The Editing of this Journal will, for the future, be SOLELY in the hands of the Proprietress. It is, therefore, requested that all communications will be addressed in her name to the Office, 3, Raquet Court, Fleet Street. MEMORIAL TO THOMAS HOOD. WE have at length the pleasure of informing our readers that the inauguration of the monument to Thomas Hood, erected by public subscription, took place at three o'clock in the afternoon of Tuesday, July 18th. It was a matter of considerable regret to us that we received intimation of the appointed day too late for possible announcement in this Journal. We state this as an apology for apparently breaking faith with our readers, having promised them that due notice of the affair should be given. We went to Kensal Green Cemetery expecting to meet an interested few, but to our surprise and gratification we found a goodly crowd of all classes, assembled to do honour to the memory of the poet-one, who sang the 'Song of the Shirt,'"-a simple lyric, unclassical in its subject, unmystified in its treatment, and holding for its elements of attraction the mere spiritual expressions of common sympathies,-a few deep tones poured from the music of one inspired heart-harp; finding an answer in the echoing strings of a myriad bosoms. Mr. Monckton Milnes addressed the assembled public, and during his speech gave it as his opinion that Thomas Hood would be chiefly recorded as an English humorist. With all due deference to Mr. Monckton Milnes's judgment, we think that Thomas Hood will be better remembered by his few poems than by his countless volumes of Comic Annuals. The unborn will read his Bridge of Sighs, Miss Kilmansegg, The Haunted House, The Song of the Shirt, and numerous other poems, much oftener than they will his Laughter from Year to Year. It is our opinion that Hood will he held by future generations rather as a poet than as a punster, and we have a belief that many of our readers will agree with us on this point. The spot where Hood lies will now be marked, not by emblazoned marble nor pompous pile, but by a purely and simply beautiful monument, which we trust will be considered alike worthy of the dead poet and the living sculptor. Most heartily and gratefully do we thank those who have enabled us to effect that which, left undone, would have disgraced the annals of English literature. The Subscription is not of vast amount, but the Subscribers We include so varied a list of classes, and the sums were given with such earnest good-will, that the lowest trifle, so rendered, by heart as well as hand, outweighs in mental estimation the huge "nuggets" often subscribed by selfish ostentation or wealthy indifference. honour the noble duke who sent his liberal contribution, accompanied by a still more valuable expression of his sense of Hood's merit, and the approval of the cause. We respect the Working Girl," who diffidently offered "a shilling" as all she could spare," and we have a strong sympathy with the "Errand Boy," who volunteered a "sixpence," on the score of some natural connection between his mother "making shirts" and Hood's immortal song. We are proud of our subscribers, we say, and freely confess that the "Hood Memorial" will be a pleasant way-mark for our old age to look back upon. 66 Some of our readers may wish to know what the Memorial is like. We will give them the clearest description in our power, but to form a correct opinion of the chaste beauty and appropriateness of the erection, our readers must see it, when we feel certain they will unanimously admit that the work has been well done, and that the artist, Mr. Matthew Noble, has proved himself as generous in spirit as he is distinguished by genius. The MEMORIAL consists of a large bronze Bust, elevated on a pedestal of polished Aberdeen granite, the whole twelve feet high. In front of the bust, which has been modelled from authentic portraits, and is pronounced by those who were familiar with the features of Hood, to be an excellent resemblance, are laid and entwined together wreaths of the laurel, the myrtle, and the immortelle. These are of bronze also. On a slab beneath the bust appears Hood's simple, self-inscribed epitaph:"HE SANG THE SONG OF THE SHIRT.'" Upon the projecting front of the pedestal is this inscription: IN MEMORY THOMAS HOOD, Born 23RD MAY, 1796; Died 3RD MAY, 1845. ERECTED PUBLIC SUBSCRIPTION, A.D. 1854. Underneath are bronze relievi of the lyre and comic mask, 226 flung together, as were true pathos and matchless