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    906 T Off E LEAD E K; [No. 289, Saturday...

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    FOUR AMERICAN BOOKS. My Bondage and Free...

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    Lewis's Rivers. An Account Of Hie Rivers...

    woods where wandered at night , have all become familiar to the readers of the poet untimely snatched away . Poets , however , who have penetrated that divine mystery which lies everywhere , in everything—who have revealed whnt . it is a necessity of their nature to reveal—are not always " firstrate 1 * at etymology ; and the derivation of the ** brawling Trent" remains in their hands in any but a satisfactory state . Draytori , Spenser , and Milton account for the name , because of " fishes thirty kind" abounding in it , and because of its receiving thirty tributaries " in many a sundry way . " Walton , of heavenly memory , ^ . voured the idea of thirty several sorts of fish ; but Camden , with noble indignation , pronounces all who deiive the aame from the Krench trente to be ignorant and idle pretenders .

    Thomas VVarton , though by no means a great poet , was inspired by his *' sweet native stream , " the Loddon , to become its laureate . Ranked at Oxford among the " idlers , " and his manner of speech compared by Johnson to the " gobble of aturkey , " the comfortable collegian could not but be moved to numbers by his beloved river . The sonnet beginning " Oh what a weary race my feet have run , " will live as long as sentiment endures . Suffolk , much-abused as " silly , " to those who know not how wise is unchanged simplicity , which begins where wisdom ends , has had her riverpoets , ancient and modern . The Orwell is mentioned b y Chaucer in the prologue to his " Merchant ' s Tale , ' * and by Drayton in his " Polyolbron . " Stem-market , past which the river runs , was visited more than once by Milton , whose name is associated with a venerable mulberry-tree in the Admiral

    vicarage garden . Orwell Park was the residence of the celebrated Vernon ; and a little farther on was born Thomas Caveudisb , the second Englishman who sailed round the world . The Aide , which waters the eastern part of Suffolk , supplied Crabbe with the greater part of his subjects ; and m the rustic village of Yoxford , so rustic and beautiful as to be called the ¦** garden of Suffolk , " lived and sang James Bird , whose verse survives to show how the heart of Suffolk could produce the artist and the gentleman in the most graceful type of that happy combination ; and although Mr . Lewis forgets to say so many things , he cannot forget the indigenous poet -who sang the Vale of Slaughden . The Vale now presents a totally different appearance ; it neither realises the poet ' s description , nor deserves the encomiums lavished upon it by Camden's " Xourrice of Antiquitie . "

    Isaac Walton , that " father of fishermen , ' has immortalised his favourite river , the Lea , by his book upon angling— " The Contemplative Man ' s ILecreation "—that is , has immortalised it for those who do not think angling is to be considered as a " stick and a string , witb ^ a fool at one end and a fly at the other . " Angling , says Walton , is a rest to the mind , a cheerer of spirits , a calmer of unquiet thoughts , a moderator of passions . Here we may Think and pray , Before death Stops our breath ,

    sings this patriarch on the bank of his river ; and the next moment he teacheth the way to prepare " an excellent bait" for trout . " Take one or more , if need be , of these large yellow caddis ( worms ) , pull off his head , and ¦ with it pull out his black gut , " & c , & c . Fancy this from a man who was always piquing himself on the innocence of his amusement ! Another complacent injunction of this kind is to impale a certain worm twice upon the AooJfc , because it is lively and mig fd get off ! The Meece is the native river of Walton , where he found " the longest summer day too short for his loved pastime ; " and by the Itchen in Hampshire rest his mortal remains ; so that even in death he is not separated from his too beloved trout . unnatural to find the of and

    Araono- the list of anglers it is not names Gay Thomson ; Sir Humphrey Davy , amid all his scientific investigations , found time to tempt the tenants of the brook ; and Archdeacon Paley , when questioned about the progress of one of his books , announced its forthcoming " after the fishin" season . " The Book of English Rivers , indeed , is not a bad companion for tne angler : the best points for fishing are indicated , and the fishes peculiar to each stream are enumerated . Tho Thnines keeps up its reputation for furnishing good sport . Mr . Lewis says of it" Few streams contain a greater variety of fish and fishing-stations than the Thames . The tront are few in number , but celebrated for their large size and the excellence of their flavour . The pike and jack are more numerous , and the following fish are abundant in all parts of the Thames , from Battersea Bridge upwards , namely , perch , barbel , chub , eels , lampreys ( or seven eyes ) , flounders , roach , dace , gudgeons , bleak , xnffe , and minnows . In some places , fine carp and tench are taken . "

    906 T Off E Lead E K; [No. 289, Saturday...

    906 T Off E LEAD E K ; [ No . 289 , Saturday ,

    Four American Books. My Bondage And Free...

