A Companion to the Medicine Chest; or plain directions for the employment of the various Medicines, with the properties and doses of such as are more generally used in Domestic Medicine, by John Savory. London: J. Churchill. 1836.

THIS very useful little manual is entirely divested of scientific phraseology, and may be safely consulted, in cases of emergency, by persons residing at a distance from their medical adviser, more particularly where delay may be productive of fatal results. We cordially coincide in the judicious advice set forth in the preface, " not to place too much confidence on books of domestic medicine, especially in such cases as are of a serious nature, but always to have recourse to the advice of an able practitioner, as early as it can be obtained."

A portion of the work, and that not the least useful and important, is devoted to clear directions for counteracting the effects of poisons; for restoring suspended animation; and for disinfecting apartments, and checking the progress of contagious diseases.

Lectiones Latinaæ; or Lessons in Latin Literature. Selected from the most celebrated Latin authors. In four parts. By J. Rowbotham, F. R. A. S. Wilson, Royal Exchange. L'Echo de Paris: a Selection of Familiar Phrases. By M. A. P. Lepage. Second Edition. Wilson, Royal Exchange. Cherville's First Step to French; indispensable to, and in harmony with, all French Grammars. By F. M. De Cherville. Wilson, Royal Exchange. 1836.

THESE are well-adapted books for schools and young beginners of the Latin and French languages, and appear to be put together with a due regard to the end for which they are designed. Rowbotham's Selections are made with scholastic care, and cannot fail, with very slight attention, to remove the difficulty of acquiring the language, of which so many students complain. The lessons are divided into four parts:-the first part contains, at Section I., the original Latin, and at Section II., an interlinear translation, both literal and free, in the same line: the second part contains, at Section I., the original Latin, with a poetical translation on the opposite pages; and at Section II., the English order of construction is given, with what may be termed a literal translation, but which is sufficiently free to convey an idea of the author's meaning. The third part is, in some respects, similar to the second, with the exception of there being no poetical translations. There is also an excellent introductory grammar. This book must greatly facilitate the study of the Latin language; and when well known, we have no doubt, will be considered an indispensable auxiliary to the classical student.

Lepage's Echo de Paris is too well known and estimated to make a comment necessary. It has now reached a second edition, which,

we perceive, contains a large increase of conversational and idiomatic phrases, and is thereby rendered still more useful to the learner of the French language. To persons visiting the continent, it must be found a desirable acquisition. This edition is a decided improvement on the first, as it contains a complete vocabulary, explanatory of the words and idioms, and is therefore better adapted as a manual for learners.

Cherville's First Step to French appears to be intended for beginners, and for those who only know the language as it is written. Grammar is here blended with practice, and the tediousness of connecting the rules with practical exercises saved to both teacher and pupil. It is exactly what it professes to be, and must be a valuable assistant to the young scholar.

Magazine of Natural History.

Arboretum Britannicum. Gardener's Magazine. The Architectural Magazine. Numbers for January, February, and March. London: Longman & Co.

THE untiring activity and zeal of Mr. Loudon is more than usually conspicuous in the several numbers of the works above enumerated. The Magazine of Natural History contains some interesting papers by C. Waterton, Professor Henslow, and other eminent naturalists, The observations on the constructions of maps for illustrating the distribution of plants, by H. C. Watson, F. L. S., displays much ingenuity, and is deserving an attentive perusal. The value of the recently published numbers of The Arboretum Britannicum are greatly increased by an additional quantity of letterpress. The history, geography, and the science of the study of trees, with their properties and uses, are given in a very able and lucid style, and will render this publication eminently useful as a work of reference. The Gardener's and the Architectural Magazines contain their accustomed share of valuable information on the respective subjects to which they are devoted.

[The insertion of a critical notice of "Jenyns's Manual of British Vertebrate Animals," "Translations into English verse from the poems of Davyth ap Gwilym," and "S. Robinson's Address to the Subscribers to the Dukinfield Village Library," is unavoidably deferred.]

