Bridport, Beaminster, and Lyme Regis Telegram and Dorset, Somerset, and Devon Advertiser. — 1865-08-03 (Bridport, Dorset, England)

AUGUST.  THE choice pieces iii this month's Black*ciod are perhaps the fictions including O'DoWd, -Vfhieli greatly resembles one of them; but there are gdod fOrtieles on Miss Meteyard's "Wedgwood," Beamish on" The Hand," "The London Art Season," and "The Late Elections," and abjuring, as we do, the pernicious range of what is called "light reading," we shall confine our attention to the More useful and interesting matter. As ii matter of taste, however, we may be permitted to premise that it is long since we have seen,even in Blackwood, poetry of so high an order as the lyric " Cleopatra. When first Miss Meteyard started in literary life, it was as a writer of fairy tales, under the designation of " Silver pen." We knew her to be an industrious as well as a fascinating writer; but little could we have expected from er this copious history of the life of . Josiah Wedgwood, which, if we mistake not, is the most sustained effort of her pen, and of IV which only a first volume has as yet appeared. Birnsi Blackwood does ample justice not only to the wor book but to the biography, and the review gi;oeul, reminds us of one of those old-fashioned. ones, Bri,t, that by dint of extracts used to save you the Cardi' trouble of reading, to use a vulgar expression, Highl which we know will shock Miss Meteyard. Pool "on your own hook." We should, however, be sorry if such were the result in this instance, when Mudie and the library cornpanies pervading the world, would supply you anywhere with any newly-published work for perusal by the next mail. We should be sorry, not so much on Messrs. Hurst and Blackett'S account, as on the reader's own, for we do assure him that whatever graces of style and graceful Modes of pic- Exnetd: turing life and manners this authoress ever 13,r possessed, she has put them one and all into the romance of real life—for such, and nothing Glouc less, is the story of Josiah Wedgwood. In Bristol the review of the London Art Season, the Academy pictures are admirably grouped and 1g discussed. High art, as any of our readers P who have been visiting town may know, has to boast of Herbert's "Sower of the Good Seed," Armitage's "Queen Esther's Banquet," Leighton's "Helen of Troj," and Ward's "Night of Bizzio's Murder." Mr. Sandys' " Gentle Spring" is censured as unreal in opposition to the realistic treatment complained of in the historical pictures. Mr. Poole, on the other hand, is praised for the sentimentalism of his "Parting Moment," and for the terror-striking tragedy of his "Plague of London ;" so also Mr. Poynter's "Faithful unto Death." O'Neil's "King Canute" receives both praise and blame, its technical qualities being defective. Elmore's "Gambling Table of Homburg" is too meretricious, but we are glad to find Goodall's "Panorama of the Nile" described as imbued with rare and subtle beauty. The five pictures of Mr. Millais receive a paragraph to themselves, and, although the recognised master of the pre-Raphaelite school, Millais productions are assuredly unlike any other. Yet we perfectly concur in the observation that he at length takes rank as one of the most remarkable Artists of our times. Phillips's 'Early Career of Murillo" is described as his masterpiece, Murillo himself being 'Ade a centre round which to congregate the forms, picturesque and noble, which even unto this day render Seville the place of the painter's birth, brilliant beyond compare among the sister cities of the south. Frith's " Marriage" is acknowledged as a dazzling -work of art, Amongst the ladies Miss M. E, Edwards places herself at the head by that beauteous and refined picture, "The Last Kiss." We are thus indebted to 13lackwood for enabling us to offer our readers some idea of the leading pictures. Two water-colour exhibitions—the French Gallery, and likewise the permanent collections in the National Gallery, the British Museum, and South Kensington Museum—are, however, criticised besides in this article, the object of which is to prove that England is rushing "into an art epoch," the result of national wealth, the exigencies of commerce, and the growth of luxury. The politician will be naturally solicitous to know what Blackwood says now about "the late elections." It opens candidly with the avowal of their having resulted less favourably to their cause than they had hoped or anticipated: There is indeed a singular mixture of generous admissions, with political denunciations, throughout the article. Lord Palmerston comes in for a large share of kind treatment, whilst Lord Westbiiry is the victim of some caustic severity. Miteh allowance is made for Mr. Gladstone, of which the following citation will, perchance, furnish a smack MR.