we are not ac.

vious desire to avoid any farther explana- There was ample time, as well as tion. "* I should rather have said artificial, hostess a full opportunity of making

space, to afford the worthy host and my good Mr Percy, as it is habit only their observations upon the person and. which 66 « Habit is second nature you know,

appearance of Mr Grandison de Lacy.

" The excellent youth still preserves Sir Hugh; and therefore

the dignified deportment of the family,' «« « I must not be interrupted, Mr Per

observed the Baronet complacently to his cy

lady. And the bare thought of such a he

Ingenuous Grandison !_But what, resy so startles the servant who is

my good Sir Hugh, has the beloved child changing Sir Hugh's plate, that he

of my heart tied round his neck ?' lets it fall, and disposes the contents "'í It's a Belcher,' interrupted Percy, over his master's laced waistcoat. thrusting his head forward.

“ The poor man apologized and trem- 56 Mr Percy Rycott !bled. Mr Butler pushed the man with customed to some rudeness from the post of honour, • Good heavens !' exclaimed Lady and frowned on him whilst he applied his Rodolpha, he walks lame I trust no acnapkin to the part affected.

cident16. It's no matter,' observed Sir Hugh, 66• Harbour po fears, my too sensitive collecting all his benevolence of manner Lady Rodolpha,' said Sir Hugh, sooth(which appeared to be necessary on the oc- ingly, casion); Good Richard did not intend it.' 6. • His eyes seem affected, papa,' whis

“No, indeed, your honour, Sir Hugh' pered Miss Gertrude. • Grandison never

"I am perfectly assured of that,Go, used a glass before he left England.' my worthy Richard, you had better retire ; 6. None of the Grandisons were nearyou seem much agitated.'

sighted,' said her ladyship, who had also 66. Such a clumsy fellow !' muttered observed that he was eyeing everything the steward.

and every person through his glass. But “ « Such a master !' repeated the but- there was no more time for observation, the ler.

hero approached." « God bless him !' whispered the liveried semi-chorus.

He appears, accompanied by a friend, "The Dresden set, too !' exclaimed Mr and looking a good deal like a puppy. Polson, the steward, in a louder and more emphatic tone of voice.”

66 Towards the end of the line,” (of ser. This ast fact almost ruffles the pile tracted his eye, whom he patted under the

vants) « a cherry-cheeked dairy-maid ata of her ladyship's velvet; but she ob

chin ; and, turning to his companion, ob serves that

served, “ a fine Cumberland pippin, upon 66 Good Richard must not have his mind disturbed by that reflection.'

my soul, Birty !

“ Sir Hugh and Lady Rodolpha abso“ Heavenly, considerate being !' cried Sir Hugh, who stood in the act of being rigidity of their muscles ; but they felt

lutely started, in defiance of the habitual rubbed down, like one of his own long

that it was not intended for their ears; and tailed coach horses, by his zealous grooms.

suddenly regaining their self-possession, • Thou “• Mistress of thyself, though china

graciously advanced a few steps, hand in

hand, towards their son. fall !!”

6. My beloved Grandison ! cried her This quotation is out of its place.

ladyship, with a tearful eye. Sir Hugh is perfectly serious in all his

66. Welcome, most excellent son, to the commendations of Lady Rodolpha, hall of thy fathers !' said Sir Hugh. and would be shocked at the very idea " " Hah ! looking at them through his of a joke upon such a subject. Even glass. My father, and my lady mother the spilling of the soup, however, can- here too !' shaking both with a listless cor, not break the thread of the worthy diality by the hands, which had been exbaronet's reflections; and he is get

tended for him to kiss upon his bended ting back to the analysis of " the mo

knees !_ Delighted to see you—am upon ral virtues," when the sound of a car

my honour--not a day older--who should

think of seeing you in the hall among this riage, under the windows, makes a di

omnium gatherem-taken by surprise; version in Percy's favour. This is Grandison de Lacy-returned from 66 • Where should we be, Mr Grandison his travels. The servants are drawn

de Lacy, but in our proper station ?' deup, in form, in the avenue; and the manded Sir Hugh, with no slight accession dinner party adjourns to receive him, to the austere formality of his manners. at the entrance of the great hall.

