"Madame Tussaud describes * florid complexion, and a military air. massacres in the provinces."

as a fine handsome-looking man, with a He had presided over some of the

MADAME TUSSAUD'S Memoirs.

"With regard to the personal descriptions of the different characters introduced throughout the work, it may be confidently asserted, that they are likely to be more accurate than those generally given by other authors."

IBID. Preface.

WILLIAM HARRISON AINSWORTH.

FROM the historical novel and romnace, as reoriginated, in modern times, by Madame de Genlis and Sir Walter Scott, and adopted with such high success by Sir E. L. Bulwer, and with such extensive popularity by Mr. James, there has of late years sprung up a sort of lower or less historical romance, in which the chief part of the history consisted in old dates, old names, old houses, and old clothes. But dates in themselves are but numerals, names only sounds, houses and streets mere things to be copied from prints and records; and any one may do the same with regard to old coats, and hats, wigs, waistcoats, and boots. Now, we know that "all flesh is grass," but grass is not flesh, for all that; nor is it of any use to show us hay for humanity.

To throw the soul back into the vitality of the past, to make the imagination dwell with its scenes

L

and walk hand in hand with knowledge; to live with its most eminent men and women, and enter into their feelings and thoughts as well as their abodes, and be sensitive with them of the striking events and ruling influences of the time; to do all this, and to give it a vivid form in words, so as to bring it before the eye, and project it into the sympathies of the modern world, this is to write the truest history no less than the finest historical fiction; this is to be a great historical romancistsomething very different from a reviver of old clothes.

Such are the extremes of this class; and if there be very few who in execution approach the higher standard, so there are perhaps none who do not display some merits which redeem them from the charge of a mere raking and furbishing up of by-gone materials. But as there is a great incursion of these un-historical un-romantic romances into the literature of the present day, and fresh adventurers marshalling their powers of plunder on the borders, it may be of some service that we have drawn a strong line of demarcation, displaying the extreme distinctions, and leaving the application to the general judgment.

With regard to the Newgate narrative of "Jack Sheppard" and the extraordinarily extensive notoriety it obtained for the writer, upon the residuum of which he founded his popularity, so much just severity has

already been administered from criticism and from the opinion of the intellectual portion of the public, and its position has been so fully settled, that we are glad to pass over it without farther animadversion.

The present popularity of Mr. Ainsworth could not have risen out of its own materials. His so-called historical romance of "Windsor Castle" is not to be regarded as a work of literature open to serious criticism. It is a picture book, and full of very pretty pictures. Also full of catalogues of numberless suits of clothes.

It would be difficult to
It would be difficult to open it any

where without the eye falling on such words as cloth of gold, silver tissue, green jerkin, white plumes.

Looking for an illustration, we are stopped at the second page. Here is the introduction of two cha

"His countenance was full of thought and intelligence; and he had a broad, lofty brow, shaded by a profusion of light brown ringlets; a long, straight, and finely-formed nose; a full, sensitive, and wellchiselled mouth; and a pointed chin. His eyes were large, dark, and somewhat melancholy in expression; and his complexion possessed that rich, clear, brown tint, constantly met with in Italy or Spain, though but seldom seen in a native of our colder clime. His dress was rich but sombre, consisting of a doublet of black satin, worked with threads of Venetian gold; hose of the same material, and similarly embroidered; a shirt curiously wrought with black silk, and fastened at the collar with black enamelled clasps; a cloak of black velvet, passmented with gold, and lined with crimson satin; a flat black velvet cap, set with pearls and goldsmith's work, and adorned with a short white plume; and black velvet buskins. His arms were

rapier and dagger, both having gilt and graven handles, and sheaths of black velvet.

"As he moved along the sound of voices chanting vespers arose from Saint George's Chapel; and while he paused to listen to the solemn strains, a door in that part of the castle used as the King's privy lodgings, opened, and a person advanced towards him. The new-comer had broad, brown, martial-looking features, darkened still more by a thick coal-black beard, clipped short in the fashion of the time, and a pair of enormous moustachios. He was accoutred in a habergeon, which gleamed from beneath the folds of a russet-coloured mantle, and wore a steel cap in lieu of a bonnet on his head."

Windsor Castle, p. 2-3.

The book is also full of processions, banquets, royal hunting parties, courtiers, lords, and jesters, who are indeed " very dull fools." It has, moreover, a demon ghost in the form of Herne the Hunter, who according to this legend, led King Henry VIII. and all his court the life of a dog. As to plot or story it does not pretend to any.

"Old St. Paul's, a tale of the Plague and the Fire," is a diluted imitation of some parts of De Foe's

Plague in London," varied with libertine adventures of Lord Rochester and his associates. It is generally dull, except when it is revolting. There are descriptions of nurses who poison or smother their patients, wretched prisoners roasted alive in heir cells, and one felon who thrusts his arms through the red-hot bars," literally" is added, by way of apology.

A critic recently remarked of Mr. Ainsworth's