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, , . TIE LEADE E,. [No. 380, July 4, 18...
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A RESIDENCE IN FRANCE. A Wintei*'s Sketc...
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GERMAINE. Getvnaine. By Edmond Akout. Pa...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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The Sappers And Miners. History Of The B...
the Oregon boundary . During the survey of England they built towering frames of timber upon the tallest steeples and towers , and these performances alone were marvels . In 184 » , unhappily , they were made ridiculous by Lord John Russell , who set them to sleep in , the Tower , with forty rounds of ammunition , to erect platforms on the roof of the Bank of England , and run timber batteries along the parapets . Thousands of sand-bags were piled within against the windows . ; over the entrance of the building a stroncr modern inachicouli , resting upon ponderous beams , projected into the street * , and within , like Chinese criminals in a cage , the Sappers were ready ' to open a volley on the rabble . ' In the yard there was a vast bai-ricade of casks and wheelbarrows . At the Tower , some of the old masonry was spoiled by new loopholes ; stockades were constructed ; barriers of coalboxes and crates were piled up ; sand-bags and banquettes were prepared along-Traitors Wall , * to enable the troops to play on the mob in the rear . Downing-street was put into a state of defence , and London laughed at their April folly . Other episodes memorable in the ehronicles of the Sappers- and Miners -sverer—the great Exhibition , the Shetland road enterprise , the Kaffir war of 1852 , the Central African Expedition , and Chobham Camp . Then opened the great drama of the Russian war , through which Mr . Connolly follows his favourite corps , always in a tone of right feeling , generosity , and impartial good sense . We quote a passage of suggestive description : —
SAPPERS AND MINERS . i / ook first among the embrasures , and there , ant-like , is seen an isolated red-coat ¦ coolly pegging up hides or fixing gabions , while two or three carpenters , with upturned sleeves , are discovered crouching low , fixing platforms or renewing sleepers and fighting bolts ; Go next to the cave , and call , ' Sapper ! ' One immediately emerges from its murkiness , spade in hand , with begrimed face and dishevelled beard , to show the quality of his exertions . Step to the saps right and left , and in each , on . bended knee , with , whirling pick and . cap , well down is traced the sapper . To Ilia sturdy efforts the earth yields , and the gabion soon is filled . Watch him as he goes ahead with cautious crawl , and daringly places another basket on the line . How many rifle-balls , how many shot fly past , few can tell ; but on he urges as if nothing had occurred , and perhaps the next discharge kills him . Steal now along the trench to its advanced limits , and there is seen a group of busy miners , black with gunpowder , in shallow depths , blasting the rocks to deepen the approach and strengthen the < : over . How well they know their art—not a head is seen above the ground parapet , and scarcely that of a hammer ; but when a strong blow is required , up it goes , and the suiij sparkling on the burnished steel , gives a mark to the enemy . Bullets from the screen are quickly fired , and an occasional shot trundles in among them ; but undauntedly they proceed , watchful as dogs , till at last the mine explodes- A volume of vapour affords another indication of the activity of the enemy . Shot and shell plunge on . and tear up the ground , but the miners have flown to a distance , and quietly await the cessation of the fire to resume their tasks . Walkover to the sailors ' battery , where surely none but seamen may be seen . There , in truth , the bluejackets are in droves , with their droll sayings and unsteady gait ; but press forward , " Is that a marine ? " " No , it ' s a sapper trimming the parapet . " There , too , is another tricing up of the flaccid cheeks of an embrasure ; and beyond is a third , giving position to-platforms for sea-service mortars or naval guns . Go round that traverse ; the universal man is there completing it ; another is strengthening the parapet ; another repairing the melon ; a fourth is in the right epaulement ; a fifth in the left ; a sixth is elsewhere constructing loopholes with barrels ; others are riveting the works with tuba , casks , gabions , and hide-bags , while a couple of broad-backed miners are burrowing underground , and driving a tunnel into the jaws of some convenient cavern . The book has been much . improved in the second edition , and is an honour to the British army .
, , . Tie Leade E,. [No. 380, July 4, 18...
, , . TIE LEADE E ,. [ No . 380 , July 4 , 1857 .
A Residence In France. A Wintei*'S Sketc...