Beg pardon - quite forgot-you

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pon my soul.

keep up the antiquated forms still-hey, my very best of fathers!'

You

"Sir Hugh was thrown out. de not, Mr Grandison, seem to recollect your sister Gertrude !'

“Gertrude !—is that fine girl my sis ter Gertrude?—may I die if I should have suspected-three years have done won

ders.'

"Indeed they have,' sighed Sir Hugh -and Lady Rodolpha sighed like a triple

echo.

“Come, my girl-give me a kiss-I like old customs sometimes.'

"These are not the customs of Lacy Royal,' observed Sir Hugh, in a tone which proved that his equanimity was not quite proof against unexpected assaults; " but,' recollecting himself, he added, "we had better adjourn, with the permission of your best of mothers, to the Oak Parlour.'"

They do adjourn to " the Oak Parlour;" and there our author, to carry on his action, takes (right or wrong,) the first means that happen to present themselves. Grandison de Lacy-who is afterwards to "do amiable" in the book-outrages, without the slightest reason, the feelings of all his family; and insults his old play-mate Percy,who leaves the house upon the instant!

The next chapter is full of (not very original) night adventure. Percy, halting at an inn half way between Lacy Royal and Wolston Worthy, wanders about in the dark, and falls into a house occupied by smugglers. He is wounded almost to the deathhears strange things from the gipsy, Alice Halpin-is saved by a "Ghost,' who turns out to be his oldest acquaintance-and attains, grievously battered, into the fair hands of Miss Bellenden.

The second volume opens with a visit (again) from our friend Dr Drizzlethwaite. Before Mr Percy sent for him to Miss Bellenden-now, Miss Bellenden sends for him to Mr Percy.

The Doctor arrives (it being very early in the morning) without having made his toilet; and he shaves himself at the sick man's bedside-using the French governess's flounced petti coat by way of dressing gown.-Medical men near town use Packwood's patent razor,-which enables them to shave on horseback, as they come along. The story then, for about two hundred pages, grows very intricate indeed. Mr Rycott, going to Miss Bellenden's to fetch his son home, VOL. XV

meets with a Mrs Wigram (the ci de◄ sported for filching our hero from his vant Judy Mallory, who was trannursery;) and Mrs Mallory (as she had done at the Old Bailey) again claims Percy for her child. This strange issue is eventually tried at law, and Mrs Wigram is successful. Mr Rycott is broken-hearted, and would compromise; but Percy (now Mallory) becomes heroic. Miss Bellenden owns her passion for him; but he renounces both love and fortune; and starting for London, to enter himself for the Bar,-takes leave of his long supposed father.

The parting interview between Percy and Mr Rycott is a fair example of our author's talents for serious wrimit our extract from it almost to a ting; but it is long, and we must lisingle passage.

marriage with Miss Bellenden. He alThe question is as to our hero's leges his poverty, and refuses to let Mr Rycott remove the obstacle. It is Mr Rycott here who replies—

66 By Jove! sir, I will be obeyed. Not now-not now-you have it all your own way, and I cannot, must not, deny that you are right; but my time may come, old bones are whitening in their grave nay, shall come-yes, sirrah, when these when my caprices, and my whims, and my fancies, are consigned to the vault of all the Capulets.'

"Heaven, in its mercy, long avert the day!'

