STRATTON HILL *

Is an historical novel that no writer needs be ashamed of; though it will not make the reputation of any man. Its merits are too much of the negative kind. If we were to compare it to the vulgar novels of the day, we should remark, that it wanted their broad outlines, their warm colouring, and their fearlessness, in the pursuit of effect, of shocking the tastes of the reader. Stratton Hill is, on the other hand, the work of a practised writer, a person of poetical imagination, and of competent knowledge : but with all this, his pictures of life and his- tory are feeble—we are not bound to read on. We fear that the tra- velled author has mistaken the nature of his impressions : he has no call for novel-writing, and yet he probably relishes the chels-dwuvres of our great romancer with a heartiness that may have deceived him as to his own capability. Sometimes, indeed, the author of Stratton Hill breaks out with a description, or bursts forth in the character of one of his heroes, with a spirit that might lead a critic to doubt the soundness of his unfavourable opinion.

The scene lies in the West of England; of which we should con- ceive the author to be a native. Many of his sketches of scenery are happy and just; and as far as the Cornishmen have or had a distinc- live character, Mr. CARNE has entered into it with perfect knowledge. We should conceive that among his various characters, the portrait of the old wrestler Kiltor was a fine and perhaps a natural representation of Cornish character under a peculiar aspect. Of this kind also is the very clever portion of the book, which includes the life, character, and ancestry of Arthur Trenlyon, a descendant of the renowned knight and king of that name. It possesses both humour and truth. We allow a good deal for the time at which the action is placed, and also for a degree of excusable ,exaggeration. With all this, we think a scene in which • TrenlYen plays a principal part, cannot fail to be acceptable to our readers. The redoubted descendant of King Arthur has just returned from the strife of Stratton Hill. A peaceable man before, it was suspected that the spirit and blood of his ancestors flowed but sluggishly in the unwieldy frame of their last descendant. He had nevertheless turned out boldly, and belied the suspicions both of his enemies and friends. He had stood the shock of battle, and done pod service in the field. The excitement had even developed his own character to himself: he was pleased to find himself worthy of the name lie venerated, and he returned home a changed man. There, however, a trial waited him : he was not proof as yet to the petty rivalries in property and ancestry which had been his torment ; and it was but instantly on his return that he came in contact with one whom he cordially hated on these grounds. The following spirited extract desciibes the scene.

"The old men, who came half familiarly nigh, were waved to the right or left with an impressive gesture, as he firmly held on his way to the mansion of his ancestors. It stood there, quiet and dignified as when he left it, front- ing the church-yard, with the. three stone steps leading up to the door, and the neat low rail that distinguished it also from every other dwelling. He came to the door, and lifted the-latch : to his surprise, no one came to receive him, no voice bade the returned soldier welcome to the place of his fathers. How was this ? Where was Damson, his sister, whose ear could discern his faintest footstep, and who, he could not. but suppose, would have met him with smiling looks and uplifted voice ? All was hushed and silent as the grave, save that at intervals low muttering voices came from the small parlour on the left. At his own dwelling to be received with coldness and neglect, when he merited a far different meed! He thrust open the door of the small parlour suddenly, entered it a few steps, and then stood as still and hushed as the princess Ayma in her virgin grave. Seated with his sister at the same table, his arm-chair beside the same fire, his whole air and attitude those of a man perfectly at home, was Trethewan of Trebarva Hall, a man he never could abide or hear mentioned.

"As it has been stated before, this man was a sort of feudal rival, a very thorn in his path. He had also cast an eye on his sister ; he had in fact been her early love, and even now she remembered with impassioned tenderness the time when he made her an offer. His voice, his blue eye- " Arthur had sternly stood in the way. He knew the man to be one who griped at each fair holding to the right and left, and thirsted for Damsen's heritage. Mcfreover, he had the presumption to talk of his own descent as fully equal to Trenlyon's. Even in the last conversation he had had with his sister helhad warned her not to think of him. A vivid and intense alarm spread itself instantly over the features of the two lovers. Tomasina started from her chair, and clasped her hands together in all the impotence of detected guilt.

" 0 brother, to think of your coming back from the wars so sudden like, and so well too, blessing for it ! not a wound upon Your body, as I'm a living t woman, and all your precious limbs, too, about ye!' "Trethewan was speechless. Ile bore his tall, spare figure erect in the chair, fastening each hand with a strong hold on the arms thereof, and met the ferocious look of his host, as the cowering fox meets the guardian mastiff of the fold.

