Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 66, No 409, November 1849Various
History
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 66, No 409, November 1849
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
Having given precedence to the ladies, we look around for some of their
male colleagues who may deserve a word. Amongst the new candidates for
the favour of romance-readers is a writer, signing himself Marquis
de Foudras, and whose debut, if we err not, was made in conjunction
with a M. de Montepin, in a romance entitled _Les Chévaliers du
Lansquenet_--a long-winded imitation of the Sue school, extremely
feeble, and in execrable taste, but which, nevertheless, obtained
a sort of circulating library success. Encouraged by this, Messrs
Foudras and Montepin achieved a second novel, upon the whole a shade
better than the first; and then, dissolving their association, set
off scribbling, each "on his own hook;" and threaten to become as
prolific, although not as popular, as the great Dumas himself. The
last production of M. de Foudras bears the not unattractive title of
_Les Gentilhommes Chasseurs_. It is a series of sporting sketches and
anecdotes, of various merit, in most of which the author--who would
evidently convince us that he is a genuine marquis, and not a plebeian
under a pseudonyme--himself has cut a more or less distinguished
figure. To the curious in the science of venery, as practised in
various parts of France, these two volumes may have some interest;
and the closing and longest sketch of the series, a tale of shooting
and smuggling adventures in the Alps, is, we suspect, the best thing
the author has written. Unless, indeed, we except his account of a
stag-hunt in Burgundy in 1785, in which he gives a most animated and
graphic account of the mishaps of a dull-dog of an Englishman, who
arrives from the further extremity of Italy to join the party of French
sportsmen. Of course Lord Henry is formal, peevish, and unpolished;
the very model, in short, of an English nobleman. Disdaining to mount
French horses, which, he politely informs his entertainer, have no
speed, and cannot leap, he has had four hunters brought from England,
upon one of which, "a lineal descendant of _Arabian Godolphin_, and
whose dam was a mare unconquered at Newmarket," he follows the first
day's hunt, by the side of a beautiful countess, by whose charms he is
violently smitten, and who rides a little old Limousin mare, of piteous
exterior, but great merit. The pace is severe, the country heavy,
the Arabian's grandson receives the go-by from the Limousin cob, and
shows signs of distress. The following passage exhibits the author's
extraordinary acquaintance with the customs and usages of the English
hunting-field,--"We were still a-head, and had leaped I know not how
many hedges, ditches, and _ravines_, when I observed that Lord Henry,
_who had refused to take either a whip or spurs_, struck repeated
blows on the flank of his horse, which, still galloping, writhed under
the pressure of its master's fist. Looking with more attention, I
presently discovered in _milord's_ hand a sharp and glittering object,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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