New-York tribune., 1885-03-08
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
ee,or1,u1AnY OE THE LAST CENTURY.

Countries In 1856. Edited by AiEN ,NpIE n To-
soS lieutenant Colonel. Edinburgh! Pfih'eu io'
David Douglas. . =,
The readers of Scott know that there were IN 'ne
lost century number of remarkably brlght anu
ouuint Scotch ladies' who talked ana wiote IN a
terse and nervous style contrasting strohe! ""n
x,e suave refined and. as some may thhh' e"o,i'-
nate fashion of more recent times 1hese oio iauioe
used a racy Scotch idom which impaired Jun
favor 70 their conversation. They were not mealy
moutbed either. and in fact they employed plain
ness of speech which would be called indelicate
now. One of their number. Miss Muse OF Cald-
we'll. saws The women were undelicate In their
conversation and vulgar in their manners; even
after As these did not change much, ana "ero un
delicate i'm the married ones" But that was .'i.o
when the young people all read Fielding anu 'no
elder ones amused themselves with "that arch
hussy." Mrs. Aphra Behn. 49,,
To this long extinct class belonged MIS-. Caiocr
wood of Potion. q representative OF steri'ne oiu
Scotch family, the members of which had always
distinguished themselves in one way or announcer
She was the aunt of the two Ersknes, one OF whom
became Lord Advocate of Scotland, and the other
Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain. and she ex-
bibts in her writings great deal of the solid sense
ouick wit and keen observation OF her family anu
her countrymen. The dialect then i'll use at Ed'h'
burph am ,ng the well-born ladies has been SAID 10
be as different from English as Venetian Is from
Tuscan speech" 1t was broad vigorous eA
pressive speech and it must be remembered tna' NO
body then thought of ascrbing vulgarity TO IL IN
deed Sir Walter Scott says, III souhueu r"'h0'
graceful aud genteel"
Mrs Caderwood went abroad, to Holland and
the Low Countries. and the letters she wrote to her
daughter and the journals she kept, are reproduced
in this volume They were printed forty years ago
by the Maitland Club but that was private mat
ter and the book was not published or for SALE III
would have been great pityto withholds so interest
ing a correspondence from the public, and Coionei
Ferguson has performed his editorial duties with
judgment and TASTE
Mrs. Calderwood writes with delightful frankness
and good sense and her ideas are full OF originality
and shrewd perception. Her power of description
is also great. and she possesses that faculty OF
bringing out picture in few pregnant sentences
which seems almost lost art. Her terse and
trenchant style compares favorably with the dfuse
and too often watery iuency which has grown out
of the modern facility of composition, and IN every
page she gives proof of the strong vitality ana
national spirit which have always characterized
the Scotch and never more than at the time sue
flourished She has plenty of humor of a canny
kind. does not dsdain gossip. relshes bit OF
scandal unalfectedly and rarely fails to better her
news in retailing it, Wherever she goes she COM
pales the local ways with the Scotch. AS stanch
Catholic rites and ceremonies. yet is so little
bipoted that she conforms to the local usages
when she goes to the churches and converts She
looks with the eye of a country gentlemans wife
at the agriculture of the countries she passes
through, and discusses with the JUNCTION OF
thorough housekeeper the domestic habits ana
customs She does not think much of the English
Her first experience with them. she says, makes
mo think the English are people one may perhaps
esteem or admire, but they do not drawsthe affee-
tion of strangers neither in their own country nor
ont of it, little further on she says: 81 adj
mired the cattel much more than the people. for
they seem to have the least of what we call smart
ness of any folks ever saw
On reaching London she does not find matters I'M
proved She did not go to Court, because her
clothes were not made in time, but she says
cannot say my curiosity was great found. as
approached the Court and the grandees, they sunk
40 miseraby in my opinion and came so far short of
the ideas had conceived; that was Ioat9 10 lose
the grand ideas had of Kings, Princes Ministers
of State Senators. etc., which suppose nad
gathered from romance in my youth we used TO
laugh at the English for being so often AFRAID wnen
there any danger in state ailars; DnI nov % Go
dom of our governours l'prevent all those things
but those who know and see % our n bs sey
are parcel of Old ignorant, senseiess BODIES, VINO
mind nothing but eating and drinking ana rolling
about in Hyde Park, and know no more OF the coun
try, or the situation of 1t, nor Of the numbers
strength and circumstances of it. than they never
had been in it, or how should they' wneh LONDON
and twenty miles round III Is tne eAteut eNer lhoS
saw OF it
This is how new got about in those days:
There is no depending news ut London; there
was a lye coined for every day was there; aud
every one of them the English believed. providing
it was agreeable. And the Court is no better IN
formed than the vulgar for, proyl ing tnere are
two yes raised in one day. good one IN the lore
noon; then the Duke of Newcastle drinks Mr.
Byngs health at dinner out comes defeat IN the
Out goes one of the Princesss masters 70 6 Kew; ne
tells Mr.. Byng has defeat the French me , Prnce
81 Wales hears IL nsn anGs ON the sOf FreDe soG
dancing master, who lays it on Hanoverian
officer whose name he knew not. SO the reports
GO abroad.
The famous vauxhall and Ranelagh Gardens did
not impress her much, and she does not think the
English enjoyed their own amusements. She says:
They speak with a great relish of their publick
places and say with sort Of iintter 1 tnat t. they
enjoy it when there. As for tauxhali and
Ranelagh, I wrote you my opinion of them before
The first think but vulgar sort OF enteTtalnment'
and could not think myself in gentcel company.
whiles heard man calling, Take care of your
watches and pockets"
Nor does the English cookery suit her any better:
AS for their vctualls they make such work
about, cannot enter into the taste of ltheml, or
rather think they have no taste to enter INTO.
The meat is Juicy enough but has @ 50 t little taste;
siIher r taste or r smell what you are eating The
lamb and veal look as if it had been bianched in
water. The smell of dinner will never intimate
that it is on the table. No such euya as beef and
eabbadge was ever found at London. never used to
Be fond of bacon salt things, aud did not reflect
upon it, till after that l ate of them whenever
could as it was without thinking, but that IT was
better than 1t used to be, till l considered and
found that it had been from its having more taste
that made me have naturall desire for It. am not
surprised that the English run into the French
cookry speak with SO much pleasure Of rashers of
bacon or OF roasted beef for their beef and bacon
are their best meat.
The volume is full of diverting gossip and quaint
and sensible observation, and its flavor of antquityis
sspecially pleasant. As true picture of manners,