1828.] 



Domestic and Foreign. 



523 



taking a tour in Kensington Gardens, half 

 determined to quit a careless husband, en- 

 counters him, and they forthwith fly toge- 

 ther. The injured husband, accompanied 

 by the hero's treacherous friend, pursues 

 them into Switzerland, and demands satis- 

 faction. The parties meet when, fired 

 with indignation, the hero solicits a pre- 

 vious shot at the traitor is permitted hits 

 him kills him and then offers to receive 

 the husband's firei This is somewhat gene- 

 rously declined and the hero hastens to his 

 mistress to announce his own safety, and 

 her husband's forgiveness. He finds her 

 dead by an over dose of laudanum and 

 he himself loses his senses for ever. 



The versification of the piece is of a good 

 school ; it is easy, direct, and flowing ; the 

 conceptions occasionally shew vigour of 

 thought, and the execution is not at all 

 inferior. Here and there, too, are touches 

 of pathos and sparks of imagination, that 

 seem to indicate KOUICCS of wealth more 

 valuable than any that actually appear. 



Describing Achates 



He was, in truth, a man much mixed of hue, 

 Fix'd to no creed, to no allegiance true ; 

 Grasping he was all enterprise for pelf, 

 And sworn at any rate to serve himself; 

 Yet rash, and wanting caution in the chac?, 

 \Vith more of speed than bottom in the race, 

 Half of his wisdom makes a better man. 

 And half his caution lays a safer plan. 

 In early youth a coxcomb and a dupe; 

 Mature, he finds, to conquer he must stoop ; 

 And with a crafty disappointed mind, 

 He vow'd eternal warfare with mankind. 

 Strange, bootless passion! can such monsters 



be. 



To trample on the youthful destiny ? 

 To lure, like Comus, to th' enchanted cave, 

 The trusting victim that he means to save, &c. 



Another tone 



'Tis sweet to glide upon lake Thun, and leave 

 The world behind, upon a summer's eve ! 

 Solemn and green, unfathomably deep, 

 The glassy waters kiss the pine-clad steep. 

 The gathering goats about the chalet throng, 

 Lured by the call obedient to the song. 

 Rude is the bark, and slender is her side ; 

 But safe in innocence the shepherds glide. 

 'Tis sweet to skim along the silver shore, 

 And list the chant that marks the dashing oar 

 To pass the crag and watch the glittering 

 spire, &c. 



A third 

 They met ! they met I Nor hath more fatal 



been 



The spark that bursts upon the magazine ; 

 The world's ill usage stung his angry breast, 

 And a rash husband had o'erthrown her rest : 

 . Each sought for sympathy, each found a friend j 

 And both their natures in one essence blend. 

 Words had been cold, and language all too 



poor; 

 But the big tear the sigh the look said more. 



All things to come secm'd dress'd in gayest 



light, 



And all behind impenetrable night 

 And then a first and agonizing kiss, 

 Confirmed a:id ratified their hopes of bliss. 

 Oh, hoar her not, fond youth ! I warn too late ! 

 SealM is your doom, and fix'd the course of 



fate. 



She calls it not a sacrifice with thec 

 Too blest Selina shares thy beggary. 



Robson's Picturesque Views of English 

 Cities ; 1828 This series of engravings 

 embraces the whole of our twenty-six cities, 

 and consists of thirty-two plates Canter- 

 bury, York, Durham, London, Lincoln, 

 and Norwich, being each represented by 

 two views. In all of them the Cathedral is 

 the conspicuous figure ; and the first object 

 of the painter, Mr. Robson, was of course 

 rather the picturesqueness of the scene than 

 the extent or the dignity of the city. Gene- 

 rally, the taste of the artist in the selection 

 of his points of view, is decidedly good ; and 

 we question if, with two or three exceptions, 

 more favourable ones could by possibility 

 have been found. To this favourite object, 

 however, as little as possible has been sacri- 

 ficed to truth and accuracy ; but, every body 

 knows, distinctness of delineation is incom- 

 patible with the principles of landscape. In 

 the distance, buildings must be seen in 

 masses, and any attempt at detail would 

 only misrepresent. Things must be taken, 

 as they appear at the artist's point of view. 



To give variety and effect, advantage has 

 been taken of the changing incidents of 

 sun-shine and cloud of haze and gloom 

 of storms and rainbows of the lights of 

 morning, noon, and evening, and the sil- 

 very and contrasting tone of moonlight. 

 This very happy conception has been felici- 

 tously executed ; and the consequence is, that 

 Westminster by moonlight, Chichester in 

 a storm, "Wells and York in gloom, and 

 Lichfield, and Worcester, and London from 

 Waterloo-bridge, in the glare of the noon 

 sun, are among the most pleasing of the 

 set. Though really specimens of the highest 

 existing state of the art, the engravings are 

 unequal the inequality, however, is chiefly 

 observable in two or three of the earlier 

 ones. Canterbury has been singularly un- 

 happy. The north view, as an engraving, 

 is comparatively ill finished, and the east 

 one is not among the best. In one, the 

 west tower, a conspicuous object in the 

 cathedral, is almost lost from the careless- 

 ness of the engraver, and the other gives a 

 very inadequate conception of that magni- 

 ficent building ; and neither of them a fa- 

 vourable, or indeed any notion of the an- 

 cient city itself. More than one point 

 within a mile of the city would have given 

 a more complete, and even a more pictu- 

 resque view than either of the present ones. 

 Oxford again, notwithstanding the peeping 

 forth of five or six towers and steeples, has 

 much too insignificant a look ; but the posi- 



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