* Limly Wood. London: Ohn.pinAn and. HIM i tsciny :aidin g

to the river lisemasinta, it may be as well, perhaps, that artist who rashly sought the sea and found his gir0 4.0otee,, the reader should uuderstitiei clearly that we are speaking of no are in some sort compensated, for we have to reed and sumer,/ wi t extent of at least one hundred and fifty leagues, and is a river life. But Lady Wood is probably as weary as we are of followinien,

visit this trate!

ful branches bonding over the water. Its fruit is acidulous, and of the confirmation of the proverb—on which life often, and novels shape and size of an acorn. It is much sought for by children, and is always are based—that " the course of true love never does run net without its appeal to the traveller. A groat variety of birds enjoy smooth." But if Lady Wood is not more accommodating than life their existence ha peace in these solitudes. Among them is the ibis or her fellow-authors, her pictures are more faithful to reality in this with its brilliant plumage, the aramus with its ringing voice, and the blue porphyrio, called by the inhabitants gall° de Montezuma (Montezu- matter than in that of money, and her success lies in this fidelity to ma's chicken). The king-fisher, with its ringed neck, is also found nature. The artist who is cast on shore is a handsome young Span- hero, of much larger size than with us. It flutters continually over the lard, and he is rescued from the, very waves by a dress-maker who water, while the falcon, uttering piercing shrieks, plunges suddenly into the river, rises perpendicularly with its prey, and then whirls itself has taken home her work and is returning in the early dawn along upwards high in the air, until almost lost to the view. In contrast with the beach. A very clever Doctor Mereside—consumptive and phil. those pleasant sights, wo fancied that we discerned numerous alligators, authropie and therefore poor—restores animation ; but Martha and motionlessly watching 11B from the shoret of the little coves of the river her mother nurse hint back into health and support him ; and, not —but then it was almost impossible to distinguish these amphibious monsters from the uprooted trunks of trees, which the river had unnaturally, the girl, whose youth and beauty are on the wane, covered with its slimy sediment. Reposing on the dock, wrapped in becomes devotedly attached to her handsome and affectionate my cloak, I enjoyed with rapture a view truly enchanting from its . novelty, and suffielontly exciting to make up for the lack of associations. patient• lit sees no one else, and full of gratitude to his preserver During the whole of my journey, those pleasureablo emotions continued ; and nurse, and owing his very maintenance to her, he tells her, as my interest and curiosity wore constantly excited, for I was travelling it simple lad might, in broken English, that when he is rich she towards the 'Unexplored and Unknown ; and always excepting the MI- shall be his wif picture of the absorbing love in this strong

and patient but uncultivated and ill-regulated nature is powerful primitive poetry, have left the most profound and lasting impressions and minutely faithful. Pity that the girl is leas interesting I The

on my wind," dullness, poverty, and toil of her monotonous life have taken The effect of these solitudes on the mind of the traveller may be away all beauty of character, except that of endurance, integrity, imagined in those hours when he finds himself "alone in the and strong feeling, and they have left her sullen, irritable, and centre of a world without an intelligible past," but from time to aggrieved, and alive to jealousy, with self-control to conceal, but time we come upon descriptions of the so-called cities, the larger without religion to couquer these defects.

villages of this strange world, which stimulate a desire for further Throughout the story Martha and her old mother, Mrs. Clemens, inquiry and research. The description of Coban, a town of are the two that give the book its claim to notice; they are 12,000 souls, suggests at least seine originality of device. On drawn with a preeltaphaelitish accuracy and carefulness. The approaching the town, and yet seeing scarcely any sign of occupa- error into which Martha falls daily, that her lover draws her times in the shape of houses or streets, M. Morelet thought ho had and then loves the picture which he has drawn, for her sake, made some mistake, and inquired where the town might be ? instead of for its Own,—that in following her with his eyes "Senor, the town is around you," was the reply, and so, in he is actuated by love, instead of by the necessity of the artist- truth, it was ; but our traveller says he finds it difficult nature to study his subject, and the agony of disenchantment to convey an idea of a town of twelve thousand souls, when he triumphantly flings down the ten guineas which he built on an elevation yet almost iuvisiblo, because every single has received for her portrait, without a dream of her bitter dwelling with its courtyard and garden is separated from its disappointment at his parting with it, are exceedingly real. And neighbour by a gigautic hedge, which entirely conceals it from we feel for her chagrin, though we are ready to smile osvt inhen-, his hedge is made principally of a variety of in his ignorance of English, he applies terms of time nettle with immense leaves of a rich green colour, its growth differently to her mother and herself, and in taking leave, calls is so rapid that 1tt the end of a few years its stalks become veldt- the mother " my wife," and does not even reserve his Net kiss for able trunks, which interlace each other, eo as to form a grey wall his promised bride. And the weak-eyed mother is as good,— covered with mosses and lichens, equally picturesque and service- fretting sincerely after her drowned husband and by and her able. Most of the streets of Coban are bordered with these hedges, own failing sight, but trotting about cheerfully after little and the city enveloped in a network of verdure which renders vanities, and pottering over little bits of work ; very ten- even its principal buildings invisible except from their immediate der-hearted, devoted to her daughter, but afraid of her, and neighbourhood.

