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    A BATCH OF BOOKS. Divorce in 1857. The T...

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    11OYAL ACADEMY. III. T-ANDSCArK. Art is ...

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    Ballads: Old And New. Ancient Poems, Bal...

    of " We were hardly prepared , after this connexion of what was to follow with the name of one of the sturdiest of radicals , to find that the ballads were all imbued witli a vehement hatred of " old Noll" and his •" ' Cropears . " It it true that " Songs of the Cavaliers" could not be otherwise but how about the " Songs of the lloundheads ? ' ? Mr . Thornbury has a savage picturesqueness—a devil-may-care swing and dash—a power of versifying the forms and colours and feelings of a past age . He has evidently a ° strong feeling for that wild era of history beginning with the Civil Wars of the Seventeenth Century , and ending in the days of the second Pi-etender ; and he is . manifestly well acquainted with their facts and characteristics . B » t his knowledge is not merely antiquarian ; he has sympathized deenlv with the life of the periods . The old vanished London of the days before

    . the Great Fire , with its pieturesque outlines , and its ruffling gallants , gorgeous in lace and plumes and many-coloured doublets—and the later , soberer London of the Hanoverran monarchs , with bag wigs and cocked hats—rise before us as we read , -and we enter fully into the hut passions that made politics then a game of bloody the stake not seldom being one ' s own head . But only a part of Mr . Thornbury ' s book refers to the Cavaliers , Roundheads , and Jacobites . He appends some " Dramatic Monologues" and Miscellaneous Poems . The fault of the volume consists in its unrelieved melancholy and tendency to the horrible . We meet with nothing but savage contests , bloody b the ild

    feuds , smouldering treason , or treason with its head upon the lock , w excesses of debauchery ( as in the terrible dance of drunkards round the placue-pit ) , the wanderings of madness , sad glints and g leams of autumn weather on decaying landscapes , starved weavers working frantically for bread ., poisoned pasties , witchcraft , nightmares , and suicides . We breathe a close , charnel-house atmosphere , which would be intolerable were it not for the fierce energy of the language and the hot pulsations of the verse . We could wish , too , a little more repose , as well as a little more cheerfulness . Mr . Thornbury ' s strength is sometimes feverish ; but his faculty is unquestionable .

    A Batch Of Books. Divorce In 1857. The T...

    A BATCH OF BOOKS . Divorce in 1857 . The Taliot Case . Letters by Cujus . ( Ward and Lock . ) — " Cujus " supplies in a series of letters an excellent history of the Talbot Divorce Case . He writes with point and precision , and we certainly prefer his summing up to that of Lord St . Leonards . The volume contains a melancholy , repulsive record ; yet it should be extensively circulated , for it is the last appeal in a case of injustice and misery . ¦ Stars and Stripes ; or , American Impressions . By Ivan Golovin . ( Freeman . ) —We have long delayed to notice this foolish and ill-meaning book . It should not be mentioned in . these columns , were it not in some sort a duty of criticism to discountenance the pretensions of writers who rely on their own garrulity and the gullibility of the public .

    Other reprints are — the fourth volume of Professor Wilson ' s Essays , Critical and Imaginative ( Blackwood ) , containing "Homer and his ? Translators , " in seven critiques , and " The Agamemnon of iEschylus ; and Jack Hinton , the Guardsman , by Charles Lever ( Chapman and Hall ) , with Illustrations by Hablot K . Browne . We must not omit to notice a new issue of The Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott . Including his Metrical Romances , Copyri ght Lyrical Ballads , and Miscella ? ieo 2 cs Poems a ? id Ballads , with a Memoir of the Author . ( Adam and Charles Black . )—It is a handaome , portable volume , illustrated with numerous excellent engravings on steel and wood . Such an edition has long been called for . —Mr . Toulmin Smith ' s standard work , The Parish , has been

    reprinted , with important additions . ( Sweet . ) It should be adopted as the handbook of all local bodies and parochial officers throug hout the kingdom . Mr . Smith is entitled to say , " There has never before been published such a mass of thoroughly authentic and practically available information on the institutions and working of the parish . "—Mr . Murray has published a fifth volume of Lord Campbell ' s Lives of the Lord Chancellorsfourth edition ; aj > roj ) os of which , we may allude to the forthcoming Lives of certain Chief Justices , by the same author—an announcement sure to excite general interest . Among popular publications we have also volume the second of Mr . Kaye ' s brilliant History of the War in , slfghanislan ( Bentley ) , and the interesting novel , Nig / Uskadc , by William Johnstone , M . A . ( Bentley ) .

