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to £60,000, was dinner, one shilling; supper, | of Tristram Shandy." ** The man's sixpence; the best claret one shilling a bottle, and rooms gratis.

head, indeed, was a little turned before, now topsy-turvy with his success and fame. Dodsley Mr. Sterne passed the ensuing eighteen years has given him £650 for the second edition, and partly at his "retired thatched house" in two more volumes (which I suppose will reach Sutton, and partly in York, in the discharge backwards to his great great grandfather); Lord of his clerical duties, varied by the amuse- Faulconbridge a donative of £160 a year; and ments of "books, painting, fiddling, and shoot- Bishop Warburton gave him a purse of gold ing." For art he had considerable taste, and and this compliment (which happened to be a a real passion for music, as numerous passages contradiction), that it was quite an original comin his works prove. At Skelton Castle, forty position, and in the true Cervantic vein. The miles or more away, lived Sterne's college-mate, only copy that ever was an original, except in Stevenson Hall, the licentious author of "Crazy painting, where they all pretend to be so. Tales," and the Eugenius of "Tristram Shandy." Warburton, however, not content with this, Congenial company and a rare library of quaint recommended the book to the bench of bishops, old books, which have lent a flavour to the and told them Mr. Sterne, the author, was the Shandean writings, often tempted the parson to English Rabelais. They had never heard of seek relaxation with his friend. A little society such a writer. Sterne went up to London in the was formed by the wild spirits who frequented latter part of March, 1760, to enjoy his triumph. "Crazy Castle," called the "Demoniacs," and Welcomed and introduced by Garrick, he was Sterne made one. To such visits and to such at once plunged a fortnight deep in engageinmates are doubtless due in no small measurements-dining among others with Lord Chesterthe unbecoming jests which the author has freely introduced into his works. A reputation for eccentricity and wit grew up around him, and for some unexplained reason the name of Yorick was fastened upon him. He gave his neighbours a taste of his quality in the "Good Warm Watch Coat," a satire called out by the bickerings of Cathedral politics. A daughter was born on the 1st of December, 1747, who was named Lydia, from a sister of Mrs. Sterne. A previous child of the same name had lived but a day.

In 1759, that glorious year when victory smiled on British arms in every quarter of the globe, with Clive and with Wolfe, at Quiberon and at Minden, "Tristram Shandy" was written, and appeared at York in December, ten years after "Clarissa Harlow" and "Tom Jones," and eleven years after "Roderick Random." It was bought eagerly, for the curiosity of the neighbourhood had been aroused for some time by the rumour of a strange comic novel which the old parson of Sutton was preparing for publication. The success of the two neat pocketvolumes, published by Dodsley in the style of Goldsmith's "Enquiry," price five shillings, was as immediate and complete in London as among the friends and acquaintances of the author, and the book divided the attention of the public with the poems of the King of Prussia, magnanimous ally," then in the heat of his seven years' struggle, the scholarly Lord Littleton's Dialogues of the Dead," and the pamphlet accounts of the court-martial of Lord George Sackville for disobedience of orders at Minden, and the trial of the Methodist Lady Huntingdon's nephew, Lord Ferrers, for the murder of his steward, Horace Walpole, writing on the 4th of April to "that man of worth, scholar and wit, Sir David Dalrymple," gives us the testimony of an unfriendly witness to the popularity of Shandy" At present nothing is talked of, nothing admired, but what I cannot help calling a very insipid and tedious performance; it is a kind of novel, called "The Life and Opinions

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"our

field, Lord Littleton, and the Marquis of Rockingham, afterwards prime minister. He accompanied the latter nobleman to Windsor to witness his investiture with the Garter."

