We are perfectly aware of the value of memoranda that are made while the impression of the scenery, or any other matter to which they relate, is still vivid upon the mind. Novel objects seen for the first time, produce a stronger degree of interest than they ever can do upon repetition: further acquaintance with them renders them familiar to the observer; and unless he notes down their peculiarities the first moment he meets them, he is apt to describe them but faintly, if not to pass them over altogether in despair. But assuredly if he limit his description to the few features which he catches at the first view, and to the short and hasty phrases which are sufficient to connect in his own memory the whole extent of the landscape which he has explored, he labours to little purpose, indeed, so far as his readers are concerned. Words which to him are pregnant with meaning, because they recall the train of his former ideas, will, to others who bave not actually visited the same scenes, be in a great measure unintelligible. Besides, Mr. Maude, who seems to have been a good deal of a traveller, ought to know that notes taken on the spot are by no means sufficient to convey a faithful picture of any scene. They must be properly combined, the shades of the valley as well as the lights glancing on the mountain must be disposed in harmonious order. Even while the hand is retracing the first hasty sketch, the memory will assist it with many interesting touches of contrast, or of subordinate parts that were before unnoticed, but which nevertheless are essential to the perfection of the resemblance. To persons about to visit the same portions of America which Mr. Maude traversed, his journal, however, cannot fail to prove acceptable and useful. It was written, he informs us, to assist his memory; and we have little doubt, that it will afford to those who may have occasion to go over the same ground many excellent suggestions. But it can never be popular in its present shape, even though it is very handsomely printed, and decorated with eight views well drawn and neatly engraved. If Mr. Maude intends to draw down from their seclusion any of the numerous journals which have for many years quietly occupied their places on the well filled and splendid shelves of the Moor-House library,' we hope that he will bestow a little more labour on the re-writing of them. Costly bindings and elegant typography pass for little in these days, when the matter to which they are allied is destitute of intrinsic worth. ART. XVIII. Half-a-dozen Hints on Picturesque Domestic Architecture, in a Series of Designs for Gate-Lodges, Gamekeepers' Cottages, and other Rural Residences. By T. F. Hunt. 4to. 15s.; or India Paper Proofs, 1. 1s. London, Longman and Co. 1826. THE spirit of improvement, which within these last few years has been so active in the metropolis, will naturally soon find its way into the country; but it is to be hoped, that the arbiters of rural taste may not be so far led away by the specimens of architecture which decorate the new streets, as to introduce imitations of them into their villas. Every one who has attentively observed the peculiarities of English scenery will agree with Mr. Hunt, that what he designates the old domestic style is infinitely better suited to it than that which has been imported from Greece or Italy. "Of this fact,' he observes, Bromley Hill presents a striking example; one side of the beautiful road upon it being disfigured by a most heterogeneous bulk of the latter description, and the other adorned by two lodges of very picturesque character, arranged with great taste, and executed with an attention to detail too rarely exercised.' In the work before us Mr. Hunt has given nine designs of lodges which are eminently creditable to his taste. They are models of the good old English style, comprising every comfort of residence with the most picturesque effect. There is no attempt at embellishment, no ivy mantling the walls, nor woodbine twining round the lattice. The buildings are represented just as they would appear fresh from the hands of the workmen. From their simplicity, and particularly from their perfect correspondence to the tone of our rural scenery, we have no doubt that these designs have only to be examined in order to recommend themselves to universal adoption. The few ancient examples of this style which are to be seen in the country never fail to attract the eye, and to please the judgment, of those who have a true feeling for the beauties of English landscape. One would be surprised to find any thing like penury or vice beneath such simple roofs. Hospitality, cleanliness, substantial opulence, and a stern attachment to freedom, are usually associated with them in idea, and generally found with them in practice, cheered, haply, now and then by a glass of home-brewed ale. These designs are intended chiefly for entrance-lodges, and the houses of gamekeepers, foresters, and other appendages of a large estate. We were particularly pleased with the fourth plate, which represents a building having the appearance of being constructed on the ruins of a priory, the porch and basement being the only parts remaining of the original. It is strikingly picturesque. Be sides the usual rooms and conveniences, it includes a plan for one of those old drinking halls, which formerly both in England and Wales the nobility and gentry were accustomed to build in their gardens, at a small distance from their mansions, with cellars beneath them. "These," says Pennant, 66 were used as a retreat for the jolly owners and their friends to enjoy, remote from the fair, their toasts and noisy merriment." We can hardly wish to see any hall erected from which the fair should be excluded; but modern hospitality would nevertheless find abundance of convenience in such a beautiful structure as that which is here sketched. There are also designs for a double cottage and a hunting box, which are well worth the attention of those who may have occasion for such buildings. The plates are in general very neatly drawn on stone, by G. Pyne. ART. XIX. Dartmoor; a Descriptive Poem. By N. T. Carrington. Large 8vo. pp. 309. 