... 10YENT GARDEN CONCERTS. THESE excellent entertainments have been brought to a close while in the heyday of success, the stage being required for rehearsals of the now pantomime, Jack and the Beanstalk to be produced at Covent Garden next Christmas, under the manange ment of Messrs. Thomas and Purkiss. The final concert was given on Tuesday last, for the annual benefit of Mr. W. Free man Thomas ...

... . These valuable recitals commenced last week at the Portmiffl Rooms, Baker-street. The programme was framed, as usual at these recitals, in chronological order, and a new element was introduced in selections of organ music, dating from the fifteenth century, and played on an excellent manual chamber organ. Next came harpsichord pieces by Byrde, 1546 K Kuhhau, 16G7-- 1712 and Christopher Baclr ...

... The Royal Guests at Eaton IIall. On Saturday H.R.H. the Duke of Teck, with the Duke of Westminster and a party of guns, shot over the Eaton Hull covers, mid enjoyed splendid sport, the weather being delightful. At night Their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Took and tlie Duke and Duchess of Westminster accompanied Sir John Lubbock, Bart, (who is staying at Eaton Hall over the week end ...

... Perils ill the Transvaal and Zulu/and. By the Rev. II. C. Adams, M.A. Griffith, Farran, Okeden, and Welsh, St. Paul's Churchyard, London. Me. Adams relates the history of the last Zulu War, opening in nil English school, and making a young assistant master, George Rogers, his hero. Many of the actors in the story are real personages. There are a shipwreck and some lion-hunting thrown in, but ...

... Kidnapped bcina Memoirs of David Balfour in the year 1751. Bv Robert Louis Stevenson. Illustrated Edition. Cossell and Co., London, Paris, New York, and Melbourne. We have already had the pleasure of commending this book by the most delightful modem writer of the fiction of adventure. If it is not as wonderful a book as Treasure Island the best that has been written, in our opinion, since ...

... . IN perusing Mr. Augustus Harris's prospectus, it is im possible not to be struck with the illustration it affords of the irony of fate. It was at Drury Lane Theatre that the experiment of German opera for the English was tried on a grand scale four years ago. At that time we were assured by certain partisans of Wagner and his school that Italian opera was moribund, and would within ...

... . MR. F. C. GROVE, who it will be recollected was the coadjutor of Mr. Herman Merivale in the authorship of Forget me Not, has made out of the novel, As in a Looking Glass, a much better play than might have been expected. He has not purified, and is perhaps wise not to have tried to purify, the foul atmosphere which hangs round nearly all the dramatis persona. He hides none of the secrets ...

... The Rcian of Queen Victoria a Surra/ of Fiftv V,.„ ..r Prog ran. Edited by Thomas Humphrey Ward, M.A. In Two Volumes. London: Smith, Elder, and Co., 15, Waterloo- nlace. 1887. THESE volumes are a fitting contribution to the literature of the Jubilee year, and Mr. Ward has performed his difficult duty with excellent judgment. He himself has undertaken and very efficiently carried out several of ...

... . Bv Sir W. G. Simpson. Bart. Edinburgh D .via Doue-las. 188 SEVERAL excellent books have lately been written about golf, a proof of the popularity of the royal and ancient game, but we have not come across a better than the present volume. That the author is an enthusiast goes without saying for two reasons: all golfers are enthusiasts, and one who writes a book about the game must be ...

... . We have this week had a surfeit of Italian opera in London, No other capital oity in the world has ever exhibited the re markable spectacle of three opera houses simultaneously occupied in the performance of Italian operas at the rate of seventeen per week. We are inclined to believe that this state of things is likely to prove injurious rather than beneficial to the best interests of ...

... . Mr. Mai'LESON resumed his operations at this theatre on Saturday last with a newly-engaged band of fifty performers, conducted by Signor Arditi, who was greeted with hearty cheering. The opera chosen for this occasion was Beethoven's Fidelia, and the title-character was admirably represented by Mile. Lillie Lehmann, whose fine impersonation of Isolde is remembered with pleasure by those who ...

... OUR CAPTIOUS CRITIC. THE BLUE BELLS OF SCOTLAND. A GREAT deal has been written, and no doubt a great deal remains to be written, on the relative posi tions of dramatist and critic. The theory that they must be either personal friends or open enemies, and that the outcome of this is shown in print, is one which has been put forward from time to time, and which continues to hold a place among ...