Of the mood of the town a century since, Mr. Fitzgerald says: "Do we want a lookingglass for the follies, whims and capricious turns of the London public of that day, we have only to turn, as Mr. Forster has shown, to the delightful Chinese letters, Goldsmith's Spectator, where is shown with an exquisite humour and more graphical detail than is found in Addison's "Sketch Book," a perfect picture of the humours of the London Vanity Fair, when Mr. Sterne stepped in. A perfect whirligig-every one fly. ing from booth to booth. What was purely fantastic and extravagant became all the rage, and the fashionable world was busy patronizing 'the wonderful dog of knowledge,' and the man with the box,' and the fellow who was making a fortune by tossing a straw from his toe to his nose. The pretensions of rival actresses at rival houses were more important than the concerns of the nation, and a singing woman' might well go about collecting subscriptions in her coach and six." (Fitzgerald's Life of Sterne, vol. ii, p. 4). Such a society was of all others the one to delight in the fun of a Shandy, and the indications of his popularity are characteristic. A game of cards was invented and named Tristram Shandy, "in which the knave of hearts, if hearts are trumps, is supreme, and nothing can resist his power." A Shandy salad graced the bills of fare, and race-horses bore the name of the same hero. A host of imitations appeared: "Yorick's Meditations;" "Life and Adventures of Tristram Shandy;" the "Life and Amours of Hafen Shawkenbergins;" the "Life and Amours of Sukey Shandy; A Shandean Essay on the Human Passions ;" and even a continuation of the book itself, by a Dr. Carr, which at first deceived a few readers.

The "Critical Review" was favourable, the "Monthly" silent, and the press generally impartial; but Goldsmith made his voice heard in

condemnation. The citizen of the world exclaims: "Sir,-A well-placed dash makes half the wit of our writers of modern humour." And referring to pertness and obscenity as two well-known figures of rhetoric, he adds: "By speaking to some peculiar sensations, we are always sure of exciting laughter, for the jest does not lie in the writer but in the subject." The reverend author's free life-evenings divided between Ranelagh and the green room (Garrick had made him free of Drury-lane)-gave rise to harsh comment in the newspapers. One of the best of the rhyming attacks upon the gay clergyman runs thus:

"Tho' in fashion he's grown, 'Tis very well known His merit is small as it can be; The woman of pleasure And Rochester's treasure Are brother and sister to Shandy.

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but not to the exclusion of interest in the new volumes which appeared Jan 27, 1761. Sterne writing in March of this year to a Yorkshire friend, says :-" One-half of the town abuse my book as bitterly as the other half cry it up to the skies. The best is that they abuse and buy it, and at such a rate that we are going on with a second edition as fast as possible." Dodsley paid £380 for these, the third and fourth volumes. Coxwould, sixteen miles from York, was now Sterne's home" a long, low house with two heavy gables, and which rambled away round the corner into a great tall brick shoulder, and a high pyramidal chimney, that started from the ground like a buttress, whose function it indeed served, and then finished off behind with a low sloping roof within a few feet of the ground." Here he gives us a little domestic picture in a letter of September 21st, 1761: "So much am I delighted with my Uncle Toby's imaginary character that I am become an enthusiast. My Lydia helps to copy for me, and my wife knits and listens as I read her chapters." This passage has raised an outcry against Sterne's moral obtuseness in giving to a girl of fourteen his double-entendres to copy; but his biographer observes, with justice, that the volumes which engaged his attention at this time (the fifth and sixth) are of all the series most free from improprieties, and that the statement is that his daughter helped to copy, and not that she copied them entirely. A chaise for his wife, and a pony for Lydia, increased the pleasures of a country life.