166

FINE ARTS.

Scotland, by William Beattie, M. D., illustrated in a series of Views, by Thomas Allom, Esq. Parts 1 to 5. London: Vir

tue.

ILLUSTRATED publications are now 'plenty as blackberries," their name is Legion, and, as might be expected in such a motly crowd, few rise above mediocrity, while many rank even lower than that unenviable standard. The true gems are rare; and carefully, kindly must we distinguish them from the counterfeits; if the public would do likewise, the taste for the fine arts would gain ground, whereas now the demand for "illustrated works" proceeds, in very many instances, from a mere drawing-room-display appetite, and as this is but a fashionable disease for the time being, the caterers (i. e., artists and publishers) need not be any way particular in the choice of materials for a banquet, not desired as an enjoyment, but required as a ceremony. However, this is neither the time nor place to enter upon a discussion of such length as the state of art, and taste for art, in England, would require; it is time to tell our readers that the brightly-clad volume now before us is not of the garbage class, only fit for the fashionable patrons of picture-books: it is one which the artist may rejoice to lay beside his easel, the poet love to feast his fancy upon, and the late or expectant tourist consult as a guide to future wanderings, or a most pleasant reminder of past ones. Beattie's we would rather say Allom's Scotland is a good and highly-interesting design, worthily executed. Whoever loves Scott, and the creations of his boundless genius-and who does not love them?should possess this beautiful realization of scenes which his wizard words have often so livingly painted to our mental eyes. We do not pretend to affirm the work a faultless one, as our remarks will prove; but, as by far the best of its kind, it is "worthy of welcome and worthy of honour." All Mr. Allom wants, to do more justice to his own talents, is a deeper feeling for the beautiful, the sublime, and the essentially poetic subjects of his fine drawings. Scotland and Scott are so indissolubly linked in our imaginations, that views of the mere country seem incomplete: we would fain see the spots as the mighty Wizard gives them to us in the magic circle of his airy creations. He has so established each in the assigned "local habitation," that we expect to find our heroes "at home," when the painter's welcome aid ushers us into their domains. In the very beautiful vignette to the volume, where "The Pass of the Trosachs, Loch Katrine," is delineated with the most perfect and picturesque effect, is an apt instance of the unpoetical vein to which we have alluded. The scene is one of surpassing grandeur; from the opposite shore of the clear smiling loch, mountains-crag above crag-lift their proud heads into the very sky; lake-ward, girt with rich hanging

woods; and cloud-ward, sterile, rocky, and vast. A boat, with white wings spread, sails like a swan upon the loch, and in the immediate foreground of the picture, two plaided and kilted highlanders are resting beneath a rugged old tree. If we could suppose them watching the distant sail, romance might indulge her speculations to her heart's content; but a gay party, full dressed for a masquerade pic-nic, are disembarking from another vessel, and contemplate exhibiting fashions and feathers among Highland mountains and Highland heather!

"Inverary Castle" is, indeed, a glorious scene, and a friend, whose fortune, in having seen the original, is happier than our own, pronounces it "a true copy." Here the foreground is occupied by merry troops of reapers, and bonny lassies; and teams loaded with the wealth of harvest.

"Loch Achray," is a splendid scene of cloud-girt mountains and woody dells, which one may fancy are ringing with the cry of the huntsmen, who spring into sight from a bosky dingle; and we instantly recognize "the Knight of Snowdon, James Fitz James," in the rider of the "gallant grey," foremost of the band.

"Ben Lomond, from Inveruglas," "Braemar Castle," and "The Head of Loch Lomond, looking south," are three pictures of places merely as they are; but they are beautiful pictures, especially the latter, with its gradually distancing mountains; but there is a blot on its loveliness, in the most ungainly of all mechanical forms-a

steam boat.

