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jyf cgg^-teTOBgja.S,. 1867-] __raj__ LEA...
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THE UNKNOWN" NOIUfANDY. La Normandte Ute...
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WILD ADVENTURE. * Virginia, Illustrated:...
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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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Rusein's Elements Of Dbawiifg. The Eleme...
ion . aad bitterness . " The noisy life of modern days , " he says , " is- wholly icompatible witit any coneepfcioia o £ natural beauty ; " but whose ery ao » isy as his oint ? He adnrita his- liability to overrate weeks which be dmires ; bat -will he admit his isocapataiy to- discern the meiita of o-theis fhich be revilesi . The saute Bran who advises the student repeatedly to opy the -works ai the quaint genras of caricature ,, George er . uriksb . ank-, dvises , that he who possesses finished prints of Raphael and Carreggk ) liould "burn them .. We get some key to the strange , caprice and inconsistency of this- teacher , rfce » . we turn to the literary portion o £ Mr . Ruskin ' s- lecture on ' Things to e studied . Tie same- mani-who commends Homer , Shakspeare , Spenser ,
cott , " Wordsworth , Longfellow , and Co-ventry Patnaore , says , " Cast Coleidge aside , as sickly-and useless ; and Shelley , as shallow and verbose ; » yron , until your taste is fully fbrmecl 3 and you are able to discern the munificent in him from the wrong . " It rs evident here that we are dealing rith a man whom Nature has not endo-wed with the usual complement of erceptions-. He cannot understand Sbeltey , as the blind msui cannot disinguisli colour , the deaf man tune . For him . the creation is one with the ; UttWtt being omitted ^—or represented only by soxae shadowy mournful abtraction . Passion he seenra to regard as synonymous with ' sin . ' Why he honld admit Spenser we know not , unless it be as a colourist . He has long j een discoursing on art , but . has never gone to the pith and marrow of all art
—the jvuman form in its completeness , the human type in the full power of aanliness , and the full beauty of . womanhood . If he permits a man or iroman to enter the picture , it must he in the quaint , undeveloped form of he caricaturist ' s sketch , or in the mortified , lank-cheeked , lanl Joined shape f the pre-Raphaelite creation . His : ar . Hs the play of ' H & ialet' with the lart of Hanilet left out . He earn discourse : to- you oa the sceaery , the arehiecture , the costume , the cferch T grave , but the human "beings , their : natomy , strength , beauty , passim ^ purpose , influence , he £ mMV 3 not ; and lenied a thorough sympathy , bis tone in speaking of them degenerates to [ uerulous antipathy , almost to 1 hate . How can such a man be a guide to Lrt in its completeness ?
Jyf Cgg^-Tetobgja.S,. 1867-] __Raj__ Lea...
jyf cgg ^ -teTOBgja . S ,. 1867- ] __ raj __ LEAI ) EB . 859
The Unknown" Noiufandy. La Normandte Ute...
THE UNKNOWN" NOIUfANDY . La Normandte Utecrmue . By Francois Victor Hugo . Tsrls : Bagnerre . Cde Unknown Normandy is Jersey . The son of' Ylctor Hug-o has published i volume of interesting researches- into the social antiquities and history of hat island , inwlieh he resided fbr some years with his father . An English vork on the same subject -was lately published , bxit it was dryly written , and ess amply illustrated with anecdotes than M . Frangois ICugo ' s . This , indeed , is- a most pleasing volume , which , we should : say ,, vsill reward any translator who 1 takes it in hand . The author treats of Jersey as of a . little feudal Atlantic only vaguely known to the world , and in its Norman character not known at all . It is a discovery of the exiles , he says , with poetical exaggeration . Its people are the kindred , of Comeille and Joan of Arc ; It baa no paved highways , no Fraseati , no gendarmes , no
customhouse officers ,. no Court of Cassation . It has a tribunal called ! the Cohue , a first magistrate styled the Bailiff ,. Constables , Estates , and an Usher wlio is a Viscount . It contains a class of lords . and a class , of vassals . The land is distributed into fiefs . You would Be ridiculed as a " Utopian in Jersey were you to talk about abolishing feudalism , tithe , tributes , or forced labour . But ,, oaa the otlier hand , you need no passport there- The Island is open to silll comers . It ; lias neither penal code nor written law . Custom is its code and : it has no Ordonnancea of July .. Whence came these an « ient institutions and this 1 singular population ? Charlemagne , looking from a- castle --window ,
saw some fierce' men disembarking on the coast of the ! Narbonne , and wept . They were Normans , and from them sprang Rolla , who afterwards ¦ came to an islet known then as Csesarcea , but which , when its inhabitants bad been massacred , was called Jersey , and colonized by the pirates of the Ubrtu . Hollo divided the land , kept the lion ' s share to himself , and distributed the remainder among his chieftains . Here was the origin of a society and a- polity , the traces of wliieh appear imperishable . Jersey was go-vecned , by castles and churches , for the lords shared their power with the priesfcsv who absorbed , the principal jurisdiction over offenders and establiebedi the right of asylum ..
