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Misjr ~ Mittord gossips agreeably with us on the merits of the particular author from whom she quotes a favourite passage or passages , somewhat careless of whether they are well known or recondite , and with this critical gossip she every now and then mingles some personal recollection . Thus we have extracts from all ; sorts of authors ; Bishop Percy , Dr . Johnson ; Praed , Davis , Anstey , CJowley , Longfellow , Clare , Herrick , Joanna Baillie , the Brownings , Sir Philip Sidney , Marvel , Motherwell , Hawthorne , Gerald Griffin , &c . Criticism in the severe sense of the word there is none , but abundance of loving eulogy . It is a book to saunter through , not to read ; a pleasant saunter in an idle mood .
The glimpses of " personal recollections" are scanty , and of a nature to make us demand more . Here is one of the spoilt child : — _ " Most undoubtedly I was a spoilt child . When I recollect certain passages of my thrice happy early life , I cannot have the slightest doubt about the matter , although , it contradicts all foregone conclusions , all nursery and schoolroom morality to say so . Butfacta are stubborn things . Spoilt I-was . Everybody spoilt me , most of all the person whose power ¦ m ^ that ^ way was greatest , the . dear papa himself .
Not content with spoiling me indoors , he spoilt me out . How well I remember his carrying me round the orchard on his shoulder , holding fast my little three-year-old feet , whilst the little hands hung on to his pigtail , which I called my bridle ( those were days of pigtails ) , hung so fast , and tugged so heartily , that sometimes the ribbon would come off between my fingers , and send his hair floating , and the powder flying down his back . That climax of mischief was the crowning joy of all . I can hear our shouts of laughter now . "
Here is the CHILD ' S VISIT TO LONDON , " I had enjoyed the drive past all expression , chattering all the way , ancHalling into no other mistakes than those common to larger people than myself , of thinking that London began at Brentford , and wondering in Piccadilly when the crowd would go by ? and I was so little tired When we arrived , that , to lose no time , we betook ourselves that night to the Haymarket Theatre , the only one then open . I had been at plays in the country , in a barn in Hampshire , and at a regular theatre at our new home , and I loved them dearly with that confiding and uncritical pleasure which is the wisest and the best . But the
country play was nothing to the London play—a lively comedy , with the rich cast of those days—one of the comedies that George III . enjoyed so heartily . I enjoyed it as much as he , and laughed and clapt my hands , and danced on my father's knee , and almost screamed with delight , so that a party in the same box , who had begun by being half angry at my restlessness , finished by being amused with my
amusement . « ' The next day , my father having an appointment at the Bank , took the opportunity of showing me St . Paul ' s and the Tower . " At St . Paul ' s , I saw all the wonders of the place : whispered in the whispering gallery , and walked up the tottering wooden stairs , not into the ball itself , but to the circular balustrade of the highest gallery beneath it . I have never been there since ; but I can still recal most vividly that wonderful panorama , the strange diminution produced by the distance , the toylike carriages and horses , and men and women , moving noiselessly through the toylike streets ; and ( although
not frightened then ) still more vividly do 1 recal tne dangerous state of the decaying stairs , the swaying rope to hold by , the light showing through the crevices of the wood . My father held me carefully by the hand ; and I have no recollection of having felt the slightest fear ; nevertheless , the impression of danger must have been very great , since for many years of my life falling through those stairs was my bad dream , the dream that gives such sure warning of physical ill , when fever is impending , or any derangement occurs in the system . Then we proceeded to the Tower , that place so striking by force of contrast ; its bright lights and strong shadows ; the jewels , the armour , the armoury , glittering in stern magnificence amidst the gloom of the old fortress , and the
stories of great personages imprisoned , beheaded , buried within its walls;—a dreary thing it seemed to be a Queen ! But at night I went to Astley ' s , and I forgot the sdrrows of Lady Janq Grey and Anne Bolcyn in the wonders of the horsemanship , and the tricks of the clown . After all , Aetley ' s , although very well in its way , was not the play , and we ngreod that the next night , the last we were to spend in London , wo would go again to the Haymarket . " Into that last day wo crowded all the sightseeing possible , the Houses of Lords and Commons , where 1 sat upon the woolsack and in the Speaker ' s chair , about the smallest person , I suppose , that ever filled those eminent seats . Then Westminster Abbey , where , besides the glorious old building and the tombs , figured at that time cortain figures in waxwork . Queen Anne and Queen Elizabeth ob ugly as
