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^ THE DEADER. [No. 335, Saturday ^
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OLD ENGLISH MANNERS. The Social History ...
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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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Charles Reade's New Novel. It Is Never T...
actuation- A young Berkshire farmer , G-eorge Fielding , in love with his ^ Xa Susan & BT & . is in Acuities with his farming , and has a wealthy Sval whose pretensions are secret . This rival—of course a rascal , and Se Tespecteble—betrays the state of Fielding ' s difficulties to old Merton to make him break off the inatch . Merton , though a father , is a farmer , « and -woif t give his girl to a beggar . G-eorge , however , extorts his promise that , if in Australia he can make a thousand pounds , busan shall be his . In the hope of getting bis thousand pounds , he goes away leaving the field clear for his rival ' s machinations . There is nothing new in thisbut the freshness of treatment and the happy perception of
, ¦ character make it very interesting . Susan Merton is in these earlier scenes capitally drawn ; in spite of an occasional inaccuracy in the drawing , we feel that a flesh-and-blood woman is before trs . George Fielding is also flesh and blood ; so is Jacky the Australian , in many happy details . The rest of the characters are lay figures—the conventional perfect parson , the conventional hypocrite of respectability ; the conventional lawyer-villain used as a tool by the hypocrite ; the conventional clever fellow ; but not the conventional Jew : Isaac Levi is an " Asian mystery" compounded of Shylock , Sheva , and Disraeli ' s great race . dramatist shows of
Mr . Reade is a playwright rather than a . He us some the dramatist in Sasan and George ; but the playwright predominates throughout the volumes . It is seen in the constant and irritating striving for ' effect . ' He not only shows us that he is working up to a situation—a tableau on which the curtain may fall — but he shows us the puerile efforts at effect in devices of . printing—in tirades of rant—in foolish woodcuts meant to be impressive . He can write so simply , and writes so well when he writes simply , that his friends should warn him . against unworthy imitations of the inferior French novelists . Short chapters of a few lines , and paragraphs of a few words , or sentences in capitals really are not- effective , but only show that they were meant to be so . When he does not show that he is trying to be effective , few writers are more so .
"When he is not indulging in small affectations , which surely can please no ¦ one and certainly displease those whose admiration he would prize highest , he writes clearly , eloquently , picturesquely . He has seen varieties of life , and has had his eye open . His style is graceful and strong . His power of telling a story , not descriptively but dramatically , i 3 considerable ; and he ¦ has a nice perception of what is healthy and hearty in human nature—especially in women . With these qualities we ought so see him produce a novel which would not simply amuse that unfastidious class of readers subscribing to circulating libraries , but also the other class , larger and more cultivated , which reads with gratitude a good novel but seldom troubles the library . It is Never too Late to Mend is such a novel , though not ranking hi g h in the class . No one will re-read it . The author has bestowed great pains on it ; lie has put into it more solid work than goes to make a dozen novels ; but he
has been less careful with his characters than with his details , and more solicitous of effects' than of effect . Had some real friend gone carefully over the proofs , he might have weeded the pages of their affectations , but the ffiost serious drawback would have still remained , and we call Mr . Reade ' s attention to this because he is a young writer capable of higher things , we believe , than any he has yet written . What are the qualities which make the Vicar of Wakefield—Tom Jones—Pride and Prejtidice — Ivanhoe—the Scarlet Zetter ( we select intentionally very dissimilar fictions ) works so memorable , works so re-readable ? Not their incidents , not their * effects , ' but their ¦ quiet , stealthy grasp of the imagination and the affections , their characters , which seem so real . Something of what they have Susan Merton has , when ^ she does not wander into rhetoric ; and after all the hurry and agitation of the incidents , after all the villanies , and perils , and successes of this story , the mind goes back to Susan Merton , and the bucolic scenes of the early ¦ chapters . This is a fact which should be a lesson .
^ The Deader. [No. 335, Saturday ^
^ THE DEADER . [ No . 335 , Saturday ^
Old English Manners. The Social History ...