Renunciation , a purely Norman penalty retained to this day among the hereditary customs of Jersey , iras a moral punishment , having for its principle the love of country . The ctmdtemned was obliged to renounce Normandy , that is , to swear he YroraM' never return to-hia natal soil . It was with his hand upon tho Gospel that he took-this catli . Before , departing- he wa » compelled to declare -what route ho proposed to select ; be was then allowed a certain number of hours in which to perform the journey . He-was then fbreed to stai-t and . to walk during the entire day , never receding a step-, whether \ vt rain , snow , -or burning- beat , and waa only-permitted to pause at night to take repose in tho nearest hamlet . If , overwhelmed by fatigue or retarded by the thousand unforeseen- obstacles of a long journey , 1 i « was a minute too fete , and had not quitted Nomiamly at the stipulated hour , tho lay officers of justice wlw Bad 1 -watcfted his ' flight along tho road once more seized upon the crimrru *) , and 1
draggedhim buck to tho executioner . Tho Church no longer protected him . M . Hugo argues that trial by jury was a Norman before it was rt \ English practice , passing over to England from Normandy eu croupe with William , the Caooueror . _ In a parenthetical though important chapter , he traces to Jersey the origin of French poetical literature , and then , reverting to . tUe , p © iiiiicnl history of the island , quotes the list of its governors . In tho fourteent h mmL fifteenth centuries it was administered Uy four brothers or Bona o £ kings—EdwaarO v son of Henry III . ; Edward , boh of Edward III . ; « rm tile Dukes of Bedford and Gloucester , brothers of Henry V . Warwick , the King-Mjilcer , left bis name deeply printed m tho-annata of Jersey , which counts also npem its roll of governors , the Ehike of Somerset , favourite of ¦ Henry VIIX ., Sir Amyas Pautet , and Sir Walter Raleigh . With infinite changes , of fortune , however , tho island saw few changes in the customs of its people . Thus the amende honorable of feudal times survived for centuries .
It was exacted in Jersey according to a fashioapeculiady huaailiatin" The condemned person , man . or woman ,, ipraged fbr pardon , at the feet off justice aa bended , knees , and was permitted to wear only a shirt " or shift , lea-vinothe- shoulders and feet bare . This barbarous ceremony ,, abolished in France by the Xevokntion ,. and suffered , to- die out by desuetude , in Jersey ,. ha » been practised in . Guernsey since the commencement o £ the present century . M . Hugo quotes , the text of a decree pronounced in 1 S 17 by the Itayal Court of Guernsey against a , young girl named Margaret Mackenzies , o £ St . Peter ' s tort , who had . been convicted of infanticide-. The sentence concludes thus : — This day , the 6 th . o £ Decemietv 1817 r at noon preeiaely the p risoner shall be
brought out of priaoa to the Court of the Cohue , and there , in one of the lower apartments , she shall be stripped and shall clothe herself in a white chemise prepared for the occasion . She shall have her head uncovered and her feet naked . From the chamber in which she is stripped she shall be taken to the door of the court , where she shall receive from the hand of the executioner a lighted candle , -weighing two pounds , and two feet in length , made expressly for that purpose . Thus equipped , she has to present herself at the bar of the court , and , going upon her inees , shall demand pardon for herself in the terms , " I ask pardon of God , of the king , and of justice . " A cold morning fbr Margaret , in a Guernsey December . Among : M . Hugo ' s acts : of 'Unknown Normandy' justice is one relating to a more ancient period . In 1587 , a young . giii named Suzanna Oavey , had been betrotbed by her father and mother to a gentleman named Simon Bisson . At the moment when the marriage was about to be solemnized , whether from having discovered circumstances before unknown to her , or from having set her heart upon another match , or from whatever cause ,
Suzanna felt for Simon an insurmountable aversion and refused to utter the eternal ' Yes . Prayers , menaces , even blows were employed by her parents to oveicome her resistance , but in vain . Suzanna was then taken before the Ecclesiastical Court , and condemned to excommunication for perjury . She continued obstinate . Spiritual justice next handed her over to secular justice , and she was brought before tbe Royal Court , which sentenced her to go , on the Sunday following , to the church of St . Mary ' s , her" parish ,, to kneel on the floor , to beg forgiveness from Simon Bisson for her past obstinacy , and to supplicate him humbly to accept her as his bride . The decree wound up with these words , " And if she do not perform , in every particular , what is now ordered ., sHc snail be punished by a whipping , as a rebel and an . in-corrigible . This method of dealing ¦ with refractory brides mi ^ ht have teen borrowed by Jersey from Kaffirland , where it is stiTl a principle of native law . M . Hugo ' s volume is full of similarl y curious details , and is written with agi-ace and force announcing him distinctly as his father ' s son .