A RESIDENCE IN FRANCE . A Wintei *' s Sketches in tlie South of France and the Pyrenees . With Remarks upon the Use of the Climate and . Mineral Waters in the Cure of Disease . By Fred . H . Johnson , M . R . C . S ., formerly President of the Hunterian Society of Edinburgh . Chapman and Hall . Thk south of Trance , "which has long been the resort of valetudinarian , tourists—of those who seek after ' a benker full of the warm south , full of the true , the blushful Hippocrenc '—seems destined soon to have a new class of visitors—those who long for and can appreciate the sublime and the "beautiful in nature . As section after section of the railroad , from Paris to ^ Bi I m KvvmA ^ % »«« ** m h 41 &« »« j ^«^ * ¦» mr ^ % B f * a 4 * ^ K ^ k * ^ i m ^ j » aa « > J ^ mjm -m A . IJ __ *& _ » « ¦¦ _ . _ - t Buuoi luu \ vcattiii euabm 11 uuiufia ui iciiiucsit
*^ ^^ ^ ^^ ^^ * ^ ^^ ^^ ^^ * . ^^* *^ * . ^^ * ^ ^ *^ ^^ ^^ . _** ^ up jl ^ 'iiiJiicca , uu : ur iuq x , ) opened for public traffic , the nearer are those magnificent mountains which lie like a barrier-wall between the Pranks and Iberians drawn to the inhabitants of the north . Naturally , as the facilities of travelling are increased , mew scenery will be desired by the pilgrims , unfrequented routes and untrodden tracks sought out . Mont Blanc is now no longer the grand thing it was . Its snows no longer preserve their virgin purity , and the adventurous and peril-loving tourist -will have henceforth , if he courts novelty , to encounter the difficulties or risk the dangers of Monte liosa , the Wettertorn , or the still more stupendous altitudes of the Jungfrau . Maps will lave to be more patiently studied , and original spots—original , at least , to the oijpolloi of excursionists who obtain a month ' s conffjf m the summer or * iytujnn—uelected . Wo should not bo surprised , then , if the eyes of these Ibuttcrfly tourists be directed to the laud of Provence , across whose ancient plains and amid whose olive groves still float the melodies of the' wandering troubadours and the memories of the Courts of Love . A step further will carry them to the foot of those mountain pasturages , and snow-mantled pinnacles within the shelter of whoso valleys exist the most ancient and most un transformed races of Europe , whoso costume botrava the fushion of the middle ages , and whose institutions dato bade to an epoch antei'ior to the reign of Charlemagne . Anticipating , that the love of exploring new scenery will induce not fl few Englishmen to direct their autumn tour , perhaps even this yenr , ¦ whither the facilities of the Southern of France Railway will conduct them , Mr . Johnson has collected , hie experiences ©! a abort residence in Pnvis and visits to th ; q most interesting spots in the neighbourhood into readable ehapo , and published them in a slight , sketchy volume . The book is not , however , exclusively directed to the pleasure-seeking tourist . An appendix gives a short account of the climatic influences of the country on disease and on the properties of the mineral waters of the Pyrenees . This chapter ,
however , is very brief , and in no way interferes with the general scope of the work , which is to create an interest in the reader by the tenfold agency of historical association , and a description of the national allurements in the midst of which Pau and its neighbour-towns are situated . As we have said , the book is but slight and sketchy , and beyond this it would merit no atten - tion . It is pleasant to talk either vioci voce or on paner with travellers capable of exciting our interest in the spots they haye visited , and with this fe 6 lin < T we accompany Mr . Johnson from page to pnge through his book . The road from Bordeaux to Pnu lies through a district studded with names familiar to the taster of wine—Medoe , St . George , St . Julien , Chateau Mnrgaux , and the shelterless flats of the Landes , whose arid and sandy wastes ^ a strange figure of gigantic stature may occasionally be discovered , stalking like the ghost of a pre-Adamite stork . Of course this is an inhabitant of thes « Gascon wilds perched on his lofty stilts . The historical student may survey at Orthez the ground upon which AVellmgton o-ained one of his most decisive if not brilliant successes over Marshal Soult , and speculate on the results of a sleeping sentinel , and the clever manoeuvres which put the British forces in possession of the right and left banks of the Adour . He might also linger around its old chateau and , contemplating the lingering ruins of desolated strength , recal _ the fortunes of its varied chieftains , and dwell upon the capricious achievements of that furious and savage knight Gaston Phoebus de Foix , whose ainiable career is chronicled in the pages of the curious and inquisitive Froissart . destinationl