life , and General Monk holding out his cap for money . I remember my father giving me a shilling to drop in as our share of the contribution , and my wondering what became of it ( are those figures in existence now ? and does the general still hold forth the eleemosynary cap ?) Thence we proceeded to Cox ' s Museum in Spring-garderfs , and saw and heard a little bird , who seemed made of diamonds and rubies , who clapt his wings and sang . There too ( it was a place full of strange deceptions ) I sate down upon a chair , and the cushion forthwith becan to squeak like a cat and
kittens , so like a cat and kittens that I more than half expected to be scratched . And then to the Leverian Museum , in the Blackfriars-road , a delightful abode of birds and butterflies , where I saw dead and stuffed with a reality that wanted nothing but life , nearly all the beautiful creatures that little girls see now alive at the Zoological . The promised visit to the Haymarket Theatre formed a fit conclusion to this day of enchantment . We saw another capital comedy ( I think Colman's Heir at Zaw >) capitally acted , and laughed until we could laugh no longer . And then the next day we drove home without a moment ' s weariness of mind or body . . * ' Such was my first journey to London . "
Our readers have learned to honour Elizabeth Barrett Browning as a poetess , and will thank us for this glimpse of the woman : — " Elizabeth Barrett Browning is too dear to me as a friend to be spoken of merely as a poetess . Indeed such is the influence of her manners , her conversation , her temper , her thousand sweet and attaching qualities , that they who know her best are apt to lose sight altogether of her learning and of her genius , and to think of her only as the most charming person
that they have ever met * But she is known to so few , and the peculiar characteristics of her writings * their purity , their tenderness , their piety , and their intense feeling of humanity and of Womanhood have won for her the love of so many , that it will gratify them without , I trust , infringing on the sacredness of private intercourse to speak of her not wholly as a poetess , but a little as a woman . When in listening to the nightingale , we try to catch a glimpse of the shy songster , we are moved by a deeper feeling than
curiosity ; " My first acquaintance with Elizabeth ] Barrett commenced about fifteen years ago . She was certainly one of the most interesting persons that I had ever seen . Everybody who then saw her said the same ; so that it is not merely the impression of my partiality , or my enthusiasm . Of a slight , delicate figure , with a shower of dark curls falling on either side of a most expressive face , large tender eyes richly fringed by dark eyelashes , a smile like a sunbeam , and such a look of youthfulness , that I had some difficulty in persuading a friend , in whose carriage we went together to Chiswick , that the translatress of the Prometheus of JEschylus , the authoress of the Essay
on Mind , was old enough to be introduced into company , in technical language was out . Through the kindness of another invaluable friend , to whom I owe many obligations , but none so great as this , I saw much of her during my stay in town . We met so constantly and so familiarly that in spite of the difference of age intimacy ripened into friendship , and after my return into the country , we corresponded freely and frequently , her letters being just what letters ought to be—her own talk put upon paper . " The next year was a painful one to herself and to all who loved her . She broke a blood vessel upon the lungs which did not heal . If there had been consumption in the family , that disease would have intervened . There were no seeds of the fatal English
malady in her constitution , and she escaped , fetill , however , the vessel did not heal , and after attending her for above a twelvemonth at her father's house in Wimpole-street , Dr . Chambers , on the approach of winter , ordered her to a milder climate . Her eldest brother , a brother in heart and in talent worthy of such a sister , together with other devoted relatives accompanied her to Torquay , and there occurred the fatal event which saddened her bloom of youth , and gave a deeper hue of thought and feeling , especially of devotional feeling , to her poetry . I have so often been asked what could be the shadow that had passed over that young heart , that now that time has softened the first agony it seems to me right that the world should hear the story of an accident in which there was much sorrow , but no blame .