In May a second edition of Shandy appeared, with a frontispiece by Hogarth and a dedication The fifth and sixth volumes were published to Pitt, then at the height of his ascend- a few days before Christmas, with a dedication to ency; the House of Commons literally silenced Viscount Spencer, the author's intimate friend. at his frown. Two volumes of sermons, with Early in the new year Mr. Sterne set off for an engraving of the author from a portrait just Paris, although peace was not signed until Febprinted by Sir Joshua Reynolds, were also pub-ruary, 1763. He had suffered from pulmonary lished at this time to take advantage of the tide disease since he was at college, and a severe atof popularity. Four hundred and eighty pounds tack of bleeding at the lungs, of recent occurwere given for the new edition and the sermons rence, had compelled him to ask a two years' -not six hundred and fifty pounds, as Walpole leave of absence from his archbishop, Dr. Hay wrote. The donative which he mentions, from Drummond. His ecclesiastical superior, always Lord Faulconbridge, was the living of Cox- well disposed to him, granted his request withwould, worth seventy guineas a-year after pay-out difficulty. His purpose in going abroad ing a curate for his other parishes. Sterne says that this preferment was the reward of some service which he had rendered to the nobleman. Mr. Fitzgerald finds some confirmation of the current scandal, denied by Sterne, that the Warburton purse of gold was given to prevent the gibbeting of that violent prelate in a future volume of Shandy. The suggestion was made to introduce the Bishop with others into the work, and a hint of this may have stimulated his generosity.

The summer and autumn were passed in the preparation of a second instalment of the novel, and in December we find the author for the second time in the full enjoyment of the London season, not dining at home once in five weeks. George the Third had succeeded to the throne in October, and the town was occupied with the struggle for place which attended his accession,

was to spend the winter in the south of France, but the fascinations of Paris detained him there until mid-summer. Everything English was the rage, and Sterne immediately became the lion of the hour. January 31st he writes to his friend Garrick :-"Tristram was almost as much known here as in London, at least among your men of condition and learning, and has got me introduced into so many circles, I have just now a fortnight's dinners and suppers upon my hands." His portrait was painted for the Duke of Orleans, but no trace of it can now be discovered. He was a frequent guest at Baron d'Holbach's famous suppers, meeting there the foremost philosophers and wits of the

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wife and daughter to share with him in the benefits of a more genial climate. Several letters remain which he has filled with minute instructions to guide the stay-at-home ladies in their journey to join him. He tells his wife to bring with her a pound of Scotch snuff, and to be sure at the Custom-house to have half in her own pocket and half in Lydia's. She is to expend sixty guineas in silks, blonds, gauzes, &c., and he adds:—"You must have them-for in this country nothing must be spared from the back-if you dine on an onion, and lie in a garret seven storeys high, you must not betray it in your clothes, according to which you are well or ill-looked upon. They have bad pins and vile needles here; bring for yourself and some for presents," is another piece of advice. And again:-"I had like to have forgot a most necessary thing: there are no copper tea-kettles to be had in France, and we shall find such a thing the most comfortable utensil in the house. Buy a good strong one which will hold two quarts: a dish of tea will be of comfort to us in our journey south. I have a bronze tea-pot, which we will carry also. As china cannot be brought from England, we must make up a lanous party-coloured tea-equipage to regale ourselves and our English friends while we are at Toulouse." (Works, vol. 7, p. 56.)

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other. My landlord is, moreover, to keep the gardens in order-and what do you think I am to pay for all this? neither more or less than thirty pounds a year, and all things are cheap in proportion, so we shall live for very little." (Works, vol. 7, p. 64). The establishment consisted of a good cook, a "decent femme de chambre," and "a good-looking laquais," and Mrs. Sterne kept "an excellent good house" at the very moderate cost of two hundred and fifty pounds a year.

The cheapness of the place had attracted hither a number of English, who formed a "happy society, living together like brothers and sisters." Mr. Sterne entered with zest into their amusements, and we find him taking part in private theatricals during the Christmas holidays. Ennui, however, soon preyed upon the invalid. He regretted the excitement of Paris and London, and he was even debarred from hearing from home, except after a long interval, for letters were eighteen days upon the road. He inveighed querulously against the "eternal platitude of the French character," which had "little variety, no originality." Amidst all this vil-weariness of spirit he was prostrated by a fever.