" Trenlyon looked at him long and fixedly, then at his quivering sister, whose ejaculations increased in fervour and plaintiveness : the flagons too of his best hollands and wine were on the table, and his frame shook with strong

* Stratton Bill, a Tale of the Civil Wars. By the Author of "Lettersfront the Bast," 41' Tales of the West of England," &e. 3 vols. London, 19. Colburn.

emotion ; once, and once only he griped his lance hard,—' And oh ! Arthur; said the weeping woman, ye would'n murder Trebarva beneath your father's roof : think how 'twould darken your fair fame, and now that ye've got sitch a name in the wars.'

" There is no accounting for the sudden changes in men's minds ; a few weeks before, and there is no doubt but that long and sanguinary pike would have pinned Trebarva to the wall, as an impressive warning that men who are the subject of a fierce and hereditary feud, should not venture into houses with a traitorous design to steal away their sisters, daughters, or fair sub- stance. But in a few moments the ferocity of Trenlyon's countenance passed away ; the bitterness of wrath was conquered, a generous and soldierly air took its place, he stretched out his right hand. "Trethewan; he said, ye're welcome : be calm man, and don't gripe the chair so hard. Damsen, I've taken ye by surprise it seems ; but let that pass—now, let me put off this armour, and be clad again in peaceful garments.'

• " It need not be said that Tomasina, with joyful surprise, hasted to per- form her brother's commands, her quick step was heard on the stairs, and her voice rang clearly—' Ellis, the corduroy hose, and the doublet o' woollen ; with the shoes he always wore in-doors ; they're easier to the foot.'

" Are there any joys more exquisite than those of home ? and even where wife and children do not meet the exulting eye, as in the present case, nor their fond endearments meet the embrace; the high, ruddy, blazing tire, the snug, comfortable parlour, to whose dimensions our eye has ever been Accus- tomed ; the favourite arm-chair, the cheering glass,—all, all conspire to make rest after toil, safety after the clashing of steel, smiles and soft words after the groans and shrieks of the dying,—welcome and delicious as the gushing fountain to the expiring Arab. This was the happiest moment of Trenlyon's life ; he leaned his war-worn head on the back of the chair, crossed his hands on his breast, and his lips gently moving, but no sound coming forth, revelled irt that hushed emotion, that stillness of the soul, when the waves that have rolled over it are softly sinking, and the wild winds are chained.

" Mr. Trenlyon,' said the guest, at last, though the words seemed to come from the bottom of his breast, ye've had a hard time of it, and behaved like —like one o' your—there's no gainsayin' it, no—one o' your house should ha' done ; ye were a peaceable man too, aforetime?

" And do ye allow that, Trebarva,' said the other, with a momentary tn. umplt in his eye at this concession of his hereditary rival—' tis much Ye allow that I ha' behaved, that's to say, like a Trenlyon ; thank ye, thank ye! a peaceable man aforetime I was ; that's true, Trebarva; but you see therc?s always something in the foimation of a Trenlyon that tells, when need counts, of the race from which he sprung, and the blood you see, that's in his veins.' throwing a half-lounging, patronising glance on his guest from the back of his arm-chair.

" ' He's right, Trethewan,' said Damsen in a shrill voice, Arthur is right: could anybody behave more manfully than he did, showing clearly that what's born with us must come out some time or other : the church-yard there alert the window was the most of his walk every day; ; and to think of his climb- ing the hill like a wild beast. But look how he's wasted; the corduroy and the woollen hare* about en like.—Ah ! ye have passed through sore trials, no doubt, and fearful things.' " "Trethewan; said the brother, raising the flagon to his lips, lucre's your health, and may ye long live in your own hall like an otter in his den, snug and safe. There's nothing like peace, Trebarva, be assured; what can be pleasanter than the two grassy hills on each side your house ; the stream murmuring in front ; the orchard loaded with fruit behind ; the green mm- dow on the left, and the garden with the bee-hives. There's a sea of comfort in all these things, my friend: when I was on the cold face of the hill, quiver- ing in the night wind like a seal in the sunbeams, the horrors of the fight over, and a stone for my pillow,—you were wrapped in luxury ; on your downy pillow you listened to the glidin' of the stream or the wave on the beach. Ye've been a happy man ; a man far more to be envied than those who are come from kings, from fierce knights, who've got the deeds of their forefathers always before their eyes, warnin' them like spectres to go and no the like!'

