et Chinois_, telling quite delicately the
surprising adventures of a mate of H.M.S. _Jamesina_[296] in a sort of
Chinese harem, has some positive merit, though it is too long. The
longest and most ambitious tale, _Histoire d'une Colline_, if not
"wholly serious" (as a famous phrase has it), seems to aim at a good
deal of seriousness. Yet it is, as a matter of fact, rather more absurd
than the pure extravaganzas.

[Sidenote: _Histoire d'une Colline._]

Sir John Lively--who appears neither to have inherited the title (seeing
that his sainted father, a victim of English tyranny, was named Arthur
O'Tooley, perhaps one of the tailors of that ilk) nor to have paid M.
Mery five or ten thousand pounds for it--is an Irishman of the purest
virtue and the noblest sentiments, who possesses a cottage on a hill not
far from the village and castle of Stafford. From this interesting
height there are two views: one over the beautiful plains of Lancashire,
another towards the brumous mountains of Oxfordshire. Lively always
looks this latter way, because in coming from London he has seen, at the
other village of Bucks, a divine creature who dispenses soda-water and
some stronger liquors to the thirsty. She, like the ninepenny kettle of
the song, "is Irish _tu_," and belongs to the well-known sept of the
O'Killinghams. They are both fervent Roman Catholics (Mery is
astoundingly severe on our "apostate" church, with its "insulted" Saint
Paul's and Saint Martin's). She is also persecuted by an abominable
English landlord, Mr. Igoghlein. The two meet at mass in "_the_ Catholic
Church of the City," to which, "as in the time of Diocletian" (slightly
altered to 1830-40), "a few faithful ones furtively glide, and seem to
be in fear." To get money, Lively gambles, and (this is the sanest part
of the book, for the reason that things went on in much the same way at
Paris and at London) is cheated. But the cottage, and the hill with such
commanding views, are discovered to be in the way of a new line and to
conceal coal. He sells them to a Mr. Copperas; marries the beautiful
O'Killingham; the bells of Dublin ring head over heels, "and Ireland
hopes." Let it also be mentioned that in the course of the story we are
more than once told of the double file of Mauresque, Spanish, Gothic,
and Italian _colonnades_ which line the marvellous High Street of
Oxford; and that Mr. Copperas visited that seat of learning to consult
an expert in railways[297] and s