violence of the pampero or hurricane levels them with the ground, where they rapidly decompose and disappear--the clover rushes up, and the scene is again verdant.

M. SIMOND.

M. SIMOND, a French author, who, by familiarity with our language and country, wrote in English as well as in his native tongue, published in 1822 a work in two volumes-Switzerland; or a Journal of a Tour and Residence in that Country in the Years 1817, 1818, and 1819. M. Simond had previously written a similar work on Great Britain, and both are far superior to the style of ordinary tourists. We subjoin his account of a

the thundering crash which followed. I must own, that while we shut our ears, the mere sight might dwindle down to the effect of a fall of snow from the roof of a house; but when the potent sound was heard along the whole range of many miles, when the time of awful suspense between the fall and the crash was measured, the imagination, taking flight, outstripped all bounds at once, and went beyond the mighty reality itself. It would be difficult to say where the creative powers of imagination stop, even the coldest; for our common feelings our grossest sensations-are infinitely indebted to them; and man, without his fancy, would not have the energy of the dullest animal. Yet we feel more pleasure and more pride in the consciousness of another treasure of the breast, which tames the flight of this same imagination, and brings it back to sober reality and plain truth.

[Swiss Mountain and Avalanche.]

When we first approach the Alps, their bulk, their stability, and duration, compared to our own inAfter nearly five hours' toil, we reached a chalet on considerable size, fragility, and shortness of days, the top of the mountain (the Wingernalp). This strikes our imagination with terror; while reason, summer habitation of the shepherds was still unoc- unappalled, measuring these masses, calculating their cupied; for the snow having been unusually deep last elevation, analysing their substance, finds in them winter, and the grass, till lately covered, being still only a little inert matter, scarcely forming a wrinkle very short, the cows have not ventured so high. Here on the face of our earth, that earth an inferior planet we resolved upon a halt, and having implements for in the solar system, and that system one only among striking fire, a few dry sticks gave us a cheerful blaze myriads, placed at distances whose very incommenin the open air. A pail of cream, or at least of very surability is in a manner measured. What, again, rich milk, was brought up by the shepherds, with a are those giants of the Alps, and their duration-those kettle to make coffee and afterwards boil the milk; revolving worlds-that space-the universe-compared very large wooden spoons or ladles answered the pur- to the intellectual faculty capable of bringing the pose of cups. The stock of provisions we had brought whole fabric into the compass of a single thought, was spread upon the very low roof of the chalet, being where it is all curiously and accurately delineated! the best station for our repas champetre, as it afforded How superior, again, the exercise of that faculty, when, dry seats sloping conveniently towards the prospect. rising from effects to causes, and judging by analogy We had then before us the Jungfrau, the two Eigers, of things as yet unknown by those we know, we are and some of the highest summits in the Alps, shooting taught to look into futurity for a better state of exisup from an uninterrupted level of glaciers of more tence, and in the hope itself find new reason to hope! than two hundred square miles; and although placed ourselves four thousand five hundred feet above the lake of Thun, and that lake one thousand seven hundred and eighty feet above the sea, the mighty rampart rose still six thousand feet above our head. Between us and the Jungfrau the desert valley of Trumlatenthal formed a deep trench, into which avalanches fell, with scarcely a quarter of an hour's interval between them, followed by a thundering noise continued along the whole range; not, however, a reverberation of sound, for echo is mute under the universal winding-sheet of snow, but a prolongation of sound, in consequence of the successive rents or fissures forming themselves when some large section of the glacier slides down one step.

We were shown an inaccessible shelf of rock on the west side of the Jungfrau, upon which a lammergeyer (the vulture of lambs) once alighted with an infant it had carried away from the village of Murren, situated above the Staubbach: some red scraps, remnants of the child's clothes, were for years observed, says the tradition, on the fatal spot.