The summer of 1763 was passed at Bagnères, but we hear nothing of a trip into Spain, which had been projected some time before. MontWife and daughter profited by the careful pelier was chosen for the winter's sojourn, directions which they had received, and the pre- but its climate proved as much too keen as parations which had been made,-a chaise had that of Toulouse had been too damp. Poor been sent to Calais for them,-and arrived "safe Yorick fell dangerously ill, and at length and sound, in high raptures with the speed and the physicians of the place told him he would pleasantness of their journey." They found die if he remained longer. "Why didn't Mr. Sterne only just able to go out after a severe you tell me before?" said he, sharply. The attack of bleeding at the lungs, which had hap-character of the faculty in whose hands pened in the night. He "bled the bed full" he was compelled to place his health may and lay speechless for three days. After Mrs. be judged from the postscript to one of his Sterne and Lydia had been gratified with some letters:-"My physicians have almost poisoned weeks of delightful sight-seeing in Paris, the me with what they call boillons refraichissants family set their faces toward Tolouse, in weather'tis a cock flayed alive and boiled with poppyas hot as "Nebuchadnezzar's oven.' A day or seeds, then pounded in a mortar, afterwards two after their arrival at their destination, Sterne passed through a sieve. There is to be a crawwrote to his friendly banker at Paris:-" Well, fish in it, and I was gravely told it must be a here we are after all, my dear friend, and most male one-a female one would do me more hurt deliciously placed at the extremity of the town, than good." (Works, vol. 7, p. 85). Mr. in an excellent house well furnished, and elegant Sterne permitted his wife and daughter to rebeyond anything I looked for. 'Tis built in the main in France for a two or three years' resiform of a hotel, with a pretty court towards the dence, while he returned to England. The distown, and behind the best garden in Toulouse, sipations of Paris detained him on his way laid out in serpentine walks, &c., so large that home, and brought on another fit of bleeding. the company in our quarter usually come to walk While there he preached before the British amthere in the evenings, for which they have my bassador and a distinguished company-Hume, consent, the more the merrier.' The house Diderot, and D'Holbach, with his sixteen consists of a good sallea-manger above stairs, atheists, among the number. He reached Lonjoining to the very great sallea-compagnie as large don in May, 1764, and in August he was once as the Baron d'Holbach's; three handsome bed- more in Yorkshire, attending to parochial duchambers with dressing-rooms to them,-below ties-let us hope-certainly finishing the seventh stairs two very good rooms for myself, one to and eighth volumes of Shandy, which had been study in, the other to see company. I have, partially written in France. moreover, cellars around the court, and all other offices. Of the same landlord I have bargained to have the use of a country-house which he has two miles out of town, so that myself and all my family have nothing more to do than take our hats and remove from the one to the

The business of publishing carried our author to London in the winter, and the new instalment of Tristram was given to the public on the 26th of January, a month or more after Goldsmith's poem, "The Traveller." A ceaseless round of gaieties, as usual, drew him into

that "effort perpetuél pour se divertir" of which | the new-born loves of Captain Shandy: "This the Countess de Boufflers complained, as cha- volume contains the amours of my uncle Toby." racteristic of English society. The town talk (Life of Sterne, vol. 2, p. 326). was of the debates on the Regency Bill, the riots around the Duke of Bedford's mansion, and Lord Byron's grand uncle of the poet-fatal duel with Mr. Chaworth. The summer passed at Coxwould, but early in October (1765) ill health drove the invalid abroad upon his famous Sentimental Journey.