    FOUR AMERICAN BOOKS . My Bondage and Freedom . By Frederick Douglass . With au Introduction by Dr . James M'Cune Smith . Trubner and Co . Pictures of Europe , Framed in Ideas . By C . A . Bartol . Trubnor and Co . The Unholy Alliance : an American Vieia of the War in the East . By William Giles Dix . Trubner and Co . Letters to the People on Health and Happiness . By Catharine K . Bcecher . Sampson Low , Son , and Co . TitBRu are many autobiographies more renowned and leas readable than that of Mr . Frederick Douglass , the " coloured" orator and journalist oi"

    Rochester , in the state of New York . Without disparagement of the importance of his later career , we cannot but thank the author for giving moro than two-thirds of his book to the story of his slave-life . This story he tolls in a -clear , connected , and generally dispassionate manner , impressing us with its truth more through the probability of its sequences than by graphic portraiture . Still , hero and there , the writing becomes animated and picturesque . The volume is edited by Dr . James M'Cuno Smith—himself the non , as he informs us , of a self-emancipated bondwoman . In an introduction , and in a short note to an appendix , the editor completely falls in with the American humour of extravagant laudation . Hear Dr . James M'Cune Smith , on the " style" of hi * author : —•

    The style of Mr . Douglass in writing , is to me an intellectual puzzle . The strength , affluence and terseness may easily bo accounted for , because the style of a man is tho man ; but how are we to account for that rare polish in his stylo of writing , which , most critically examined , seems tho result of careful early culture among the best classics of our language - it equals if it do not surpass tho style of Hugh Miller , which was the wonder of the British literary public , until ho unraveled the mystery in the most interesting of autobiographies . We confess a decided inclination to place Mr . Douglass above tho parallels discovered on his account by Dr . James M'Cune Smith . -lint the next bit of comparative criticism is irresistible : — The very marvel of his style would seem to be a development of that other marvel , —how his mother learned to read . The versatility of talent which he wields , in common with Dumas , Ira Aldridge , ami Miss Greenfield , would seem to be the result of the grafting of the Anglo-Saxon on good , original , negro stock .

    Does the reader happen to know anything of the versatility of Mr . Jr . i Aldridge , the " African ' tragedian , " as " he is called ? We do . We once saw him play Othello , with incredible heaviness , and heard him , the same night , sing " Possum tip a gum tree , gum tree , gum tree , " with admirable comic effect . Miss Greenfield , we presume , is the " Black Malibran , " Mr . Lumley , with true managerial taste , entitled her in the bills oi" her . Majesty ' s Theatre . We were not then told that the lady was versatile—an unpardonable omission of Mr . L . umley ' s . Turning from Dr . James M'Cune Smith ( In the midst of whose grotesque eulogy there u > apparent a sincere belief in its justice and a warm regard fur its subject ) to Air . Frederick Douglass himself , we will first rid ourselves of an unpleasant duty , and say that , viewing him by the light of his narrative , his letters , his editorial writings , uutl his speeches—and not knowing anything about him besides—we don ' t like him . That lie is not , by nature , it

    vain or a hard man we are willing to believe ; his story affords good ground for the charitable supposition that circumstances have made him both ; but we are not above vulgar prejudices , and are unphilosophical enough to consider men pretty much as we find tliem . We find Mr . Frederick Douglass vain and hard—probably from external causes — and we don ' t like him . His intellectual qualities are considerable , but not astonishing . Such as they are , his friend Dr . Smith has mistaken them in the most ludicrous way . \ Ye are told that certain very ordinary speeches , published in the appendix , u for originality of thoug ht , beauty and force of expression , and for impassioned nidignatory eloquence , have seldom been equaled" ( sic ) . Mr . Douglass appears to us , and , we have no doubt , to most readers of his story , as a man with ' a good head for a long statement of a case . He puts his facts together remarkably well . Beyond this we do not think his most partial admirer , not an American , could find much to snv that is important .