OLD ENGLISH MANNERS . The Social History qftlie People of the Southern Counties of England in Past Centuries-By George Roberts . Longman and Co . M > . Roberts has had some rare opportunities of research in the social chronicles of England—the southern counties especially . These opportunities , however , have been the result , not of accident , but of a rare enthusiasm . His expenses , he tells us , have resembled those of a man carrying on a devouring lawsuit , in the expectation of a large inheritance . He has paid a staff of clerks and copyists , has travelled long and far , has explored the forgotten archives of ancient boroughs , lias amassed a valuable documentary collection , and has published a work which can never pay the cost
-of Its production . We assume that he has fair grounds for this calculation ; but the volume bears no comparison to many we have met with that must have been a loss to their authors . A late English epic , of more than a quarter of a million of lines , was bequeathed to its editor with a guarantee fund of two thousand guineas . But Mr . Roberta ' s book is particularly readable , and likely to be popular . He is an antiquary ; but hia antiquaxianism Is not obtruse ; he is special but not monotonous ; ho has produced , In fact , a practical key to Mr . Macaulay ' s remarkable chapter on the manners of our ancestors . Whoever was interested in that chapter will be interested in this volume—a genuine Labour of love , abounding in well-selected
miscellanies and pictures of old English life . Many writers have discoursed of the same topics ; but few , if any , have possessed the minute knowledge , the conscientious zeal , or what we may term tho archaeological intelligence of Mr . Robert * , who applies his testimonies and anecdotes to the illustration of the . general , partial habits , municipal laws , and civil progress of the southern -countiesof "England . The presents formally made to great men , the bribes £ lvea to ju 4 g $ s , the fees claimed by servants , farmed , scarcely more than a , century ago , aland of secret circulation , penetrating and vitiating almost every class of society , "Ft ^ m a pottle of Gascon wine , or a basket ot shrimps , to a heavy purso of money , bribery , " that princely sort of thieving , " was . grateful to justices , jurie * , and members of parliament , though it was seldom practised with so much effeot as by Mr . John Trevor , the Speaker of the Houae of Common * , who , in 1695 , wan compelled to put the question that he
himself should be expelled . In fact , the Speaker ' s support of a private bill was fixed at a thousand guineas . Sir Basil Firebrace , however , though not a Speaker , valued himself at 40 , 000 / ., and was paid by the East India Company . Other great men were corrupted by corporation dinners , by treats of " cophee" and tea , " that excellent and by all physicians approved China drink , called by the Chineans Telia , by other nations Tay , alias Tee " which Pepys " did fancy" so well . There are curious chapters on our . early maritime progress , on the slave-trade , and of the Salee , Turkish , and English rovers in the channel . Mr . Roberts says . — ° Thucydides describes the ancient state of the coasts of Greece in language that would be suitable to a picture in olden time of the coasts of England . The old towns of both countries , owing to the long continuance of piracy , were built farther off from the sea , or inland . The later towns were built on the sea-shores and on isthmuses surrounded by walls for protection .