having all sorts of silly little concealments and plots. tier trans-

The population of this singular town possesses, M. Morelet parent artifices for publishing auything of which she is for says, all the essential elements of civilization, and numbers among the moment vain are amusing and cleverly described. Her

the people some good carpenters, dyers, weavers, and tailors. character is well sustained to the end, and she is nowhere

M. Morelot's labours as a naturalist were abundantly rewarded. better than after their removal to her sister's house, in her well-

Nothing was beneath the notice of the man whose eyes were meant eudeavours to act as go-between for that imperious lady open to discern beauty, or at least design, in each. lie returned and the stubborn mind independent-rniuded Martha. Martha is home laden with specimens, large classes of new plants, fishes, neither so natural nor consistent throughout ; she gets quixotic reptiles, and insects, with which lie enriched the French Museum and rude in her independence and ideas of honesty, and suddenly of Natural History. displays information for which her antecedents have not prepared

us, and when it comes to the question of whether Philip shall SEADRIF1'.* ratify his engagement to her or not, her conduct is as diabolical ierieTe again A few weeks ago it was our painful duty to as Philip's is idiotic, and GOLliVOVO'd unlady-like and vulgar. record lffielly the death (in fiction), on the Yorkshire coast, of an The ether characters are in no way remarkable—though time hypochondriacal earl, and Mrs. Bolick° the Cornish landlady, and

Mrs. Carden, the rich widowed sister of Mrs. Clemens, and others, Courts to know that the brave sailors having given themselves up are fairly good—and it is a pity that Lady Wood has not lingered to justice for the murder of the women, wore, of course, acquitted. longer over the winter storms and the dreary sea-coast and the bare and empty home of poverty, with its inhabitants, the two pinched and patient women, which together make up a picture

neither cheerful nor exciting certainly, but very living and pathetic. PnonaneY most reader* will take up this book, as we did, in the And it is a still greater pity that there is not as much nature belief that it contains the life of the celebrated engraver whose in the plot as in the people ; but while Lady Wood likes her elm- works were the delight of our younger days, and most readers racters to be quiet and ordinary, she goes infer something stirring will be, as we wore, grievously disappointed. Mr. T. Landseer in the way of incident. So we have a rich old aunt for Martha, may tell us that we have wily ourselves to blame for forgetting who, after years of silence, rightly concludes that her own kith that the Bewick bore the Christian name of Thomas, but when we and kin had better inherit her money than strangers ; and Simi- merely know of the existence of one owner of a surname we are lady, a rich, penitent old uncle, for the generous, indigent, consump- apt to leave all other dietiuguishing marks in the background. In tive doctor, besides the noble and munificent patron for the iu- the present C11.80 though we may of course acquit Mr. T. Landseer teresting young Spanish cutaway. But then all this is Lou of any intention to speculate on oar carehmuese, we can hardly prosperous, and we might suffer from a plethora of luxury ; so the I thiuk him right in not more carefully guarding against any mistake. aunt changes her mind when she finds Martha engaged to a His book opens with lei autobiographic sketch of William Bewick, Catholic, and the uncle lives as long as the consumptive doctor, which by speaking of his comparatively humble origin prepares us and the noble patron mourns, as we shall see, the untimely fate of fora life of equal humility. The way in which William Bewick, who his protégé. When the Spaniard leaves for Rome, Mrs. Clemens and was intended for his father's business of an upholsterer, devoted him- Martha betakethemselves to King's Lynn, in N orfolk, in a sailing yes- self to art in his boyhood, excited his father's forebodings, and at last eel—for in 1827 land-travelling was expensive—and we are pleased throw himself 011 hie own resources, is also consistent with the career to learn that it only took three days, in that inclement season, to sail of self-taught genius. Not a hint is given us of the existence of from the north coast of Cornwall to the head of the Wash. Yes- another Bewick until we have a casual mention of " Mr. Bewick, ads in these degenerate times often take months in winter for the engraver," iu a letter written after the subject of this life had this voyage. To the same out-of-the-way place, in two years, been taken up by Hayden, and throughout the book we are never comes a young Seadrift acquaintance of Martha's, as nursery- told whether there was any relationship between the two name- governess to some noble children, and it raises our estimate of sakes. This would be a serious 111

a humanity to find that she is cheerful in the prospect of month's with Mr. '1'. Landseer's general method. Ile admits frankly holiday to enable her to revisit her Cornish friends ; the hole which enough that he has contented himself with piecing together the the double voyage will make in the mouth, and which the cost autobiographic sketches and the correspondence of William will make in a nursery-governess's salary, not apparently disturb- Bewick, and he trusts to the interest of these materials for any ing her humble and contented spirit. To her enter noble child- success that may attend his venture.

