... ESP! 11 THE Christmas amusements this year present a very extensive and varied list for the choice of the holiday folks; but, owing to the growing custom of anticipating Boxing Night, which is found t ...

... grama. THE entertainments at all the theatres during the week have been in exact accordance with the extended programmes we set forth last Saturday, with one exception: at the Criterion, where M. Pitron's management having terminated, the per formances during the week have consisted of Mr. Marshall's comedy Brighton, with Mr. Charles Wyndham in his original part of Bob Sackett, supported by Mr ...

... -. LAST night the third quarter of the nineteenth century was completed. Another year was gathered to its predecessors; and a favourable moment arrived for a comparison of the present state of musical culture with that which existed at the infancy of the current century. Such an examination could hardly fail to furnish encouragement to the most faint-hearted lovers of art. At a superficial ...

... During Christmas holiday time, and the beginning of the new year, apart from the customary and always welcome performances of the Messiah, not only in London but here, there, and every where, our grea ...

... (Dur Captious djrilir. WHO is this Captious Critic-- this fellow who arrogates to himself the position of a particular censor, and wields his pen as though he had a right to be considered in his opinions before his more modest brethren-- who is he? Faith, my friends! that is a question which at this early moment of the New Year, when indigestion duly waits upon appetite, presses itself ...

... . THE following games are suitable to all seasons of the year; but the worse the weather the greater is the fun; and they are, for this reason and some others, most appropriate to this hilarious period of pantomimes, plum-puddings, and all manner of heavy jocularity. Persons of very unselfish dis position, who have grown unalterably settled in the habit of studying the comfort and happiness of ...

... BEAUCHAMP'S CAREER, by George Meredith (3 vols.: Chapman and Hall).-- The appearance of a new novel by Mr. George Meredith is an event by no means so common as to have lost its interest, and it was ...

... THE absence of any novelty at our theatres during the past week affords us space for a general glance at the state of theatrical enterprise in London at this time. One of the most striking facts resul ...

... (Sttr dfapticMB dfrilir. When some twelvemonths ago I pre seated the reader with a slight biographical sketch of the well-known North Woolwich Infant, whose features are here strikingly portrayed, I was not in possession of the few additional facts regarding his early career which have since come to my knowledge. He is said to have been born on a Boxins Night. and he began to clown it even in ...

... Drama. THE pantomimes have now got into smooth working order, and both the morning and evening performances have drawn crowded houses during the week-- while the theatres where no special Christmas fare was provided have been equally well attended. During the second week of the holidays changes of programme are not expected, yet some few have taken place, and we are on the eve of numerous ...

... MONDAY POPULAR CONCERTS.-- The first concert of the New Year, though the programme included no novelty, was in all respects attractive. Let us own that an occasional selection, devoted exclusively to ...

... T I-ieATRES PRACTICAL success or failure on the stage is not certainly a conclusive test of the value of a play; yet as times go it is not a had one; and it is assuredly easier to rail at the taste of ...