" 'Hem—ay—Trenlyon—kings! They say when a man comes from the wars, he comes with an open mouth ; however, Pm glad to see ye well hack, and lucre's your health ; this ale's exceeding good. Body o' me ye're wasted man I it had'n a been the worse if a softer bed than the stone had been under ye. Dinna think with a houldin' like mine though, that a man can lay him- self down like a tod in a tank, wi' the murmur o' bees and water in his ear ;— there's Penheale croft, and Crinnis load to be looked after night and day; the villains keep the dues from flue: the stream tin, too, in Clowan's river : "The glidin' o' the wave," says he, " 'tis more like the glidin of red hot iron under my head when I lie down on my lied."' " Now there ye're wrong. Trethewan,' said the sister, in disturbin' your- self overmuch, and in givin' no rest to your eyelids about things in that way; 'tis wearin' out a man's soul worse than the wars do his body. And there's somethin' more noble, after all, in doing like Arthur ha' done in the field, and sufferin' with thp princes o' the earth, than in roamin' like a disconsolate badger up and down, the precious hours o' the night as well as the day.'

" Damsen,' said Trenlyon calmly, there's truth in your words: I'm con- scious of it myself. There is in such a course a sort of ennoblin' left upon the mind ; a man does'n feel as he did afore. Henceforth I shall go less often to the cliff o' Crulis to watch the small vein o' copper, sittin' on the brink,

like a curlew watching, the storm : quarrel no more wi' the bellies for each i foot of ground in the nclosin' Nanchera Downs—there's a lowerin' in these things.'

" 'And d'ye think, said his guest, with a sardonic grin, that your sub- stance is to be secured by rampagin' about the country; or that runnite a pike through a man's back will make your roof strong over your head? There'll be a lowerin', and . an inclosin', too; and poverty, like an armed man, will glint over the wall, and give ye a grip wi' his iron hand that '11 make your bones shake : ye '11 be such an atomy, that there'll be no room for ennohlin' thoughts inside your skin. Slight a kinelie vein and the wide fat croft for a shadow o' thought ! hal ha 1 ' " Trethewan,' said his host solemnly, 'as the oak falleth, so it must lie. Ye ken the saying, "A noble mind"—hem ! But what made ye draw such a picture of poverty and wastin' ? I can hold my own, man, as well as you, though not, maybe, with so much watchin' and toil.—Croft ! as if I wanted a few feet o' fat land. As to the grip o' poverty or miscrlin', whoever looks upon that lank, long, figure will see where it's been hardest. Armed Clan. but I'll tell ye what, there was a time when ye'd ha' liked to've been one; when Pharaoh and his host followed after the Israelites, to get their jewels '

and chattels, and make them build up cities o' treasure : St. Tudy ! ye d La taken lance and shield then.'

" And so I would,' said the other eagerly ; and so I would : that's the only part o' Scripture that moves me. There was great wealth in those daYs;, the droves of cattle, sheep, oxen, besides gems, and stones, and unknown value. I'd ha' taken my great grandsire's, Uren Trethewares, o' armour down from the wall ; there's sense in the takin' sitch a spoil.'

"'I'm glad ye've the grace to keep that suit of armour,' was the reply, reverence for things gone by.' *

' " You have heard,' hesaid, no doubt of the untimely fate of one we all know ; a man full of errors and over-weaning pride ; hut we won't darken the memory of him that's departed ;—Pengreep, of Tredavern !' " This was an instant bond of sympathy and union between the whole

Pa'

rty for the deceased had been the long and bitter rival of both the squires, in descent, pretension, substance, and influence. On the guest, indeed, he had always looked with sovereign contempt; the host he had been compelled to respect in a higher degree, and to allow no small share of his pretensions. ' Pengreep, of Tredavern, dead I' said Trethewan, with heartfelt eager- ness, draa lug his chair nearer the tire. Ali ! the proud leevin !' interposed the sister ; this comes o' boastin' of his house, and preferrin' it above our's : a judgment has overtaken 'em.'

My friends,' said Trenlyon, "tis a sad and movin' tale to tell ;— Trethewara your glass ; you'll find it good, man : sister, 'twill do ye more service than hollands, and the night's warm—hem ! That a man who was always set agen me and my house, with bitter injuries and cruel mockings ; so as to say, that the Tredaverns had a piece in the land, a buildin' fair meadows, and beeves, while the Trenlyons were wanderii? like wild druids among the ricks and cairns—that such a man should breathe his last out at my feet, without a blessin', a tear, or a sigh aver 'em is not to be wondered at. You can imagine my feelins', Trebarva : I pitied the man, but he died impenitent : his spirit passed away with a sneer and a whiff at the blood that was purer, and clearer, and ()alder than his own.'

