and
eccentricities, as well as the straightforward integrity of their
stations are illustrated with peculiar force. Sound moral and knowledge
of the world are occasionally introduced with great tact, for the author
is no stranger to the inmost workings and recesses of the human heart;
and he adapts these lessons, and dovetails them with the narrative, in a
clever and agreeable style.

The outline of the story may be briefly told. The Hon. Philip Martindale
has an action brought against him, at the assizes, for the false
imprisonment of one Richard Smith, as a poacher; although the object of
the defendant was a beautiful girl residing with the defendant. Clara
Rivolta is rudely cross-examined as a witness; whilst the plaintiff's
case is conducted by Horatio Markham, an intelligent young barrister,
whose parents reside in the town where the action is tried. The cousin
of the defendant, Mr. John Martindale, an eccentric old gentleman who
builds an abbey for his titled relative to occupy, whilst he himself
lives in a cottage on the estate; seeks an acquaintance with Markham.
These parties reside at Brigland, and Philip Martindale, a dissipated
lover of the turf, who is dependent on his capricious cousin for his
supplies; and Horatio Markham, the hero, are thus introduced. Then we
have a country curate of the higher order, together with his loquacious
_half_; which are excellent portraits.

John Martindale is one of those eccentric beings--half-aristocrat, and
half-liberal, which are more rare in society than they were fifty years
since; and upon this curious compound turns the narrative. Clara Rivolta
and her mother, Signora Rivolta, the wife of Colonel R. quit their
native Italy, and visit Brigland, where old Martindale, on the
discovery, acknowledges the Signora as the fruit of an early imprudence
on the continent, and finally leaves them a large fortune. Clara is
married to Markham, and Philip Martindale, afterwards Earl of
Trimmerstone, marries a gay, giddy girl, who elopes with a perfumed
puppy of the first fragrance.

The round of the earl's dissipation is but a sorry picture of the
prostitution of rank; but the connexion leads us into a succession of
scenes of fashionable life, which are vividly drawn, as are two or three
of their adjuncts,--a popular west-end preacher, an anti-nervous
physician, the dandy already mentioned, a noble gambler, and a rich city
knight and his aspiring family--all of which are to the