... THE FARMERS' COURSE OF ACTION.-- A well-known writer, under the pseudonym of Agricola, says:-- As stock-farming is in these times more remunerative than corn-growing, the farmer might grow nothing ...

... THE West End theatres have done but little this year in the way of pantomimes, with the exception of DRURY LANE and COVENT GARDEN; but that is a large exception, for those two houses, when they have t ...

... DRAMA. DRURY LANE. THANKS to the fraternal rivalry of Mr. Augustus Harris at Drury Lane with his brother Charles at Covent Garden play goers are not disappointed, as at one time it seemed likely they would be of one of the two great Christmas spectacles of London. The absence of an orthodox pantomime from Drury Lane would have been regretted, both for the sake of old associations and because ...

... . IN Messrs. Conquest and Spry's twenty-second bright and clever Christmas pantomime, Harlequin Sokoko, the Rock Fiend; or, Kingdoms Three, the Toad, the Bee, and the Tree, the gro tesquely-weird and strange, fantastic, fairy-like, and beautiful are blended with masterly effect. It has been placed upon the stage with a perfection of skill and care, which is carried into every detail of its ...

... ReA^EJR^I THE author of Erchomenon; or, the Republic of Materialism (Sampson Low and Co.) differs widely from Miss Bevington on the value of Materialism as a basis of morals. That lady, replying in ...

... THE EGOIST: a Comedy in Narrative, by George Meredith (2 vols.: C. Kegan Paul and Co.).-- It goes without the saying by this time that Mr. G. Meredith is a genius, a wit, and a humourist, whose work ...

... MDSIG. MONDAY POPULAR CONCERTS. AFTER the customary Christmas vacation, the Monday Popular Concerts were resumed at St. James's Hall last Monday night, when a programme was presented which contained an important and novel attraction in a posthumous quartett, com posed by Mendelssohn, and never before played in public. It appears to have been written in March, 1823, when Mendelssohn was but ...

... CARL ROSA'S OPERA COMPANY.-- Not that we have got Mr. Rosa and his company back again we may fairly look forward to a series of operatic performances in all respects deserving public support. This ent ...

... . Thoughts upon Hunting, in a Series of Familiar Letters to a Friend. By Petee Beckfoed. London: James Toovey, 177, Piccadilly. W. 1879. JUST about one hundred years have passed since the first edition of Beckford's Thoughts on Hunting was published, and his thoughts have kept men thinking ever since. The work is a classic of the hunting-field, and whoever reads it carefully will he fain to ...

... II. IN Atheistic Methodism-- a title we do not quite understand-- in the Nineteenth Century for January, 1880, Mr. Mallock defends the position taken by him in his inquiry, Is Life Worth Living? a ...

... . IT is a good thing to commence a New Tear well, so I com menced mine in fine style on this page by committing most egregious errors. I discovered my blunders and mistakes very soon, but not too soon for some of those quick-eyed, sharp- eared experts who do one the favour of reading and scanning one's work to be down on me in double quick style. My Editor, who is a genial gentleman, and would ...

... . THE Carl Rosa opera season at Her Majesty's Theatre com menced on Saturday last with a performance of Herr Richard Wagner's early opera, Rienzi. It will be remembered that it was with this work the Carl Rosa season of 1879 began and that the mise en scène was of the most gorgeous and tasteful kind. On Saturday last the spectacular effects which excited so much attention last season were all ...