humour in all Hood's writings; but the most attractive portions of this sculptural tribute, are the oval bronze medallions inserted in the sides of the pedestal, illustrating The Bridge of Sighs and The Dream of Eugene Aram. In the first-named composition, the poor victim of deluded hope and love is seen just raised from the watery grave, into which she had rushed headlong, to escape from the pangs of shame and remorse which rendered life insupportable. The unfortunate and beautiful girl is represented as being lifted from the water by two compassionate men with tearful eyes, while a youth stands by struck with wondering emotion at the wreck of so much loveliness: Take her up tenderly, Lift her with care, Fashioned so slenderly, Young and so fair! In the second bas-relief, Eugene Aram appears sitting beneath a tree, watching the light-hearted gambols of happy children just released from school, while his frame is convulsed with mental agony and the writhings of his conscience-smitten spirit are seen in every lineament of his powerfully depicted face. The artist has introduced a skilful contrast to this figure, in that of the studious boy lying near, and calmly reading The Death of Abel: Like sportive deer they coursed about, And shouted as they ran, Turning to mirth all things of earth, As only boyhood can. But the usher sat remote from all, A melancholy man! we Copies in bronze of these fine medallions were, trust, seen in the recent Exhibition of the Royal Academy by many who will be prevented beholding the originals at Kensal Green. For this monument Mr. Noble has received 4007. that being the sum left at our disposal after the purchase of additional ground near the grave, advertising, and other expenses. The amount affords but an inadequate remuneration for so important and costly an erection, but the sculptor's sympathies went warmly with us, and he will be rewarded by our lasting gratitude, and that of Hood's countless admirers. We have thus discharged with quiet success the task we entered upon with hopeful zeal. Before concluding this announcement, we must offer our sincere thanks to Mr. Murdo Young and Mr. John Watkins, whose assiduous co-operation and esteemed friendship materially lightened the labour and responsibility attached to such an undertaking. Many of our readers and subscribers may stroll to Kensal Green on a summer evening, and our endeavour will be amply repaid, if they give an approving glance on the memorial to "Poor Hood." In compliance with the promise made at the opening of this subscription, we now publish a list of the contributors : SUBSCRIBERS TO THE HOOD MEMORIAL. -Brought forward Miss Eliza Cook C. W. Dilke, Esq. and C. W. Dilke, Jun. Esq. Charles Lushington, Esq.... Small Sums from Coventry S. C. Hall, Esq. F.S.A. and Mrs. S. C. Hall... all of Sheffield The Right Hon. the Earl of Ellesmere John Macgregor, Esq. M.P. Charles Baring Wall, Esq. M.P. R. Monckton Milnes, Esq. M.P. Bryan Walter Procter, Esq. (Barry Cornwall) Charles Mackay, Esq. LL.D. Mrs. Theodore Martin (Miss Helen Faucit) Adam Rivers Steele, Esq. Francis Bennoch, Esq. Messrs. Cox, Brothers, and Wyman Frederick Heath, Esq. Wyndham Harding, sq..... James Wyld, Esq. and Family Charles Edward Mudie, Esq. Frederick Muspratt, Esq. Rev. Thomas Wilkinson George Thomas Saul, Esq. James Coppock, Esq. Charles Conway, Esq. Collected by H. Munro, Esq. Hull Half-crowns and Shillings from Preston Collected by M. J. O'Connor, Esq. Morpeth A few Friends at the Golden Cross, Woolwich Henry Russell, Esq. James Adam Gordon, Esq. Herbert Williams, Esq. and Mrs. H. Williams £93 13 0 550 550 Thirty Gentlemen frequenting the Red Lion Coffee Rooms, Old Street, St. Luke's Penzance Literary Institution W. Hollins, Esq. 5 5 5 0 6 500 500 550 550 4 0 3 0 330 330 316 330 300 2 0 220 2 20 220 2 0 200 220 2 2 22 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 20 2 2 2 2 220 2 2 220 220 2 15 0 211 6 229 220 2 2 220 1 11 The Right Hon. The Earl of St. Germans W. J. Fox, Esq. M.P. C. Gavan Duffy, Esq. M.P. B. Oliveira, Esq. M.P. W. H. Gore Langton, Esq. M.P. Alfred Tennyson, Esq. Lady Morgan W. M. Thackeray, Esq. W. C. Macready, Esq. J. Westland Marston, Esq. Sydney Y. Dobell, Esq. (Sydney Yendys) 150 150 150 1 2 6 100 110 1 1 0 100 1 1 0 110 Brought forward W. C. Bennett, Esq. Miss Harriet Martineau J. H. Mole, Esq. Edward Copping, Esq. J. Balfour, Esq. and Mrs. Balfour H. W. Ansdell, Esq. Liverpool... Charles Millward, Esq. Charles Edward Rawlings, Esq. James Hardy