Cameron is a novel of the old school ; written,
however, with a good deal of modern talent. Its plan resembles the complicated webs of doubt and disappointment which used to be woven by the novelist of five-and-twenty years ago : its dialogues and scenes are supported with a truth and force which sometimes very strongly remind us of the authoress of Self-Control, and some- times again of the authoress of Marriage and Inheritance,—two works that appeared with the imprimatur of WALTER SCOTT, and were warmly received by the public, as indeed they well deserved. Cameron opens in England, and commences with a gloomy picture of the dull seat of a proud and pompous nobleman. A daughter elopes and marries in Scotland ; an event which changes the scene of the novel, and introduces us among several well- drawn and well-supported characters. There are some pictures of middle and country life in Scotland, which. for. apparent just- ness, and certainly for force of delineation, are scarcely to be sur- passed. We are again strongly reminded of the authoress of Marriage. The story terminates with a grand revelation of stolen and changed children, the recovery of titles and estates, and a happy settlement of all parties concerned, —not at all to our tastes, but which are necessary, we suppose, ceder a dearth of invention, for the gratification of the genuine novel-reader. We will not take a specimen from the Scotch portion of the book, for it hangs too closely together to be separated ; but the portrait of an English Hereditary Legislator, and a description of the manner an which he regulates his family, will perhaps prove equally amusing. in a central county of England, surrounded by domains more exten-
sive than fertile, stood the ancient and somewhat decayed residence of Earl Marsden, a mansion which, however antique, scarcely merited the high-sounding appellation of castle ; for, except that the entrance front was enclosed in a paved court and flanked by a few round towers of clumsy architecture, it had no claim to such distinction—none whatever to the rank of a baronial habitation. It had no remains of feudal strength to atone for a certain degree of desolation in the whole, or to awaken those feelings with which the relics of former greatness are contem- plated. It was a long, low building, which owed as little to modern im- provement as it had done to original design, with mullion window frames and lattice casements, calculated rather to exclude than admit the cheer-
ing light of heaven : it was nevertheless sufficiently capacious for the ac- commodation of a numerous establishment. A wide but gloomy hall, and as dark a corridor, led to several reception-rooms equally sombre, the principal of which were wainscoted with black oak, and hung with the portraits of many generations. These apartments, furnished for the marriage of their present proprietor's great-grandfather with the heiress of a house as ancient, had undergone no change whatever since that period, except that, under the united influence of time and damp-, the gilding of tables, chairs, and picture-frames, instead of its original lustre, had assumed a hue similar to the dark polished floor; and that a small Persian carpet, which covered about one-third of this floor, had been twice new grounded by the fair hands of two industrious Countesses.
" It was truly a cheerless residence, and one that, when shrouded in December fogs, might tempt a hypochondriac to hang or drown him. self. Not that fog was there confined to any peculiar season ; for, situ- ated low, and in a marshy soil, few places were more subject to that bane of health and enjoyment than the wide-spreading grounds of Marsden Castle ; and it might partly be attributable to the influence of atmosphere that its inhabitants were more than characteristically dull.
" Equally exempt from the interruptions of friends and the encroach- ments of neighbourhood, Lord Marsden, ensconced within a fortress of prejudices, lived among his own domestic circle unimproving and unim- proved,—disliking the world, which lie was too proud to court, and too poor to interest,—more vain of the past than ambitious for the future, and solacing himself, in lieu of living society, by a continual reference to that which was extinct,—cherishing a tenacious reverence for every thing said and done by his ancestors,—and thinking that no conversation could afford such intellectual delight as that which he enjoyed when descanting upon the wisdom and power of those honoured relatives whose portraits were fading upon the wainscot, and whose remains crowded his family mausoleum—a building darkly conspicuous upon the only rising ground within view, and serving as a continual remeinbrancer, not of life's brief tenure, but that he represented eleven titled predecessors. " The Marsden property, at one period considerable, had decreased with years, for it belonged to a race whose younger branches, as proud as they were idle, preferred rather to drain from the coffers of their fa- thers than by any valvr exertion to furnish coffers for themselves. The present inheritor, therefore, somewhere about the end of the eighteenth century, and at the calculating age of forty, found himself in the possession of estates mortgaged nearly to their full value, and with- out other means of preserving them than the common expedient of ma- trimony. " Matrimony was not, however, so very appalling to his lordship as if it had been a novel idea, for he had canvassed the subject in converse- tions with his late mother, and had been therefore accustomed to consider it as a natural consequence of, and the only means of perpetuating heir- ship. Neither had he much trouble in making his selection. A wealthy banker readily paid the price, and pureleased the coronet for his only daughter, who with decent conformity exchanged a steel collar for a dia- mond necklace, and the terminable restraints of a school-room for.the interminable restraints of Lord Marsden's society ; the castle of an earl being associated in her mind with feudal grandeur, modern luxury, taste, elegance, and refinement. Not unwillingly, therefore, did she bid adieu to her indulgent father, and to an affectionate brother, though doomed to companionship with one so superlatively proud as her noble husband, and with whom she had not one idea in common. Great therefore was her disappointment when, after a tedious journey of three days, she drew near to that abode of anticipated triumph, and Lord Marsden, awaking from a long indulged reverie, pointed out to her notice the low, flat country into which they were slowly descending, boasted of being its sole proprietor, and congratulated himself on the many privileges which he consequently enjoyed, especially that of total