After a short stay in Paris, where he found Foote, Wilkes, and Tooke amusing themselves and others, Sterne set out for Italy, passing through Lyons and over the mountains of Savoy. During a fortnight's visit at Turin occurred the encounter with a lady on a staircase, which he relates so ludicrously. "Upon my word, madam,' said I, when I had handed her in (to her carriage), 'I made six different efforts to let you get out.' And I made six efforts' replied she, to let you enter.' 'I wish to heaven you would make a seventh,' said I. 'With all my heart,' said she, making room. Life is too short to be long about the forms of it, so I instantly stepped in, and she carried me home with her." (Works vol. 4, p. 71.) This lady was the Marquesina Fagniani, the mother of George Selwyn's pet Mie Mie. Parma and Florence received a few days' attention each, and Rome was reached the latter part of December, the weather all the time like an English April. A sojourn of some weeks in the delicious climate of beautiful Naples was of so much benefit to the "tall, thin, hectic-looking Yorkshire parson," that he even grew fat. His companion on this tour was James Macdonald, "a very extraordinary young man for variety of learning," who died at the early age of twenty-five at Rome, shortly after Mr. Sterne's departure, and he was buried there with great honours. Mrs. Sterne, then residing near Dijon, received a visit from her husband on his way home. He writes: "Never man has been such a wildgoose chase after a wife as I have been. After having sought her in five or six different towns, I found her at last in Franche Compté. Poor woman! she was very cordial, &c., and begs to stay another year

or so."

Midsummer found Yorick at home, and on the fourteenth of August he preached in the cathedral before the King of Denmark, the Duke of York, and a great train of noblemen and gentlemen, who had been drawn to York by the races. "An excellent discourse," say the London papers, and it is memorable now as the last he ever preached. Two volumes of sermons were published by subscription, on the 18th of January of the next year, 1767. They go into the world with a prancing list de toute la noblesse, which will bring me in £300, inclusive of the sale of the copy," writes their author, exultingly. Voltaire, Diderot, D'Holbach, Crebillon, and Hume figure upon this "prancing" list. Eleven days later the last volume of "Tristram Shandy" was given to the world. A note appended shows how keenly relished had been

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In the printed correspondence of Sterne, there are two or three letters written about this time to Ignatius Sancho, the Duke of Montague's black butler, a man well-known in London, who expressed his gratitude for that brief, graceful plea in behalf of the negro, which is contained in the last volume of Shandy, and which furnishes an example in its touching simplicity to this age of loud-mouthed sympathy for the slave. "A negro has a soul! an' please your honour,' said the corporal (doubtingly),

"I am not much versed, corporal,' quoth my uncle Toby, 'in things of that kind; but I suppose God would not leave him without one, any more than thee or me.'

"It would be putting one sadly over the head of another,' quoth the corporal.

"It would so,' said my uncle Toby. "Why, then, an' please your honour, is a black wench to be used worse than a white one?"

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"I can give no reason,' said my uncle Toby. Only,' cried the corporal, shaking his head, because she has no one to stand up for her.' """Tis that very thing, Trim,' quoth my uncle Toby, which recommends her to protection, and her brethren with her; 'tis the fortune of war which has put the whip into our hands now. Where it may be hereafter, Heaven knows; but be it where it will, the brave, Trim, will not use it unkindly.'

"God forbid,' said the corporal. "Amen,' responded my uncle Toby, laying his hand upon his heart." (Works, vol. iii, p. 157).

Illness and depression sent Mr. Sterne to the peace and plenty of Coxwould, in May, but a letter of the 7th of June shows that his spirits had recovered their usual flow: "I am as happy as a prince, at Coxwould, and I wish you could see in how princely a manner I live-'tis a land of plenty. I sit down alone to venison, fish, and wild fowl, or a couple of fowls and ducks, with curds, and strawberries and cream, and all the simple plenty which a rich valley (under Hamilton Hills) can produce, with a clean cloth on my table, and a bottle of wine at my right hand to drink your health. I have a hundred hens and chickens about my yard-and not a parishioner catches a hair or a rabbit, or a trout, but he brings it as an offering to me. **** I take the air every day in my post-chaise, with two long tailed horses-they turn out good ones." (Works, vol. vii, p. 160).