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    Ma 23 , 1857 . J THE LEADER . 4 & 9

    11oyal Academy. Iii. T-Andscark. Art Is ...

    11 OYAL ACADEMY . III . T-ANDSCArK . Art is powerful and healthy in its influences , in so far as it reflects the great aspects of life . Landscape excites the sympathies which arc in harmony with the healthy life of the inorganic world , if we may call it so , as exhibited in the architecture of mnn , and tho broad field of Nature . We measure the artist ' s power by his ability to give us the aspects of that life , shown in its most active manifestations . It is not necessary , indeed , that the scene should be agitated with storms , for there is as much vital energy in tho power of the sun , in the lusty growth of tho plants , and in tbo tranquil runuing of the stream , as there ia in tho more transitory paroxyBins of tho elements . But like all great poetry ? art is strictly matter of fact ; its strength ia drawn from the simplest powers ; ¦ and in proportion as its truth is unadulterated , it will affect us . We hero have tho key to judge of every school of landseapo-paintiny . We have the distinction between the more imitation of tho still life of . Nature and portraiture of tho living life . Judged by these tests , wo are inclined to think highly of tho present exhibition . There is , if we may Bay ao , less arrogance , leas straining for effect , lesa Bolf-aasortion of tho peculiarities of ' genius , ' such aa wo saw when Tuknek occupied tho wulls ; but there is a sober , a working , almost a religious spirit of truthfulness , which ia a great gain for tho whole class . Ah we have rumiixkod with regard to tho exhibition generally , tho cfleet of this bolter study is seen

    especially in the humbler range of works . If we find a more confident strength in the leading men , we also see an extraordinary amount of average ability amongst those who have yet attained a less conspicuous position . Early in the catalogue lies a little picture , a " Water Mill , " by Mr . N . O . Lupton , which has not been thought worthy of any but a place below the line ; where , indeed , we find one of the most masterly pictures of the present exhibition . And that little picture , placed so humbly , goes far to illustrate what we have been saying . So does the " View of Mont Blanc from Servoz , " by Mr . H . Moore : there are faults , but there are also considerable merits , and especially the broad effect of open air and light and shadow upon the intermediate mountain .

    The first landscape to arrest you is a " Crab and Lobster Shore , " by Mr . E . W . Cooke ; which illustrates the more general principle that we have laid down-It is admirably painted , yet not pleasing . It is a curiosity for the truthful effect of a stony beach , with lobster-baskets fastened about it . It is an ugly dead wall of the sea-shore , with little variety of tint , but a miraculous accuracy in the remarkable individual stones and pebbles—all pale , hard , uncharitable , enongh to create grief even in a lobster . It is a curiosity , masterly in its success , and not possessing the mind , like some landscapes of inferior skill and happier subject . Why ? Because in it the expression of inorganic life is very slight ; it is a portraiture of the still life of the Creation .

    Far more striking is Mr . 'Eedgravje ' s " Well-known Footstep , " in which the landscape is more important than the figures ; it represents a garden path , with a side view of a cottage front on the one side , and a glimpse into the little household ; on the other , a glance into a tall grove of trees ; and over all an endeavour to photograph every leaf , every sprig , every brick , every household utensil that peeps through the open door . There is too much of this literality ; but the painstaking fidelity of the artist has made him follow the branching of the boughs and the leaves , the glancing of the light , the play of the shadows * the changing of the tints under the fitful sun or in the distance ; and the consequence is an effect of living nature . Stanfield aims at a more stirring scene , in every sense . He endeavours to

    give you a story of the elements , whether it is in the tranquil blackness of " Fort Socoa , St . Jean de Luz , " or in the large picture , " Port na Spania , " near the Giant ' s Causeway . Here a ship of the Spanish Armada has gone on shore in a gale , which is still tearing up the billows and sweeping spray , mist , and clouds in dizzy wreaths around the tall wall of basaltic rocks . Stanfielo does not approach so close to the object that he paints , does not reproduce it in detail ; but he knows what is wanted to give the effect of the whole scene . You have in the rocks beautiful specimens of the architecture of the Creation , standing unmoved by the billows or the winds which have for centuries kept up a ceaseless war upon the outpost of land . The great movements of nature which have so large an influence upon organic life are present to the eyes .

