654 
oo 
the profligacies of the court —takes him un- 
der her protection. To her astonishment 
she finds ‘him, as she had before thought 
him, neither a boy, nor a fool, nora lunatic. 
All fire and intellect, the promethean 
flames of her own soul quickly enkindle his ; 
she teaches, inculcates, enlightens: he 
listens, learns, and labours; a few little 
weeks make up for the neglects of years ; 
and they become of course passionately ena- 
moured by the time Sir Lionel returns. 
He is enraged at the result; and gets up 
acharge of heresy against the youth: who is 
quickly whipped up to: London, and con- 
demnedto the scaffold. In the mean 
while, Sir Lionel, thoughtlessly for ‘once, 
involves himself with the religious parties 
of the times; and though he had succeeded 
in clutching the abbey lands, he was, some 
way or other, induced to head a little re- 
bellion in the West, and in a skirmish with 
the King’s troops, commanded bythe Duke 
of Norfolk, was killed. Of course Hun- 
gerford gets released; he and Beatrice 
marry, and are left in "comfortable posses-~ 
sion of the property, Jegitimate and illegiti- 
mate, except the abbey lands, which Hun- 
gerford begged to resign,—an act which 
Harry thought the best proof of insanity. 
In this éclaircissement Dudley has no con- 
cern: 
Thereis much that is really well done in 
this novel—ostentatiously, perhaps, as to 
antiquarian lore, and elaborately, but accu- 
rately done—more so than could have been 
expected; but no brilliant—no emphatic 
scenes—none that will live in the memory, 
or ever be recurred to with pleasure. 
Our Village: Sketches of Rural Cha- 
racter and Scenery, by Mary Russell Mit- 
ford. Vol. II. 1826.—So unrivalled are 
Miss Mitford’s sketches, that we hope she 
will never be tempted to expatiate on a 
broader canvas—no three yolumes. She 
wields a more graphic pen, perhaps, at 
once light and vigorous, than any, of man 
or woman, that we could name. Every 
stroke is effective—eyery syllable tells ; and 
almost every succeeding piece excels its 
predecessor—in execution, certainly, though 
her subject may be sometimes of inferior 
interest. The impress of nature and reality 
is stamped upon her scenes and characters. 
It scarcely enters into the reader’s concep- 
tion that her’s are fancy pieces; and we 
can entertain no doubt, but living scenes 
and living flesh and blood—coloured occa- 
sionally to give adequate effect—sat for the 
pictures—save and except the “ Inquisitive 
Man,” which has more the air of invention, _ 
than any thing in rerum natura. Miss 
Mitford has, indeed, a lurking penchant for 
caricature. Let her’ beware. But we con- 
fide on the soundness of her judgment, to 
bring her round to the point of discretion. 
May one reminiscence continue to call up 
another ; may she multiply her friends and 
acquaintance; and may events accumulate 
upon her—after the manner of Tristram’s 
Monthly Review of Literature, (Dae 
history—faster. than she can describe-—to, 
secure an inexhaustible’ ‘Supply Of cher 3 eli- 
citous touches. — se hniiaey 
Many of the sketches of thie Ye ume. 
have appeared in different periodicals ; an 
two of the best, the “ Old” and the ‘ "Young 
Gipsy,” illumine our own pages. rec x cient 
The Literary. Souvenir for 18275 edited. 
by Alaric. Watts. —This little bijowis very 
much of the same, aspect. and character as 
the ‘“‘ Forget Me Not,” and the “ Anvulet,’”, 
which we slightly noticed in our last-num= 
ber... The volumes, all three, of them, are, 
got up with great taste and elegance; the 
engravings are some of the best specimens 
of the existing state of the art; the paper is 
silky—its colour creamy ; the cover and its 
envelope delicately shaded; the edges  bril- 
liantly gilded ; the size ‘agreeably portable ; 
—what more ?—the toutzensemble too dainty 
and soilable to be touched by ‘the’ inky 
fingers of every-day reviewers. If one haye 
a superiority over the others in point of 
embellishment, the ‘‘ Souvenir” has it... Its 
engravings are more numerous, and though 
not better executed, are perliaps better se- 
lected. It exhibits also more. significant 
names in the list of contributors; but the 
contributions themselves do not materially 
—nay, not at all—raise it aboye its com- 
peers. For the truth is,—speaking of the 
poetry—and we extend the remark to the 
whole three yolumes,—its characteristic is 
—respectable_mediocrity—sober and un-. 
perturbing. No yigorous thoughts shake 
the soul; no touching sentiments thrill the 
frame ; no splendid scenes dazzle the i ima- 
gination ; ; nothing elevates, or melts,-or. 
absorbs, or takes the memory by storm, 
Verily, we think, if the pages were opened 
at random, the first piece that presented 
itself would serve as a fair and competent 
specimen of the whole... The prose is indis- 
putably, we think, far superior to the poe- 
try. There are some excellent scraps in 
prose—particularly in the “‘ Amulet ;”* and 
there are others equally good in the volume 
before us. Miss Mitford has a few drama- 
tic scenes, making up an “‘ Acted Charade,” 
which she provokingly bids us—guess— 
guess. , We did guess—guess—of course to. 
no purpose; but, setting some ladies ae, 
guessing—nothing like the ladies for these 
things—one of them quickly gaye. us le mét_ 
—conTEMPr—the last feeling we shall ¢ ever. 
entertain towards Mary Russell Mitford... 
In each of these volumes, very, many 0} of 
the contributors are the same. a ‘we. 
think, is inconsiderate on the pa: Cae 
said contributors. It gives, a et ee ubi-. 
quity to them, to be sure—yery agrees 
no doubt, to such as delight to. ae. ¥, 
in ora viriim ; but the effect must inevit tably. 
be to cheapen them. It will, be, wise ate 
another year, for them to make their ele 
tion, and coniine their favours to some. oe 
of them. The consequence of the present. 
indiscriminatiyeness is to throw a sameness 
over the yolumes—exceedingly.. distressing 
