delineated with great skill and fidelity,—but I maintain that they do not excite sympathy and interest, and that it would be a mistake in art to place one of them in a central situation, such as that of Colonel Stanburne in this volume. They may be useful in their place, like a lump of ice on a dinner-table.

On the first publication of Wenderholme, the author received a number of letters from people who were quite convinced that they had recognized the originals of the characters. The friends and acquaintances of novelists always amuse themselves in this way; and yet it seldom happens, I believe, that there is any thing like a real portrait in a novel. A character is suggested by some real person, but when once the fictitious character exists in the brain of the author, he forgets the source of the original suggestion, and simply reports what the imaginary personage says and does. It is narrated of an eminent painter, famous for the saintly beauty of his virgins, that his only model for them was an old man-servant, and this is a good illustration of the manner in which the imagination operates. Some of my correspondents made guesses which were very wide of the mark. One lady, whom I had never thought about in connection with the novel at all, recognized herself in Mrs. Prigley, confessed her sins, and promised amendment; an illusion scarcely to be regretted, since it may have been productive of moral benefit. A whole township fancied that it recognized Jacob Ogden in a wealthy manufacturer, whose face had not been present to me when I conceived the character. A correspondent recognized Dr. Bardly as the portrait of a surgeon in Lancashire who was never once in my mind's eye during the composition of the novel. The Doctor was really suggested by a Frenchman, quite ignorant of the Lancashire dialect, and even of English. But, of all these guesses, one of the commonest was that Philip Stanburne represented the author himself, probably because he was called Philip. There is no telling what may happen to us before we die; but I hope that the supposed original of Jacob Ogden may preserve his sanity to the end of his earthly pilgrimage, and that the author of this volume may not end his days in a monastery.

P. G. H.

CONTENTS.

PART I.

Chapter

I. Manners and Customs of Shayton 1

II. Grandmother and Grandson. 5

III. At the Parsonage 16

IV. Isaac Ogden becomes a Backslider. 29

V. Father and Son 42

VI. Little Jacob is lost 52

VII. Isaac Ogden's Punishment. 59

VIII. From Sootythorn to Wenderholme. 69

IX. The Fugitive. 87

X. Christmas at Milend. 94

XI. The Colonel goes to Shayton 106

XII. Ogden's New Mill. 119

XIII. Stanithburn Peel 130

XIV. At Sootythorn 136

XV. With the Militia 143

XVI. A Case of Assault. 150

XVII. Isaac Ogden again 155

XVIII. Isaac's Mother comes 161

XIX. The Colonel at Whittlecup. 170

XX. Philip Stanburne in Love 174

XXI. The Wenderholme Coach 179

XXII. Colonel Stanburne apologizes. 185

XXIII. Husband and Wife public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@40874@[email protected]#Page_193" class="pginternal"