great Bacon's aphorism, that "in races, it is not the large stride or high lift that makes the speed." The ADELPHI is full of novelty, sustained at times by some of the stars from the Haymarket. This theatre is, however, so wretchedly adapted for comfort, that if one finds oneself seated in it, one wonders as of the reel in the bottle, "how the devil it got there." Barring the stocks or purgatory, perhaps there is not in this world, or the next, less comfortable anchorage to bring up in than the boxes of that minor. It is fit, however, that we should do justice to it, with all its disagreeabilities; and, therefore, we eulogise the fashion in which it recently brought out Dickens's new Christmas piece, of "The Chimes." Very true, we don't like that piece, though all the world does: perhaps for that very reason. Mr. Dickens is fond of taking up subjects very difficult to treat gracefully. We pass over his highwaymen, his cracksmen, his clyfakers, and all the dramatis persona of his great and petty larcenies, as also his portraits from the life of modern Magdalens. But, taking him in his social circle, we are compelled to say, that the society he introduced us to last Christmas was not to our kidney; moral it was-very; as also homely-exceedingly. We do not pretend to deny that among the materials considered fit for human food is the fish called the sprat; that "baked potatoes all hot," are eaten in large quantities by gentlemen who drive cabs and procure clean crossings for the metropolitan lieges, what time the Trivia are begrimed with mud. But that is no reason our families should put on their best bibs and tuckers, and order out their carriages to witness the catastrophe of half an ounce of four shilling black, and a rasher of the ignominy of Israel, in the Strand. The most attractive resort within the bills of mortality, the COVENT GARDEN CONCERT ROOM, was closed to the public before Christmas. If Mons. Jullien be not a millionare anon, it will surely come to pass that such is not his option. A perfect performance on one instrument or another every night, at the utmost cost of two shillings and sixpence, is one of the pleasant anomalies of our times. Herein we follow the example set us by our neighbours the French: producing cheap luxuries for the many, and giving to the very errand lad or butcher's apprentice an ear and a taste which may eventually do away with the discordant street noises that assault the auriculars of the refined at present. Who knows but that our populace, under the guidance of such as M. Jullien, may become classic in song as the soft Venetian or the gay Neapolitan; that instead of an invocation to the d, it will warble forth the inspired one to Macbeth; and, in lieu of a vulgar swagger, it will time its aggregate legs to the last new Polka? We shall then not sigh over the Italian songs of Tasso and Petrarch, for our own Shakespeare and Byron shall be set to mob music, and be the common vehicles of small talk between Vauxhall watermen and omnibus cads. Have you been to the SURREY lately? No! Then go directly; there never was a theatre, for a minor, better worth seeing at this juncture. A grand new piece, and all sorts of fun, and the most obliging endeavours for the accommodation of the public. We have left to the last any allusion to DRURY LANE THEATRE. And wherefore? That the performances were not good? Not so. "The Daughter of St. Mark" possesses merit; and the different ballets produced at this house are, to a lover of the pantomimic, very desirable entertainments. If the opera lags a little, or the theatre looks occasionally gloomy in its size, and foggy from the difficulty of lighting it up, Old Drury-though "fallen from its high estate"-is perhaps as great a favourite with the public as in its palmiest days. But, death of Clara Webster, a cloud of miserable thoughts has settled over its roof. A young creature left to perish before the eyes of a multitude, and not one individual of that multitude stretched out an arm to save her! A deserving artiste meets with an accident while in the performance of her task to please the eyes and tickle the senses of the audience, and not one chivalrous feeling-the impulse of the dreadful moment-awoke in the hearts of a nation esteemed both brave and courteous. ""Twas strange, 'twas passing strange, 'twas pitiful, 'twas wondrous pitiful," to see families in private boxes, and the whole attendance, almost without exception, remain to witnessafter the shrieks of agony of the poor victim-the twirls and twists of the figurantes to the termination of the ballet. No doubt few anticipated the heart-rending catastrophe; but how far more graceful to record would have been the instantaneous dropping of the curtain over a scene of mortal suffering. There was she seen, the star of the ballet, and in the most futile and frivolous occupation that ever made the business of the life of a thinking creature; there and then, counting time to her pirouettes, hovering-in the pride and vanity of her arduous calling-on "the light fantastic toe," "light as air," and undeeming of her fate; and, in a brief minute, there