"I believe you love me, Percy;'-and again the old man was softened. • I will not press you; you have much to contend with. It is a heavy, cruel reverse, and you bear it better, far better, than your poor deserted father;' and he grasped the hands of Percy, whilst he attempted to raise his Percy, and commanded others until I have eyes to his face. I have run riot so long, no command over myself. Go, whilst I am able to part with you. You, Percy, my beloved boy,'-and he paused tremulously,

are no longer my son; but'and he seemed at once animated by a new spirit equally remote from querulousness and impetuosity, as he solemnly rose from his chair, and pressed the youth in his arms, ject not what I have, or may have, in but you are my HEIR!-Speak not, obthis world, was destined to you from the hour I hoped-I thought-I possessed a son. Not an act, not a word, not a thought from your cradle to this hour, has cast a shade over your claims to my affection. Do not speak to me; I cannot bear it. On

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tempted to stamp, upon the white sand inconsiderable a one, which has the beneath, which feels unnaturally firm, better fortune of having a name, beand level, and silent, whenever you ing called the Start. We landed on suddenly leave your noisy and unsteady the small þarren peninsula, which farfooting on the gravelly rampart which nishes a site for the fortress, and has borders it ;-to revel hour after hour an area bearing about as much proporamidst the in-drawing breeze from the tion to the long contracted path, which ocean, which has, for both the sensa- fastens it on to the mainland, as the tion and the imagination, something of crook of a bishop's crosier does to the elemental purity, and of renovating taper shaft; and, on the map of Hants, freshness in it, that is erly luxu- the ichnography of the whole bears no rious :—this, then, is the sort of sea- unapt resemblance to the shape of that side enjoyment which is the perfection emblem of prelatical authority. We of that kind of delight; and with all have landed on no valuable territory; appliances and means to taste it, I had it is a mere waste of brown pebbles, it, when, as a stripling, I sometimes girdled with a belt of pale grey sand. staid at a little village in the immedi- The castle is a fortification of Harry ate neighbouroood of Hordle Cliff. Let the Eighth's days, though it has been me now endeavour to live over again, remodelled in our times, and since the one day at least, of that season of buoy- date of my visits, by having the cenant spirits, and well-tuned nerves, and tre turned into a martello tower. of ravenous but easily-fed curiosity ; It is chiefly remarkable as having and if I should, perchance, combine been at one time the place of captivity as the occurrences of one day what were of Charles the First-unluckily the belike those of divers, I will not in- alterations made it necessary to demotentionally stray from substantial and lish the room he was confined in ; so intrinsic truth, however I may tread that now the call for local emotion is a little awry, where that which is mere- not so urgently made upon our symly formal and non-essential, comes in- pathies. When I was there, however, to the woof of my narrative. My wish the dark chamber was in being, and is, to go again in a day-dream upon though the shores of the beautiful isle one of my old visits to Hurst Castle. were before the eyes of the royal priThe spot where it lies is a little world's soner, yet was he within such preend of its own, terminating a weari- cincts of actual barrenness and desolasome and narrow spot of heaped-up tion, that it must have weighed heavy gravel of more than two miles in length; on his spirits. The rest of the habita this only road-way to the Castle, has á able world here may be summed up limitless view of the main ocean on in saying, there is a public-house, two the right hand, while, on the left, the light-houses (one a recent erection) water touches it indeed when the tide and they answer to the high one on is up; but, as it ebbs, a vast expanse the down at the Needles, for the jaws of weedy poze offers itself, spreading of our channel are of no safe approach out towards the channel, which sepaa and there is here an anomalous rates the Isle of Wight from Hamp- structure or two besides, the relics, I shire.

believe, of an abandoned speculation Well then, I am off for Hurst-a in fish-curing. What then is there gloriously bright morning-my come for such highly applauded amusepanions, two boys and a girl of my ment? some one may say. Never fearown age, with an elder sister of hers, let us work our way over the heaps of of authority enough, from her farther loosely-piled shingle, down to the tip advance towards womanhood, to keep of ocean," and we shall find matters us in check, without any suspicion on enough to hold us in some sort of ocour part of her wishing to thwart us cupation. Now look seaward is not

this capacious bay.worth gazing upon, _66 It seems a day,

with the Needle Rocks for our Pillars I speak of one from many singled out,,

of Hercules at the homé extremity, One of those heavenly days that cannot die, and having the far-off, but still dazWhen forth I sallied.”