11. 1s. London, Hatchard and Son; and R. Williams, Devonport. 1826. LET not the reader be alarmed at the number of pages which this volume spreads before him. The poem itself occupies somewhat less than a third part of the book, one hundred pages being devoted to a preface, and an equal number to notes, both announced to be the production of W. Burt, Esq., Secretary of the Chamber of Commerce, Plymouth,' We verily believe that between the poet and his learned commentator there is scarcely a rock or a flower, or even a blade of grass, within the wild precincts of Dartmoor, which has been left uncelebrated. The omissions of the verse are amply compensated by the minute topographical redundance of the prose; and as if this were still insufficient, we have eight vignettes and four views, drawn and etched by P. H. Rogers, Esq., Plymouth,' intended, we presume, to illustrate the scenery of the poem, but which, we must say, do any thing but accomplish so desirable an object. He Mr. Carrington informs us that his production is not one of those which were rejected two or three years ago by the Royal Society of Literature, when its council gave a premium of fifty guineas to Mrs. Hemans for her poetical effusion on Dartmoor. We assure him, that even if his poem had been presented to that body, and rejected, we would not think the less of it for that reason, as the Society has as yet really done nothing to entitle it to the confidence of the literary world. The subject, though by no means an alluring one, seems to have been taken up with enthusiasm by Mr. Carrington, and it certainly comes out of his hands in a much more animated and interesting form than we could have expected. takes his reader with him on a fine summer holyday over Dartmoor, describing as he goes along the savage, fantastic, yet engaging peculiarities of that desolate scene. In addition to the accuracy of his local knowledge, he interweaves in his sketches several interesting episodes, and poetic images of no mean order. His blank verse is generally harmonious without touching the extremes of feebleness on one side or of affected energy on the other; and very frequently we meet with passages which seem to have been polished with particular care, and are distinguished for chaste, classical, and even eloquent expression. We must content ourselves with a single specimen : 'How beautiful is morning, though it rise Upon a desert! What though Spring refuse Her odours to the early gale that sweeps Its influence reviving. Hark the hum the bee, who comes With overflow of happiness, to spend The sunny hour, and see! across the waste The butterfly, his gay companion, floats; A wanderer, haply, from yon Austral fields, Or from the bank of moorland stream that flows In music through the deep and shelter'd vales.' pp. 31, 32. Mr. Carrington is already favourably known to the public by his poem on the Banks of Tamar. He has been for several years employed in the important and very laborious office of a schoolmaster. We regret to find it stated in one of the notes appended to his poem that he has a very numerous family to support on a scanty income, and that income materially diminished, by the present mania for subscription schools.' We cordially join in the hope that his industrious efforts may raise up for him and his family some better patron than they have hitherto found.' It assuredly is no slight commendation in his favour, that he has never published a line or sentence calculated to redden the cheek of modesty.' 6 *** THE Reviewer of Moss's Manual might have spared himself the trouble of sending us a detailed answer to the charge of plagiarism advanced against him by a weekly Journal. Those who have read the article inserted in this Review, and who have observed the manner in which it was garbled by the Journal in question, in order to suit the accusation which it has thought fit to make, would think our space very ill bestowed in repelling it. It is obvious that two individuals writing on the same subject, and necessarily employing a great portion of the same materials and sources of information, may often coincide in their remarks without either being indebted for his observations to the other. The APPENDIX to the FIRST VOLUME of the NEW SERIES of the MONTHLY REVIEW will be published on the First of May. THE MONTHLY REVIEW. APPENDIX TO VOL. I. FOREIGN LITERATURE. ART. I. Della Vita di Antonio Canova, Libri quattro: compilati da Melchior Missirini: con Note ed Aggiunti. 2 Volumi. 8vo. Milano. 1824. Treuttel and Wurtz. London. MANY are the advantages modern times possess over the days of old; and not the least of these advantages is the facility which the press gives to authors of every rank and denomination of producing their wares, be they good or bad, before the view of the public. No more shall the complaint of the Roman poet be repeated of illustrious characters, that "Omnes illacrymabiles Urgentur ignotique longa Nocte, carent quia vate sacro;" for scarcely has the breath departed from any one distinguished either by vice or by virtue, (it matters not which,) by genius or by folly, when forth steps the biographer to blazon to the world the fair or foul deeds of his hero or heroine; nay, many worthy personages, with a regard for their fame unknown to our grandsires, fearing it might suffer (it being frequently of a tender nature) from the rude hands of a careless biographer, and wisely considering that, since money is to be made of their lives, no one can be better entitled to it than themselves, boldly, be they courtezans, players, authors, or soldiers, become their own biographers, and carry off, as they have the best right, all the profit of their evil or good repute. In such a life-writing age as this, it surely could not be that a personage of such celebrity as Antonio Canova, the modern Phidias, as his countrymen delight to call him, could depart from this mortal stage without "receiving his fame." Accordingly, this task has been performed by Signor Melchior Missirini, and most heartily do we congratulate the Signor on his good fortune in having had so noble a |