102 



Fine Arts 1 Publications. 



[JAN. 



him and, indeed, after all, little can be 

 said. The volume, with three or four 

 very good points, and twice that number 

 of passable ones, presents many that are 

 lamentably poor. A considerable part 

 of the effect of some of his previous cuts 

 consisted in the extreme badness of them 

 they were neither works of art nor 

 any thing else ; but they are growing 

 somewhat better and, consequently, 

 worse. Of course we have laughed over 

 several of them such as the Eagle 

 Assurance, the Step Father, London 

 Fashions for November, and (loud and 

 continued laughter here) Kirk White- 

 winch is a fancy portrait of the poet, 

 the features formed of the Gothic win- 

 dows of a church, with an ivy wig. 

 Of the literature, several of the smart 

 things are in the preface; the Parish 

 Revolution contains some eccentricities, 

 bordering upon nonsense ; and Domestic 

 Asides, not very new in idea, is hu- 

 morously executed. The best thing of 

 all, perhaps, is the Ode to N. A.Vigors, 

 Esq., which is full of point of a peculiar 

 kind. But we must turn from these to 

 ask Mr. Hood whether he can possibly 

 have mistaken the idea of " Picking 

 your way" which represents a fellow 

 hooking another's eye out with a pick- 

 axe as he passes for fun ? By what asso- 

 ciation of ideas are agony and amuse- 

 ment so frequently identified in his 

 mind ? We should also be doing Mr. 

 Hood an injustice if we were not to ex- 

 press our disgust at another engraving 

 " Going it at five knots an hour" 

 which exhibits five very comical look- 

 ing criminals suspended from a gallows, 

 kicking and struggling of course in the 

 most facetious and good-humoured way 

 in the world. We have seen few in- 

 stances of so depraved a taste, and can 

 only entertain the charitable surmise 

 that the author was reduced to the very 

 dregs of his invention, and had no re- 

 source but to be either dull or disgust- 

 ing. He has chosen the greater of the 

 two evils. 



The only name we find in this volume 

 besides the editor's is that of Miss Isa- 

 bel Hill, who has contributed a " May 

 Day Vision" worthy of the day. Mr. 

 Hood, however, has had assistance in 

 his cuts, which he has not thought pro- 

 per to acknowledge. The original of 

 the vignette on the title-page The 

 Merry Thought we happened to see 

 some time ago, treated in a spirit so di- 

 rectly similar, as to induce us to regard 

 it as something more than a mere coin- 

 cidence of ideas. To be sure, this is 

 one onlv out of fifty ; but it is an evi- 

 dence, if we are correct in our suspi- 

 cion, of the same principle in Mr. Hood 

 which he complains of mother people. 



The Bengal literati, in order to keep 

 up with the spirit of the times, have 



produced an Annual of their own. It is 

 edited by Mr. D. 1,. Richardson ; who in 

 his preface intimates that as India has 

 not the advantage of the presence of any 

 professional engraver, " the embellish- 

 ments of the volume are the friendly 

 contributions of amateurs." We must 

 take the editor's word for their being 

 " far from deficient in taste and spirit" 

 the volume before us not happening 

 to contain an engraving. The list of 

 contributors is rather numerous, and 

 comprises several names, besides the 

 editor's, that are not unknown, if they 

 cannot boast of being very distinguished 

 at home. The volume is an interesting 

 one even to us at Calcutta it must have 

 created a sensation. In poiut of type 

 and paper the annual does credit to tne 

 Indian press, and is altogether " as well 

 as could be expected." Some of the 

 poetry is of a superior character. The 

 " Scenes of the Seven Ages" is, as far as 

 we are aware, an original conception, 

 and in many passages is spiritedly exe- 

 cuted. The Sketch of British Indian 

 Literature is interesting; and several 

 other papers would do honour to a work 

 that had laboured less under disadvan- 

 tages of all kinds for in addition to 

 other deficiencies, the volume has been 

 brought forth in haste. We can con- 

 gratulate the English circle at Bengal 

 upon the talent that exists in it, and are 

 glad to see that there are such " livers 

 out of Britain." 



Affection's Offering for 1831, is a pretty 

 little volume for the young a book, as 

 it is called, " for all seasons." It is 

 adorned with wood-cuts, and promises 

 some tempting prizes for essays upon 

 certain subjects, to be written by little 

 authors under sixteen. This, we be- 

 lieve, has already been attended with 

 useful effects. The literature of the 

 volume is of a pleasing and appropriate 

 character, by writers whose pens have 

 frequently yielded both amusement and 

 instruction to the young mind. At the 

 head of the list are the names of Mrs. 

 Hall and Mrs. Opie. 



Sketches in Italy, drau-n on Stone by 

 W. Linton. This work, handsomely 

 " got up," will comprise twelve folio 

 numbers, each of which is to contain 

 eight drawings, or fac-similes of the 

 sketches made by Mr. Linton during 

 his recent tour. The number, amount- 

 ing to nearly a hundred, as well as the 

 size, of these sketches, will thus admit of 

 a complete series of all the most pictu- 

 resque and interesting views that Ita- 

 lian landscape can supply. They will 

 be selected from various parts of the 

 Piedmont the Milanese, Roman and 

 Venetian States Tuscan}', and Naples. 



The artist refers to the unaffected 

 style of execution in the pencil sketches 