We sometimes saw a blue line suddenly drawn across a field of pure white; then another above it, and another all parallel, and attended each time with a loud crash like cannon, producing together the effect of long-protracted peals of thunder. At other times some portion of the vast field of snow, or rather snowy ice, gliding gently away, exposed to view a new surface of purer white than the first, and the cast-off drapery gathering in long folds, either fell at once down the precipice, or disappeared behind some intervening ridge, which the sameness of colour rendered invisible, and was again seen soon after in another direction, shooting out of some narrow channel a cataract of white dust, which, observed through a telescope, was, however, found to be composed of broken fragments of ice or compact snow, many of them sufficient to overwhelm a village, if there had been any in the valley where they fell. Seated on the chalet's roof, the ladies forgot they were cold, wet, bruised, and hungry, and the cup of smoking cafe au lait stood still in their hand while waiting in breathless suspense for the next avalanche, wondering equally at the death-like silence intervening between each, and

MARQUIS OF LONDONDERRY—MR JOHN BARROW—
REV. MR VENABLES.

Since the publication of Dr Clarke's first volume, in which he gave a view of Russia, that vast and in many respects interesting country has been visited by various Englishmen, who have given their observations upon it to the world. Amongst the books thus produced, one of the most amusing is Recollections of a Tour in the North of Europe, 1838, by the MARQUIS OF LONDONDERRY, whose rank and political character were the means of introducing him to many circles closed to other tourists. MR JOHN BARROW, junior, son of the gentleman already mentioned as author of a work on China, and who has, during the last few years, devoted some portion of his time to travelling, is the author, besides works on Ireland and on Iceland, of Excursions in the North of Europe, through parts of Russia, Finland, $e. 1834. He is invariably found to be a cheerful and intelligent companion, without attempting to be very profound or elaborate on any subject. Domestic Scenes in Russia, by the REV. MR VENABLES, 1839, is an unpretending but highly interesting view of the interior life of the country. Mr Venables was married to a Russian lady, and he went to pass a winter with her relations, when he had an oppor tunity of seeing the daily life and social habits of the people. We give a few descriptive sentences:

[Russian Peasants' Houses.]

These houses are in general extremely warm and substantial; they are built, for the most part, of unsquared logs of deal laid one upon another, and firmly secured at the corners where the ends of the timbers cross, and are hollowed out so as to receive and hold one another; they are also fastened together by wooden pins and uprights in the interior. The four corners are supported upon large stones or roots of trees, so that there is a current of air under the floor to preserve the timber from damp; in the winter, earth is piled up all round to exclude the cold; the interstices between the logs are stuffed with moss and clay, so that no air can enter. The windows are very small, and are frequently cut out of the wooden wall after it is finished. In the centre of the house is a stove called a peech [pechka], which heats the cottage to an almost unbearable degree; the warmth, however, which a Russian peasant loves to enjoying within doors, is proportioned to the cold which he is required to support without; his bed is the top of his peech; and when he enters his house in the winter pierced with cold, he throws off his sheepskin coat, stretches himself on his stove, and is thoroughly

warmed in a few minutes.

of the interior are valuable, for, as he remarks, 'even in the present day, when the passion for travel has become so universal, and thousands of miles are thought as little of as hundreds were some years ago, the number of Englishmen who venture to the south of Moscow seldom exceeds one or two every year.' Mr Bremner is a lively scene-painter, and there is great freshness and vigour about all his descriptions. The same author has published Excursions in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, two volumes, 1840. Before parting from Russia, it may be observed that no English book upon that country exceeds in interest A Residence on the Shores of the Baltic, Described in a Series of Letters (1841), being more particularly an account of the Estonians, whose simple character and habits afford a charming picture. This delightful book is understood to be from the pen of a young lady named Rigby.

The most observant and reflecting of all the writtravellers of our age is undoubtedly MR SAMUEL LAING, a younger brother of the author of the History of Scotland during the seventeenth century. This gentleman did not begin to publish till a mature period of life, his first work being a Residence in Norway, and the second a Tour in Sweden, both of

which abound in valuable statistical facts and welldigested information. Mr Laing resided two years in different parts of Norway, and concluded that the Norwegians were the happiest people in Europe. Their landed property is so extensively diffused in small estates, that out of a population of a million there are about 41,656 proprietors. There is no law of primogeniture, yet the estates are not subdivided into minute possessions, but average from forty to sixty acres of arable land, with adjoining natural wood and pasturage.

