LITEEAEY NOTICES. 



"'Going on, sir — yes, sir.' All my things are brought, dry and -warm, and nicely folded; and 

 now I have curiosity to know what value is placed upon so much suavity and care for my comfort. 

 The landlord meets my request with deprecating gesture and griiuace, as if it was a j^ity that 

 the custom of society made such a form necessary between a host and his guest — as if he were 

 about to say — 'I am grieved that you should mention it; really it is I that am indebted to you 

 for this honor — but if you insist, why' — ending the aside, but still low, hurried, and indistinct — 

 'sixpence for bed and a shilling for breakfast, and — (shall I say thre'pence?) for boots, sir?' 'Yes, 

 and the rest of this to that excellent little chambermaid, if you please.' 'Oh, 7ny little girl, sir; 

 oh, thank ye, sir, you are very good, sir — yes, sir, you can't miss it, sir, straight road after you 

 pass the gate, sir. Good morning, sir ; sliould be glad to see you if you are this way again, sir, or 

 any of your friends. Good morning, sir. Hope you'll have a fine day yet, sir! It's slacking up e'en 

 now, I think. Indeed it is, sir. Ah, you'll have a fine day for a walk, sir. Good morning, sir.' " 



He next passes a cathedral or soma remarkable Avork of art, and describes its architecture 

 with tlic same interest and familiarity as the village inn. He mounts the stage coach, and 

 now we have a portrait of the passengers, a chapter of incidents, anecdotes and discussions 

 illustrative of the variety of purpose, sentiments and habits of the company. He foots it 

 with his knapsack on his back, across the dreary downs, and then when naught but the 

 soil is to be seen, he enters upon its description with all the minuteness of a geologist and 

 the practical eye of a farmer — witness the following description of the Isle of Wight. 



"The greater part of the Isle of Wight is more dreary, desolate, bare, and monotonous, than any 

 equal extent of land you pi-obably ever saw in America — would be, rather, if it were not that you 

 are rarely out of sight of the sea ; and no landscape, of which that is a part, ever can be without 

 variety and ever-changing interest. It is, in fact, down land in the interior, exactly like that I 

 described in Wiltshire, and sometimes breaking down into such bright dells as I there told of. 

 But on the south shore it is rocky, craggy ; and after you have walked through a rather dull 

 country, though pleasing on the whole, for hours after landing, you come gradually to where the 

 majesty of vastness, peculiar to the downs and the ocean, alternate or mingles with dark, pictu- 

 resque, rugged ravines, chasms, and water-gaps, sublime rock-masses, and soft, warm, smiling, 

 inviting dells and dingles ; and, withal, there is a strange and fascinating enrichment of half 

 tropical foliage, so deep, graceful, and luxuriant, as I never saw before any where in the world. 

 All this district is thickly inhabited, and yet so Avell covered with verdure, or often so tastefully 

 appropriate — quiet, cosy, ungenteel, yet elegant — are the cottages, that they often add to, rather 

 than insult and destroy, the natural charm of their neighborhood. I am sorry to say, that among 

 the later erections there are a number of very strong exceptions to this remark. 



" In this paradise the climate, by favor of its shelter of hills on the north, and the equalizing 

 influence of the ocean on the south, is, perhaps, the most equable and genial in the northern 

 temperate zone. The mercury does not fall as low in winter as at Rome ; deciduous trees lose 

 their verdure but for a brief interval ; greensward is evergreen ; tender roses, fuchsias, and the dark, 

 glossy shrubs of Canaan and of Florida, feel themselves at liome, and flourish through the winter. 



"Where the chalky downs reach the shore witliout an intervening barrier of rock, or a gradual 

 eloping descent, they are broken off abruptly and precipitously ; and thus are formed the ' white 

 elifi's of Albion,^ and a coast scenery with which, for grandeur, there is nothing on our Atlantic 

 shore that will in the least compare: notwithstanding which, and although they really ace often 

 higher than our church steeples and monuments — tlie family standards with which we compare 

 their number of feet — they have not the stupendoxis effect upon the mind that I had always 

 imagined that they must have. 



" We were rambling for the greater part of two days upon the island, spending a night near 

 Black'gang-Chine, Eeturning, we passed near Osborne, a private estate purcliased some vears 

 since by the Queen, upon which she has had erected a villa, said to be an adaptation o 



