The engraving, 'the Ferry of the Orontes,' is a pretty thing-forcibly reminding us of old times and scenes in the country, "In the days when we went ferrying, But a word or two of Heidelberg, whence (as we said) our author-editor writes her preface and many of her poems. "All the world talks of the castle of Heidelberg, and not without reason. The stranger, however, who comes and sees it once, or at most twice, who flies, as it were, through its ruined chambers, can know but little of its real magnificence and interest. He is told that this is Elizabeth's pleasure garden, that this is the gate which was built for her, and which bears her name; this the vast eating hall, in which stood a hundred tables, and which was built by her imperial husband for her entertainment; and this the palace theatre, afterwards a flower-garden. He is shown the old palace of Kaiser Ruprecht, with its arabesque chimney, the work of Kaiser Friedrich. He is shown, on the south front of the chapel, the long array of German emperors, the great granite pillars, and the one pillar of marble, which were brought from Charlemagne's palace in Ingelheim; he drinks perhaps at the Prince's Wells, and walks in the little gloomy ravine, deep among the ruins, and shady with an abundant growth of beautiful trees, which is called Mathieson Thal or Valley, and where he is told the poet used to write; he goes on further, and is told of electoral princes and emperors, who built and beautified and ennobled this favorite place; he stands astonished and delighted before the splendid arabesque front of the palace of Otto Heinrich; above which rises the octagon tower of Friedrich II; he sees with rapture the exquisite ornament of every doorway, window-frame and chimney-piece, every single stone of which is a study; he could spends days and weeks there, and still find something new; but he must still hurry on, for he has yet to be told of libraries, and picture-halls and halls of knights and armories; he has yet to see the chapel; he has yet to walk on the broad flags of the palace balcony; and perhaps also to see the great tun of the for mal Carl Theodore, who loved straight lines so passionately that he formed the pleasing idea of cutting the Neckar straight!—all this has the traveller to survey in a few hours. He carries away with him a splendid but a somewhat confused memory of what he has beheld; but nevertheless, the recollection of Heidelberg Castle lives in his mind like the delight he had when a boy over the palaces of the Arabian Tales; and he wonders not when he observes the eyes of the kind-hearted natives of the place sparkle at the mention of their place, or when he hears of some one who has long been absent thinking of it, with feelings akin to home-sickness." Such is Heidelberg. But we must on. "Heath's Historical Annual," for this season, embraces the history of the great civil war in England, of King Charles and the Parliament. This annual possesses a higher value than most of the others in the historical passages which it illus trates. "The Forget Me Not"-" appealing by the magic of its name," &c. is as usual got up in good style: but we remark nothing worth copying. "The Book of the Boudoir," or the Court of Queen Victoria, is a series of portraits of the Female Nobility, with poetical illustrations. But our article is already too long, and we must "begin to leave off." Of all the gift-books, the most beautiful we have yet seen is the edition of Lockhart's Spanish Ballads, by MURRAY. In variety and beauty of illustration it is really rich. Would that we could by some daguerreotypic process transfer the illustrations of the Fall of Granada, or any of the many beauties which are everywhere apparent! But our imp says "Ohe jam satis!" and so say we-ever hoping our readers are satisfied. We may talk more of these again-and of the domestic productions, of which we would now only say, "We are not in any way ashamed." NEW PUBLICATIONS BY THE APPLETONS.-This house, so frequently and justly commended for the taste and elegance displayed in their publications, have in press and will soon publish, with pictorial illustrations by eminent artists, the " Life of Napoleon," "Vicar of Wakefield," "Gems from Travellers," and "Robinson Crusoe," -the favorite of the learned and the unlearned, the youth and the adult: the book that was to constitute the library of Rousseau's Emilius-the picture of self-education, self-inquiry, self-happiness-scarcely a fiction, although it includes all the magic of Romance.' From a hasty glance at the proof-sheets, we perceive that the English edition will not bear comparison in point of material or execution, and may predict in these works a valuable acquisition to any library. . . . “Tales with the Chroniclers," an elegant little volume, full of familiar "tales of chivalry," is on our table from the same house: a book admirably adapted for those to whom it is addressed. This also is adorned with many handsome wood-cuts. To READERS AND CORRESPONDENTS.-Again, "as the last pages are passing through the press," we would add a word-as, for a time, valedictory. As a distinguished clergyman recently on leaving his congregation for a tour in Europe, "could no more think of writing a farewell sermon-than a sermon of interjections," so we, in summing up the accounts of the year, can only say-FAREWELL! |