THE LADY INA, AND OTHER POEMS. By R. F. H., Author of "Blythe House." (London: Virtue and Co.)-Those who remember the simple purity and grace which characterize the story of " Blythe House," will recognize the spirit of the writer in this volume of poems. An easy flow of thought and expression, a musical ear, and refined feeling are evident throughout the whole; but here and there touches of higher qualities assert themselves,

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and an earnestness and tenderness that immediately brings the reader's emotions into rapport with those of the author, specially permeate a few of the minor poems. Those entitled "In Memoriam" and "Aspiration" occur to us as apposite examples. The narrative-poems of "The Lady Ina," "The Battle of White-horse Down," "A Legend of the Seine," and "Sir John Franklin," will find admirers for the sake of their stories and the easy flow of the smooth verse. There is nothing absolutely soaring or glowing in the strains of our author, but the numbers run on, like a calm brook, smooth and bright, pure throughout, and sparkling with the sunshine of this purity. It is a book to put fearlessly into the hands of the young, full of lowly, unobtrusive piety, fair subjects, and gentle thoughts.

ODD FELLOWS' QUARTERLY. (Manchester.) —A pleasant number, agreeably diversified in its contents. "Rue: a Tale of the Tally System," will, we hope, prove as usefully illustrative of this nefarious trade as the author, Mrs. C. A. White (who on other occasions has written earnestly on the subject), can desire. Mr. Heaviside contributes a pretty sketchy paper, entitled "Coming Home;" Eliza Cook a poem, "On the Death of Richard Cobden "-written with much feeling and spirit-and the Rev. E. Hewlet one on The Life-Boat." "The Penny and its Power"-a paper the title of which seems familiar to us -is pleasantly written, and so is "A Rainy Holiday." As a whole, we regard the present number as a very fair one. [JOURNAL OF THE LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION in our next.]

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THE TOILET.

TOILETS FOR THE SEA-SIDE.

straw beads.

(Specially from Paris.)

FIRST FIGURE.-Dress composed of Indian toile de soie, the skirt trimmed at the bottom with four rows of velvet ribbon sprinkled with Muslin under-body. Bernese corslet. Jacket of the same material as the dress, and likewise trimmed all round with straw-beaded velvet, and on the top of the sleeves with bows of the same, and ends of plain velvet. Behind, cascades of velvet ribbon,

not beaded

SECOND FIGURE.-Toilet composed of a foulard dress, covered with light blue spots, bordered at bottom by a silk cord of the same colour, forming a design at the ends of the seam of each width. Milanaise corslet, and skirt striped blue and white, likewise corded at bottom and looped up in front with a similar cord and tassels. The sleeves are almost tight. Collar and cuffs of fine linen. Straw cap ornamented with long white ostrich feather, fastened by a rosette of blue velvet ribbon, with a pearl clasp in the middle. Behind, long ends of velvet. Burnouse of black Yack lace. Foularis, either black or white grounds, sprinkled with flowers of the opposite tint, are much in favour. I have seen a very pretty toilet destined for the sea-side composed of white foulard, strewed over as it were with little black flowers, at the

bottom of the skirt between entre deux of black velvet about as wide as a No. 5 ribbon were bouillonnés of foulard themselves finished on both sides by velvet ribbon of a less width. The whole of the velvet trimming was sprinkled with little white buttons of mother-of-pearl. The corsage, formed of a corslet incircled with velvet similarly trimmed, is worn over an underbody of white muslin, made with five plaits behind and before. The plaits, wide as a No. 4 ribbon, are ornamented en suite with little buttons of jet in imitation of pearls. The sleeves, cut on the biais, are nearly tight, and are trimmed with black pearls, forming an ornament at the side near the top, which falls over on a jockey of foulard, adjusted to the corslet, and is finished at the bottom with a little pointed cuff figured with plaited muslin sprinkled with black pearls.

A basquin of the same material as the dress accompanies it, and is bordered and ornamented in the same way with black velvet, sprinkled with little buttons of mother-of-pearl. Under it is worn a waistband of black silk ornamented en suite. The chapeau assorted for this toilette is round, of the cap form, and is ornamented with a swallow, which retains a very long blue veil at the side.

The greater part of the robes de voyage are of light materials, very soft and generally transpa

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