" Nearly a twelvemonth had passed , and the invalid , still attended by her affectionate companions , had derived much benefit from the mijd sea breezes of Devonshire . One ' fin © summer morning her favourite brother , together with two other fine young men , his friends , embarked o « board a small sailing-vessel for a trip of a few hours . Excellent sailors all , and familiar with the coast , they sent baok the boatmen , und undertook themselves the management of the little craft . Danger was not dreamt of by any one ; after the catastrophe no one could divine the cause , but in a few minutes after their embarkation , and in sight of their very windows , just as they were crossing the bar . the boat went down , and all who wore in her perished . Even the bodies wero never found , I was told by a party who wero travelling that year in
Devonshire and Cornwall , that it was most affecting * to see on the corner houses of every village street , on every church door , and almost on every cltf ? for miles and miles along the coast , handbills , offering large rewards for linen cast ashore marked with the initials ? of the beloved dead ; for it so chanced that all the three were of the dearest and the best ; one , I believe , an only son , the other the son of a widow . ^ ' ? This tragedy nearly killed Elizabeth Barrett . She was utterly prostrated by the horror and the grief , and by a . natural but a most unjust feeling that she had been in some sort the cause of this great misery . It was not until the following year that she could be removed in an invalid carriage , ami by journeys of
twenty miles a day , to her afflicted famil y and her London home . The house that she occupied at Torquay had been chosen as one of the most sheltered in the place . It stood at the bottom of the cliffs almost close to the sea ; and she told me herself tftat during that whole winter the sound of the waves rang in her ears like the moans of one dying . Still she clung to literature and to Greek ; in all probability » h © would have died without that wholesome diversion to her thoughts . Her medical attendant did not always understand this . To prevent the remonstrances of her friendly physician , Dr . Barry , she caused a , small edition of Plato to be so bound as to resemble a novel . He dTdTndtknow , skilful and Tririd though he were , that to her such , books were not an arduous and painful study , but a consolation and a deljght .
" Returned to London , she began the fife which she continued for so many years , confijiied to one large and commodious but darkened chamber , admitting onl y ^ her own afi ^ tip ^ atejfemilyland _ a ^ fejit devoted friends ( I , myself . liave often joyfu !| y travelled five-and-forty miles to see her , and returned the same evening without entering another house ); reading almost every book Worth reading in almost every lancuace . and giving herself heart and soul to that poetry
of which she seemed born to be the prieftess . 4 Gradually her health improved . About four years ago she married Mr . Browning , and immediately accompanied him to Pisa . They then settled at Florence ; and thiasummer I have had the exquisite pleasure of seeing heronce more in London with a lovely boy at her knee , almost as well as ever , and telling tales of Italian rambles , of Jbslng herself in chestnut forests , and scrambling on muWback up the sources of extinct volcanoes . May Heaven continue to her such health : and such happiness , I "
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CLASSICAL . GEOGRAPHY . A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography . By various Writers . Edited by William Smith , LL . D . Taylor and Walton . We call attention to this the first quarterly part of a work issued as a fitting companion to the Dictionaries of Antiquities and of Greek and Roman Biography , already edited by Dr . ( Smith , works the full value of which only students who have used them can at all estimate . In size and in execution it resembles them . Its place has hitherto been quite unoccupied even in Continental literature . It
purposes to set before us a complete encyclopaedia of Ancient Geography , including even Scriptural names , gathering up into its columns the laborious results of modern travel and modem research in correction of ancient tradition , and inaccurate descriptions ; and this not in the dry manner of a gazeteer , but with something pf history and politics intermingled ; together with , the history of important buildings , &c .
We have only dipped into this part . It cannot be expected that an overtasked reviewer should de gaiHe de caur undertake to read a dictionary of geography . It is not a book to be read , hut to be consulted . Knowing what we do of the two former works Dr . Smith has edited , we are perfectly at our ease in commending the excellence of this work even before we have used it . Under other auspices , we should have been more cautious , and our task would have been no sinecure ; but inasmuch as this work has the same editor and mostly the same contributors as the Antiquities and Biography , we need not wait for the slow verdict of experience to recommend it to all students .
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BOOKS FOR CHILDREN . The immense improvement seen in Books for Children of late yearq is worthy of more than a passing remark ; not only are the wretched " good books" giving place to healthy fiction , not qnly does " useful information" admit the supremacy of Fairy Land ; but in the illustrations which attract the greedy eye of childhood we have beauty , elegance , and spirit replacing the distortions of former days . It is quite true that a child likea " pictures , " and is not critical as to their excellence ; but it is not true that " one is as good as another , " for bad pictures have a positively vitiating tendency . A mass of attractive books lie on our table for
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62 ^^ t % t ti ^ tt ^ [ SATOiin ^ r ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 17, 1852, page 62, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1918/page/18/
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