusiastic as
to surprise the London reporters, though its |
equal in both these respects is very com
mon in America. His reading of the dia-
logue was wonderfully fine; in the narrative
parts it had smack of the stage, and ten
dency toshrillness at the erd ofevery phra Q,
which had a curious effect. Altogcther,it was
a complete success and will be repeated again
for the same charitable obiect-the benefit !
of Douglas Jerolds widow. Dickens is !
now in his forty-ffth year, and Time Is be-
ginning to tell upon his exubcrant locks,
but his eye has all its old kcenness and
sparkle. "Little Dorritt,' though acknowl-
edged on all sides to be great falling off
! from his previous stories, has had moro
extensive sale than anything he has written
which proves the truth of saying of old
Sam. Rogers-that there is only one thing
harder for a man to do than to write him
self down, and that is to write himself IN.
Thackeray, tho noblest Roman of them
all, has been falsifyng the charges of the
rampantly loyal Canadian paper, by giving
his lectures on the -Four Georges in all parts
of the United Kingdom, and with the most
I gratifying success. 1t is cheering to see
man of his independence and honesty re-
warded by such sound and steady increase
Of popular respect and appreciation. His
next novel, venture to say, will have at
the outset much larger circle of readers
than his last. have seen few of the il
lustrations for it, which he intends making
} with his own hand as in tho case of "The
+ Newcombs," but for the subject and charac-
l ter Of the work you must wait until the
first number appears.
7 | spent two fortunate days last week at
Freshwater, on the Isle of Wight, the resi-
, dence Of Tennyson. In the scenery round
about the poets residence, | recognized
) many linesof "Maud." He lives in charm
: ing spot, looking out on one side, over the
edges of the chalk cliffs, to
5 "thc liquid azure bloom of a crescent of sea,
The silent snpphire-spanged marriageng of the land
and on the other, across the blue channel of
f the Solent, to the far-off wavy line of the
} New Forest, on the northern horizon. New
or shall forget those golden hours, spent
r with the noble poet and noble man, on the
, rolling, windy downs above the sea, and
f under the shade of his own lex and elm
=, Buchanan Read, who has Just come hith.
s or from Rome to fulfil some painters en-.
: gagements, took me the other evening to
, visit Leigh Hunt--the sole, surviving stai
+ of that constellation which dawned upon
the literature Of England with the present
i century. The old poet lives in neat little
), cottage in Hammersmith quite alone, since
o the recent death Of his wife, That daint,
grace, which is the chief charm of his poe
|, try, yet lives in his person and manners.-
!, He is seyenty-three years old, but the effect
y of age are only physical; they have no
c touched that buoyant, joyous nature, whicI
d survive in spite of sorrow and misfortune
# His deep-set eyes still beam with soft
a cheerful, earnest light; his voice is gentle
: and musical, and his hair, although almost
;. silver-white, falls in fine silky locks on both
t sides of his face. 1t was grateful to me tc
: press the same palm, which Keats and Shell
f ley had so often clasped in friendly warmth
n and to hear him, who knew them so well
: speak Of them as long-lost companions
: lie has curious collection of locks of tho
y hair of poets, from Milton to Browning
1: That thin tuft of brown, silky fibres, coulG
: it really have been shorn from Millions
: head? | asked myself. "Touch it." said
i HclSh lluulj anu LncH you VIII nave touch
S ed Millions SELF" "There is a life in hair
, though it be dead,' said | as | did so, re.
peating line. from Hunts own sonnet on
this lock. Shelley's hair was golden and
5 very soft; Keats bright brown, curling in
large Bacchic rings; DR.. Johnson's gray,
, with harsh and wiry feel; Dean Swift's
both brown and gray, but finer, demo
ting moro sensitive organization; and
, Charles Lambs reddish-brown, short and
strong. was delighted to hear Hunt
speak of poems which he intended to write,
as if the ago of verse should never cease
with one in whom the faculty is born.
Church's picture of Niagara has Just ar
rived, and has been seen by few conois-
seurs, though there has yet been no public
exhibition Of it. have heard but one
opinion in regard to it. The exhibitor told
me that Ruskin had just been to see it, and
that he has found effects in it which he had
been waiting for years to find. am sorry
that it is shown by gas-lght, in darkened
room. Church's pictures will all bear the
daylight; he needs no artificial trickery of
this kind. Some English artists had been,
few days previous, questioning me about
landscape art in America, and am delight
ed at being able to point to such noble
/ example in justification of nv assertions