666 



The Review of Reviews. 



CZAR AND CZARINA. 



The Cornhill for December contains an un- 

 signed paper describing a visit to the Czar at 

 Tsarskoe Selo, the village fifteen miles from St. 

 Petersburg where he mostly dwells. The writer 

 was a member of the British deputation to 

 Russia a year ago. He says that the whole 

 appearance of the house was most unpretentious 

 and unpalatial. Every room looked thoroughly 

 homely. This characteristic is evidently that 

 appreciated most by its Royal occupants. Both 

 the Czar and the Czarina are said to prefer small 

 rooms. 



"a companionable host." 



The Czar was dressed in a neat dark green 

 uniform, and wore only one Order. The writer 

 proceeds : — 



In appearance the Czar is very good-looking. Although 

 not tall, he is very well proportioned and of fine phy- 

 sique. His hair is of brown colour, and I particularly 

 noticed it was untinged with grey. His complexion is 

 somewhat swarthy, but this seems to add to the character 

 of his face. His countenance is particularly oi)en, and 

 his dark glittering eyes are keen and penetrating. There 

 IS a twinkle about them which adds a liveliness to his 

 features, and his expression betrays an unmistakable 

 sense of humour. There is nothing about him which 

 suggests that nervousness which has been attributed to 

 him by several writers who are evidently not well 

 acquainted with their subject. He perhaps exhibits a 

 slight embarrassment in conversation, and this is be- 

 trayed by his playing with the point of his aiguillette 

 and an automatic movement of his foot. But, on the 

 whole, his presence seems to convey an indication of 

 power, and of a very strong personality. He has a 

 charming and ingratiating manner. In his conversation 

 he has the knack of putting everyone at their ease, and 

 if it were not for a certain quiet dignity and an in- 

 definable suggestion of strength, it would be difficult 

 to lemember that this companionable host is Emperor 

 of All the Russias. He bears a certain resemblance to 

 his cousin, the King of England ; but the likeness is not 

 so remarkable as photographs would lead one to sup- 

 pose. He favours the Slav rather than the Dane in 

 appearance. 



A PEERLESS BEAUTY. 



The Czarina was attired in a flowing dress of purple 

 velvet, which set off her stately figure to perfection. Her 

 jewels were few and simple, and consisted of a rope 

 of pearls and some amethyst ornaments. She is remark- 

 ably handsome, and her features still afford sufficient 

 evidence of that peerless beauty which in former davs 

 was the admiration of an entire continent. Her state- 

 liness and her grace of movement are singularly appro- 

 priate to the exalted position she occupies, in fan few 

 women have ever looked the part of Empress more to 

 perfection than she. Her expression, although rather 

 sad, is reposeful, and without a trace of the nervousness 

 and anxiety which it must have often been her lot to 

 endure. Her dark blue eyes have in them an expression 

 of kindliness and sympathy. Her face when she speaks 

 lights up with a radiant smile. She has the habit of 

 inclining her head to one side, when conversing, which 

 was characteristic of her grandmother. Queen Victoria. 

 The Czarina has a quiet, soft way of speaking which is 

 remarkably attractive, but the most noticeable charac- 

 teristic is her wonderful natural dignity and grace of 

 movement. 



There is something tragic in the description of 

 the Czarevitch as we recall the later " acci- 

 dent " which has left such protracted ill-health. 

 The writer says that there does not appear to be 

 a word of truth in the rumour that the Czare- 

 vitch is a delicate boy, for " a finer specimen of 

 boyhood I have rarely seen. ' ' 



WHY NOT TELL THE TRUTH ? 



This is the question that Sir Harry Johnston 

 raises in the Cornhill for December concerning 

 Drake to begin with. In contrast with the 

 popular presentation of Drake, he was not, says 

 Sir Harry, a man of handsome appearance and 

 splendid physique, but a perky-looking man of 

 less than middle stature. Nor was he a well- 

 nigh perfect hero. On the contrary, he did to 

 death Thomas Doughty by a totally unjustifiable 

 judicial murder. His piracy was indefensible 

 even for'his own age. Nevertheless, Sir Harry 

 admits that he was not needlessly cruel to the 

 Spaniards, and his attitude towards women was 

 invariably above reproach, and he enforced 

 similar behaviour on his men. 



THE REAL QL'EEN VICTORIA. 



Sir Harry goes on to say : — 



Why in the case of Drake, of Raleigh, Mary Queen of 

 Scots, the Young Pretender, and of people nearer our 

 own day — Gordon, Abraham Lincoln, Livingstone, 

 Queen Victoria — is it alwa>s sought to depict them in 

 the heroic mould and temper, whether they were so 

 completely or not, or whether the element of greatness 

 in them, as displayed in disposition or in appearance, 

 predominated always or was sometimes obscured? Does 

 not this falsifying of history in the long run create an 

 utter distrust of what should otherwise be the most 

 inspiring of the arts — in sculpture, painting, and litera- 

 ture — the re-creating of the Past? For nearly fifty years 

 of Queen Victoria's reign the official limner, the wood- 

 block draughtsman, the obsequious sculptor, or the car- 

 toonist was obliged to represent her Majesty in books, on 

 coins, on canvas, or in statue or bust as a lovely young 

 girl, or a matron of large size and over-ripe beauty. I 

 remember with what a shock came to me Linley Sam- 

 bourne's realistic drawing of the Queen's face in a 

 full-page cartoon for Punch for the opening of the 

 Fisheries Exhibition in the middle 'eighties. Tn those 

 days photographs of Queen Victoria were not commonly 

 seen in shop windows, or were carefully stippled, 

 characterless presentments. Sambourne had the courage 

 to draw the Queen's face with extraordinary fidelity and 

 justness of line. One saw here no vapid mniron of 

 placid comeliness, but a sad, far-seeing, hrrd-worked 

 woman of the world, a Ruler, even in small tilings, an 

 autocrat ; a hnmnn being of strong prejudices, jealousies, 

 and dogmatisms; yet a personality so strong, so in- 

 fluential, that the student of character would have turned 

 to look at such a face more than once in an omnibus, 

 a church, or a shop, even though it were but the fme of 

 a short, sturdy, widow-woman, plainly dressed, and of" 

 no social importance. 



Sir Hnrry objects that in the Memorial in 



front of Buckingham Palace Queen Victoria is 



portrayed as an Amazon or a powerful giantess, 



with the muscular arms and shoulders of a 



professional strong woman. 



