464 



Monthly Review of Literature, 



vour by stealth and manoeuvre, as he dares 

 not present himself in his own name and 

 quality. By the generous assistance of the 

 noble Buckingham, he is furnished with 

 the means of making a handsome appear- 

 ance, and a lucky incident gives him a 

 favourable introduction. Henry was fond 

 of tilting, in disguise as a private person, 

 and at the time Darnley reached Greenwich 

 then the royal residence had an expe- 

 dition of this kind in view with Lord De- 

 vonshire. At the critical moment, he meets 

 with a disabling accident, and a dexterous 

 courtier suddenly presents Darnley as a 

 competent knight to supply his place. He 

 is accepted, performs his part to admiration, 

 and rapidly makes his way to the heart, or 

 at least to the transient and capricious fond- 

 ness of the monarch. No time indeed was 

 to be lost, for Darnley had his foes. The 

 man who held his paternal estates was 

 aware of his return, and of his intimacy 

 with the king he had indeed intercepted 

 him on his landing, and thrown him into a 

 dungeon, but had unwittingly let him slip 

 through his fingers. He makes up, how- 

 ever, for his negligence. Wolsey, whose 

 absence of a month or more had been very 

 favourable for Darnley, returns from York, 

 and Sir Pay an, Darnley 's foe, presents him- 

 self, to announce a conspiracy, at the head 

 of which he places Buckingham, and this 

 very Darnley as chief associate, now insi- 

 diously wooing, the king's confidence, the 

 better to betray him. Forthwith the Car- 

 dinal orders his barge, and hastens to 

 Greenwich, prompted by the double hope 

 of crushing Buckingham, his old enemy, 

 and Darnley, the new favourite. Henry, 

 however, with a feeling of kindness 

 Darnley had rescued him, a day or two be- 

 fore, from being smothered in a pool of 

 mud, while hawking refuses to allow of 

 his immediate arrest, and even gives him a 

 timely hint to escape to the continent. In 

 Flanders, on the borders, he has the good 

 fortune to save the life of Francis, and 

 through him he is finally restored to Henry's 

 favour, at the celebrated meeting of the two 

 monarchs in the Field of the Cloth of Gold. 

 "We have not half sketched the tale ; and 

 have forgotten the ladies neither of them 

 very significant. One is attached to Darn- 

 ley, and the other to Lord Derby ; and 

 Wolsey desires to marry Darnley's mistress 

 to Lord Derby. The game of cross-pur- 

 poses is sufficiently embarrassing ; but the 

 current of love finally runs smooth, and each 

 lady falls to the lord she loves best. The 

 scenes about the palace and the park the 

 fttes within, and Henry's pursuits without 

 are 'graphically given, lively and effec- 

 tive. 



The British Naturalist; 1830 The 

 bold and commendable purpose of the very 

 able writer of this little volume, is to make 

 everybody his own naturalist to lead him, 

 that is, to study living subjects, and aban- 



don dead systems. His purpose he prose- 

 cutes by connecting the animal he meets 

 with, with the place where he meets with it, 

 and the food it feeds on, and inquiring why 

 it is there, rather than anywhere else. " The 

 plant and animal," as he says himself, " is 

 taken in conjunction with the scenery, and 

 the general and particular use, and, when 

 that arises naturally, the lesson of morality 

 and natural religion." He traces the moun- 

 tain, for instance, from its base to the sum- 

 mit, and talks of the bear and the wolf, 

 which once among us inhabited it ; and the 

 wild cat and pine martin, which still do : 

 the gnats in the pools the heathberries 

 the Alpine hare the ptarmigan the eagle, 

 and the mechanism of the eagle's eyes, &c. 

 With the same purpose he visits the lake, 

 the river, the sea, the moor, and the brook. 

 The volume is but a small one, and con- 

 tains but a specimen of the author's views. 

 Materials are in preparation for extending 

 the work, not only to a series of volumes of 

 the British Naturalist, but to follow, or 

 alternate those, with the Foreign Naturalist. 

 Such a work, pursued in the spirit with 

 which it is so well begun, will be sure to 

 make its way to the extinction, we hope, 

 of the present mode of regarding and study- 

 ing natural history, which has little else to 

 do with animals, but their skeletons. 



History of France and Normandy, by 

 W. C. Taylor, A.B Mr. Taylor is the 

 author of a little volume, also recently pub- 

 lished, entitled " Historical Miscellany," 

 embracing sundry portions of history, for 

 the most part usually neglected in school 

 books. This " History of France," com- 

 mencing with the accession of Clovis, and 

 brought down to the Battle of Waterloo, is, 

 in like manner, destined for a class-book, 

 and is accompanied with recapitulatory 

 questions at the end of each division, after 

 the fashion of Pinnock's histories. The 

 portion which relates to Normandy, and the 

 wars of our Edwards and Henries, is stated 

 to have been carefully compiled from the 

 old cotemporary chronicles, as, if not more 

 faithful, at least better conveying the spirit 

 and manners of the age, and thus throwing 

 more light on the motives and characters of 

 those whose deeds are recorded. The 

 whole is written with spirit, and the exer- 

 cise of sound judgment and discretion is 

 everywhere visible. It bears, perhaps, too 

 many marks of haste but, in so narrow a 

 compass, it could be nothing but a sketch, 

 and a very good sketch it is. 



Sketches from Nature, by J. M'Diarmid. 

 So very miscellaneous is this little volume, 

 that not even the comprehensive word 

 " Nature" will embrace the contents nay, 

 one piece actually details the process of the 

 sculptor's art and a very distinct one it is, 

 by the way. A considerable portion is oc- 

 cupied with sketches of animals, descrip- 

 tive of their habits, accompanied by nume- 

 rous and well-attested anecdotes ; and this, 