exemption from the annoy- ances of neighbourhood. " Indeed, to judge from the extraordinary animation with which he aroused himself when entering the shade of his extensive woods, there had no object met his eye, since last he gazed upon it, half so delightful to him, while the young Countess could scarcely imagine any thing less interesting, save the noble owner. Nor, accustomed as she had been to the elegant keeping of modern villas, could she comprehend the feelings which preferred self-appropriation and solitude to participation and so. ciety. Not a gleam of sunshine penetrated the impervious foliage—not a vista presented itself through which the eye might catch a glimpse of dis- tant cheerfulness ; and now, all anxiety and apprehension, in vain did she look forward in order to catch the first outline of that stately edifice which she had portrayed in her imagination as crowning some wooded eminence, surrounded by its pleasure grounds, and ornamented by all the luxuries of ancient and modern splendour. It was not till the carriage turned abruptly under an arched gateway, that the gratification of her curiosity, and the annihilation of her hopes, received at the same mo- ment their full confirmation. The matrimonial tote-k. tete was for the present ended; but the dulness of her impressions since its commence- ment was not likely to be enlivened by any thing presented at the close. " Petulance and low spirits were the first consequences of so great a disappointment; and she pined long,, but vainly, for a return of even
her former liberty—for the winter holidays in Manchester Square, and the summer vacations at Blackheath. For frequently, while Lord Mars- den sat, as was his wont, and descanted, during the whole length of a winter's evening, upon the history of eleven generations, omitting nei- ther marriage, inter-marriage, nor death during the detail, his mute com- panion, uninterested by the sacred theme, would indulge herself in many
a wakeful reverie, while visions of former girlish enjoyments flitted be- fore her excited fancy like figures in a phantasmagoria; and these bright fantasies were almost the only visiters which shared her solitary gloom." —P. 1-8.
The next is a breakfast scene: the family party, with the noble Pomposo at their head. " A few weeks after this misalliance (as Lady Gertrude called her niece's marriage) had taken place, and the bridal party had been disposed of, Lady Anne having accompanied her sister to Scarborough, the Countess, her only son, a youth scarcely out of his teens, and Lady Gertrude Percy, stood, according to custom, round the breakfast-table waiting for the Earl. His private library communicated with the breakfast-room; and no sooner was the first stroke of nine heard to reverberate upon the house clock, than he let himself out from that learned retreat, where, to borrow the expression of a contemporary nobleman, ' he read all day, and no one was ever the wiserf and it would have been but little gratifying to him could he have remarked with how much more of fear than pleasure his approach was met. Being, however, one of those persons always so self-engrossed as to have no leisure for mortifying discoveries, restraint passed current with him for deference, and awe for duty. His morning salutation never amounted to more than a low bow to his lady and sister, accompanied by a wave of the hand generally, signifying that his children were recognized, and that every one might be seated. Like many who have but little to show for their time, he was a tenacious timeist ; and wo to the defaulter who should happen not to be present at this cere- monious greeting. Lady Eleanor was this morning a defaulter ; and the frown upon her father's brow, as he glanced his stern eye toward the va- cant place commonly occupied by her, imposed even more than usual silence upon the little group. Lord Lorimer changed colour as he fol- lowed the direction of that portentous eye ; but Lord Marsden turning for a few moments to the window, from which he had a full view of the mausoleum, apparently a more interesting subject of contemplation than any animated object in the room, his son had time to recover some degree of self-possession ere those stern regards were to be again en- countered.
" Conversation at Lord Marsden's table generally took its tone from himself, if that might be called conversation where one leading person, and that person a tiresome egotist, contrived to engross it exclusively. Fancying himself an antiquarian, when he was merely a genealogist, his knowledge of genealogy originating in pride, rendered it the most disa- greeable acquirement he could have cultivated. Pride of ancestry was his ruling passion ; and although perhaps it is a passion less tolerated in society than many of a more vicious tendency, it was nevertheless one which was not, in his case, without some advantages, for it was to this passion that he owed his voluntary seclusion from a world in which length of pedigree, without the concomitants of talent, accomplishments, or wealth, meets but with little of that consideration which the pride of ancestral dignity is so much disposed to exact. " Every opinion at Marsden Castle yielded to that of its arrogant Lord. Even Lady Gertrude was silenced in his presence ; for though overbear- ing to all besides, in her pride she remembered that her brother was an Earl.
" Upon the occasion just alluded to, a more than usual silence pre- vailed, and the unsocial meal had nearly ended without the utterance of a single word, when his Lordship, in accents savouring of reproach, thus ventured to address his sister :- " "Tis rather extraordinary that your Ladyship should be so very much mistaken in the object of Sir Charles Monckton's attentions, whose pre- ference for Eleanor is truly vexatious, particularly as I was led to believe that he intended making an offer to Lady Anne. Really, sister, the result of your observations is far less agreeable than I was led to believe. That my eldest daughter should not take precedence, is quite out of rule; Sir Charles should have known better ; however, it is not a match to be re- jected upon a mere point of etiquette. There are few better hereditary estates in the country—few older baronets in England than Sir Charles Monckton. In every other respect, except in his choice between my daughters, he fully merits my approbation. That is an oversight, how- ever, which I did not expect from him.' "
After the change of scene to Scotland, the quality of the story becomes deeper ; and there occur, more particularly, some na- tural scenes of pathos, drawn with considerable power. The whole families of the Morrison and the Monros are really ad- mirably done.
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