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" We -were hardly prepared , after this connexion of what was to f a llow with the name of one of the sturdiest of radicals , to find that the L ll ds were all imbued with a vehement hatred of " old ! Noll" and his *« P mears " It ife true that " Songs of the Cavaliers" could not be other-• • but how about the " Songs of the Roundheads ? " Mr . Thornbury t ^ as a s avage p icturesqueness—a devil-may-care swing . and dash—a power of versifying the forms and colours and feelings of a past age . He has evidently a strong feeling for that wild era of history beginning with the Civil Wars of the Seventeenth Century , and ending in the days of the second Pretender and he is manifestly well acquainted with their facts and characis not
teristics . But bis knowledge merely antiquarian ; ne nas sympathized deeoly with the life of the periods . The old vanished London of the days before the Great Fire , with its picturesque outlines , and its ruffling gallants , gorgeous in lace plumes and many-coloured doublets—and the later , soberer London of the Hanoverian monarchs , with bag wigs and cocked hats—rise before us as we read , and we enter fully into the hot passions that made politics then a frame of blood , the stake not seldom being one ' s own head . But only a nar ' t of Mr . Thornbury ' book refers to the Cavaliers , ltoundheads , and Jacobites . He appends some "Dramatic Monologues" and Miscellaneous Poems . The fault of the volume consists in its unrelieved melancholy and tendency to the horrible . We meet with nothing but savage contests , bloody feuds , smouldering treason , or treason with its head upon the block , the wild excesses of debauchery ( as in the terrible dance of drunkards round the plague-pit ) , the wanderings of madness , sad glints and gleams of autumn weather on decaying landscapes , starved weavers working frantically for bread poisoned pasties , witchcraft , nightmares , and suicides . We breathe a close , charnel-house atmosphere , which would be intolerable were it not
/ or the fierce energy of the language and the hot pulsations of the verse We could wish , too , a little more repose , as well as a little more cheerfulness Mr . Thornbury's strength is sometimes feverish ; but his faculty is unques tionable .
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EOYAL ACADEMY . III . LANDSCAPE . AnT is powerful and healthy iu its influences , iu so far as it reflects the great aspects of life . Landscape excites the sympathies which arc in harmony with the healthy life of the inorganic world , if wo may call it so , us exhibited in tho architecture of man , and tho broad field of Nature . We measure the artist ' s power by hia ability to give ua the aspecta of that life , shown in its moat active manifestations . It is not necessary , indeed , that tho sceno should be agitated with storms , for there ia aa much vital energy in tho power of tho sun , in the
lusty growth of tho plants , and in tho tranquil running of tho stream , aa thoro is in the more transitory paroxysms of tho elements . But like all great poetry ? art is strictly matter of fact ; its strength is drawn from the simplest powers ; and in proportion as its truth is unadulterated , it will affect us . Wo horo havo tho koy to judgp of evory school of landacapo-painting . Wo havo the distinction between tho more imitation of tho still life of Nature and portralturo of the living life . Judged by thaso tests , wo are inclined to think highly of the present exhibition . There is , if wo may any so , less arrogance , loss straining for effect , loss self-assertion of the peculiarities of' genius , " such ' aa wo saw when Turnuu occupied , the wulla ; but there ia a sober , a working , almost a roligioua spirit of truthfulness , which is a , great gain for tho wlwlo class . As we havo remarked with regard to tho exhibition gonorally , tho effect of this better study ia seen
especially in the humbler range of works . If we find a more confident strength in the leading men , we also see an extraordinary amount of . average ability amongst those who have yet attained a less conspicuous position . Early in the catalogue lies a little picture , a " Water Mill , " by Mr . N . O . Lofton , which has not been thought worthy of any but a place below the line ; where , indeed , ' we find one of the most masterly pictures of the present exhibition . And that little picture , placed so humbly , goes far to illustrate what we have been saying . So does the " View of Mont Blanc from Servoz , " by Mr . H . Moore : there arc faults , but there are also considerable merits , and especially the broad effect of open air and light and shadow upon the intermediate mountain . The first landscape to arrest you is a " Crab and Lobster Shore , " by Mr . E .
