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    1HYO \ THE IHABII [No. 350, Satuhbav

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    HOWITT'S VISITS TO REMARKABLE PLACES. Vi...

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    THE PARAGREENS AT PARIS. The Parar/recns...

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    Aurora Leigh. Aurora Leiyk. By Elizabeth...

    Who looks out from the marble sdently Along the track of his ova shining dart Through the dusk of ages , — -there ' s no need to speak ; The universe shall henceforth speak for jou , And witness , * She who did this thing , -was bora To do it , —claims her license in her work . ' —And so with more works . Whoso cures the plague , Though twice a "woman , shall be called a leech : Who rights a land ' s finances , is excused JFcr touching coppers , though her hands be white , — Bat we , we talk !" " I am not sad : Nat sadder than is good for what I am . My vain phalanstery dissolved itself ; My men and women of disordered lives , I brought in orderly to dine and sleep , Broke up those waxen masks 1 made tliem wear , With fierce contortions of the natural face ; And cursed me for my tyrannoiis constraint j Eaforcmg crooked creatures to live straight ; Axid set the country hounds upon my back . To bite aud tear me for my wicked deed Of trying to do good without the church Or even the squires , Aurora . Do you . mind Your ancient neighbours ? The great book-club teems With ' sketches , ' ' summaries , * and ' last tracts' but twelve , On socialistic troublers of close honds ^ Betwixt the generous rich and grateful poor . The vicar preached from ' Revelations' ( till The doctor woke ) , and found me with ' the frogs ' On three successive Sundays ; ay , and stopped To-weep a little ( for he ' s getting old ) That such perdition should o ' ertake a man Of such fair acres , —in the parish , too ! : He printed his discourses ' by request . '" These extracts , chosen for their variety , will delight the reader , but thej very iaintly indicate the wealth and beauty of Jtwom Leigh .

    1hyo \ The Ihabii [No. 350, Satuhbav

    1 HYO \ THE IHABII [ No . 350 , Satuhbav

    Howitt's Visits To Remarkable Places. Vi...

    HOWITT'S VISITS TO REMARKABLE PLACES . Visits to JZemarJcable Places : Old Halls , Battle-fields , and Scenes Illustrative of Striking Passages in English Histcn-y and Poetry . By William 5 Lowitt . Third Edition . 2 toIs . ¦ -..- " , '¦ ¦ liOngman and Co . A thikd edition of Mr . Howitt ' s \ rork , in two beautiful volumes , claims more than a passing notice . More than eighty illustrations , designed and executed by Messrs . Samuel Williams , Richardson , Carniichael , and Weld Taylor , contribute their lights and sladows to this book of history ? gossip , and poetry , of twice-told tales and cheerful reflections . Such a boot , and such a-writer , we are inclined to receive ia a

    Christmas spirit , -without casting a critical frost over the brightly-tinted fragments of history , or disputatiously examining opinions so warm , wild as they often are . When Mr . Howitt shows us over a castle , or through a . picture-gallery , or from point to point of a battle-field , or leads us among the hallowed memorials of patriotism or genius , it is surely unnecessary to anatomize Iris < views' of Wblsey ' s character , p f Charles I . V cause , or of Scott ' s poetry . We therefore accompany this pleasant guide from tlie home of the Sydneys to the grave of Derweutwater , resolved not to interrupt his narratives , familiar and fanciful as th « y often are , by historic doubts or prosaic analyses . It is enough that Mr . Howitt ' s work has many charms , that it is original in conception and in manner , that it is invariably elegant and interesting . Jt is , too , peculiarly national . As the Chinese visit tlie

    tombs of their fathers , the English visit all those homes and haunts that are called ancestral . Few , peifliaps , are aware how powerful is this sentiment , of which Mr . Howitt is the representative . . When an Englishman gropes in Pompeii or stares in Rome , -we are sure to hear of it , since he is privileged to write a -volume ; but hundreds of a more domestic order arc perpetually rambling , at home , from ruin to relic , from Norman to Saxon shrine , among the castles ,, abbeys , halls , and churches of England , lovingly admiring them , and falling ^ into raptures and speculations which happily remain unpublished , though the Mechanics' Inst itutions suffer for it . To modest wanderers of this class the Visits to Remarkable Places is a handbook pnst ¦ valuing , while to the less enthusiastic and more leisurely people who read of Florence by their own firesides , and never travel out of their own