Wild Adventure. * Virginia, Illustrated:...
WILD ADVENTURE . * Virginia , Illustrated : a Visit to the Virginian ¦ Canaan . Illustrated from Drawings by Porte-Crayon . ( Low and Co . )— -In Randolf county , Virginia ., there is a tract of country containing from seven to nine hundred square miles , entirely uninhabited , and so inaccessible that it has rarely been , penetrated even by the boldest hunters . The settlers on- Lts > borders speak of ife as- a region of laurel brakes , dangerous abysses ,, and precipitous hills , swarming with panthers and bears . Stories are told of trappers lost among its savage solitudes . In 1851 ., however , certain trout-fishers explored it as fitr as the Falls of the JBlackivater , and upon their return published a fascinating account of the scenery , the game , and the fish . Two years afterwar ( 3 s a second party set out from . Maryland , leaped the infant Potomac '
and found themselves in Virginia . Next , they crossed an ' amber brook , and then plunged into the Virginian forests . Travelling in this region is conducted upon a primitive plan i your horse lies down to sleep ° the grass ; you make a bed of hemlock branches ; your fire nickers a , warninn against the approach of wild beasts ; the pine-trees form smooth columns ? supporting aloft , at a distance of a hundred feet , a traceried roof of green ! By day you ' dodge' the laurel brakes , which extend mile after mile , and are so dense that even the deer cannot pass except by finding the thinnest places . When the experienced woodman is forced to cross he always seeks a deer path . But the bear makes his way more easily , tearing through the thickets and ranking his lair among the crushed leaves and broken wood . In the large , profusely illustrated- volume under notice , we ha-ve a lively narrativot adventures in this wild
e country , purporting to describe hour Porte-Crayon , an artist , explored it with three young girls , his cousins . Half the book is made up of trashy talk ; the rest is feebly written , and 1 the engravings , though characteristic , are often execrable . But the incidents of the journey were amusing , nnd altogether unlike the experiences of ladies who travel in the ordinary fashion . The vehicle was a solidly-built carriage , drawn by two horses ; the driver TTas a fat , powerful , jocular negro ; Porte-Crayon was an athletic fellow , wearing a hunting belt and leathern gaiters , and carrying a short German rifle ; his companions were , so we find it recorded , plump , pretty girls , ready to-make tent * out of shawls , , to dive into cn-vems of unknown depth , and to sleep within earshot of biruin's growl Their first great enterprise was a visit to Weyer ' s cave on the Shcnandoah . The cavo is composed of several vast halls crowded with grotesque
stalogmites and sparkling stalactites , with a cataract leaping from an aperture in the rock , and rushing away into subterranean darkness . In some the natural roofs and coloiuns are as white ( is alabaster , and gleam with silver specks nt >& veins ; in others the- surface resembles a contrast of jet and crystal . They have been distinguished by a number of fanciful names—tbe Hall of Statuary , Solomon ' s Templo , the Cathedral , the Gnome King ' s * Palace , the Enchanted Moors , the Bridal Chamber , and the Magic Tower , feivr European tra-vellera are aware that tho North American cives excel in extent and beauty even the Atttro di Ne & tiuto of Sardinia . The- Chimneys wore the next objects of interest in Portc-Crayon ' s route . TJiey form a remarkable gicrup of seven natural towers upon a limestone head , are from . seventy to eighty ffeefc higt v and resemble a groat feudal ruin . In . this vicinity fourteen inches of snow may fall within au hour or two<—a sttriking illustration , of tho
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 5, 1857, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_05091857/page/19/
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