    Nature has many aspects : —you may endeavour to reproduce a whole view , as Mr . J . Stark has done , in his works " At Rest , " " Marlborough Forest , " and others , with great success ; you may choose chiefly to give the effect of vegetable creation , as Witherington does in " Early Summer , " and " Lyndale , North Devon ; " or you may take the broad sweep of light over hill and dale , in a moorland view , after the manner of J . F . Liknell ' s "Mountain Fath ; " but in either case , fidelity to the truth will be rewarded . Witherington is a veteran , but an immortal youth seems to dwell in his tranquil scenes ; and we are inclined to think that even this long familiar friend has profited by the new spirit which has come over the English school . There is more painstaking , and less attempt at a lower style of scene painting , in which dabs of colour were made to pass , and effects were attempted by a random hit-or-miss style of

    handling . He still endeavours to preserve the breadth of light and shade , still has a tender half-tint of transparent shadow with glancing sunlight from one side , still contrasts the vivid colour of one tree against the more neutral tints of another , still delights to paint the effect of that interweaving vegetation in which the grass springs up thick and sharp from the ground , the tree stem springs from the grass , and the leaves and branches of the trees interlace with each oilier . But the outline is more carefully painted , the details are moulded with more distinctness , and the reality is strengthened without impairing the brilliancy of the whole . The " Early Summer , " which presents a pathway along the side of a river , with haymaking in the intermediate grass-plot , is full of life and air . Through the eyes it almost makes the other senses conscious of the atmosphere , and produces in the heart the same feeling of gladness that man was created to . feel , when he witnesses the life-giving power of the elements over even his mute companions , the creatures of the vegetable world .

    Under the broad sunlight in the open air , lights and shadows are sharp and well defined , but every shadow is transparent . Linneli / s <; Mountain Path " exactly copies these traits ; we are looking up a winding pathway , with heath stretching above us to the right ; a little rivulet has made its bed in tho midst of the pathway . Higher up than we are stands the figure of a girl , who seems stopping to look back ; her shadow falls across the path , and through tho shadow , sharp as it is , you see every pebble and every ripple . J . C . Horslev , who has heretofore attended principally to figures , has now given us a landscape with figures , which he calls " Youth and Age . " An old woman in a red cloak is wending her way towards the spectator , down a hilly path , which runs through a wood . A little child is offering the aged woman a lower ; other figures are proceeding up the pathway : save as contrasts of personal characteristics , they are little moro than accessories in the scone . The water has worn away tho banks , which are steep on both sides ; old tree-stems under shade

    rising above the banks . The immediate foreground is a deep ; a little further buck the light is glancing through the trees ; and further on lies the broad open green distance . liven through the deep shade a Hash of light is glancing upon the hood of the woman ' s red clonk . The shade is deep but not black ; as in nature , it looks at first as if the objects within it wore dim , yet the eye grows accustomed to discern them ; while here and there glancing halflights convey a sense of motion in the leaves of the trees above , and bring out the fresh complexions and brighter dresses of tho moro youthful figures . The whole action of nature upon the surface of the ancient hill , upon tho old trees , the young plants , tho winds , and the Bun itself , is brought within the framework ; and a decree of lurninousnees is attained which is beyond tho reach of pigments , unless used by a truly skilful hand . It is , we repeat , the best work that wo have seen , from the pencil of Horblut ; and tlio accomplished lnnd-Huapc-painter Ids uncle , Calciott , would bo rejoiced indeed to have recognised

    his heir in this work . . , . liKOUKAYJE ' fl " Cradle of tho River" tells tho sumo everlasting story in ms now manner : it ia one of his best pictures . A " Moorland Child —ft more trilling work , with a ( tingle figure and a landscape iwckflnMind—is very prowv-J . K . Ukrukrt ' s " View ou the Coast of France , in tlio Autumn oi 18 . > 3 is interesting as a landscape-painting from a hand which ha * told aomo powcrlui

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), May 23, 1857, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_23051857/page/19/