"The fall of the Clyde at Stonebyres," is a fine subject, well described, but rendered ridiculous by the figure of a white-frocked damsel, whom two attendant cavaliers, each seizing an arm, seem about to dismember. The abrupt mass of the white dress, too, in the dark side of the plate, catches the eye, and materially detracts from the effect of the chief light of the picture, which is the grand cascade. The gain of really sublime effect, produced by hiding these offending pigmies, is surprising. Figures injudiciously introduced into a landscape, are in a much greater degree injurious to its effect, than good ones could be beneficial; they very often diminish, and rarely enhance, the beauty. In saying this, we only allude to grand natural scenes, where solitude and sublimity seem the presiding spirits of the place; of course the haunts of men must be represented in their every-day, populous occupation. But when we find pictures of the Giant's Causeway "animated" by a party of exquisite cockneys, or some majestic and hoary ruin-vast, grand, and desolate-invaded by a bevy of boarding-school, parasoled picnic-ers, we decide that the loss of such additions would be to us as gain.

"The Vale of Glencroe," one of the wildest scenes that ever broke upon painter's eye or poet's fancy, forms the crowning gem of Mr. Allom's volume. "Within that dark and narrow dell," a winding road skirts the margin of a brawling torrent, fed by tributary streams which fall from the summits of the overhanging moun

tains in myriad petty cataracts, leaping from rock to rock, among the grassy knolls where the goats and sheep are browsing; clouds hang round the mountain's craggy sides, and above them, in the clearer air, are seen the peaks, where the eagle has her eyrie. In the foreground, a shepherd and his dog are crouching side by side, and with these alone, how intensely beautiful-in feeling, as design -had been this splendid view: but in the very centre of the winding road, a stage coach is rattling along and desecrating the holiness of the whole scene. The views of Stirling Castle, and Linlithgow are extremely fine: the architectural magnificence of these once royal dwellings is admirably represented in the plates; but the "dark abbaye" of holy Melrose excels even these in beauty and interest; the "broken arches," the "shafted oriels," and "the ruined central tower," as here delineated, worthily embody the poet's graphic description. Inverness, Bothwell Castle, and the Bridge of Don, have a degree of flatness given them from their style of engraving, which fails in distinguishing the foliage of the trees. But the last-named plate, the Brig o' Balgownie, is interesting, from the Byron anecdote connected with it.-"Cartlane Crag's Bridge," though a stupendous and beautiful erection, seems like a new arrival, not yet properly located in the picturesque dingle it spans. The cascade of "Corra Lynn, on the Clyde," is a most bright and animated one, reminding us of Southey's Lodore,"Here it comes sparkling, there it lies darkling, this way the water comes down at Lodore.". "Loch Long, from Glencroe;" and "Glencroe, between Loch Long and Cairn Dhu," are two magnificent mountain-scenes. The latter is invested with all the terrific sublimity of a thunder-storm, and the ridiculous accompaniment of a barouche and its screaming occupants being dragged through the defile by frightened horses, at the imminent risk of their lives: we say ridiculous, because, in a picture, such a thing seems a caricature of terror and jeopardy. Perhaps the most perfect design in the volume, is the one representing "West Bow, Edinburgh," with a band of unfortunate Covenanters forced away by soldiery, amid the grief, attempted rescue, and execrations of their friends and relatives: it is but too true a picture of the misery which political and religious intolerance has in all ages inflicted on its unhappy victims.

Loch Fine," with its busy fishing-boats, is a calm, sunshiny picture; so is "Loch Lomond, from below Tarbet," and here the figures of some Roderic Dhu-like Highlanders embarking on the lake, harmonize well with the subject, and do really improve the picture.

We have thus given our critical analysis of the plates, and at such length as to leave small space for any notice of the learned editor's topographical and historical lore. His portion of the work is highly interesting, and interspersed with many amusing and original anecdotes. Allom, Beattie, and Co., merit the highest encouragement in their most beautiful illustrations of Scottish scenery and antiquities.