THE ROYAL HOUSE OF STUART.* SPLENDOUR is quite as much
associated with the ill-fated Stuart family as tragedy ; if, in course of time, clouds gathered round the life of almost every member of it, they had in- variably a golden lining. As it was during the actual history of the family, so it has been since its extinction and the extinction of its pretensions. More tears have been shed. in poetry over it than over any other Royal house, and now, in this truly superb volume, which owes its origin to the recent Stuart Exhibitions, we have a revival of the Stuart splendours. Twice recently we have had occasion to allude to the magnificence of the books that have been called forth by and are memorials of the important Glasgow Exhibition of 1888, owing to the wealth of their illustrations and their magnificent typo- graphy. This book is quite the equal of the very hand- some volumes which dealt with the, artistic treasures and the national antiquities in the Glasgow Exhibition. In size, in appearance, and in the bold and yet not " loud " colouring of its illustrations, it is even more imposing than they were. It is almost oppressively large; it must be spread out on a table, and one must stand up in front of it, if it is to be read and examined at all. There is a risk of its being regarded merely as a drawing-room ornament, whereas there is in it a great deal that is worthy of careful reading or of minute observation. As in connection with the other works to which we have referred, special mention was made of the printing, which was done by the Edinburgh firm of Messrs. Constable, it is only fair to say of the not less exquisite typography of The Royal House of Stuart, that it must be placed to the credit of another Edinburgh firm, Messrs. R. and R. Clark.
What is termed an introduction to the artistic portion of this book, but is really a historico-biographical sketch of some length and more weight, is contributed by Mr. John Skelton. No better man could be fe and than the author of Maitland of Lethington to do such a piece of work, and that in spite— or should we say in consequence P—of his being the almost fanatical advocate of certain pronounced views. He is one of the most picturesque of living writers ; indeed, he is much core successful as an artist in words than as a disputant on istorical questions. Then he loves the Stuarts with a pseudo- zobitical love—with such a love, for example, as Burns ifessed—although he admits their faults, and cannot help cording their misfortunes. The Stuarts were not always, as takes good care to show, an unlucky family. They were werful and patriotic before the Scotch War of Independence. De first King of the race was not much more of a success on e throne than any of those who came after him ; but then, he al worn himself out by his exertions in that war for freedom icing the reign of David Bruce, which was quite as necessary r Scotland as was the War of Independence in which the great )bert played the most successful if not the most noble part. len some of the secondary Stuarts were notable, and their way triumphant, such as the Wolf of Badenoch, still membered in the North of Scotland for having plundered ad burned the splendid Cathedral of Elgin, and his illegiti- Late son Alexander Stuart, one of the ablest, most powerful, most unscrupulous, and most statesmanlike men of his time in Scotland, whose career was summed up by an early annalist in the words : ." Primeva etate, efferus, indomitus ac caterranorum dux, postea mitis, justus, patrise rector, et dives conqueestor extitit." It is hardly necessary to say that Mr. Skelton has a good word for each of the Jameses—even the Third and Fifth—and that he figures once more as the champion of Mary. There can be no objection to his quoting Mr. Fronde —of all men—in support of his own view of Maitland of Lethington. But surely there is too much of the mere ad- vocate in his general assault on " the unscrupulous vindictive. ness of Buchanan," and the general statement that " the Casket Letters have been discredited," is rather the view of a school than of all reasonable judges. A book of this kind, too, would have been as well without the revolting evidence which is supplied in support of the statement that Darnley was "a coarse libertine." There is nothin g new in Mr. Skelton's sketches of the times of " Solomon " James, and of Charles I. and Charles II. As regards the revels of the Restoration, we confess to being a little tired of Pcpys and Miss Stewart, and the " witty " Miss Wells. Mr. Skelton does not, however, rave too much of
Tho Rape House of Stuart. Illustratod by a Series of 40 Plato, in Colours, drawn from Relics of the Stuarts by William Bibb, With an Introduction by John Skelton, 0.13., LEAD., and Desoriptive Notes by W. H. St, John Hope, M.A. London and New York : Macmillan and Co. 1890.
Flora Macdonald. It must be added that several of the men who died or ruined themselves for the later Stuarts—Mont- rose, Dundee, Bolingbroke—are sketched with a light yet firm hand.
The reproductions of a number of the Stuart relics which have figured in various of the exhibitions of recent years, and which are accompanied and explained by notes in which there. is not a superfluous word, are marvels of chromo-lithography. The first four plates give the Regalia of Scotland once pre- served in the Crown Room in Edinburgh Castle. But among- the relics hero illustrated are things to which a more tragic signi- ficance attaches than to the Regalia. Such is the golden rosary- of Queen Mary. Such,..too, is the lock of her hair bequeathed to • Queen Victoria by the eighth Lord Belhaven, and now pre- served in Windsor Castle. As pictured here, that hair was of a brown hue, but one can well believe that when she was younger,. it was of that colour which, according to Burns, is "a sign of amorousness," although it is well to remember in this connection that, according to Mr. George Scharf, whom Mr. St. John Hope prudently quotes, " Mary's hair was of all colours at all times.. She was constantly changing, either by dyeing or wigging." Of not less mournful interest are , the relics of Charles I.,.. which include the shirt he is said to have worn on the day of his execution. The remains of the Young Chevalier are numerous, but they are eclipsed in splendour, though not in historical interest, by the beautiful ivory coffer of Henry,. Cardinal York, the last of the Stuarts, which, now the pro- perty of Mr. Charles Magniac, is said to have come into possession of James I. when he ascended the English throne..
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