But it is enough for us that we hasten on to our , ' au wears many phases . ° There is Pau historical , Pau civic , Pau architectural , Pau picturesque , and Pau vicinal . Probably Pau vicinal , a Pau in relation to its neighbourhood , is the most interesting point of view under which to notieelt . Parallel with the river in its course for nearly half a mile , and situated in the grand park , rises far above the level of the stream a high terraced mound , planted on every part with lofty trees of luxuriant growth , except where a gravel path , undulating and winding like . ^ woodland alley , creeps along the forest shade . Running east and west , it commands the great panorama of the southern coteaux-and mountain range , with a foreground of meadow and river stretching away into the plain of Lcsear , and filled up on the east by the bridge of the Gave , where the white houses of Jurancon cast their long shadows into the mirror of the waters bmeath . The sunsets of Pau have long been famous , and it is especially at this time of the day that the magnificent beauties of the landscape unfold themselves in their most splendid charms , the mountains of Bigorre having taken on a head-gear of rosy pink , and Ithe tower-like Pic du Midi standing flushed in a glow of ruddy light , as if throwing back the glare of a burning city , and all the central summits being crimsoned in their turn and the Pic d'Ossau bathed in an atmosphere of warm and mystic tints . With Pau historic are associated many great and illustrious names . It was here that Henri of Navarre , the chevalier prince of Ivry was born , and that his heroic mother Jeanne d'Albret sang the celebrated song at his birth which gained for her a massive chain of gold and the affectionate admiration of her old warrior sire . It was here too—to descend from days of ancient strife to modern contest—that the old African war-hawk Abd-el-Kader was confined in close keeping . His visit , one of aflliction , was rendered doubly sad by the loss of five children who died during his short sojourn or captivity , and whose remains he buried in the cemetery , an Arabic inscription and the sign of a crescent marking the spot of their interment- Pau social would lead us into a description of the various characters * noble , plebeian , and eccentric , who frequent this
delightful place during the winter months , either for valetudinarian reasons or from a love of the indescribable natural beauties with which the country abounds . We need scarcely remind the reader that Pau is the first step in in his approach to those populated eyries Farbes , and Ba ^ ncres , and that even in this respect a friendly descriptive guide is of service to him . He will find in Mr . Johnson ' s book much pleasant reading about the place , a few historical sketches , a glance at the habits and customs of the people , an account of the manner in which the resident visitors employ their time and drown the day , and an interesting narrative of personal visits to neighbouring places of note .
Germaine. Getvnaine. By Edmond Akout. Pa...
GERMAINE . Getvnaine . By Edmond Akout . Paris : llacliette . This new novel , by the author of Tolla , possesses the merit of groat originality in its story , in addition to its incontestable qualities of stylo . We have not every day to awnrd such praise . Volume after volunio comes before us , often displaying a remarkable power of execution — suilidoiit , at any rate , to force approval—yet with so little attempt at novelty of plot or situation , that we have sometimes tried to persuade ourselves that there were only three plots and a dozen situations possible . The lover , pursuing a perfect beauty , and murryiug her after surmounting a hundred difficulties , is rather out of date now , In an ago when all gentlemen stand alooi ' , afraid to commit themselves to a compliment loat it should be construed into a declaration , we scarcely believe in impassioned youth kept apart by artificial obstacles . But there remain one or two more probable stories of blighted affection and unfortunate marriages , which we are almost sure to moot , with in any volume of which the price is 11 . lls . 6 d , As play writers never venture on new jokes for fonr they should not be understood , so novol writers novor venture on new plots for four thoy should not by appreciated . The old ones are found to do sufficiently well . M , About has evidently resolved to louve the beaten truck , though at the . risk of offending his readers . His present conception is daring even to coarseness ? and some of its developments are gratuitously repulsive . How beautiful , however , is the central jdeii round which his uction moved I A young girl , Germaine , supposed to bo dying of consumption—actually in extreme peril of her lifo- ^ -is married , from interested motives in all partiesexcept herself , for she is merely a sacrifice—to a Spanish noblo of hig h and chivalrous character , but oaught in tho toils of a Lorctto of the 'first class . ' M . de Villanera does not care for his sick young wife , but treats her with profound respect , and pays her every attention that the strictest duty die-
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 4, 1857, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_04071857/page/18/
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