sky was all that betokened sunrise. More limp, discreditable-looking persons than X, Y, Z, and myself, when we came down from Fairfield, can scarcely be imagined. We did not thoroughly appreciate our miserable condition until somebody at Rydal offered to lend us umbrellas! He might as well have offered Macintoshes to a family of otters!

Most of this I take from my notes written immediately after this celebrated feat, so that they are strictly reliable; but I have often heard my three friends, and have even caught myself, representing this our night on Fairfield as the most glorious in all our lives, 'passed in close communion,' as it was, 'with nature in her grandest aspect, and with no trace of the living world in sight to mar the solemn emotions of the soul;' the moonlight 'lying cold and silvery on the mountain-tops;' the march of the red sunrise driving before it the clouds of night along the eastern hills.' So different, to even the most accurate of men, are the realities of a tremendous ascent from its reminiscences.

SHAKSPEARE'S BEAUTIES.

ANOTHER illustrated Shakspeare?

A certain Leadenhall Street clerk, who appreciated our elder dramatists, and did not despise roast-pig, in one of his delightful letters exclaims: 'What injury did not Boydell's Shakspeare Gallery do me with Shakspeare? To have Opie's Shakspeare, Northcote's Shakspeare, light-headed Fuseli's Shakspeare, heavyheaded Romney's Shakspeare, wooden-headed West's Shakspeare, deaf-headed Reynolds's Shakspeare, instead of my and everybody's Shakspeare! to be tied down to an authentic face of Juliet! to have Imogen's portrait! to confine the illimitable!'

We must endorse Elia's indignant remonstrance, treason though it be considered now, when every week brings forth some old familiar friend, so bedizened in the dandyism of tinted leaves, elegant engravings, and crimson and gold covers, that we are afraid to touch him lest we soil his finery. We cannot relish our favourite authors turned into 'pretty books.'

What true reader of Shakspeare would exchange his own ideal Rosalinds and Beatrices, Titanias and Ariels, for those of the best artist that ever wielded brush or burin? Some paintings once seen are never forgotten; they impress themselves as indelibly on the memory as reality itself. Can any of us thus recollect a Shakspearian picture? Why, a conclave of all who write, and all who hope to write R.A. after their names, would fail to do justice to the prince of dramatists, and yet more than one artist has had the hardihood to attempt to illustrate the whole of his plays; the presumption to suppose he could throw off in a couple of years or so, some hundred or more designs worthy to be printed with Shakspeare's text! Give us Shakspeare undefiled, free from irritating initials interrupting his dialogue, free from nonsensical notes obscuring his meaning, and, above all, free from presumptuous engravings, marring his men, and libelling his women. It is a sacrilege to have the latter dragged down to a level with the simpering advertisements of our Books of Beauty.

In sweet Will's sweet world, our fancy must be the only limner: he himself has so willed it. While our modern rhymers delight in giving us minute portraits of each fair lady of their song-from head to foot, from top to toe, we have the catalogue of her conditionwe shall find Shakspeare very chary of such details.

Of every creature's best.
The faint-hearted Claudio tells Lucio how Isabella
hath
Prosperous art

When she will play with reason and discourse,
And well she can persuade.

Hamlet calls his misused mistress the fair Ophelia.' Sebastian declares his sister Viola was of many accounted beautiful! Othello vouches for Desdemona's abilities as a musician and housewife. Perdita is complimented as

The prettiest low-born lass that e'er
Ran on the green-sward.

And all we learn of fair and faithful Juliet is:
On Lammas eve at night shall she be fourteen-
a forward chick indeed!

more

Lord Byron somewhat curtly declares: 'I hate universal. It was Bertram's scorned wife, the physia dumpy woman!' Shakspeare's taste was cian's daughter, 'Little' Helen, whose

Beauty did astonish the survey

Of richest eyes; whose words all ears took captive;
Whose dear perfection, hearts that scorned to serve
Humbly called mistress.