Excursions in the Interior of Russia, by ROBERT BREMNER, Esq. two volumes, 1839, is a very spirited and graphic narrative of a short visit to Russia during the autumn of 1836. The author's sketches

[Employments of the People.]

6

The riches of the Russian gentleman lie in the labour of his serfs, which it is his study to turn to good account; and he is the more urged to this, since the law which compels the peasant to work for him, requires him to maintain the peasant; if the latter is found begging, the former is liable to a fine. He is therefore a master who must always keep a certain number of workmen, whether they are useful to him or not; and as every kind of agricultural and outdoor employment is at a stand-still during the win-Laing, each the proprietor of his own farm, occupy 'The Bonder, or agricultural peasantry,' says Mi ter, he naturally turns to the establishment of a the country from the shore side to the hill foot, and manufactory as a means of employing his peasants, up every valley or glen as far as corn can grow. This and as a source of profit to himself. In some cases the manufactory is at work only during the winter, class is the kernel of the nation. They are in general and the people are employed in the summer in agri- fine athletic men, as their properties are not so large culture; though, beyond what is necessary for home as to exempt them from work, but large enough to consumption, this is but an unprofitable trade in most afford them and their household abundance, and even parts of this empire, from the badness of roads, the superfluity, of the best food. They farm not to raise paucity and distance of markets, and the consequent produce for sale, so much as to grow everything they difficulty in selling produce. eat, drink, and wear in their families. They build their own houses, make their own chairs, tables, wood-work; in short, except window-glass, cast-iron ploughs, carts, harness, iron-work, basket-work, and furniture is of their own fabrication. There is not ware and pottery, everything about their houses and probably in Europe so great a population in so happy of small proprietors, each with his thirty or forty a condition as these Norwegian yeomanry. A body acres, scarcely exists elsewhere in Europe; or, if it can be found, it is under the shadow of some nore imposing body of wealthy proprietors or commercial

The alternate employment of the same man in the field and in the factory, which would be attempted in most countries with little success, is here rendered practicable and easy by the versatile genius of the Russian peasant, one of whose leading national characteristics is a general capability of turning his hand to any kind of work which he may be required to undertake. He will plough to-day, weave to-morrow, help to build a house the third day, and the fourth, if his master needs an extra coachman, he will mount the box and drive four horses abreast as though it were his daily occupation. It is probable that none of these operations, except, perhaps, the last, will be as well performed as in a country where the division of labour is more thoroughly understood. They will all, however, be sufficiently well done to serve the turn-a favourite phrase in Russia. These people are a very ingenious race, but perseverance is wanting; and though they will carry many arts to a high degree of excellence, they will generally stop short of the point of perfection, and it will be long before their manufactures can rival the finish and durability of English goods.

men.
* *

Here they are the highest men in the nation. and in our colonies, possess properties of probably The settlers in the newer states of America, about the same extent; but they have roads to make, lands to clear, houses to build, and the work that has been doing here for a thousand years to do, before they can be in the same condition. These Norwegian proprietors are in a happier condition than those in much influenced by the spirit of gain. They farm the older states of America, because they are not so their little estates, and consume the produce, without seeking to barter or sell, except what is necessary for paying their taxes and the few articles of luxury they consume. There is no money-getting spirit among them, and none of extravagance. They enjoy the comforts of excellent houses, as good and large as those of the wealthiest individuals; good furniture,

1

planted among rows of fayas, firs, and camphor-trees. If it were not for these precautions, the oranges would be blown down in such numbers as to interfere with or swallow up the profits of the gardens; none of the windfalls or ground-fruit,' as the merchants here call them, being exported to England.