Macrae, Esq. Henry Harrison, Esq. 0 10 6 0 10 6 100 110 T. B. Blackburn, Esq. 0 10 6 John B. Spence, Esq. 0 10 6 110 Henry Christian, Esq. 0 10 6 1 1 0 A Frenchman 0 10 6 1 1 0 1 10 George Herbert Watkins, Esq. 0 10 6 1 1 0 W. M. Phillips, Esq. 0 10 6 Alfred D. Toovey, Esq. 0 10 6 Rev. John Clay 1 1 0 J. Breckett, Esq. 0 10 6 1 1 0 Thomas Duckett, Esq. 0 10 6 1 1 0 James Bonser, Esq. 0 10 6 1 1 0 Sydney Varden, Esq. 0 10 0 1 Colonel Fitzmaurice 0 10 0 Messrs. W. Bone and Son Charles Clark, Esq.... Charles Hardwick, Esq. Rev. J. C. Collins E. W. Watkins, Esq. Samuel Carter, Esq. W. Wagstaff, Esq. Major D'Arcy G. A. Walker, Esq.... 1 1 0 Percy B. St. John, Esq. 0 10 6 John Thompson, Esq. 0 10 6 Captain Armstrong... John Baker, Esq. 1 0 0 W. Jeffrey, Esq. 0 10 0 Messrs. Temple and Winsor 1 0 0 D. E. S. Westbourne, Esq. 010 6 J. Hackblock, Esq.. W. Hackblock, Esq. Rev. Dr. P. Murray C. Hill, Esq. ... Philip Westcott, Esq. James T. Foard, Esq. W. R. Copeland, Esq. 1 1 0 1 1 0 W. C. Corsan, Esq.... Captain Jesse 0 10 0 1 1 0 8. D. Richards, Esq. 0 10 6 William Pearce, Esq. 1 1 0 S. M. Westall, Esq. 0 10 0 John Edward Naylor, Esq. Charles Bowring, Esq. Andrew E. Byrne, Esq. 1 1 0 A. W. Paulton, Esq. 0 10 0 Samuel Job, Esq. John Leigh Clare, Esq. Swinton Boult, Esq. 1 1 0 The Tisdall Family T. A. Broughton, Esq. James Curnock, Esq. 0 10 0 0 10 0 0 10 6 James Spence, Esq. 1 1 0 S. P. Jackson, Esq. 0 10 6 William Henry Darnt, Esq. 1 1 0 Oliver Coathupe, Esq. 0 10 0 James Irvine, Esq.... 1 1 0 H. Ferrall, Esq. 0 10 0 George Fournier, Esq. 0 10 0 Alfred Mallalieu, Esq. The Assistants of Phillips and Wearing 0 10 6 G. J. Captain Malkin John G. Shaw, Esq. Mayor of Bristol J. Lang, Esq. and R. Lang, Esq. G. H. Davidson, Esq. Mrs. Richard Barnett E. Grant, Esq. C. Cadogan, Esq. B. Smith, Feq. C. Barker, Esq. The Misses Gibson, Birmingham Shillings from Salisbury Pence, per W. Davis, Bristol From the Chichester Literary Institution L. Watkins, Esq. F. Hogg, Esq. Christopher Cook, Esq. Miss Ebsworth Mrs. E. L. Wilkinson Jacob Brett, Esq. John Roberts, Esq. Leopold J. Lardner, Esq.... 0 10 6 0 10 0 0 10 0 0 10 6 0 10 0 10 0 0 10 0 0 2 6 026 £458 7 £453 95 arbour-such an arbour-all fir-trees and ivy, with a queer seat and a queerer table, made of wooden knees and elbows, all crinkem-crankem-neither figure nor fashion about them, but still very cosey and romantic. A heavy shower certainly dripped though, and a spider or cater. pillar occasionally looked in upon the inhabiting party; but accustomed as we were to the hydropathic system, and having often been on familiar terms with "jolly great what-do-you-call-ems," we managed to indite many a line of dreamy nonsense in the sequestered nook, and even entertained a notion that it was far preferable to the Cockney and formal erections, which by rural courtesy we are compelled to recognise as "bowers" and summer-houses." Then there came countless files of apple, plum, cherry, and pear trees; whole regiments of gooseberry and currant bushes; a perfect prairie of strawberries; with wide lands of beans, peas, cabbages, and the whole essentials of Covent Garden vegetation. We admired even the crazy old shed in the distance, where the sieves were packed, and the ploughs and rollers housed. We thought the moss-mantled water-cask, standing at its corner, a very poetic object, especially as "Dumpling" stood drinking his fill at it when he returned from market. He was a dear, old, fubsy sort of a quadruped, looking like a magnified Shetland pony, and suggested the notion as he stood of being merely an additional tub. We should not have quarrelled even with what Cowper delicately denominates "the stercoraceous heap," had it not been that dead cabbage-leaves often emitted an odour which rendered the windward side of the said heap desirable. Altogether Western Grange suited our primi tive taste; and when we add that Mrs. Andrews was a well-bred and intelligent woman, although she kept a market garden; that she had an amiable daughter and industrious son; that they all understood "Shakspere and the musical-glasses," as well as the rearing of potatoes; and that we were almost spoiled by their united kind attention, our readers will not be astonished that we frequently conceive the wish to renew the acquaintance, and have another peep at Western Grange. ONE June morning last summer we took it into our head to run a few miles out towards the west of London, and shake hands once again with the kind and worthy Mrs. Andrews, who is the proprietress