Our poet was fond of contrasting ladies of high with ladies of low stature, the latter being invariably brunettes. Thus, when Lysander, bewitched by perverse Puck, shakes off the wonder-stricken Hermia with the rude ungallant words:

Out, tawny Tartar!-out!

the poor lady, unable otherwise to account for his fickleness, accuses her unwitting rival, Helena, of having

Made compare

Between our statures, she hath urged her height, And with her personage, her tall personage, Her height forsooth! she hath prevailed with him! Our favourite masquerading heroine, Rosalind, is fair, and more than common tall; thereby suggesting the adoption of doublet and hose by the banished duke's fair daughter, and that of a brother by her 'pretty little coz,' Celia, who is low and browner.' The slandered Hero, 'Leonato's short daughter,' is summarily appraised by Benedick as 'too low for a high praise, too brown for a fair praise, and too little for a great praise. Only this commendation can I unhandsome; and being no other than as she is, I do afford her, that were she other than as she is, she were not like her.' Short and dark are evidently not to Benedick's taste; and as he declares that her cousin, were she not possessed with a fury, exceeds her as much in beauty as the first of May doth the last of December,' we may reasonably infer that dear Lady Disdain, merry-hearted, quick-witted Beatrice resembled Rosalind, and was tall and fair, although her prototype Rosaline, in Love's Labour's Lost, was

A witty wanton with a velvet brow,

With two pitch-balls stuck in her face for eyes.

Straight and slender, and as brown in hue
As hazel-nuts.

Romeo's first love, the hard-hearted wench with the high forehead, was black-eyed. To rare Imogen, and her only, has Shakspeare given eyes of

White and azure, laced

With blue of heaven's own tinct.

Unless we allow, as we suspect we must, that with him blue and gray eyes are synonymous, as in Venus and Adonis he makes the goddess say:

My eyes are gray and bright;

and immediately afterwards designates them as her blue windows.' Malvolio's mistress, the Lady Olivia, enumerates among her facial possessions: Item, two gray eyes with lids to them;' and both Silvia and Julia own orbs of that hue. The latter says:

Her eyes are gray as glass, and so are mine.

Mr Collier's annotator, we are aware, makes this 6 green as glass,' a reading that, with all due deference to the illustrious unknown, we unhesitatingly reject: first, because the comparison of eyes with glass is of frequent occurrence in Shakspeare; secondly, because ladies with eyes of that jealous tint are not common enough to render it at all likely that both the Gentlemen of Verona should be smitten with cat-eyed maidens; and, lastly, because we are sure most men agree with the song, that

Her eyes may be e'en any colour but green.

Of the many good gifts necessary to make up that earthly divinity, a perfect woman, none is more indispensable than a pleasant voice, like Cordelia's, Ever soft,

Gentle and low, an excellent thing in woman.

Sweet Anne Page

Has brown hair, and speaks small;

and Marc Antony's second wife, Octavia, according to the poet, was 'low-voiced.' However, in the opinion of the lovely serpent of Old Nile, this was a defect rather than a merit; on hearing it, Cleopatra exclaims: 'He cannot like her long!' Her rival, moreover, is dwarfish, round-faced, with a low forehead and brown hair; an inventory of charms that leaves the lass unparalleled' undismayed. This creature's no such thing,' is the verdict of the famous gipsy whose hand

Kings

Have lipped, and trembled kissing.

Shakspeare's own mysterious mistress, whose treachery he so beautifully bewails in the Sonnets, was apparently a dark lady:

If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
And he seems astonished and half-ashamed of his taste,
writing as if in wonderment:

In the old age black was not counted fair,
Or if it were, it bore not beauty's name.

Indeed, jetty, and even brown locks were out of favour with the poets then; they all agree in paying

measured tribute to ladies

Golden tressed Like Apollo.

My golden letter:

O that your face were not so full of O's; whilst her lover, Dumain, vows

Her amber hairs for foul have amber coted. False Cressid, on parting from Troilus, threatens to 'tear her bright hair,' of which her officious uncle says: An her hair were not somewhat darker than Helen's, there were no comparison between the women;' proving the lighter the hair, the higher its estimation. Chaste Lucrece's tresses,

Like golden threads, played with her breath; and we are told of Portia, the wise young judge, whose maiden assize was such a success, that her Sunny locks

Hang on her temples like a golden fleece,

forming a

Golden mesh to entrap the hearts of men,
Easier than gnats in cobwebs.

Tasso's witch-beauty, Armida, had amber locks, that behind her veil shewed like

The golden sun behind a silver cloud; and amazonian Clorinda, unhelmed by Tancred, on her shoulders displayed

Her golden locks,

Like sunny beams on alabaster rocks.

Milton, too, swells the throng of gold-worshippers; he sings of Mother Eve, who,

As a veil, down to her slender waist
Her unadorned golden tresses wore,
Dishevelled, but in wanton ringlets waved,
As the vine curls her tendrils.

