GIFT - BOOKS.

TILE volumes of the nature of gift-books which come before us in the Christmas week form a lot miscellaneous enough ; in art, of some appa- rently solid pretensions—in literature, chiefly juvenile. First comes a record of Turner and his early friend and coadjutor Girtin.* The views are taken in various parts of Great Britain—Rochester Bir-

mingham, Chester, Manchester, Warkworth, Elgin Cathedral, Westminster

Bridge, Windsor, &c. One of Turner's at least is of as old a date as the year 1793; when, according to his own statement, he was twenty-four

years of age—according to a register of very dubious authenticity, only eighteen. The rest, it may be inferred, were done within the two or three following years, though we do not find any positive statement on the sub- ject. The plates, as the publisher informs us in his preface, were rescued

by "a worthy gentleman" a short time ago "from a cellar, or some equally obscure place, where probably they had been hidden for half a

eentitry, forgotten, excepting by the few painstaking collectors who, at the price of the present volume, had been enabled, on rare occasions, to enrich their stores now and then with solitary soiled and badly-worked specimens." It appears also, that by the year 1801 a total of 200 copies had been worked off, but whether of a single plate or of the whole series is not clear.

Mr. Hogarth terms the plates "a mine of art " : an epithet which we can only venture to accept "with a difference." Dry, formal, wanting in subject, in vividness, and in fulness, totally wanting in grandeur or sub-

fillies of effect, or in any approach to that infinitude, emulative of the in- finitude of nature, which Ruskin cites in proof of Turner's supreme truth, the series is very much like any other of the same date—meagre in draw- ing, oldfashioned in "composition," and hard in engraving. The fact is, there is nothing about them of the Turner whom the present generation

has flouted and revered. Grades of difference may be noticed between

the several plates, but always within the same narrow limits : Bridgnorth, for instance, is the hest, of Turner's, having more of artistic manner about

it; Chriateinreh. Abbey, or Tamaway Castle, the best of Girtin's. We

speak in no depreciation of either artist, or of contribution to a know-

ledge of them which Mr. Hogarth has presented ; on the contrary, we re-

cognize a value and an interest in the designs. We simply desire to de- fine the nature of that value and interest. As specimens of Turner the artist, the views do not count for anything ; as memorials of Turner the artist that was to be we would not willingly forego them.

The literary portion of-this handsome volume consists of brief notices of the localities represented, by Mr. Thomas Miller and others, and of introductory "Memoirs of Turner and Girtin." The latter are written in a style of confident affirmation as to facts ; but neither the writer's name nor the source of his information, whether personal or otherwise, is specified. Girtin is spoken of in terms of flaming praise both as man and artist ; of Turner little appears beyond anecdotes of the old stamp, all, or almost all, on the one subject of his pecuniary narrowness, and related

without a vestige of indulgence or reticence. There is not," we are told, I' an instance on record of his ever having rendered assistance to any one in the profession, [engraving,] or in the whole course of his life, of having done a generous act." And again—" Turner was cold and selfish, and would not have given a brother artist a shilling to have saved him from starvation. While living, he never gave cause for a human heart, from its full utterance, to exclaim God bless him !' He had not a loveable atom in his nature—not a redeeming point in him worthy to be placed beside even the faults of Honest Tom Girtin, whose very fail- ings leaned to virtue's side.' " Such indiscriminate assertions are not likely to be true, and cannot but be censured as in bad taste.

• Turner and Girtin's Picturesque Views, Sixty Years Since. Edited by Thomas Miller, Author of "Royston Gower," &c. With thirty Engravings of the Olden Time. Published by Hogarth.

We extract literatim a letter by Turner, written in 1811, and herer given in fan-simile. Mr. John Britton had composed an essay on Turner's- " Pope's Villa," wherein he had originally criticized some remarks of Fuseli stigmatizing landscape-painters as the map-makers, the topo- graphers of art. The essay was submitted to the painter, and these are his comments. We do not discover anything very wonderful in them ;. but they are of interest as coming from one so little known save for great- ness in art.

" Sir, I rather lament that the remark which you read to me when I cal- led in Tavistock Place is suppressed ; for it espoused the part of elevated land- scape against the aspersions of ' map-making ' criticism. But no doubt you are better acquainted 3vith the nature of publishers (?), and mine is a mis- taken zeal. As to remarks, you will find an alteration or two in pencil. Two groups of sheep," two fishermen,' occur too close. Baskets to entrap Eels' is not technical—being called eel-pots ' • and making the willow-tree the identical Pope's willow is rather strained cannot you do it by allusion and with references ? Mellifluous lyre' seems to deny energy of thought, And let me ask one question—Why say the poet and prophet are not often united ? for if they are not, they ought to be ; therefore the solitary in- stance given of Dodslay acts as a censure. The fourth and fifth line requires perhaps a note as to the state of the grotto, that gratfull posterity, from age to age, may repair what remains. if I were in town, I would ask a little more to be added, but as it is, use your own discretion ; and therefore will conclude cavilling any further with Dodsley's lines. Your most—(?) servant, J. M. W. TURNER.