• " The hardened villain I' said the latter, he's gone to his long account; he ! be ! Did be say anything, afore he departed, about the family he had so grievoasly lowered? Oh ! the words o' that man ha' cost me nights of sleep; and, when tossed to and fro, I ha' looked at my father's ould lance gleaniin' keen the wall, and wished he was within teach o' the sharp point. Did he dare, in ilyi id, to sneer about the Trebarvas, and to say—I should ha' longed to he there ? Did he speak o' our ancient house ?' " ' He never said a word about it,' was the reply; "tis'n likely in his dyin' hour, he would think o' such a thing.: " What do you mean, Mr. Treniyon,' said the guest in half suppressed accents, by these words? Why should'n he think of my family in his last hour?'

" Ye're close me—ye're hard upon me, Trethewan, for a word: but if I must speak, he was thinkile of more important matters,—he was speakin' of our house.'

" The other drew his breath hard, and his deeply lined and withered coun- tenance became like that of the magician's, who saw his serpent devoured by that of the prophet. This to me you instiltin' man ! But I'll be calm ;y labour under a delusion ; the ale's ower strong no man in his right 'Mad could ha' said such a thing, possible I' " But it is possible d returned the host, leaning half over the-table—' I'm a mail of sincere speech, it does'ii become a soldier to be otherwise ; an if you deny what I ha' said, St. Tudy ! you'd drank a pottle afore I came.'

" Ale !—and do you think to bury an affront like this in ale ? an affront deeper than the deep &ash I Arthur Trenlyon, I have drunk of your eLP, Oft! eat of your platter this'night ; 'tis hard, in sitch a case, to carry a deadly thing away—he warned !' and he lifted his bard, bony finger, and sat at least half-a-foot higher in his chair. There was a hushed and dead pause throigh- out the room for a few moments; looks only of strong and fearful import being exchanged between the parties, for what they felt seemed to big fur utterance. Trenlyon's hand had been some time on the neck of. the flagon; he now lifted it, and poured its last enntents'into his glass, saying at the sane: time, in a musing manner, Pengreep, with all his faults, was a knowin' man. met hiin .upon 'Stowe Heath one day. ."Trebarva Hall," says be, "Is a thing of small account, compared, Trenlyon, to your rooftree or mine ; what wi' gripin', what mendin', and the death of two or three far-away cousins, the ould walls are kept together ; but there's a smell," • says he, "o' commonness about them, o' newness, like a ploughed meadow."' There was deep and concentrated cunning and malice in the look he fixed on his victim, while he emptied with perfect self-possession the glass he had tilled. " Not so his guest, who writhed to and fro in his chair, like an eel that has been cut in two by some idle boy : 'tis doubtful if the man they spoke of suffered such keen torment when dying ort the field. On a sudden his an- guished eye brightened. Would ye compare houses and lands,' said he, ' with a long, clean descent ? What, if part of the hall is not so old; maybe, as the rest, and ye ha' more substance aneath your roof? there's no byblows in our line, no turnin's to the right or left, no hatchin's up ! Can you say that of your fathers, you maligner ? Have ye forgot that Andrew Rowe, of Rescrinnis, lived a light life with a dame o' your family, in the time of Henry the Eighth ? She was married a'terwards to a Trenlyon, a second-cousin ; but the children aforetime, the byablows, bore the name, and kept up the succession : by the mark, too, that lhere was'n a direct male branch at that time in the land.'

" ' Oh, you traducer of an honourable name l' said Trenlyon, kindling at the taunt ; 'bring to your mind that the noted Corbie Trenlyon returned in Ns old age from the wars in France, and with 'en came his son Roger, so called from the great Roger, the Pict-killer, and he married with a Halwyn, and so founded the line afresh, in a pure add honourable manner, and I'M in a direct descent from that son.'

"'Ay, ay,' replied the guest, ye are better off than your forebear. I re. member hearing my mother say, that her grandmother, when a child, remem- tered the old Corbie, a worn-out tyke, landin' in the cove down by, with a head o' white hair, anda bowed frame and wanderin' about in search of a roof and a house ; and as he passed by our place, Trebarva-hall, that was then in grandeur, she looked out o' the window upon the foreworn and friendless man, with a pity in her eye.' "'The host compressed his lips, and clenched his hands hard. Trethewan ! YOU are an unsightly man to look upon, but that's nothing to the unsightli- ness, the blackness of the heart that ye hould within—Danisen, be calm ; put 'en down in a moment. When the great Corbie set his foot once more on his native shore, at that very time Guavas Trenlyon was livin' in splendour at Rescadgel: When he saw his warlike cousin drawing nigh, in a li a rd .hearted manner, he shut the gate—for the place had wails anergates—sayin' "Corbie, le ha' given the best o' your life to a strange land ; go back and make an end where ye began." They were the very Words, Damsen ; our father used often to repeat them.' "'They were, brother—they Were the exact thing. Oh, Trebarva! that You should so forget yourself as to speak light of sitch a renowned man4 Rescadgel was a hould o' great note, with a carvin' o' marble in the great hall, and damask hangin's in the guest-chamber.'