    Let us now turn to the book for a taste of the author ' s quality . ' 1 he account of the origin of Tuckahoe—the name of his birthplace in the slave state of Marjland , is amusing : — It ( the name ) was given to this section i > f country probably , at the first , merely in derision ; or it may pos .-ibly have been applied to it , as I have hoard , "because soino one of its earlier inhabitants had boon puilty of the petty meanness of stealing a hoe —or taking a hoe —that did not belong to him . Eastern Shore men umi . iIIv pronounce the word too ! :, as tuck ; Toob-n-hoe , therefore , is , in Maryland parlance , Titckahoe . But , whatever may have been its origin—and about this I will not be positive—that name has stuck to * the district in question ; and it is seldom mentioned but with contempt and derision , on account of the barrenness of its soil , and tlie ignorance , indolence , and poverty of its people . Decay and ruin are everywhere visible , and the thin population of the place would have quitted it long ago , but f <> r the Choptank river , which runs through it , from which they take abundance- of sh . i ! and herring , and plenty of ague and fever . He is sent to a noted " breaker" of slaves , a Mr . Covey , who was said

    to enjoy religion . " Mr . Covey instructs the new hand in the art ot driving oxen : — Mr . Covey took a rope , about ten funt long and one inch thick , and placed one end of it around the horns of the "iu hand o . \ , " and gave the other end to me , telling me that if the oxen started to run away , jus- the . scamp knew they would , 1 must hokl on to the rope and stop them . I need not tell any one who is acquainted with cither the strength or the disposition of an unturned <> . x , that this order was about as unreasonable , as a command to shoulder a mad bull ! I hud never driven oxen before , ami I was as awkward , as a driver , as it po .-wible to conceive . It did not answer for mo to plead ignorance to Mr . Covey ; there was flometliing in his manner that quite forbade that . He was a man to whom n slave MoMom felt any disposition to « i > eak . ( Jolil . distant , morose , with a face wearing nil the marks of captious pride , and malicious he abuui

    sternness , he repelled all advances . Covey was not a large man ; was only five feet ten inches in height , 1 should think ; hhort necked , round shoulders ; of quick and wiry motion , of thin and wolttoh visage ; with a pair of small , greenish-grey eyes , set well back under a forehead without dignity , and constantly in motion , mid floating his passions , rather than his thoughts , in sight , but de-nying them utterance in words . Tho creature presented an appearance altogether ferocious and bimstcr , disagreeable and forbidding in the extreme . When lie spoke , it was from tin * corner cf his mouth , and in a sort of light growl , like a dog , when an attempt ih made to take a bone from him . The fellow had already made me believe bun even worn- thnn ho had been represented . With his directions , and without stopping to question , I started for the . woods , quite anxious to perform my first exploit in < mvmg , in a creditable manner . The distance from thu Uouse to tho woods gate—a lull mile , 1 should think—was passed over with very littl « dimculty ; for although the animals ran , I was fleet enough , in the open flc-ld , to keep jm « e with them ; cajieoiftlly as they pulled the woods 1 thrown

    me along at the end of the rope ; but , on reaching , wan speedily into a distressing plight . Tho animals took fright , and started oil" ferociously into tho woods , carrying thu cart , full tilt , iiguin » t trees , over stumps , and flashing from Bide to bide , in a manner altogether frightful . Ah I held thu rope , 1 expected every moment to bo crushed between the cart ami the lingo trees , among which they worn so furiously dashing . After running thus for several minutes , my oxen were , nnalh-. brought to a stnn . l , by a tree , aguimt which they dashed themselves with great violence , upsetting tho cart , and entangling themselves among sundry young sapling . By the shock , tho body of the cart was flung in ono direction , and the wheels and tongue in another . iuuI all in tho groatost confusion . 1 here I was , nil alone , in a thick wood , to which I was a atrangor ; my cart upaet and shattered ; roy oxen ontangled , wild , and enraged ? and I , poor soul ! but a gram hand , to sot all this disorder right . I knew no more of oxou than the ox driver w supposed to know o wisdom After standing a few moment * aurveying tho damage and disorder , and ijot without a nreeontlmont that this trouble would draw flfter it others , even more dis-

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 6, 1855, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_06101855/page/18/