·

*

The orange-trees in this garden cover the sides of a glen or ravine, like that of the Dargle, but somewhat less steep; they are of some age, and have lost the stiff clumpy form of the younger trees. Some idea of the rich beauty of the scene may be formed by imagining the trees of the Dargle to be magnificent shrubs loaded with orange fruit, and mixed with lofty arbu

tuses

Suddenly we came upon merry groups of men and boys, all busily engaged in packing oranges, in a square and open plot of ground. They were gathered round a goodly pile of the fresh fruit, sitting on heaps of the dry calyx-leaves of the Indian corn, in which each orange is wrapped before it is placed in the boxes. Near these circles of laughing Azoreans, who Life in Mexico, during a Residence of Two Years sat at their work and kept up a continual cross-fire of in that Country, by MADAME CALDERON DE LA rapid repartee as they quickly filled the orange-cases, BARCA, an English lady, is full of sketches of dowere a party of children, whose business it was to pre-mestic life, related with spirit and acuteness. In pare the husks for the men, who used them in pack- no other work are we presented with such agreeable ing. These youngsters, who were playing at their glimpses of Mexican life and manners. Letters on work like the children of a larger growth that sat by Paraguay, and Letters on South America, by J. P. and their side, were with much difficulty kept in order by W. P. ROBERTSON, are the works of two brothers an elderly man, who shook his head and a long stick who resided twenty-five years in South America. whenever they flagged or idled.

*

The Narrative of the Voyages of H.M.S. Adventure and Beagle (1839), by CAPTAINS KING and FITZROY, and C. DARWIN, Esq. naturalist of the Beagle, detail the various incidents which occurred during their examination of the southern shores of South America, and during the Beagle's circumna

possess a permanent value.

A quantity of the leaves being heaped together near the packers, the operation began. A child handed to a workman who squatted by the heap of fruit a prepared husk; this was rapidly snatched from the child, wrapped round the orange by an intermediate workman, passed by the feeder to the next,vigation of the globe. The account of the Patawho (sitting with the chest between his legs) placed gonians in this work, and that of the natives of it in the orange-box with amazing rapidity, took a Tierra del Fuego, are both novel and interesting, second, and a third, and a fourth as fast as his hands while the geological details supplied by Mr Darwin could move and the feeders could supply him, until at length the chest was filled to overflowing, and was ready to be nailed up. Two men then handed it to the carpenter, who bent over the orange-chest several thin boards, secured them with the willow band, pressed it with his naked foot as he sawed off the ragged ends of the boards, and finally despatched it to the ass which stood ready for lading. Two chests were slung across his back by means of cords crossed in a figure of eight; both were well secured by straps under his belly, the driver took his goad, pricked his beast, and uttering the never-ending cry Sackaaio,' trudged off

to the town.

Groves whose rich fruit, burnished with golden rind,
Hung amiable, and of delicious taste.

In one part scores of children were scattered among the branches, gathering fruit into small baskets, hallooing, laughing, practically joking, and finally emptying their gatherings into the larger baskets underneath the trees, which, when filled, were slowly Borne away to the packing-place, and bowled out upon the great heap. Many large orange-trees on the steep sides of the glen lay on the ground uprooted, either from their load of fruit, the high winds, or the weight of the boys, four, five, and even six of whom will climb the branches at the same time; and as the soil is very light, and the roots are superficial (and the fall of a tree perhaps not unamusing), down the trees come. They are allowed to lie where they fall; and those which had evidently fallen many years ago were still alive, and bearing good crops. The oranges are not ripe until March or April, nor are they eaten generally by the people here until that time the boys, however, that pick them are marked exceptions. The young children of Villa Franca are now almost universally of a yellow tint, as if saturated with orange juice.

Travels in New Zealand, by ERNEST DIEFFENBACH, M.D. late naturalist to the New Zealand Company (1843), is a valuable history of an interesting country, destined apparently to transmit the English language, arts, and civilisation. Mr Dieffenbach gives a minute account of the language of New Zealand, of which he compiled a grammar and dictionary. He conceives the native population of New Zealand to be fit to receive the benefits of civilisation, and to amalgamate with the British colonists. At the same time he believes in the practice of cannibalism often imputed to the New Zealanders.

