Round about Helvellyn. Twenty-four Plates by Thomas Hawn. With Notes
by the Author. (Seeley and Co.)—These plates "have," we are told, "been produced entirely by the artist, and are from his own paintings." The lakes which the region taken in by Mr. Huron's enterprise contains are Windermere, Ulleswater, Hyde, Grasmere, Thirlmere, and Coniston. The human interest of the volume centres in Wordsworth. It is, indeed, an offering of admiration to that poet's genius, almost as much as it is an effort to present some of the finest scenery of the Lake Country. The artist's style and the process of reproduction seem to favour the sterner rather than the gentler aspect of nature. " Kirkston Pass," for instance, seems to us more effective than "Grasmere." Of Thirlmere, as it is, the artist can only speak with regret. We gather that he has not seen it since it was dammed-up. One has to bow to the inevitable; but a feeling of good taste, even of the most elementary kind, might have prevented those who had to execute a deplorable necessity, from recording their names on the spot which they have ruined. Manchester must have water, it may be conceded, and at the expense of a noble landscape. But why a tablet commemorating the names of Manchester officials ? They ought to have hoped and prayed to be forgotten.
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