in order to bring the reader into a proper frame of mind for the deeper
gloom and horror which is to ensue. Then follow pages of description.
"As Rowland sprang to the helm, and gave the signal for pursuit, a war
like a volley of ordnance was heard aloft, and the wind again burst its
bondage. A moment before the surface of the stream was as black as ink.
It was now whitening, hissing, and seething, like an enormous caldron.
The blast once more swept over the agitated river, whirled off the
sheets of foam, scattered them far and wide in rain-drops, and left the
raging torrent blacker than before. Destruction everywhere marked the
course of the gale. Steeples toppled and towers reeled beneath its fury.
All was darkness, horror, confusion, ruin. Men fled from their tottering
habitations and returned to them, scared by greater danger. The end
of the world seemed at hand. . . . The hurricane had now reached its
climax. The blast shrieked, as if exulting in its wrathful mission.
Stunning and continuous, the din seemed almost to take away the power of
hearing. He who had faced the gale WOULD HAVE BEEN INSTANTLY STIFLED,"
&c. &c. See with what a tremendous war of words (and good loud words
too; Mr. Ainsworth's description is a good and spirited one) the author
is obliged to pour in upon the reader before he can effect his purpose
upon the latter, and inspire him with a proper terror. The painter does
it at a glance, and old Wood's dilemma in the midst of that tremendous
storm, with the little infant at his bosom, is remembered afterwards,
not from the words, but from the visible image of them that the artist
has left us.

It would not, perhaps, be out of place to glance through the whole of
the "Jack Sheppard" plates, which are among the most finished and the
most successful of Mr. Cruikshank's performances, and say a word or two
concerning them. Let us begin with finding fault with No. 1, "Mr. Wood
offers to adopt little Jack Sheppard." A poor print, on a poor subject;