rev's relatives, the hypochondriacal earl, with a beautiful niece, The biographer of a painter is hardly to blame if his readers are and the Spanish artist, all last from Rome—the Spaniard hay- left in ignorance of the artistic merits of his subject. If nothing ing a second time escaped death, this time in defending the more is to be said of William Bewiek than that " he occupied a beautiful Goniveve and her uncle from Italian bandits. While good position as an artist," and that " without venturing to at King's Lynn Geniveve's father sends for her to his death-bed, assert his right to one of the highest niches in the Temple of just to mention that he and his late brother bad concealed the Fame," it may yet be maintained " that the artist who received fact that the latter had a son in Spain who was heir to the hypo- so many testimonies of approval not only from the public, but also chondriacal earl, and in a week or two the identity of this son with from brothers of the brush, must have possessed more than our Spanish artist is established. Ho, however, declines Geniveve, ordinary talent," we cannot doubt as to his real position. Mr. '1'. estates, and title altogether, as ho has pledged his word two years Landseer adds, indeed, that there are many paintings by William before to the dressmaker, and she declines to yield an inch of her Bewiek to be found in the neighbourhood of Darlington, and that rights. Quick is therefore the word, and they are married. In a ho once received a commission for a cartoon of some of the figures few weeks the Seadrift doctor's rich uncle dies, and it becomes in the Elgin marbles from Goethe. But as many of the paintings necessary that Martha should go to take possession of his house, mentioned seem to bo portraits of wealthy Quakers they would which is her mother's property. The earl hears also of this death, hardly repay a trip to the North, while whatever may be Goethe's and, the hated parvenu being out of the way, sets his heart again reputation as a judge of art, the picture he presented to the church on the Seadrift climate and doctor. By the strangest chance, ho at Bingen shows that he was not an infallible buyer. The priuci- and Geniveve and the artist and Martha all atop into the pal facts we learn about William Bewick's artistic career are that Antelope, a new and well-appointed steamer, bound from South- he showed a singular love of art and great facility in drawing ainpton to Falmouth—a distance, by the way, of about 200 miles— when he was a boy ; that he was afterwards a favourite pupil of and "for the first few days all went well." But steamers are not Hayden's, that he painted a picture for Haydon which was shown sailing-vessels, nor is August winter, and so, though the sail from at the Manchester Exhibition under the name of that artist, and the north coast of Cornwall to the Wash took only three days that he was sent to Rome by Sir Thomas Lawrence to make copies in winter, we should be unreasonable to wonder at the tardy pro- of some of Michael Augelo's figures in the Sistine. We are told gruel of the steamer in August. And if steam could not do much, that in William Bewiek's boyhood he devoted every spare moment wind and waves could ; for the vessel taking fire simultaneously to drawing, much to the dismay of his father, who was a worthy with the coining on of a great storm before their arrival at Fal- upholsterer, and looked upon his own business as the only certain mouth, they take to the boats—that is to a boat, for the first five thing in life. Whenever his son's drawings were exhibited ho was or six of this new and well-appointed vessel won't act, or else cap- inclined to groan, " Neura:Ise, nonsense, this will be the boy's size,—and by a strange freak of nature they weather the Lizard's ruin, I foresee ;" and when at length William Bewick made up his Point and the Land's End, and after some days of agony they find mind to become a painter, his father refused him all further assist- themselves on the ?tor& coast and off Seadrift. But, alas the anise, leaving him to make his own way to London, and support tortured sailors do not know how near their refuge is, so they himself there by his own efforts. Hayden, whose pupil William decide to throw the women into the sea to lighten the boat ; Bewick became, was not able to give him much peOuniary help, andpoor Martha—mad with the sight of Philip's and for once, when asked for a loan, the master confessed that he had Geniveve's love—says " Hands' off !" and jumps over- only £5 left, and while the " Raising of Lazarus " was being board without compulsion, thus fulfilling a prophecy made in painted, Hayden was arrested three times in a single morning. her youth by a mad Methodist of Seadrift. Philip, seeing that For some time it appears that William Bewick was engaged in a Geniveve is to be sacrificed, jumps in with her. kle knows of a hard struggle for existence, but so far as we can gather from this rock only a mile from land to which he had once swum in winter book he was able at last to retire with a decent fortune. The —a week or two after his dangerous illness—to make a sketch, and prophecy of some fox-hunting squire that fame, riches, and to this rock he now takes his love. But such is not to be the end honours would come upon him thick as the leaves in Vallombrosa, of the sad voyage. Fate has determined that Philip shall was not indeed accomplished, but lie might possibly have con- become Seadrift—for the name of the place is evidently a joke vinced his father that painting was more profitable iu many ways —and so the consumptive doctor swims out on his pale horse and than upholstery. If we expect greater results than this from rescues Geniveve, but, venturing a second time for Philip, his youthful aspirations and youthful facility, from the courage to Philip ever heard of again. It may be interesting to the Law 2 volt'. London : lima, and Blackett.