The golden-haired age seems to have passed away; we rarely see any now. We judge beauty by a more mercenary metallic standard than that of tresses of angel-gold. Lucrezia Borgia had such locks; we believe the Vatican still counts one of them among its treasures. The beautiful ill-fated Beatrice Cenci is also described as having hair like threads of gold, which, when she let it flow loosely, the wavy splendour of it was astonishing.' Some assert that what our gallant forefathers complimented as golden, we, their more matter-of-fact sons, admire as auburn, or abominate as red. Auburn, we take to be a reddish brown, and we cannot believe that the fiery hue itself could ever have called forth such panegyrics; besides, Shakspeare's Julia, comparing her hair with that of Silvia, says:

Her hair is auburn, mine is perfect yellow.

So we must allow that golden-haired lasses existed to charm our ancestors, if none are left to witch ourselves.

Having some reason to upbraid womankind, it is to the credit of Shakspeare and the ladies of his time, that in all his plays we find but three inconstant dames-the false Greek Cressida, and Lear's cruel daughters. The dramatist's fair creations were undoubtedly founded on his own countrywomen, and do them honour; but we wonder if they were as ready to take the initiative as his heroines, of whom no less than seven-Miranda, Juliet, Olivia, Viola, Rosalind, Helena, and Desdemona-use the privilege popularly conceded in leap-year only. But then how sweetly they do it! He were more or less than man

to refuse affection so daintily proffered. If the maiden subjects of good Queen Bess resembled them in this particular, bachelors must have had a hard time of it.

THE DINNER COMMISSARIAT. A THOROUGH account of the gastronomic tastes of the principal nations of the world would almost comprise a physical description of the globe, so much does the food of each nation depend upon its soil, its climate, and its inland or maritime position. The humble inhabitant of Yarmouth or Schevening has a variety of crustaceous delicacies at a moderate cost, which would make the mouths of the inhabitants of the Alps water. On the other hand, the truffles and ortolans of Central France, the chamois of the Styrian mountains, and the pheasants of Bohemia, which are considered the greatest delicacies of the wealthy in the other parts of Europe, may be seen at the tables of the peasant in these countries; and are altogether inaccessible, and almost unknown, to the daintiest fishtaverns of the coasts of Holland and England. Game is usually considered the greatest delicacy of the European table. But in those mountainous countries where it abounds, sea-fish and colonial luxuries scarcely penetrate. And, on the other hand, the poorer and middling classes of maritime districts have, in addition to great varieties of fish, those numerous luxuries which commerce transports from the productive tropics to the colder regions of Europe. In Britain, the domestic cuisine is poor in all that relates to art; but this is made up for by the humidity of the climate producing pastures of unsurpassed richness, and, consequently, animal food of the best quality, which does not require so much art in preparation. The great business of assimilation is carried on not in pots and pans, but in the digestive organs of the sheep and cattle. We are very far from having acquired the French art of combining varieties of fragrant vegetables with animal food; for in that lies the undoubted superiority of French cookery to our own. But our large colonial trade enables us to present a great multitude of accessories, which may be had at a moderate price, and are seen habitually on the tables of our middle classes. Our fish is also so excellent, that fastidious foreigners, who apply the word gargote to certain popular French restaurants of London, generally pronounce themselves satisfied with Greenwich fish-dinners. Still, notwithstanding the freshness and excellence of our fish, there can be no doubt of certain French preparations being superior to our own; such, for instance, as a matelote of eels, and certain other fish combined in frying with fine herbs, or in sauce with choice tubercules.

Great Britain does not produce wines; our consumption is therefore much less than on the continent; but the average quality is better, as an inferior article would not pay the expense of importation. A great change, however, has taken place in our customs respecting wine, which, two centuries ago, was the habitual drink, not only of the middle, but even of the lower classes. In Edinburgh, there was, up to a very recent period, a large consumption of French wine by the middle classes; and in the last century, previous to the French revolutionary war, every tavern in the High Street had its hogsheads of claret. We have heard, in our younger days, the late venerable Alexander Naysmith say, that when a publican broached a particularly good hogshead, his house was full until it was emptied. But our ales and beers are justly renowned all over the world; although, to our taste, nothing of the kind, not even India Pale Ale, is equal in flavour to good Bavarian beer.

The meat of Germany is not by any means so good as that of Britain; but the cookery is good, when one gets used to it-in fact, all things considered, better

than our own. (We do not speak of the cookery of the wealthy classes, who, in all countries of Europe, have an eclectic system, of which the French school is the basis.) Mature beef was, until lately, rarely roasted in Germany, being reserved for the eternal bouilli; veal was usually committed to the spit. Vegetables are much better prepared in Germany than in England; and the variety called sauer kraut has now been naturalised in the cookery of France. We may say the same of the sausage, which now figures frequently on the tables of the best restaurants on the Boulevard or the Palais Royal.