W . Cooke ; which illustrates the more general principle that we have laid down . It is admirably painted , yet not pleasing . It is a curiosity for the truthful effect of a stony beach , with lobster-baskets fastened about it . It is an ugly dead wall of the sea-shore , with little variety of tint , but a miraculous accuracy in the remarkable individual stones and pebbles—all pale , hard , uncharitable , enongh to create grief even in a lobster . It is a curiosity , masterly in its success , and not possessing the mind , like some landscapes of inferior skill and happier subject . Why ? Because in it the expression of inorganic life is veryslight ; it is a portraiture of the still life of the Creation .
Far more striking is Mr . Redgrave ' s " Well-known Footstep , " in which the landscape is more important than the figures ; it represents a garden path , with , a side view of a cottage front on the one side , and a glimpse into the little household ; on the other , a glance into a tall grove of trees ; and over all an endeavour to photograph every leaf , every sprig , every brick , every household utensil that peeps through the open door . There is too much of this literality ; but the painstaking fidelity of the artist has made him follow the branching of the boughs and the leaves , the glancing of the light , the plaj- of the shadows , the changing of the tints under the fitful sun or in the distance ; and the consequence is an effect of living nature .
Stanfieljd aims at a more stirring scene , in every sense . He endeavours to give you a story of the elements , whether it is in the tranquil blackness of " Fort Socoa , St . Jean de Luz , " or in the large picture , " Port na Spania , " near the Giant ' s Causeway . Here a ship of the Spanish Armada has gone on shore in a gale , which is still tearing up the billows and sweeping spray , mist , and clouds in dizzy wreaths around the tall wall of basaltic rocks . Stanfield does not approach so close to the object that he paints , does not reproduce it in detail ; but he knows what is wanted to give the effect of the whole scene .. You have in the . rocks beautiful specimens of the architecture of the Creation , standing unmoved by the billows or the winds which have for centuries kept up . a ceaseless war upon the outpost of land . The great movements of nature which have so large an influence upon organic life are present to the eyes .
Nature has many aspects : —you may endeavour to reproduce a whole view , as Mr . J . Stahk . has done , in his works " At Rest , " " Marlborough Forest , " others , with great success ; you may choose chiefly to give the effect of vegetable creation , as Witherington does in " Early Summer , " and " Lyndale , North Devon ; " or you may take the broad sweep of light over hill and dale , in a moorland view , after the manner of J . F . Linnell ' s " Mountain Path ; " but in either case , fidelity to the truth will be rewarded . Witherington is a veteran , but an immortal youth seems to dwell in his tranquil scenes ; and we are inclined to think that even this long familiar friend has profited by the new spirit which has come over the English school . There is more painstaking , and less attempt at a lower style of scene painting , in which dabs of colour were made to pass , and effects were attempted by a random hit-or-miss style of li
handling . He still endeavours to preserve the breadth of ght and shade , still has a tender half-tint of transparent shadow with glancing sunlight from one side , still contrasts the vivid colour of one tree against the more neutral tints of another , still delights to paint the effect of that interweaving vegetation in which the grass springs up thick and sharp from the ground , the tree stem springs from the grass , and the leaves and . branches of the trees interlace with each oilier . But the outline is more carefully painted , the details are moulded with more distinctness , and tho reality is strengthened Avithout impairing the brilliancy of the whole . The " Early Summer , " which presents a pathway along the side of a river , with haymaking in the intermediate grass-plot , is full of life and air . Through the eyes it almost makes tho other senses conscious of the atmosphere , and produces in the heart the same feeling of gladness that mau was created to , foel , when he witnesses the life-giving power of the elements over even his mute companions , the creatures of the vegetable world .