Notes on the United States during a Phrenological Visit in 1839-40 have been published by MR GEORGE COMBE, in three volumes. Though attaching what is apt to appear an undue importance to traveller. He paid particular attention to schools his views of phrenology, Mr Combe was a sensible and all benevolent institutions, which he has described with care and minuteness. Among the matter-of-fact details and sober disquisitions in this work, we meet with the following romantic story. The author had visited the lunatic asylum at Bloomingdale, where he learned this realisation of Cymon and Iphigenia-finer even than the version of Dry

den!

In the course of conversation, a case was mentioned to me as having occurred in the experience of a highly respectable physician, and which was so fully authenticated, that I entertain no doubt of its truth. The physician alluded to had a patient, a young man, who was almost idiotic from the suppression of all his faculties. He never spoke, and never moved voluntarily, but sat habitually with his hand shading his eyes. The physician sent him to walk as a remedial measure. In the neighbourhood, a beautiful young girl of sixteen lived with her parents, and used to see the young man in his walks, and speak kindly to him. For some time he took no notice of her; but after meeting her for several months, he began to look for her, and to feel disappointed if she did not appear. He became so much interested, that he directed his steps voluntarily to her father's cottage, and gave her bouquets of flowers. By degrees he conversed with her through the window. His mental faculties were roused; the dawn of convalescence appeared. The girl was virtuous, intelligent, and lovely, and encouraged his visits when she was told that she was benefiting his mental health. She asked him if he could read and write? He answered, No. She wrote some lines to him to induce him to learn. This had the desired effect. He applied himself to study, and soon wrote good and sensible letters to her. He recovered his reason. She was married to a young man from the neighbouring city. Great fears were entertained that

this event would undo the good which she had accomplished. The young patient sustained a severe shock, but his mind did not sink under it. He acquiesced in the propriety of her choice, continued to improve, and at last was restored to his family cured. She had a child, and was soon after brought to the same hospital perfectly insane. The young man heard of this event, and was exceedingly anxious to see her; but an interview was denied to him, both on her account and his own. She died. He continued well, and became an active member of society. What a beautiful romance might be founded on this narrative!

America, Historical, Statistical, and Descriptive, by J. S. BUCKINGHAM, is a vast collection of facts and details, few of them novel or striking, but apparently written with truth and candour. The work fatigues from the multiplicity of its small statements, and the want of general views or animated description. In 1842 the author published two additional volumes, describing his tour in the slave states. These are more interesting, because the ground is less hackneyed, and Mr Buckingham feels strongly, as a benevolent and humane man, on the subject of slavery, that curse of the American soil.

Two remarkable works on Spain have been published by GEORGE BORROW, late agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society in Spain. The first of these, in two volumes 12mo. 1841, is entitled The Zincali, or an Account of the Gipsies of Spain. Borrow calculates that there are about forty thousand gipsies in Spain, of which about one-third are to be found in Andalusia. The caste, he says, has diminished of late years. The author's adventures with this singular people are curiously compounded of the ludicrous and romantic, and are presented in the most vivid and dramatic form. Mr Borrow's second work is termed The Bible in Spain, or the Journeys, Adventures, and Imprisonments of an Englishman, in an attempt to circulate the Scriptures in the Peninsula. There are many things in the book which, as the author acknowledges, have little connexion with religion or religious enterprise. It is, indeed, a series of personal adventures, varied and interesting, with sketches of character and romantic incidents drawn with more power and vivacity than those of most professed novelists.

An account of The Highlands of Ethiopia, by MAJOR W. CORNWALLIS HARRIS, H. E. I. C. Engineers, three volumes, 1844, also abounds with novel and interesting information. The author was employed to conduct a mission which the British government sent to Sahela Selasse, the king of Shoa, in southern Abyssinia, whose capital, Ankober, was supposed to be about four hundred miles inland from the port of Tajura, on the African coast. The king consented to form a commercial treaty, and Major Harris conceives that a profitable intercourse might be maintained by Great Britain with this productive part of the world.

