1828.] 



Domestic and Foreign. 



035 



In their young blood, which many an Imago wild 

 To giddy fancy gave, and forms grotesque ; 

 So did warm Venus Dian's hour usurp. 

 Their shadowy forms arise from 'neath the wave 

 To the warm air ; a ruddy glow o'erspreads 

 Their milk-white forms, trickling adown with 



drops ; 



Then by this crystal mirror they are drcss'd. 

 Nymph of the grot Hermione appears, 

 Envelop'd soon beneath her flowing robes ; 

 But for her tighten'd zone her form were lost, 

 For it disclos'd her small round breasts and 



shape 

 Out-swelling, broad, and full; still 'neath the 



folds 



Of, her loose dress her limbs do freely move, 

 And grace appears in every shadow that 

 They cast : broad lights and shades to beauty are 

 Allied, for Nature teaches grace divine. 



A sweet portrait before which Virgil's 

 Harpies and Ovid's Envy must veil their 

 charms : 



A form she took of ugliness beyond 

 What could by pencil be pourtray'd ; her head 

 A cone appear'd ; her chin and nose did meet ; 

 Her eyes were small, oblique, with squinting 



leer; 



So that the vision cross 'd ; all to the left 

 The right eye did command, and so the left 

 View'd all to right ; a hunch was tow'ring o'er 

 Her back ; her leathern dugs hung down below 

 Her waist ; her skin resembled parchment, smok'd, 

 And shrivell'd up ; her thin and bony arms 

 Hung to her knees ; her fingers were like claws 

 Of griffins, crook'd and arm'd with rounded nail?, 

 Sharp-pointed, firm, and strong to rend the flesh 

 From bones; her teeth were ebon tusks, and 



from 

 Her mouth there issued sick'ning sulph'rous 



smells, 



And a blue flame was visible, that breath'd 

 Fell pestilence from out her lips, which seem'd 

 Form'd for an outlet to the Stygian lake. 

 Such fetid vapours hang o'er stagnant pool, 

 And are of reptiles vile the atmosphere. 

 Whene'er she spat on earth, from out the slime 

 Toads numberless crawl'd into loathsome life. 

 Clubb'd and inverted were her feet, like hoofs 

 Of asses, and her ears became erect 

 Whene'er she heard a noise : her stature tall, 

 Gaunt, thin, and bending like a bow ; her voice 

 Would vary quick, in every sound of bass 

 And tenor, loud, or sharp, or shrill, or low ; 

 And though she could, at pleasure, any form 

 Assume, yet this was still her common shape. 



For the verbal critic, and indeed for 

 critics of all sorts and dimensions, Lord 

 Dillon has made work enough. The poem 

 is full of irregularities and offends, proba- 

 bly, against every law, good or bad, that 

 ever was laid down in the poetical code ; nor 

 cares he one fig whose phrases he uses 

 there are some of every body's ; but there is 

 also great vigour and variety of fancy bold 

 conceptions strong and condensed expres- 

 sions and a concentrating power of thought 

 . enough to diffuse a conviction of high 

 ability over a much larger space than even 

 the present volume occupies and to cover a 

 multitude of sins. 



Narrative of the Peninsular War, from , 

 1808 to 1813; by Lord Londonderry. 

 1828. Lord Londonderry's book, though 

 not justly to be entitled a Narrative of the 

 Peninsular War from 1808 to 1813, pre- 

 sents the clearest and most unencumbered 

 account of the British army under General 

 Moore and Lord Wellington, that has yet 

 been furnished. It is not a narrative of the 

 Peninsular War ; for of the French troops, 

 except those which came in immediate con- 

 tact with the British, it speaks incidentally 

 only ; and the same must be said of the 

 Spanish forces which were not acting in 

 connexion with them. Nor is it a narrative 

 even of the transactions of the British troops 

 to 1813; for it stops at the re-capture of 

 Ciudad Rodrigo in January 1812, when 

 Lord Londonderry, then Major-General 

 Charles Stewart, was compelled by ill health 

 to resign his appointment of Adjutant- 

 General, and return to England. This 

 incompleteness of the narrative, whoever 

 reads it will, we think, be inclined to regret ; 

 and we question if any other will supply the 

 deficiency with half the personal knowledge 

 and soldier-lik^ ability of the present. 



The author was attached to Sir John 

 Moore's army, and here traces that com- 

 mander's hesitating course, and disastrous 

 retreat, and redeeming victory, minutely 

 and frankly. The military talents those, 

 we mean, of the more commanding kind . 

 of that very excellent and amiable indi- 

 vidual, it has been, and must be, a vain 

 attempt to establish. He was an incom- 

 parable second ; but as a chief left to his 

 own resources and decision he had not 

 before been tried, and, when tried, was 

 surely found wanting. Less calculating and 

 balancing more resolute in shaking off 

 unprofessional advisers, though fastened on 

 him by orders from home, he might have 

 done, before his retreat, and often during 

 his retreat, especially before he reached 

 Astorga passing, as he did, too, so many 

 admirable positions what he was obliged 

 to do finally at Corunna. Never did more 

 frightful consequences attend a precipitate 

 retreat ; all subordination and discipline 

 were at an end the natives shut their doors 

 against them the troops were enraged, 

 and committed a thousand enormities ; the 

 Spaniards took their revenge, and the sol- 

 diers, mad, and drunk, and in despair, 

 murdered, and were murdered. Lord Lon- 

 donderry has " no hesitation in saying, that 

 the most harrowing accounts which have 

 yet been laid before the public fall short of 

 the reality." The being compelled to fight 

 before embarking, and, perhaps, his death 

 on the field, were, for his reputation, the 

 most fortunate events that could have oc- 

 curred ; had he not thus fought and died, 

 he would have been however undeserved- 

 ly one of the most unpopular commanders 

 on record and as it was, it required, we 

 think, no small exertions on the part of his 



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