Another amusing sketch that may be fairly supposed to be drawn from life is Mr. Medlicutt, the Anglo-Sicilian wine-merchant, who forgets every body's name, and holds up his own Marsala as the panacea for all human ills. Another attractive feature of this novel is the fact of many of its scenes and incidents being laid in those localities abroad, with which Lady Blessington is so familiar, and with which she has so pleasantly familiarized the admirers of her travelling sketches, as the "Idler in Italy,” &c. And by connecting these scenes with her fictitious characters, she gives a new interest to them even in the eyes of those who are familiar with them as they actually exist-her incidents being supposed to date in the present day. Upon the whole, this novel is perhaps the best that Lady Blessington has yet given to us-combining as it does all the best features of her style, in a consistent and well-constructed narrative which accomplishes all that it aims at-namely, to place before its readers a picture of the actual English life of the day in which we live, so grouped and coloured by the hand of fiction as merely to heighten its moral effect without impairing its truthfulness. WINDSOR CASTLE ILLUSTRATED.* THIS is a new edition of the romance lately noticed in these pages, and a superb one it is. In a single volume, appropriately bound, we have a series of illustrations far surpassing, both in spirit and numbers, the embellishment of any romance in our literature, not excepting the same author's "Tower of London," of which it is the more brilliant companion. George Cruikshank's etchings are superior as works of art to all his former works, and the vigour and variety of design well deserve this elaborate finish of execution. Many of the subjects afforded him a rare field, and he has dashed into it with something of the daring of Herne. Effectively contrasted with the wild and terrific grandeur of the forest scenes, are the illustrative interiors of the renowned castle, and the courtly groups portrayed in the romance. They are valuable historically, and as pictures will be prizes to all readers. As the best and most finished of his productions in this class of design, they stamp the work with a high illustrative character; but there are additions to these,-a few simple and striking designs, etched in a masterly style by the famous Toney Johannot; and many wood engravings by Mr. Alfred Delamotte. Of designs on steel and wood there are not less than a hundred and twenty, picturing almost every noticeable point of the castle, exhibiting its architecture and antiquities, realizing every idea of its grandeur, portraying the richness of its surrounding forests as well as the magnificence of its structure; and marking, as well in drawing as in map, many curious and interesting changes in the history of the unrivalled edifice. It is easy to see, therefore, that this edition has higher claims than that of a mere picture-book, although in that sense we may predict for it a large and permanent popularity-for it is unrivalled. *Windsor Castle Illustrated. Romance by W. H. Ainsworth. Designs by George Cruikshank, and other eminent artists. 1 vol. 8vo. INDEX TO THE SECOND PART OF 1843. ABELL, Mrs., her Recollections of Napo- Advice Gratis, by Laman Blanchard, 375 Ainsworth, William Harrison, his his- Ascham, Roger, apothegm of, 269 Barristers, French and English, 553 tions, 52, 93, 247, 395, 522 Bolingbroke, Lord, Reflections upon Brothers, the Two, an episode of civil war, 469 Brussels, the Orphan House of, a con- Burke's Landed Gentry of Great Bri- Cabul, Epigram by T. H. on Lieut. 263 Carnival Adventure, a, 305 Charles the Second, reign of, 417 Aug.-VOL. LXVIII. NO. CCLXXII. Gardiner, Mrs., a horticultural romance, George IV., personation of by Elliston, | Germany, a mysterious adventure in, Giants, death of certain, 297 Granville, Dr., his spas of Germany and of England, alluded to, 141 Green Spar, the History of the, by Hamlet, the character of; criticism by T. H.; remarks by Laman Blanchard, Handley Cross; or, the Spa-hunt, re- Hayder's Emerald Cup, a tale of modern Heads, the Two, an extravaganza, 326 Hofland, Mrs., the King's Son, by, re- Hood, Thomas, Esq., the Longest Hour (T. H.), Epigram by, 263-A dramatic 397 Hope characterized, 265 Horner, John, the Golden Spoon, or Me- 145 House-warming, the, a Legend of Hussey, Rev. T. J., D.D., review of his India, the Stranger in, by G. W. John- (for JULY): Diary of the Times of Charles IL, -(for AUGUST): Lost Ship, the; by the author of "Ca- Love, two pages from the Book of; by H., contributions by, 43, 175, 310, Marmaduke Wyvil; or, the Maid's Re- May, stanzas, 41 Mind diseased, Symptoms of the; con- Jolly Dogs of ancient Egypt and modern Monarch, the drunken, 342-345 Keeping Secrets, by Laman Blanchard, King, every inch a, 340 Lamb, Charles, his Elia's Essays alluded Monomaniacs and Monomania, by μ., 34 Moral Cosmetics, by H. S., 29 Music for the Billion; a lecture deli- Index. Napoleon, recollections of the Emperor | 496 Negro calculator, a, 302 571 Scheuchzer's "Physica Sacra," 450 417 O'Driscol and Bob Tyke, highwaymen, Smith, Horace, his "Short Rides in an 173 Pæan, answer to an Old Man's; verses Philosopher's Stone, the true, 268 Author's Omnibus," 12, 264, 302, 552 Pills for Politicians and Lotions for Le- Spunges, on the British, 57 Pirouettes, by T. H., 397 Playing to the Boxes, anecdote of Ellis- Poetry: A Custom-house Breeze, by T. Popes, the first reformers, 13 Profligacy, an extinguisher, 554 Pyramids, state, 265 Subject, a good; extravaganza of Ellis- Swans, tame, description of, 17 Talent of distinction and of mediocrity, Thespian Oracle, the (a dramatic anec- Tigers and tiger-hunting, by the Old Times, the History of our own, Vol. I., Time-Space, by Laman Blanchard, To-day, a hint for a Sermon, 267 Walnut-tree Cabinet, the, 380 Pyrenees, &c., Letters from the; by T. Wealth and ease the offspring of po- Clifton Paris, B.A., noticed, 430 283 Quotations, how to be aptly introduced, 13 Redding, Cyrus, an Adventure in the Life of Mr. Jonas Jenkins by, 161 verty and labour, 553 Williams, Folkestone, Lives of the Princes of Wales, by, reviewed, 130 Withering's, Mr., Consumption and its Salmon-fishing on the Tweed, by W. Youatt, Elizabeth, the History of the Scrope, F.L.S., reviewed, 428 Green Spar, by, 386 END OF THE SECOND PART OF 1843. C. WHITING, BEAUFORT HOUSE. |