226 



Monthly Review of Literature. 



[FEB. 



a laudable but somewhat pedantic refer- 

 ence to the times, and recorded cha- 

 racteristics of national manners ; he has 

 plunged into French libraries forgotten 

 the cast and tone of his own land's tales, 

 and caught up at the same time the 

 gaiety and vivacity of the people he 

 writes about. The series begins with 

 a story of one of Charlemagne's daugh- 

 ters, who the cunning virago ! earned 

 her lover on her own shoulders through 

 the snow to prevent the appearance of a 

 man's footsteps through the court-yard ; 

 and concludes with the tale of Madame 

 de Maintenon, which has in it as much 

 of the real romance of history as even 

 that in later days of Josephine. 

 In conformity with the practice of his 



predecessors, Mr. Ritchie has introduced 

 the tales with historical summaries, and 

 his are admirable in their way. He 

 takes an ironical tone, and often reminds 

 us of the shrewdness and sarcasm of 

 Voltaire, as well as occasionally of his 

 levity. The author is capable of throw- 

 ing a very useful, because independent 

 and enlightened glance upon historical 

 character and incident ; and might, with 

 a prospect of doing some service, bend 

 his efforts in that direction. Three- 

 fourths of our heavy history is written 

 as if the writers believed the rulers of 

 mankind thought of anything but the 

 interests of themselves, and the orders, 

 parties, factions or sects which supported 

 their authority. 



FINE ARTS' PUBLICATIONS. 



WE can give little more than a list of 

 a portion ot the contents of the seventh, 

 eighth, and ninth parts of The English 

 School, a work of great beauty and utility. 

 It comprises, among others, Stothard's 

 Creation of Eve, Hogarth's March to 

 Finchley, West's Regulus, Kidd's 

 Poacher Detected, Bacon's Monument 

 to Chatham, StephanofPs Visit to Rich 

 Relations, West's Lear, Clint's Scene 

 in the Merry Monarch (injudiciously 

 chosen, because the effect depends upon 

 portrait and individual expression, which 

 are here impossible), Wilkie's Jew's 

 Harp, Opie's Death of Rizzio, Gains- 

 borough's Cottage Children (Fuseli's 

 Oberon seems to have been accidentally 

 omitted in the copy before us), and 

 lastly, Wilson's Cicero at his Villa. 

 These outlines are executed with sin- 

 gular precision, and the effect in many 

 instances is very curious and pleasing. 

 Brief criticisms and explanations, in 

 French and English, are appended by 

 Mr. Hamilton. We leave the work to 

 be appreciated, as it must be, by all 

 lovers of art, whether here or elsewhere. 

 Every outline is at least a memorandum 

 of something which no one, having once 

 seen, could wish to forget. 



The Views in the East lose none of 

 their u original brightness " by repeti- 

 tion ; part the fifth being as brilliant as 

 part the first. Here is another view of 

 Benares, " taken from the upper part of 

 the city, looking down the Ganges," not 

 equal in variety to the last, but very 

 light and pleasing. It is executed by 

 Boys and Heath. The next is the Cave 

 of Karli, beautifully executed, and 

 strikingly curious in itself : this is by 

 Cattermole and J. Bishop. The third, 

 and perhaps the " most pleasing," is 

 El Wuish, a little harbour on the north 

 coast of the Red Sea, in which the 



engraver (Goodall) has given the bright- 

 est possible effect to the pencil of 

 Stanfield. The boats, boatmen, sails 

 and water, are all the " gay creatures " 

 of his own peculiar element ; the moun- 

 tains are less delightful to look upon 

 for where nature has done nothing, art 

 cannot be expected to do much. The 

 descriptive accompaniments comprise 

 considerable information. 



Here is a number, the twenty -first 

 of the National Portrait Gallery, which 

 contains two remarkable portraits of 

 celebrated men ; one of the Marquis of 

 Anglesey, an exquisitely soft and finish- 

 ed engraving, by S. Freeman, from 

 Lawrence's picture ; the other, of Capt. 

 Sir John Franklin, by Thomson, from a 

 picture by Derby. The contrast between 

 the naval and the military hero is cu- 

 rious, and the engravings come very 

 properly into the same number. Of the 

 portrait of Lord Anglesey, as regards 

 resemblance, we cannot judge, but the 

 expression is at once mild and severe, 

 with a character of decision and simpli- 

 city which is faithful we should think to 

 the original : it is Lord Anglesey in 

 repose. That of Sir John Franklin is 

 an excellent likeness, but nota favourable 

 one; and the engraver has so misma- 

 naged his " lights and darks " as to give 

 almost a mulatto tint to a complexion 

 which, considering the changes and the 

 climates which the distinguished voyager 

 has encountered, is singularly delicate 

 and clear. The portrait of Lord Carlisle, 

 by Jackson and Dean, is among the best 

 of the series, and the biographies are 

 full of interest and anecdote. 



The ninth part of the Waverley Land- 

 scape Illustrations contains two views by 

 Dewint, Kcnihvortli Castle and Jorvaulk 

 Abbey ; one by Daniell, Kirkwall ; and 

 one by Robson, Dunstafnage, "the 