of an extensive marketgarden, and who, a couple of years since, accepted us as a favoured lodger under her hospitable roof. We were never so comfortable in lodgings as we were at Western Grange. We met with the desired temporary home through mere accident, and was smitten by it at first sight. Fine ladies and gentlemen might probably look askance at the old-fashioned gables, warped timbers, picturesque barns, and slightly deformed "lean-to's," which met the eye as we approached the residence by the way of a grass-grown bit of lane. On nearer inspection the low ceilings and casement windows might be objected to; and those who desired Brussels carpets, candelabras, and marble wash-stands, might feel themselves "taken in," and resent the disappointment accordingly; but we, in pursuit of retirement, comfort, and homeliness, and being accustomed in our early reading of the Book of Life, to peruse the edition without illustrations by "Chalons," took an immense fancy to the "snuggery" of a sitting-room, and thought the antique walnut-tree sideboard, with sofa and chairs to match, the cheerful red drugget, the bunches of lavender and preserved grasses in ancient vases, the huge punchbowls and Noah's-ark sort of corner cupboard, very pleasant and endurable sort of things to associate with. Then the bedroom smelt so fresh and sweet, with its curtains and counterpane of Mont Blanc whiteness. We liked the quaint chest of drawers, grandfather-looking arm-chairs, and open window; through which the rich green ivy thrust itself and intruded on the toilet-cover, where it laid in glassy luxuriance, like a casket of scattered emeralds. Supposing we did put up with a washing trough in lieu of a bath, and admitting that ring-stands, scent-bottles, and pomatum-glasses might be wanting, nevertheless we contrived to be satisfied, and held the simple dormitory in veneration and esteem. Then the wide front door was always open, and it had hops and woodbine about it; and out of that door we stepped over a yard or two of gravel path on to a grassplot, and round about the grassplot there were multifarious beds of "painted ladies," hen and chicken daisies, double rockets, brazen marygolds, modest moss-roses, florid sweet williams, and a dazzling kaleidescope of June flowers. There might be a gap or two in the box-edging, and a bit of vulgar dock might be seen pushing itself between the pink larkspurs; perhaps an unknown weed dared to jostle the well-known prince's feathers, and an audacious old hen might be sometimes seen scratching a bed for herself in the very heart of the Tom Thumb geraniums; but the blossoms were very lovely for all that, and we gave up a Chiswick show to stay among them. Then there was an The visit we have alluded to was made in the height of the strawberry season. The day was hot. Watering-pots were pleasant things to see lying about, and the shadow of a tree was an umbragcous blessing. Both windows of railway carriages were permitted to be open without any mention of "a draught;" and everybody who dared to appear in the undress of "shirt sleeves" did so with grateful freedom. We picked a quarrel with our breakfast, abused the soft butter, and treated the rasher of bacon with appetiteless indifference,,—we fear our state of temper was getting as sultry as the weather, when we suddenly bethought of a run down to our olden haunt. We effected the transit in double quick time, and found ourselves up to our eyes in strawberries by noon. We must now inform our readers that among the regular "attachées" of Mrs. Andrews's out-door establishment were six women, known as Polly, Hetty, Selina, Peggy, Martha, and Rachel, -and two men, Dick, the carter and ploughman, and Harry, odd man in general. At some busy periods the close labour of these individuals was of vital importance. A fair share of idleness was tolerated at leisure intervals, for Mrs. Andrews is by no means a slave-driver, and allows a degree of Christian charity to exert itself toward "all that are within her gates." We had become tolerably well acquainted with these "helps," and found them, on the whole, to be decently conducted persons. Perhaps Hetty, Martha, and Rachel might not have gained the approbation of Mrs. Hannah More, touching their minute system of morals and manners. Polly, Selina, and Peggy were considered to be very respectable. The last mentioned was a demure, meek, shy-looking young woman, who always answered a question as though her tongue was made of white satin, and But |