was she seen no more. "Between two worlds" (that of the mortal ambition, and the unknown hereafter) "life hovers like a star." We have not space for further notices this month. TESTIMONIAL TO MR. C. TONGUE. We learn from a circular just forwarded to us, that it is the intention of the friends of Mr. Cornelius Tongue to present him with some appropriate Testimonial of their admiration and regard, due, as they consider it, from all sportsmen to a brother of the craft, who in his many and varied contributions to the sporting periodicals has displayed so much general ability, such great practical knowledge, and on all occasions so fair and impartial a spirit in his descriptions of " things both as they ought to be and as they are." To the readers of our magazine Mr. Tongue will be better known under the signature of "Cotherstone," appended to a series of papers on Training the Race-Horse," which we really believe would suffer but little in any comparison between them and Darvill's celebrated work on the same subject -the only one, by the way, in a collected form, now worth referring to. The most exact, but far from tedious minutia-anything and everything, from fixing a quarter-string to winning a Derby, finds a useful and ornamental allusion from Cotherstone's" pen; and it must be a very knowing man indeed, high or low, old or young, who turns from this treatise without taking a wrinkle or two with him. In the hunting-field, we are told, Mr. Tongue is equally at home, some of his cross-country chroni 66 F 66 cles, historical and anecdotical, being framed on, and following very meritoriously in the almost unapproachable line cut out by " the mighty hunter." Of this however, again, every man will have the opportunity of judging for himself, in the taste we are about to present him with of Cecil's" style. Such of our subscribers (as haunt the Cotswold Hills, the wilds of South Wales, or the apple-orchards of Hereford, will recognise in Cornelius Tongue a good and steady rider to hounds, a neatish gentleman jock, the inventor of a patent drag and running martingale, and, in short, no mean proficient in the higher classes of those diversions which give one a claim to the honourable and enviable title of a sportsman. A new year's gift to a gentleman who has spent so much time and trouble for the amusement and edification of his fellows, the more particularly when backed by character and ability, cannot be either out of place or season; and in announcing our office as open to receive subscriptions, we hope to find we have been throwing tongue" to some purpose. The following gentlemen in town and country have also kindly undertaken to forward any material towards this "Friendship's Offering" for '45. Bath........ W. H. TOWNSEND, Esq. Birmingham.. R. BACON, Esq., Queen's Hotel. Brighton.... HENRY HARRISON, Esq. 66 Cheltenham.. HENRY BARTON, Esq., Wolsley Terrace. London...... J. P. PITTMAN, Esq., 5, Warwick Square. Wales... CAPT. STRETTON, Dany Park, Abergavenny. Worcester.... GEORGE CORMWALL CARDEN, Esq. STATE OF THE ODDS, &c. TO OWNERS AND BREEDERS OF RACE-HORSES. Any gentleman who would wish the names of their stud-horses to appear in our so generally approved of list of " the Stallions for the Season," by forwarding the name, price, and place, by the 12th of this month, will ensure a capital advertisement, free, gratis, for nothing." SCOTT versus O'BRIEN.-This action for assault, which our readers will remember was committed during the Running Rein trial, only by way of variety in the open air, while the other fracas was being settled within, was tried in the Court of Exchequer, before Lord Chief Baron Pollock, and a semispecial jury, on the 10th of last month, and a verdict returned for the plaintiff, with £100 damages. Captain Higgins, Mr. Gregory, M.P., and Mr. R. Peel, were called to prove the actual assault vi et armis, and the very "warlike" disposition evinced by Mr. O'Brien some days before it came to blows. This was all plain-sailing enough, but the injured gentleman somewhat injured his own cause by putting Mr. Travers, the surgeon, into the box to testify to what a terrible thrashing he had received, at the same time admitting that he was well enough to "show" at the Corner the same evening. For the defence it was urged in mitigation, that Mr. Scott had been circulating reports prejudicial to the honour of his opponent, and allusion made to disputed bets; but the learned judge, in summing up, kept the jury strictly to the events of the day -the courteous exchange of " wretch" and "thief," and the more violent proceedings consequent thereon. For our own part, we think his lordship ran the line almost too close; provocation in these matters is a grand consideration, and, from what we can see, the fiery defendant had little or none, particularly after the decision given on the business which first put them at variance; most assuredly Mr. Scott's damages would have been nearer a thousand than a hundred, had he displayed a little customary calculation on the subject, and reported himself as dead amiss" for a few days. Lord Glasgow, having tried his purse and his temper for some time with a lot of the worst quality, has just had a half dozen shot, including that very funnily christened steed, Give-him-a-name. This is far preferable to allow ing them to run through the "many parts" of the high-mettled racer, a course we are sorry to say many more deserving are daily doomed to. The Messrs. Ettwall's horses will be in future trained at Newmarket, by George Edwards; since leaving John Day's stable they have been in the hands of King, late managing man to Mr. Sadler. The sensation of the month-how long is it since, or how long will it be before business settles quietly down again at Hyde Park Corner?