In the same style of literary illustration, with more imagination and poetical susceptibility, may

be mentioned SIR EGERTON BRYDGES, who published | the Censura Literaria, 1805-9, in ten volumes; the edition of Collins's British Peerage; Letters on the British Bibliographer, in three volumes; an enlarged Genius of Lord Byron, &c. As principal editor of the Retrospective Review, Sir Egerton Brydges drew public attention to the beauties of many old writers, and extended the feeling of admiration which Charles Lamb, Hazlitt, and others, had awakened

for the early masters of the English lyre. In 1935 this veteran author edited an edition of Milton's poetical works in six volumes. A tone of querulous works of this author, but his taste and exertions egotism and complaint pervades most of the original in English literature entitle him to high respect.

JOSEPH RITSON (1752-1803), another zealous liteMrrary antiquary and critic, was indefatigable in his the neglected ballad strains of the nation. He publabours to illustrate English literature, particularly lished in 1783 a valuable collection of English songs; in 1790, Ancient Songs, from the Time of Henry III. to the Revolution; in 1792, Pieces of Ancient Popular Poetry; in 1794, A Collection of Scottish Songs; in 1795, A Collection of all the Ancient Poems, &c. Reand acute editor, profoundly versed in literary antilating to Robin Hood, &c. Ritson was a faithful quities, but of a jealous irritable temper, which brother collectors. He was in diet a strict Pythakept him in a state of constant warfare with his mal food. Sir Walter Scott, writing to his friend gorean, and wrote a treatise against the use of aniMr Ellis in 1803, remarks- Poor Ritson is no

more.

not been able to avert the evil day, which, I underAll his vegetable soups and puddings have stand, was preceded by madness.' Scott has borne ample testimony to the merits of this unhappy gleaner in the by-paths of literature.

F

I

The Illustrations of Shakspeare, published in 1807 by MR FRANCIS DOUCE, and the British Monachism, the REV. T. D. FOSBROOKE, are works of great re1802, and Encyclopædia of Antiquities, 1824, by search and value as repositories of curious information. Works of this kind illustrate the pages of of national manners now faded into oblivion. our poets and historians, besides conveying pictures

the same time with this study of antiquities. THOMAS A taste for natural history gained ground about PENNANT (1726-1798), by the publication of his works on zoology, and his Tours in Scotland, excited public curiosity; and in 1789 the Rev. GILBERT WHITE (1720-1793) published a series of letters addressed by him to Pennant and Daines Barrington, descriptive of the natural objects and appearances of the parish of Selborne in Hampshire. White was rector of this parish, and had spent in it the greater part of his life, engaged in literary occupations and the study of nature. His minute and interesting facts, the entire devotion of the amiable author to his subject, and the easy elegance and simplicity of his style, render White's history a universal favourite something like Izaak Walton's book on angling, which all admire, and hundreds

MISCELLANEOUS WRITERS.

One of the most laborious and successful of modern miscellaneous writers, and who has tended in a material degree to spread a taste for literary history and anecdote, is ISAAC D'ISRAELI, author of the Curiosities of Literature, and other works. The first volume of the Curiosities was published in 1791; a second appeared a few years afterwards, and a third in 1817. A second series has since been published in three volumes. The other works of Mr D'Israeli are entitled Literary Miscellanies; Quarrels of Authors; Calamities of Authors; Character of James I.; and

The Literary Character. The whole of these are now printed in one large volume. In 1841 this author, though labouring under partial blindness, followed up the favourite studies of his youth by another work in three volumes, entitled The Amenities of Literature, consisting, like the Curiosities and Miscellanies, of detached papers and dissertations on literary and historical subjects, written in a pleasant philosophical style, which presents the fruits of antiquarian research and careful study, without their dryness and general want of connexion.