" P.S.—Respecting Lindisfarne, we will have some conversation when I re- turn, and you see the sketches which are not—(?); and I must, of course, know what size, &c. you wish, before I can positively accept of your pro- posal, as one more I think of bringing into Liber Studiorum. I had not time to return this by post yesterday, but hope that no delay has been experienced in the printing."

The Book of Celebrated Poonst is an extremely sightly gift-book, offer- ing oppirtunities both literary and artistic which admitted of being im- proved to greater advantage. The Poems are not all celebrated, nor all deserving celebrity ; and the editorial comments will not assist the reader's critical faculty very far. Of the designs, Mr. Cope's are the best, but few in number; Mr. Meadows's, with a share of his wonted fancy, to the full as spasmodic as usual ; Mr. Dodgson's, confined to one or two ; those of Mr. Ferguson—who is, we think, a new hand among illustrators—showing considerable brilliancy, repose, and breadth, in landscape. If he will stick to this line, and eschew figures, we augur well of him.

We cannot doubt that The Picture Pleasure-Book will be a favourite with children, as for many of its contents it deserves acceptation among their seniors. It is simply a book of wood-cuts from previous publica- tions, printed scrapbook-wise, with descriptive rhymes ; and includes several of Mr. Harrison Weir's best drawings of animals, many German designs, really beautiful for fancy, tone, and sometimes humour, some by Mr. -Wehnert, and others by other men of note. The idea of such a pub- lication, here in its second series, is .a simple and good one, and the na-' ture of the materials allows of its being cheap.

We most Mr. Weir again in The Adventures of a Dog ;§ but to ranch less advantage. Here he has to represent animals, not merely by way of portrait, or in actions appropriate though perhaps tinged slightly with quaintness, but in human costume and engaged in human occupations. ••■fir this neither Mr. Weir nor his author has fancy enough—fancy such as was possessed in perfection by the admirable Frenchman Grandville,

who will wait long for a successor. The tale, like Mr. Elwes's " Adven- tures of a Bear," its prototype of last Christmas, will not, we suspect, be found much more amusing by children than by ourselves ; being deficient in ingenuity, in a well-sustained assimilation of the canine to the human, and in fun,—points which a sharp child does not miss.

The Lark and the Linnecil (so named, apparently, on the model of Dunbar's " Merle and Nightingale," as indicative of the heaven-aspiring and the earth-enjoying,) comes from America; where, as the preface im- plies, the little book is popular among children. It is unexceptionable in intention ; but neither better nor worse in performance than many of its forerunners.

From Scotland we receive a pretty and portable edition of that remark- able Italian autobiography Lorenzo Benoni ;II illustrated with a few de- signs which bear the stamp of amateurship and an evidence of something beyond the commonplace. The same hand has embellished Louisa von Ptettenhaus**—a juvenile tale of a young lady the very phcenix of go- vernesses, very moral, extremely religious, rather pleasing, and slightly prosy.

Stories from the Classicstt is an attempt to bring mythological legends within the sphere of domestic adaptability. Thus far, it resembles Haw- thorne's recent volume ; but it does not maul the stories so cruelly, or produce a dish so mawkish to the adult palate. Ceres and Proserpine, Cupid and Psyche, and the history of Achilles, are some of the principal themes. The stories are not stripped of their poetic colouring, being told frequently in language paraphrased from that of the great classic authors ; but we apprehend that the attempt itself is a mistake. For true enjoy- ment, the tales should be narrated fully, both in substance and in adorn- ment; for information, a summary like Lempriere's is preferable. The endeavour to be rapid, unobjectionable, and poetic at the same time, de- feats itself by raising unsatisfied expectations ; though we can imagine that it might answer better were the form of verse, as well as its general tone, adopted.

+ The Book of Celebrated Poems. Illustrated by upwards of eighty Engravings from Drawings by C. W. Cope, Kenny Meadows, G. Hodgson, and J. Ferguson. Published by Low and Son.

.1: The Picture Pleasure-Book. Illustrated with nearly five hundred Engravings from Drawings by eminent Artists. Second Series. Published by Addey and Co.

The Adventures of a Dog, and a Good Dog too. By Alfred Elwes, Author of " The Adventures of a Bear," &c. With eight Illustrations, by Harrison Weir. Published by Addey and Co. 11 The Lark and the Linnet: Hymns, Songs, and Fables. By Eliza Lee Pollen. Published by Addey and Co.

II Lorenzo Benoni; or Passages in the Life of an Italian. Edited by a Friend. Published by Constable and Co. •• Louisa von Plettenhaus : the Journal of a Poor Young Lady. Translated from the German. Published by Constable and Co.

+i- Stories from the Classics. Adapted for the Young, by Mary and Elizabeth Kirby. Published by Bosworth.