    countries , except as they travel into antiquity or the middle-ages- —at home in octavo , cloth , they supply a series of historical and local illustrations quite as amusing as a novel—ought to be . The hereditary habitation of the Sydneys ; Bolton Priory , where lived the famous Countess of Pembroke ; Hampton Court ; Compfcon-Winyates ; Xintagel , thirteen centuries old , that saw the hospitality of King Arthur iind the beauty of Queen Genevra ; and Wotton Hall , around which lingers the fame of Alfieri and Rousseau , are among the old English homes the traditions of which are collected by Mr . Howitt . His favourite battle-fields are Culloden , Flodden , nnd Edgehill . He has a feeling , also , for ecclesiastical antiquity , and dives into the chronicles of Winchester , Durham , and Jarrow . Occasionally , he passes from under the shadow of castlo and cathedral walls to explore the scenes of Shakspeare ' s boyhood , or to follow Marmion through the « epic' of Sir Walter Scott ; but , obviously , lie has heraldic tendencies , and assimilates in the choice of his pursuits with Ulster King of Arms . Rural life may be Mr . Howitt's subiect : he mav uelitrht

    m Claudes and Titmns , in the remains of old pastoral customs , and in the monuments of an age of architectural glory ; 'but he is a Sir Bernard Burko in . ma devotion to baronial records . Not all the works of Rembrandt or ^ orreggio hav e so muoli attraction for him , apparently , as an original por-? Eq ? u Phlll PSydney , ; lie is deeply fascinated by certain memorials of tne bherbournes of Stonyhurat ; he is evidently moved by tfie sight of the xmnonal shield of Hilton . Moreover , his volumes prove what a wealth of romantic lore and of historical detail belongs tothcBe old habitations of old

    families . Not a tenth part of the field lias been worked by the h ' v *™ ' "" i novelist . The banqueting hall of Pcnslmvst , the story o / thc Si I Lord , the hiding-places of Compton-Winyates , the wife of Dean WhittinS , salting her bacon in the coffins of saints , the maiden , garlands still hnift in Wilton Gilbert Church , the tale of -the murder and " the ammrfSS" ? Lumley Cuslle , the prodigality of the Delavals , and the bloody < va » n t £ wall of Ahiwick , are suggestive of far more romance than ever noetq story-tellers have extracted from them . What might not ¦ be ' made f example , of Seaton-Delaval , where the opulent lord lived like au intaxWni Venetian the t hositble reckless ker

    pnuce , mos pa , guy , jo conceivable H house was a palace of vast proportions furnished . with extrava « -ant snlendoii and here he perpetually entertained immense crowds of company dancing music , wine , and revelry , preparing the guests for frolics tLat ' would havo amazed a Christmas audience at a theatre . His daughters were cynosurp of beauty and Pamiottas of frivolity . They once persuaded Gamck tn lend them . Drury Lane Theatre for a private performance . The bri « bte \ t of the Graces of Delaviil was Lady Tyrconnel , yrho had hair of % nel luxuriance that when she rode on horseback it floated on the saddle Sli and her sisters and father were possessed b } r an overpowering m-edil ' ecfcmn

    or practical jokes , luey had trap-doors contrived under the beds of their guests , to lower them unawares into baths of" cold vater . They had movable partitions between the bed-rooms which could be suddenly hoisted un when the ladies and gentlemen , having retired to rest , were in a state to enter their beds . Much use has been made of these palatial pleasantries by compilers and others ; but a large store remains imexausted . The most interesting , though , the ' most painful of Mi :. Howitt ' s narratives , is that concerning the ferocious John Boves , who killed one wile and . tried to kill another , but lived to . ' read his own epitap h ¦ written- by the divorced lady But the work abounds in passages of varied romance , ' . and in its present attractive form is sure of increased popularity .

    The Paragreens At Paris. The Parar/Recns...