-has been the Crockford account, for which Mr. H. H. Hungerford has given the required guarantee, and the Jockey Club an order for squaring the books forthwith, notwithstanding an order put upon their own books not two years ago, and still in being if not in force, to the effect they were determined henceforth to have nothing to do with disputed bets! We leave their very noble worships to explain this seeming inconsistency when they can condescend or be compelled to do so; on other grounds, the decree, despite the fearful cries of some would-be-fortunate fellows, is not so very objectionable; the engagement was run out; and had the settling, as at Doncaster, taken place the day, instead of the week, after the race, the losers to Mr. Crockford must have either paid up then and there, begged for time, or bolted at once. A man's racing engagements die with him-his debts, on the other hand, either for stakes or bets, ought, we think, to be as readily paid through the laws of honour as his other claims, for or against, through the laws of the land. The lay and take of the month, considering the time of year, has been very spirited, and a great many horses touched upon to some tune; with regard to number one, his friends appear as sanguine, and his foes, perhaps, a mere half-a-point more liberal than usual, thus leaving him still alone in his glory; while for second there has been a regular scramble between Idas, the Cobweb colt, Kedger, and Pam, which, thanks to a good lift at the commencement of the month, with strong and steady support ever since, is now awarded to Lord Stradbroke, the Cobweb colt, as we hinted he probably would, having reached Kedger. But the lion of the lot has been Tommy Coleman's flyer, Young Eclipse, who has been first running up and then running down in a flash-in-the-pan" style, which threatens damage to the nerves of such gentlemen as are inclined to believe all they hear and nothing they see-ponder ere you play at “ touch and take" with so surprising a customer. Another "bobbery" has been raised respecting the nomination of Ironmaster, but a short time back generally admitted to be void, in consequence of the death of Mr. Marshall, clerk of the course at Wolverhampton; the son now, however, affirms that he wrote this particular letter, containing the nomination, on his own account, though allowing that of late he had acted as general amanuensis to his father, and that all previous epistles so penned were understood on all sides to be those of the old gentleman. This is a nice point, which we are promised shall very shortly be settled-if in favour of the claim, Ironmaster is certain to become a strong favourite. Anti-Repealer, Rebecca colt, colt out of Calypso's dam (though reported not to have been out of his stable for a fortnight), Pantasa, and Cabin Boy, the three first to the greatest extent, have been all in demand, and Old England once again, after something like a month's absence-at his present price his party are fond, and, if all right, they have good reason for giving their support. The Oaks will not bear commentary, and we append the latest of that very wild, hit or miss, name or not name, speculation on the Chester Cup. CHESTER CUP.-1,000 to 20 agst. Ratan, 1,000 to 20 agst. Coranna, 1,000 to 20 agst. Extempore, 1,000 to 20 agst. Celeste, 1,000 to 30 agst. Winesour, 2,000 to 40 agst. A-la-mode, 2,000 to 40 agst. Wiseacre, 2,000 to 40 agst. Semseria, 30 to 1 agst. The Era, 500 to 10 agst. Mid Lothian and 300 to 5 agst. Peggy. --- THE CHASE.-The Blackmoor-Vale-hunt controversy, we are sorry to say, continues as strong or stronger than when we left it last month; contradiction, cross-questioning, and crooked answering follow each other in such rapid succession, that the subject being by no means an enticing one we shall not endeavour to follow it up. In fairness, however, we may add, as in our last number we summed up rather against Mr. Drax, that, did the committee not stick with such curious pertinacity to the roll of some eight or ten years back, but admit other gentlemen now resident in the country, and equally eligible to act, the majority, it is affirmed, would be much in favour of the present master. Will some kind friend in those parts, on the next appearance of Father Frost, cut out for himself a leetle of that "dull labour at the desk's dead wood," and oblige us with a true and correct account of the whole affair? We are awfully afraid of committing ourselves, or we wouldn't mention it. |