zling cliffs of Portland, at the other

horn of the crescent ? Often on this A boat conveyed us from the ham- coast have I seen those exquisite lines let of Keyhaven, down the winding of Southey verified, often borne witoutlet of a nameless stream, which was ness that they are not extravagantjoined, before we got to Hurst, by as the marine picture has been as bright

a

scope ?”

before my eyes as it was before those at leisure, and she will not apparently of Madoc

use much hurry to overtake us. Mean• There was not on that day, a speck to

while, what are those great black spots stain

that come and go among the waves ? The azure heaven; the blessed sun alone, Porpoises, little master," quoth an In unapproachable divinity

old gunner from the Castle, who, in Careered, rejoicing in his fields of light. the dreary lack of boon companions in How beautiful, beneath the bright blue this half isolated place, was glad to sky,

tramp about with our little squadron. The billows heave ! one glowing green ex- Ay,” said he, “ and I warrant me,

panse, Save where along the bending line of shore they are after a fine shoal of macka

rel. Such hue is thrown, as when the peacock's neck

This was information indeed ; and Assumes its proudest tint of amethyst,

many little, bright eyes kept sharp Embathed in emerald glory."

look-out-many too were the questions If it so happens that the atmosphere upon the point which we put to our does not favour you with all this-or self-elected Cicerone, in his formal cut if your fancy is oppressed by the ex- dark blue coat, edged with yellow lace, tent and indefiniteness of the whole and whose grey-haired pate was sura survey, take some particular object mounted with a knowing cocked hat, for look, there is something on the horic the glory of that species of head-gear zon, doubtless, a vessel ; watch her had not then departed, as it now seems approach with the spy-glass, for that

to have done, irrecoverably and for ever. implement is to be found in every

We learnt from him, that the porpoises one's hand.

would drive in nearer with the state of

the tide; and truly, by and by, they “ A sail, a sail ! a promised prize to hope Her nation ? flag? what says the tele

came so much into the bay, as that we could discern their shining black gib

bous backs, which rose and sunk as Much and boyishly did I use to mar- they rolled forward-much about with vel when my eye, by means of the op- a curve, as I conjecture, like that tic tube, caught view of such a far-off which the hump of a dromedary must object. Peep attentively, do you not describe, when the animal is delibee now distinctly discern that it is a rately advancing in a long swinging ship, shapeless as it is to the naked gallop. These sea-swine studded the eye? Well now, if you be not a phi- waves by twos and threes for a few losopher, or at least ingrained in nau- moments, and then grovelled deeper. tical experience, you will wonder as I I sigh to say it, but it has been supused to do for do you not see, ay, posed by naturalists, that these are the plainly see, that she is half immer- dolphins of the ancients, which are alsed in the waves that heave and ways represented in an arched posture toss around her? Her topmasts and and bad enough it is, if all our fine sails are alone visible, and

were she à dreams about them are to end in surmere raft, so little of her lower parts veying the swart chines of a shoal of could scarcely be presented to us;

and porpoises. And yet there are worse yet she comes on as gallantly as if all competitors, at least as far as name were right-and so it is. Long was goes; for some men of science aver, it, ere I could quite reconcile myself that the bottle-nosed whale is the verito this practical exemplification of the table classic dolphin. Powers of tasteearth's rotundity ; and I used to think, ful association, what a blow is aimed with the self-congratulating shudder at you, when we are tied down to think of conscious safety, such as comes over of Arion touching his lyre, as be squat, one at the warm fire-side, when sleety ted on the dorsal fin of a bottle-nosed wind hisses and hurtles upon the whale! While, however, we have been window panes, that at all events I watching the unwieldy gambols of would rather sail in a vessel which these ravenous fish, the vessel has might appear on the surface of the come better within view ; and, as the water, as well as really be upon it, for channel is so narrow between the isso I was gravely assured that very ship land and us, she must give us more actually was, in spite of all that pera and more opportunity of examining suaded me to the contrary. But we her. She turns out to be a King's will let our new discovered one arrive ship, a small frigatemand oh how

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