    THE PARAGREENS AT PARIS . The Parar / recnson a Visit 1 o the Park ¦ '¦ Universal Exhibition . By the Author of . " Lorenzo BenonH and " Doctor Antonio . " AYith Illustrations by J olin Leecli . : '¦ - . / . : : Constable and Co . The author of Lorenzo Beno ? ii achieved a wide and instantaneous reputation , whichi JDoctoi- Antonio did not diminish , although not increasing it . But if he publish another such a work as this Yisit of the Paragreens , he will speedily lose all the prestige he has gained . It is every way unworthy of him , except as another remarkable illustration of his power over the JEnglish language , which he writes asfewEiiglishmen can write it . The : boot is poorly conceived ; it is a trifle admissible into' a magazine , but not worth republication . The idea of a London cjt visiting Paris with his family , and while there displaying the ai'rogance a . nd ignorance of John Bull out of his own meadow * dupe of shallow swindlers and his own tuft-huiiting vanity , is surely so threadbare

    as only to be j ustified on its reappearance by some peculiar richness in the clothing . A Dickens or a Thackeray might treat this old topic so as to make us forget Low old it was ; but the Pcti-agreens , although pleasantly andeveii humorously written , has none of the ovcrllowing fun of Dickens , or Thackeray ' s incisive ease of satire . Mr . Paragreen is a retired cork-merchant living at Peckham , and visiting Paris with his wife and four children , in order principally to astonish Peckham with recitals of the splendours witnessed . He mistakes a bazaar for the Exhibition and is large in contempt ; ' At . the hotel where he stops there is a swindler , who , passing himself oil" as a prince in exile , bewilders the Para > green family by his condescension , and cheats them out of money . Two other swindlers , personating a marquis and a lord 3 extract money from Mr . Paragreen ; and a young Dentist makes love to Miss Parngreen , thereby raising hopes in the maternal breast of a great match , until the real position of the lover is disclosed .

    The treatment is , as we said , pleasant and humorous , with some good touches of observation , but there is no invention displayed , nor is there any novel observation of character . A fair specimen of the whole . may be taken from the early clwptcr when the Paragreens arrived in Parin , vainly seeking a lodging : — But , by this time , the last omnibus for conveying travellers to hotels liml been gone more than half an hour , leaving no other alternative than to send for a couple of citadines , in which , after the family with their addenda of small vackngc 1 . * , four trunks , anil three carpet-bngs , had been placed , there still remained three of the trunks , six bonnet-boxes , and a carpet-bag to 1 ) 0 disposed of ; nnd a third dtadine had to be procured . " All right ! " aaid Mr . Para ^ roen , ia a cheerful voicu , after giving the address of the hotel -where he intended to stop , and the ' three ' vehicles sot oil ' , the bulk of the luggage in the first , Mr . and Mrs . Paragreea with Arabella in the secouJt Tobo , M 133 Paragreen , a » ul Enmu in tlvc third .

    It wus eight o ' clock in the evening . Crowds of people were sauntering ia the streets and on tho Boulevards , glad to breathe the cool air of evening sifter tho sultriness of the day—crowds of people sat enjoying their eoll ' ce and cigars in front of cafes—crowds of omnibuses , hackney-coaches , cubs , and private equipages of every kind , crossed nnd re-crossed in every direction . English , French , Sardinian , i ^ Turkish flags were streaming out from ahop . s nnd balconies . 1 ' aris , in fiwt , iva * looking an lively , coquettish " , and bewitching , as only l ' aria can look av hen she chooses . But most of the witchery of tlio scone—keenly enjoyed , though , by tlie younger Paragreona—was lost for tho nonce ou their respectable parents , who sat with their heads out of opposite windows—ono wntuhing with anxiety tlio uitiidinu in the van . — the other tho citadine in tho rear . In this attitude tliey reached the Hotel do la Cigogne , Rue St . Ionor « j , recommended by Mrs . l ' ara ^ reon ' s cousin , Aklormun JoWpi who had spent some days there , and whoso linn had pronounced tho dictum of ' » clean , reapectablo , l'easonablo house , " bo reverentially inscribed ia Mr . l ' amgrceus note-hook .

    Mi * . Paragreen . being a practical man who left as little ns possiblo to clinnce , nligliW ' and said ho would see tho rooms with his own eyes , and settle with the landlop beforo any of tho others got out , or any of the boxes wore touched . The head waiter of tho llGtel do la Cigogno , in shirt-sleovca , whites cravat , and red ulipl'eiH , i yfl sitting astride a chair , liis face to its back , pulling a-way ut a cigar . Th <; advent o tho threo citadinos did not occasion nny change in hi « poaturo—he did not . ov wink , an ominous sign indeed to tho initiated . " Avoz-vous les anpurtotHOijE 9 ' asked 'Mr . ruragreen , walking : straight up to this composed porsoaage . i ftl

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 6, 1856, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_06121856/page/18/