... I Last night's choral rehearsal at the Masonic Hall, which was devoted to Dr. Bridge's classical cantata Callirhie, was attended and directed by the com- poser in person. Dr. Bridge met with a cordial reception from the choir, and was fortunately able to reciprocate the welcome with equal cordiality and satisfaction on finding how well his music had been prepared. In their knowledge of the ...

... Planquette's highly amusing opera The Old Guard, al cli nade such a successful first appearance in Bir. ;ai: .anr nearly twelve mnorths ago, Was produced last nioit at the Theatre Uoyal before a crowded and ap- e;-eciative andience. During the past year the opera has mjet with a rmost favourabie reception both in London and the provinoes, and its return visit to Birmingham this weelk is ...

... BIRMINGHAM HORSE SHOW, EXHIBITION AT BINGLEY HALL The exhibition of horses, ponies, carriages, &c., which is held under the auspices of the Birmingham Agricultural Exhibition Society, was opened yesterday, at Bingley Hall, and will be continued until Friday. A horse show is byno means a new departure in the history of the Bir- mingham Agricultural Society. There was a time when an exhibition ...

... AMATEUR DRAMATIC PE3FORBUUNCE i ~~AT KING'S HEATa. A very plessart dramatic entertainment was given on Satrday, at the King's Heath and Moseley Institute, King's Heath, by a company of local amateurs. The first piece performed was Theyre Smith's comedietta 'A Case for Eviction, in which Mr. and Mrs. T. Edgar Peinberton impersonated the newly-married couple. a young doctor and his wife, who ...

... No N W_ BOOKS. rV.R5it AX. ECGnA NOTE-flOOr. By IAsso TAmoi, PLA., Litt. D., Hon. LL.D., Canon of York. iLcodon: Kegan Paul, Trench, & Co.] Canon Taylor has given us here a most interesting and valuable contrsbution to the knowledge ana appreciation of the Mohammedan mind and tone of though~t- Tihe larger proportion of these notes, which record conversations with Egyptians on politics and ...

... BIRMINGhAM MUSICAL FESTIVAL at TEE BAND REELEARSALS. gi a( [Faont our chi (on rresponleftvi] LONDON, Wednesday. fa Owving partly, no doubt, to the sunny brightness ti of the morning, but mainly to the musical interest cc of the selection for rehearsal, which comprised both ni the festival novelties, the muster of visitors at St. ei George's Hall to-day was quite a gay and imposing of one, ...

... usi? II II TuiE BIRMINGHAM FESTIVAL (From ?? Special Corresondent) -The Birmingham Festival is being held under somewhat un- lucky conditions. The net profits of the Festival (including, of course, donations at the doors) have been gradually dropping off during the past few years, and, at this Festival, they bid fair to be even still further reduced. In 1873, no less than 6,5771. was netted, ...

... -ci ALPHONSE CARY.-From hence come four very pleasing Original Part-Songs for Ladies' Voices, music by Cliffe Forrester, words by H. E. F. :-They are Sunrise (No. I), Evening (No. 2), Spring Song (No. 3) for two voices, Woodland Joys (No. 4) is for three voices; they are all well calculated for school and college execution -A charming poem by Shakespeare, Better Than All, ...

... MR. P. G. HAMERTONS NEW BOOK * No one who knows anything about Mr. Hamerton (and there are few readers who have not read at least one of his works) need be told that his new work on the Sa6ne is a very pleasant one. Mr. Hamerton always writes like a scholar, and a man of obser- vation and taste. He has, too, an agreeable and unobtrusive humour, which, like a delicate sauce, gives zest to the ...

... TI-IEATkES' THE dramatic version of. Mrs. Campbell Praed's novel, The Bond of Wedlock, produced at the OPERA COMIQUE on Wednesday evening, with the title of Ariane, furnishes Mrs. Bernard Beere with another artistic triumph, and is likely to prove one of the most attractive of the pieces in which she has appeared. The story of the play is, unfortunately, somewhat painful ; for it deals with ...

... .. ?? . - ?? -- It. THE fourth paper on The British Army, by Sir Charles Dilke, appears in this month's Fortnightly. It is mainly devoted to our weakness in field artillery, to the militia, and to the volunteers. As regards guns we have not, all told, enough to supply the two much. vaunted army corps, and, if these army corps went out of the kingdom, there would be practically no artillery ...

... 4 THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE.-Pending the completion of the new Gilbert and Sullivan opera-which, report says, will be of a less fantastic character than some of its ?? Pirates of Penzance has been revived at the Savoy. There is no need to again describe at length the well-known plot and the always charming, though equally familiar, music. Audiences can now once more laugh at the humour of the ...