29 MAY 1830, Page 15

MISS MITFORD'S RURAL SKETCHES.*

WE are not sorry that Miss MITFORD has gathered together her various contributions to the Annuals, and printed them in a volume ; but we regret, in taking up this fourth series of tales, to find none but old-acquaintance ; for we are always glad of fresh intelligence from the pleasant Village of Aberleigh. Miss MIT- FORD commenced in a lofty vein of tragedy—but she excels in the humble and lowly tale of rural weal and wo. It is curious to watch the mistakes of genius. Is it because Miss L. E. L. also considers that she has erred in following the flowery path of poetry, that she too is venturing upon an untried route ? Mr. BULWER, in his new novel, has been obliging enough to announce to the public that such is her intention ; and we hope that he is not mistaken, more particularly if the eulogy upon the nicety and shrewdness of her powers of observation be not undeserved. We do not suspect Mr. BULWER'S sincerity in his remarks, highly- coloured though they be; yet we may be allowed fo suggest, that the mutual bepraising of authors is only next in point of odious- ness to the old spirit of bickering and jealousy. The Great Un known first set the fashion of puffing favoured contemporaries, in those little complimentary notes of which publishers well knew the value :—he stood in no need of being puffed in return. We observe the practice, being found to have its advantages, has been gaining ground.

We have had many writers who have excelled in the description of English scenery ; others, in the portraiture of the moral character of Englishmen;. but Miss MITFORD is the first writer who has combined a close and faithful picture of humble country life with beautiful but accurate sketches of genuine English landscape. She has the truth of CRABBE without his austerity: no doubt we miss something of his force, for both her manner and her matter better beseem the female pen than the stem and gloomy temper of the workhouse painter. There is a character about the country in England which we find nothing to resemble on the Continent of Europe : its peculiar greenness, the richness of its hedges, the venerableness of its trees, the abundance of its streams and rivu- lets, and the beauty of the cattle which dapple its meads, are unrivalled and almost unresembled. Of this scenery, one of the most faithful painters is HOFLAND ; and we do not think we are paying Miss MITFORD a bad compliment in saying, that in the description of true English country, she is exactly with her pen what HOFLAND is with his pencil.

• Our Village: Sketches of Rural Character anti Scenery. By Mary Russe Iditford. Fourth Series. Loudon, MO.