A Hundred Years Ago
THE SPECTATOR, JUNE 20TH, 1829.
HAMPSTEAD HEATH INCLOSURE.
The principal subjects before the Commons were—Mr. Nash, and the public property managed by him ; and the Bill for Enel Hampstead Heath, which was quietly stealing its way Um> Parliament, till an alarm was sounded, and an active local opposition was organized.
The last came on first. It having been moved that the report of the Committee on the Hampstead Heath Bill should be brought up, Mr. Gordon led the opposition, by moving its postponement for three months.
Mr. Bernal, Mr. Lyttleton, and Sir Joseph Yorke, also opposed the Bill. Sir Joseph said that the Metropolis was large enough already ; indeed, he believed that the Government looked with alarm at the daily increase of the people in London. The opposit ion being thus formidable, Mr. Peroeval withdrew the Bill.
TURNER'S ENGLAND.
Mr. Turner, the Royal Academician, has executed a series of views in different parts of England and Wales, which are now exhibited (gratis) at the Egyptian Hall. The intention of Mr. Charles Heath, to whom the drawings belong, is to have them all engraved for a work illustrative of the country; and several are already executed.
" Lancaster_ ands." This is pleasant to those who value the artist, because what there is in the picture of excellence belongs to him and not to his subject. Dreary, lengthened sands, and almost inter- minable sameness, was but a poor subject to work upon ; but Mr. Turner has invested even these with an interest sufficient to detain the passenger to dwell upon the painting.
" Okehampton Castle " perhaps pleased us the least of the whole collection. We do not think that the painter has chosen the happiest point of view : if he had taken it from the road that leads to Launceston instead of from the Moor, he would have had a much finer subject to work upon. It is true, he would not have got such apparent height from the mound on which the castle stands ; but this would have been compensated a hundred times over by having the Oke dashing and brawling from stone to stone immediately beneath, instead of merely catching a glimpse of it stealing away in the distance.
" Launceston." This is another instance of the artist improving a bad subject. Defend us from Launceston and all Cornish boroughs ! By putting the town too far off to be able to distinguish its ugliness, and by putting the castle too distant for the poor monotony of its circles to be traceable, Mr. Turner has succeeded in producing pleasant picture ; but, in good truth, 'tis the scenery, and not the town, that does the business.
" Stonehenge." Here is another fine specimen of the poetical feeling of the painter. What a prodigious mass of overbearing clouds hang around this unexplained pile ! How unliewn, unformed, and misty are these fragments of a world gone by ! The whole tone of the picture tells a tale of something uncommon—alniost unearthly. The sheep, however, and the shepherd, and the shepherd's dog, are intruders, every one : what business have they in a place where everything should be consecrated to the memory of subjects withered but not forgotten ? The sheep should be pounded, the dog hanged, and the shepherd sent to Salisbury Jail, for trespassing against the law—of good taste.
THE DEPRAVATION OF LITERATURE.
The days of learned works, of profound inquiries, patient. researches, and anxious dednetions, are past never to return, but consequently on a shock which may bring things back to rude beginnings, and repeal the whole progress of civilization. It is not an agreeable truth, that depravation Is a condition of diffusion. As knowledge becomes common, its quality is reduced. Instead of essences, the decoction is the form of intellectual nourishment applicable to the many. The times of learned works, or performances finished ad unguem, have been the periods of narrow literary circles ; and as the circle has spread, its food has deteriorated. The same operation has attended the enlargement of the sphere of letters which has followed the increased size of theatres—the vulgar predominate ; and theirs is the dictatorial taste, as they are loudest in their censure and readiest with their applause.
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