There are, however, considerable differences in the cookery of the various parts of Germany. In Westphalia, Hanover, and Lower Germany, generally, it is greasy. In Berlin and Old Prussia, the meat and game are poor, in consequence of the extensive tracts of sandy and fir-grown country. Travellers have often been surprised at the great superiority of the food of Berlin now, as compared with what it was twenty years ago. The soil and climate have in nowise altered; but the fact is, the railways which now stretch into the richest parts of Silesia, and other productive countries, have brought about this gastronomic revolution, which has caused an extraordinary rise of prices in those rural districts.

On the Upper Rhine, in Würtemberg and Bavaria, the cuisine is closely assimilated to that of France. In fact, Alsace produces one of the most fatal delicacies of the French table-the pâté de foie gras of Strasbourg, the excellence of which was the great pride of the dinners of Cambacérès. It is well known that the liver of the goose is unnaturally swelled and fattened; but, however great a delicacy the pâté may be considered, there can be no doubt of its being most indigestible, if taken in any but infinitesimal doses. The recipe of a French reprobate for killing off a rich uncle, was to give him (a gourmand, it may be presumed) a dish of pâté de foie gras of extraordinary richness, and to announce during the process of laborious digestion the failure of his banker.

The cookery of Vienna is excellent, and is a combination of that of France, introduced by the imported cooks of the wealthy noblesse, and the native school. Game is prominent in it, as every one knows, who considers the natural facilities of the country, and who has seen the Wildpret Markt in Vienna, for there is a market exclusively for game. The Bohemian pheasants are considered the best in Europe; and of quadruped game, undoubtedly the most succulent, without producing satiety, is the chamois, when fat, well grown, and of the right age. In Hungary, there are two national dishes-the paprika fowl; that is to say, the ordinary fowl dressed with a sauce in which the native red pepper of Hungary figures. In colour, this resembles cayenne, but has nothing of the pungent strength of the South American plant. The other national dish is the golas; but any one familiar with oriental cookery, at once recognises its origin. It is, in fact, the stew or yahni of the Arabs and Turks. In the south of Hungary, where there is a large growth of maize, it is extensively used, both in savoury and sweet preparations. When kneaded in small lumps or balls, it is excellent in soup, and it is equally delicious in puddings; so that we have always felt surprised that so cheap, nutritious, and agreeable farina should not be more extensively used in this country. The game in Hungary is abundant and excellent; the quails are fat, as they find in this region abundant food during their migration. The wild boar of the Carpathians is not to be omitted in our list of the gastronomic delicacies of Hungary. Certain wines are also good, and are largely consumed in Galicia and other parts of Poland; but unquestionably they do not by any means please the British palate so well as the wines of France, Spain, Portugal, and the

Rhine. We must except Tokay, however, which is a very sweet wine, like a liqueur; being less dry than Cyprus, and not so sweet as Malaga. The other wines celebrated in books of geography have rather a medicinal taste to a British or French palate. Meneser is, however, dark and sweet, and has a much nearer resemblance to Malaga than any wine we know. The Rhine grape has been lately introduced into Hungary with great success, as we have the Rhine flavour with perhaps less acidity. The peasantry consume much bacon and brandy, and never taste tea from one end of the year to another.

In Italy, we find the gastronomy determined in a great measure by the climate. The plains of the Po produce large quantities of rice, which figure both in the mid-day and evening meal. Maize or Indian corn, called polenta, is also a staple food, to which we may also add various preparations of paste called macaroni, vermicelli, and tagliarini, so that the consumption of animal food is moderate; and, owing to the abundance of grain, poultry is cheap and good. The rich pastures of the Lombard territory are used not so much for cattle intended for the shambles, as for milch cows. Hence the rich cheeses known as Gorgonzola and Parmesan, which latter is produced principally in the neighbourhood of Lodi. Of all cheeses used for culinary purposes, Parmesan is preferred. Most cheeses that grate easily are poor; Parmesan grates easily, and is rich. It is therefore extensively used, not only to powder all the native pastes, but no soup is ever presented in Italy without a plate of grated Parmesan; and the custom has been gradually extended to the well-appointed tables of London. There is another characteristic of the geographical distribution of culinary art worthy of mention. The low banks of the Po and the Adige near their mouths, and all the territory of Ravenna, furnish excellent food for the domestic hog in the roots found on the banks of the rivers; hence the pork is much more cleanly fed than in the neighbourhood of large towns, where porcine food is often corrupt animal matter. From this is made the famed Bologna sausages, exported to all parts of Europe. The chief delicacy of the locality is the fresh-pork chops served up on a basis of Indian corn resembling our Yorkshire pudding.

