Those who know Mr. Craik's happy tact for seizing on the more striking
points of a character or an incident, his acquaintance with our national
history and biography, his love of research, and perseverance in following
up a clue, were prepared to expect both instruction and amusement from his
_Romance of the Peerage_. Nor were they doomed to disappointment. Each
succeeding volume has added to the interest of the work and there can be
little doubt, that the favour with which the first three volumes have been
received by the reading world, will be extended to the one now published,
and which concludes the first series, or main division of Mr. Craik's
projected work.
Our space will permit us to do little more than specify its principal
contents; but when we state that in the present volume Mr. Craik treats of
the _great_ Earl of Cork and the Boyles; of the founders of the Fermor,
Bouverie, Osborne, and Bamfylde families; that he gives us with great
completeness the history of Anne Clifford, the most remarkable woman of her
time; that he furnishes pleasant gossipping pictures of the rise of the
families of Fox, Phips, and Petty; the history of the celebrated claim of
the Trunkmaker to the honours of the Percies,--of the story of the heiress
of the Percies who married Tom Thynn of Longleat Hall; and lastly, that of
Ann of Buccleugh, {415} the widow of the unfortunate Monmouth, we shall
have done more than enough to make our readers wish to share the pleasure
we have derived from turning over Mr. Craik's amusing pages.
Messrs. Sotheby and Wilkinson will sell on Monday next, and two following
days, a valuable collection of books, chiefly the property of a gentleman
deceased, among which we may specify _la Vie Saint Germain L'Auxerrois_
(lettres gothèques), printed on vellum, and quite unique; no other copy
even on paper being known.
We have received the following Catalogues:-- Williams and Norgate's (14.
Henrietta Street, Covent Garden) German Book Circular, a Quarterly List of
New Publications, No. 26.; John Russell Smith's (4. Old Compton Street,
Soho) Catalogue No. 1. for 1851 of an extensive Collection of Choice,
Useful, and Curious Books in most Classes of Literature, English and
Foreign.
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