" At that very time, too,' continued the brother, in a deep voice, Tre- barva-hall was a little, low, scamp; n' hold, with one round tower, and a door of extreme narrowness, with a little strip o' meadow on one side, and a few sheep on the other. Now, I remember my father sayin' once; "When Corbie," says lie, "being refused admittance into the Casele of Rescadgel, Passed on to the ancient seat of his race, at Stowe, he passed by, in the way, a small bottom, wi' water and grass, and in the middle was the likeness of a hould, a poor tower and mean walls : and in the single window, or hole in thew all, was a woman crooning and knitting :—it snout ha' been the forebear 0 your mother that you speak of.' "The clear blue ye of Trebarva gleamed like a lighted coal. 'At that very time,' he said, in tones almost stilled with passion, ye ken, you awful maligner! that my ancestor, Uren Trethewan, that lived in the hall, was more looked up to in the land than Guavas of Rescadgel. Strip o' meadow ! had'n he the whole bottom, and did'n his flocks cover the sides u' the bill ? There was the northern tower, too, as well as that by the riverside; and the ruins may be seen to this day. Your forebear, wanderhe by, would ha' been glad to ha' sheltered his head there—'

"'He would ha' had or shelter then,' answered Trenlyon, turning up his nose with sovereign contempt. 'St. Tudy led 'en in safety past the walls.— you are here now, my friend ; you see this chamber,`and this dwellin', the snuggest and best, I've a notion, in the village,—this is nothing; this is dust in the balance compared to the grandeur in which Guavas Trenlyon lived in the day we speak of. To the great hall of Rescadgel came knights and men of note, and were feasted day and night, and great were the doings with music and dancin'. And in Trebarva. hall—Robert Trethewan! have ye a notion what were the doings ? The old hall was about ten feet square, and the last time I rode by, I looked in through the gratin', and there were a dozen sheep lyin' ; but they had'n room, poor things ! some upon the backs of others. I could'n help pityin' them.' "Trebarva laughed hi the anguish of his spirit, with that kind of laugh with which men seek to hide their inward emotions.

There'n ne'er a better hall,' he said, in the ould, dark, moanin' ruin of Tentayel ; a nest for the birds of the sea, a place to beware of, that never held anything but foxes or otters. As to a court being held there, ha! ha I and Arthur elfin' a king, sitch another fable as the doings in Rescadgel, music and &mein' !'

" Beware, Trethewan,' said the host in a solemn tone, "tis not for such lips as your's to profane the dwelling of my great ancestor, or to cast a cloud upon his name.'

" A cloud !' replied the other, exulting that he had now the advantage; 'was there ever any thing else ? 'Tis food for laughin' for a whole night long —all that rig-roll of the round table. They would ha' been glad to ha' crowded into Trebarva-hall, like sheep, when Uren lived there in his pride.'

"This was more than man could endure. Trenlyon sprung from his seat, and laid a strong grasp on the insulter. 'From beneath the roof you have maligned shall ye instantly go—out ye, to your own mean scrubby hall l' "Trebarva as strenuously resisted this attack, and the struggle was long and determined. He was like a long polar bear in the grasp of an enraged lion ; and as between the two animals, such was here the fate of the con- test. He was first dislodged from the tire-side and the easy-chair, Damsen in the meanwhile setting up piteous expostulations.

" Oh, Robert, recta what ye ha' said. Ye ken well, that to malign Tintayel is to touch the apple of his eye !—And, Arthur, so tierce for a word I Ye must allow old Uren Trethewan was a man o' note in his day, and the hall was no' so mean.'

"She had the discretion, however, to 'seize with a firm bold on the long pike, and keep it aloof from the strife. The hapless Trebarva hail by this time, what with tugging and pulling, been advanced as far as the passage towards the exit ; his retreat being accompanied with two or three channels of stout ale and hollands from the overturned table and flagons. His linsey coat, that he had put on quite new to visit the ohiect of his tenderness, was fearfully rant ; at..1 this, peril-vs, tt s mach to the pallidness that nave spread over his countenance, as any of. the contumelies he had that night received.. The door at last opened with a loud clang, and out into the thick darkness of the night he was thrust by his enraged host, who, with a. gleaming eye, followed his rapidly gliding form'down the steps as long as it was visible, and then closed and barred the door behind him.'