The fish of the Italian coasts is not, in our opinion, equal to that of the northern seas; for what reason, we cannot divine. The tunny and sturgeon, although satisfying, are not delicate fish; but the barbone or red mullet is remembered by all travellers. Oysters are generally diminutive.

We have not had the advantage of travelling in Spain, nor have we heard very favourable accounts of the cuisine of that country; but it were superfluous to praise her fruits and wines, which are so highly esteemed, and so extensively used in this country. Her large juicy olives, her Valencia almonds, her Malaga raisins, her Seville oranges, and her Cadiz wines, are seen on every table. But an extensive use of garlic has not yet been made, even by those in this country who admire the continental schools of recondite cookery.

The cookery of the Turks is excellent, and chiefly consists of rice, fowls, mutton, and vegetables. Beef is unknown, except in a campaign, and is classed with horseflesh, and considered penitential fare; in fact, many Turks prefer horseflesh sausages to the best roast-beef. We need not say that the flesh of the hog is most rigorously forbidden. We are of opinion that

in hot countries, the prohibition of the food of this animal may be supported on good sanitary grounds. It is unquestionably an impure feeding animal; and many piggeries in such countries as Egypt and Syria, would unquestionably promote plague, which is simply a virulent fever, having its cause in accumulations of

animal corruption. We have more than once seen ham on a table when a true Mussulman was present, and the feeling he manifested was not simply religious aversion, but positive loathing, such as the flesh of a rat might excite in us.

The Turkish preparation of rice, called pilaff, has become celebrated; the principle of which is, that every grain should be separate. The yaourt or curdled milk is also celebrated, and when taken with a little sugar, is most refreshing. Caimak or clotted cream is another delicious lactic preparation, which all travellers relish. The Ottoman Empire being very large, and having a great variety of climates and populations, and the Ottomans being, except in Asia Minor, not a nation, but a dominant military caste, almost each province, or at least division of the empire, has its own culinary customs. In Albania, for instance, milk and the juices of animal food are mingled together, contrary to custom in other parts of Europe. In Servia and Bulgaria, soups are slightly acidulated with vinegar; and in the latter country, cabbage is eaten in a state of putrefaction; yet so abundant is grain in this province, that roast turkey is the traveller's daily fare. In all Turkish countries, lamb and mutton are roasted with great delicacy, sometimes with chopped vine-twigs below them, which gives a slight but delicious vinous flavour to the meat. Another excellent method of roasting lamb or mutton, is to place rice below it, so as to absorb all the gravy. The choice dishes of a good Turkish kitchen are not few: one of the most succulent is a preparation of the feet of sheep with herbs and white sauce, not unlike the French pied de veau à la poulette; but, as we think, superior.

The great characteristic of the food of the Egyptians is the universal use of the date and of onions. With this fruit and vegetable, and a little rice, the Egyptian peasant is satisfied with very little animal food, although it is very cheap, or at least was so some years ago. Fowls are largely used in Egypt, but being produced by artificial incubation, they are poor in flavour, lean and small. This artificial process brings forward the fowl ab ovo; but it would appear that, independently of mere warmth and covering, there are occult currents of animal fluid for which no ingenuity can provide a substitute.

OÇEOLA:

A ROMANCE.

CHAPTER XIII.-THE CHASE.

I LOOKED around. Sure enough, the mulatto was making off.

The rencontre between Ringgold and the Indian monopolised attention, and the criminal was for the moment forgotten. The knife knocked out of Powell's hands had fallen at the feet of Yellow Jake. Unobserved in the confusion, he had snatched it up, cut the fastenings from his limbs, and glided off before any one could intercept him. Several clutched at him as he passed through the straggled groups; but, being naked, he was able to glide out of their grasp, and in a dozen bounds he had cleared the crowd, and was running towards the shore of the lake.

It seemed a mad attempt-he would be shot down or overtaken. Even so; it was not madness to fly from certain death-and such a death.

Shots were ringing; at first they were the reports of pistols. The guns had been laid aside, and were leaning against trees and the adjacent fence.

Their owners now ran to seize them. One after another was levelled; and then followed a sharp rapid cracking, like file-firing from a corps of riflemen.