RANULPH DE ROHAIS. 0 This is a " Romance of English
History," of the very interesting period of STEPHEN and MAUDE. It is not ignorantly or unplea- singly written ; and though neither the characters nor the inci- dents are conceived with much vigour, the work will nevertheless repay the labour of perusal. Its chief excellence is the truth and beauty of some of its de- scriptions of natural scenery. The events take place in Lincoln- shire chiefly ; and the author has shown, as GILPIN did before him, that fen scenery has its picturesque points of view. We should judge the author to be familiar with, perhaps a native of, that Saxon land—or rather land and water. In his former work, the author showed considerable talent in describing natural objects; and we remember preferring the framework of his stories to the stories themselves. The Arctic Tales were, however, of a more varied 'cliai.acter, and the spirit of the adventures was more vigo- rously kept up than in this longer flight of his genius. Ranulph de Rohais is a young knight, supposed to be the son of Eudo de Rohais, the lord of Tortuval, and a follower of the lord of Crevecceur. Ranulph is employed in some difficult and dangerous negotiations by his lord and his supposed father, connected with the clashing parties of Stephen and Maude, then in open war- fare. In the conduct of these matters, mystery besets his steps • it would appear that his natural guardians involve him in difficul- ties that he may not survive them ; but in all his dangers unseen and unexpected succour awaits him. It is indeed evident to the veteran romance-reader, that Sir Ranulph is to turn out some- thing far beyond a vassal knight; and we are not disap- pointed. There is some force of painting in the description of the wild and uncouth giant, who, under the idea that he is driven by a fiend, in spite of his madness, follows a natural im- pulse in the protection of Sir Ranulph. His active enemy, too, the brutal Fleming Van Bloeten-gelt, the mercenary soldier and freebooter, is a well-drawn character. The author is not unac- quainted with Flemish history. Our specimen of the book shall be taken from one of the very beautiful descriptions of the mossy marshes of the last retreat of our bold Saxon ancestors, the watery fastnesses of the Holland. The subject of the following pretty landscape is the convent of St. Marie de Clair-marais.
" As he advanced on his way, the waters of the brook gradually became augmented by contributive currents, which poured into them at frequent intervals, and, after journeying about a mile, the main stream began to grow wider, and to assume the appearance of a river winding among the woods. The ground on either side now became extremely plashy and uncertain, and its banks were, in many places, scarcely discernible, the surface of the water being nearly level with that of the earth, while vast beds of reeds extended themselves in all directions, intermingled with rows of bulrushes, and patches of flag. The various species of willow, osier, sallow, and withy, grew in boundless profusion along the confines of the swamp, sending out long ranks of waving saplings towards the centre of the stream, wherever a ridge of earth lay scarcely covered by the expanded waters, and forming deep recesses in which the broad-leaved water-lily, the red-tufted knot-grass, and the yellow iris, displayed their rival beauties to the sun.
" The borders of the river still appeared to grow more distant from each other as Robert passed on ; and at length the flow of the current was lost in a piece of water which still seemed to increase in size as it stretched forward from the traveller, but, from the marshy state of the ground, he was obliged to trace his course so far within the woods, that he could not discover its full extent. At length, he approached the margin of the meer again, and beheld, not a river, nor an estuary, nor a marsh, but a boundless extent of water, spread out on every side, and
• A Romance of the Twelfth Certary. By the Author of Tales of a Voyager to the Arctic Ocean. 3 vols. London, 1830, terminated only by the horizon: It was not, however, the wide and unbroken surface of a lake that lay before him. On the contrary, the view presented an infinitude of islands, of every shape and dimension, be-. tureen which the water was distributed, in some parts taking the form of canals running between banks of reeds and osier, and in others occupying huge clear spaces, unmarked by ought save flocks of wild fowl ; but there was no boundary which showed its termination, nor could any part be
pointed out as the continuation of the firm land. The appearance of the islands and spots of verdure, which were strewed over this district, added greatly to the novelty and beauty of the scene.
Many of them were no more than collections of aquatic trees and plants,
clustering together on oozy shelves ; others were little nits of soft ground, on which were erected the huts of fishermen, or sheds for the cattle that
browsed on their luxuriant herbage ; but the larger and more distant ones
seemed to contain many houses, and even villages, for the pointed spires of churches were visible above the low ranges of willows that skirted their
edges, while, in all directions, were seen groups and patches of every kind of vegetation that delights in water. Indeed, it was evident that the fluid, though widely distributed, was not of great depth, for its surface was sprinkled with the green summits of numberless plants, whose roots could not be far below it, and several large birds seemed walking on their Iongand stilt-like legs through the water, at some distance from any visible bank or shoal.
" In fact, the fens, at that time, occupied a great part of the three shires of Lincoln, Huntingdon, and Cambridge, and served as an outlet for the waters of twelve of the surrounding counties ; and as, at that pe- riod, both draining and embankment were scarcely known, they presented a surface of upwards of seventy miles in length, the greater part of which was under water, particularly after seasons of rain, when the rivers from.the adjoining country poured down in increased volumes ; and it is on record, that, so confused and so impenetrable were they at the time of the Norman conquest, that the Saxons who retired thither held them out for years, in defiance of the power of William. "The inhabitants of this region were chiefly fishermen and fowlers, who subsisted by providing the upland districts with fish and wild fowl, in exchange for corn and other necessaries, while the few cattle they re- quired found sufficient pasturage upon the islands and the borders of the marshes. Like all natives of watery districts, however, they were a numerous and increasing race, and from their situation little disposed to social intercourse with the inhabitants of other districts.
" On a small island in these fens, at some distance from the firm land, was seated the convent of St. Marie de Clair-marais. The spot of ground which it partly occupied, was one of those holms, or flat pieces of land embanked with willow, which were distributed throughout the watery waste, and had denied to the builder. many of the advantages which a More bold and elevated surface would have given ; yet he had contrived, in some measure, to obviate these difficulties, and render his edifice the centre of attraction of a beautiful group of scenery.
. " The size of the convent declared it to be only the retreat of a small number of nuns, and the simple though elegant structure of its buildings, announced that its endowment was extremely moderate.
" Its external appearance displayed only a gate passing between two OMB towers of solid masonry, and some long walls of rough stonework, overhung with ivy and creeping plants, and bordered by willows, reeds, and bulrushes. Internally, on the right of the small area, into which the gate opened, was erected a range of cells, extending from one of the towers in an angle-towa, rds a.gartiez, and forming with the gotewartwo sidesuf a square. Oppositeto these, on the left, was placed thevhapel, re IrMalllet picturesque edifice, in the shape of a church, between which and the other tower of the gateway, were situated the granary and domesticoffices of the establishment, while the furthest side, or end of the enclo-
sure, was completed by a cloiiter, or covered gallery, open in front, Which served as a means of communication between the cells and the Church, and also allowed the nuns to enjoy the exercise of walking during rainy weather. The remainder of the islet was occupied by a garden, sur- rounded by high walls, embattled after the fashion of the age, and Strengthened by towers and buttresses."
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