Under the broad sunlight in the open air , lights anil shadows are sharp and well defined , but every shadow is transparent . Linnell ' s " Mountain Path " exactly copies these traits ; we are looking up a winding pathway , with heath stretching above us to the right ; a little rivulet has made its bed in the midst of the pathway . Higher up than we arc stands the figure of a girl , who seems stopping to look back ; her shadow falls across tho path , and through tho shadow , sharp as it is , 3 011 see every pebble and . every ripple . J . C . llonsr . KY , who has heretofore attended principally to figures , has now given us a landscape with figures , which he calls " Youth and Age . " An old woman in a red cloak is wending her way towards the spectator , down a hilly path , which runs through a wood . A little child is offering the aged woman a flower ; other figures are proceeding up the pathway : save as contrasts of personal characteristics , they are little inoro than accessories iu tho scene . Tho water has worn away the banks , which are steep on both sides ; old tree-stems shade
rising above tho banks . Tho immediate foreground is under a deep ; a little further back the liyht ia glancing through the trees ; and further on lies the broad open green distance , liven through the deep shade a Hash of light is glancing upon the hood of the woman ' s rod cloak . The shade is deep but not black ; as in nature , it looks at first as if tho objects within it were dim , yet tho eye grows accustomed to discern them ; while hero and there glancing halflights convoy a aeuau of motion in the leaves of tho trees above , and bring out tho fresh complexions and brighter dresses of the more youthful figures . The wholo action of nature upon the surface of the ancient hill , upon the old trees , the young plants , the winds , and tho sun itself , is brought within the framework ; and a degree of luminoutmess is attained which ia beyond tho reach of pigmenta , unless used by a truly skilful hand . It is , wo repeat , tho beat work thut wo havo seen from the pencil of Mousjuby ; and tho accomplished landscape-painter hia uncle , Calcjott , would bo rejoiced indeed to havo recognised
hit ) heir in this work . , . liignaiiAvss ' s- " Cradlo of tho ltivcr " tolla tho same everlasting story in hia new manner : it ia ono of hia beat pictures . A " Moorland ChiM "—a nVir 0 trilling work , with a single figuro and a lundscape background—is ve ^ yjt r" \ , {' J . It . Hmrubux ' 8 " View on tho Coast of France , in tho Autumn ot ih& . J j i » interesting aa a laudscapc-paiuting from a hand which has told aoiuo powouu
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A BATCH OF BOOKS . Divorce in 1857 . The Talbot Case . Letters by Cujus . ( Ward and Lock . ) — " Cujus " supplies in a series of letters an excellent history of the Talbot Divorce Case . He writes with point and precision , and we certainly prefer his summing up to that of Lord St . Leonards . The volume contains a melancholy , repulsive record ; yet it should be extensively circulated , for it is the last appeal in a case of injustice and misery . Stars and Stripes ; or , American Impressions .. By Ivan Golovin . ( i reeman . ) - —We have long delayed to notice this foolish and ill-meaning book . It should not be mentioned in these columns , were it not in some sort a duty of criticism to discountenance the pretensions of writers who rely on their own garrulity and the gullibility of the public .
Other reprints are—the fourth volume of Professor Wilson ' s Essays , Critical and Imaginative ( Blackwood ) , containing " Homer and his Translators , " in seven critiques , and " The Agamemnon of iEschylus ; and Jack Hinton , the Guardsman , by Charles Lever ( Chapmau and Hall ) , with Illustrations by Hablot K . Browne . We must not omit to notice a new issue of The Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott . Including his Metrical Romances , Copyright Lyrical Ballads , and Miscellaneous Poems and Ballads , with a Memoir of the Author . ( Adam and Charles Black . )—It is a handsome , portable volume , illustrated with numerous excellent engravings on steel and wood . Such , an edition has long been called for . —Mr . Toulmin Smith ' s standard work , The Parish , has been
reprinted , with important additions . ( Sweet . ) It should be adopted as the handbook of all local bodies and parochial officers throughout the kingdom . Mr . Smith is entitled to say , " There has never before been published such a mass of thoroughly authentic and practically available information on the institutions and woi-king of the parish . "—Mr . Murray has published a fifth volume of Lord Campbell ' s Lives of the Lord Chancellorsfourth edition ; apropos of which , we may allude to the forthcoming Lives of certain Chief Justices , by the same author—an announcement sure to excite general interest . Among popular publications we have also volume the second of Mr . Kaye ' a brilliant History of the War in Afghanistan ( Bentley ) , and the interesting novel , Nightshade , by William Johnstone , M . A . ( Bentley ) .
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Ma 2 * 1 S 57 . J THB LBABBB . 499
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Leader (1850-1860), May 23, 1857, page 499, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2194/page/19/
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