And was not this the case in England ? The first church , tbe parent church of many towns , is from the sea . Towns that quite eclipse the original village exist , but are much more recent . Thus , for example , see "YVyke , the parent of AVeymouth ; Sutton Poyntz , of Melcombe ; Littleham , of Exmouth ; Broadwater , of Worthing ; Tor , of Torquaj' ; Brixham , of Brixham-quay , for shortness Brixham . See Bridport , Abbotsbury -with its monastery , and Charmouth , placed back from the sea . Our old Cinque-Port and sea-side towns were walled , and they needed that protection . When our traders hired Dutch privateers to protect them , when our government paid an annual ransom to the King of Morocco , when pirates land ed at Studland and cut down the gallows , when beacons blazing from cape to cape warned the coast-dwellers to fly inland , when the fortification of
maritime towns was left to the burgesses , and when the soldiery were more offensive than useful to the inhabitants , when Captain Wolsely encouraged his troopers to toss the mayor of Scarborough in a blanket " to make him know that the military power was above the civil , " the good old times wore no very fascinating aspects . Meanwhile , though " the state" was helpless , it was intensely meddlesome . In 1050 it punished John Dryne , of Piddletrenthide , with fine and imprisonment for being " litigious ; " it shut up John Barton , of Beaminster , for three days , for being " a discontented politician ;" Robert Htincocke , for being a railer was committed to the Dorchester House of Correction , to be chastised at the discretion of his keeper . Every assize was a reign of terror : —
In Somersetshire alone , in 1596 , forty persons were executed , thirty-five burned m the hand , and thirty-seven severely whipped ! Tumbrels for disgrace and infamy—ducking-stools for the punishment of scolds , witches , and naughty women—whipping-posts for the discipline of women , men , and boys—halters , pillories , stocks , and brauks , or gags , for taming shrews , were among the essential implements of borough government . Mr . Roberts has discovered , however , that so late as 1708 there was a woman at Lewes who would whip anybody for a shilling : — The charge of fotirpence made for whipping a boy continued for many years the same . The whipping of a woman who -was a stranger was little more costly ; but the inflicting such a punishment upon a townsman was remunerated at a higher rate , as may well be supposed , from a consideration of several circumstances . To take a violent , noisy woman from her chamber , tie madam to the tumbrel and whip her round the town , was an undertaking that demanded assistance and protection to the official or hireling that wielded the thong .
Incorrigible vagrants , after being hardened at the whipping-post , were sometimes hanged : — At the Michaelmas sessions held at Bridport the following entry occurs : — " Elizabetha Johnson , alias Sttvens , j > ro vayrant tony , vagabund . incorriyibil . suspend per colht . usque dm . mortua sit . " The records of the colony of Massachusetts Bay contain nothing so frightful . This being a book of gleanings , we shall best illustrate its character by gleaning from it . In a chapter on the paucity , in former times , of many articles of great convenience in daily life , Mr . Roberts observes : — Instead of pining and whining ov er the decline of hospitality , the disuse of what are called the good old customs , if we pursue the subject we shall discover how comfortless the past was by comparison with the present ; that the days of Good Queen Bess were bonny for the great , but miserable for the smaller folk . The evidence is forcible : —
Inspect the archives of boroughs about the beginning of tbe sixteenth century-On how small a scale-was everything conducted . How poor most men must lmvc been . Everything did not stand in due ratio to eacli other . The comparative value of money has not been accurately assigned ; and though many things wen : tolerable , taken in reference to men and manners of the time , much misery had to be endured in various ways . When William of Wickham was building Windsor Castle , Adam do Huntingdon had the control of the work . He was compelled to have all the metal work executed on the spot , to build forges and furnace's , to fetch coals from Durham . The boatbuilder had to make nails ) for hia ownuse . Tenants of manors were forced to grind their corn at " the lord ' s mill , " und even in the sixteenth century traces of ancient barbarism remained in the
west : — Ships were small ; enrta and carriages rare ; clothing dear ; many vegetables unknown . The shops were open to the Htreota , and not glazed ; booka were hcuico , auu vory dear . Hundreds of articles , each a great convenience , Having of times and promotors of elegance and noatnosB , had never been beard of . The aho-uk bunw <> « heej > were formerly used for skates . For variety ' s sake , turn to a gossip on cider : — The excellence of the cider made throughout the breadth of the cider-crowing West if ) very great ; the quantity ia enormous . Some localities , which lnivo a good name for their cider , send out much more cider than is produced therein , like m ^ inc countries , ao much does man resemble jnau in all countries uml ugeH . Tho growers in tho localities in question buy Nonnnn apploH at a cheap rate , and mi-v them v iUi thflh- own fruit .
Could tho monks of Montobourg have dreamt of elder Helling at ten guimmn » t hogshead for bottling ? A wide Hold for improvement of the fruit trees for oiclwinli * ntul lies before the negligent cultivator . Tho eockygoe , or any other famous upi lc u '( l j ' covers no more Hpaco than a worthless tree . Fine eider , properly bottled , in a <» ' »> that may compote with much of tho sparkling German wine Tlioao who havo mot with tho following statement will excuse ita introduction here :
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 23, 1856, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_23081856/page/18/
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