... linval Hotcs THE SEASON AUGUST has not been the bad month it threatened to be at one period of its career. Probably an average amount of corn has been secured, and often in very fair condition. The no ...

... . (FltOM OUR SPEOIAL CORRESPONDENT.) THE Gloucester Festival is over, and the mission of the function has been probably fulfilled to the great satisfaction of all con cerned. It would be idle to speculate on the exact value of such a mission when right at the beginning of the Festival we are confronted with a statement to the effect that the charity towards which the surplus funds of the ...

... * It would not be unfair to surmise that the time has now come when the Duke of Beaufort and Mr. Alfred Watson find some considerable difficulty in discovering subjects for the unfailingly excellent Badminton Library. In their task of producing a series of books which should be an encyclopaedia to sport, it is natural that the letter Z must sooner or later present itself. I am led to ...

... -.# This ninth of the monographs on The Queen's Prime Ministers closes the series with its editor's first contribution to it, a Life of Lord John Russell, the familiar name and designation by which his family and surviving friends prefer to remember the Earl Russell of later years. Ample justice has been already done to his character and career by Mr. Spencer Walpole's biography in ...

... . MR. WILLIAM ELLIOT'S season at this theatre commenced on Tuesday with a new play by Mr. H. V. Esmond, having the singular title Bogey; being some account of the curious behaviour of Disembodied Bates. The old gentleman known by his affectionate nieces as Bogey, is a Mr. Archibald Buttanshaw, of Charterhouse-square, and one night there appears in his rooms an old friend, Noah Emens, who is an ...

... OUR CAPTIOUS CRITIC. ALABAMA. I CANNOT help having a great amount of pity for Mr. Augustus Thomas, the author of Alabama. He means so well, and writes so gracefully, that it is impossible not to think kindly of him. Nevertheless one is compelled to admit that his play works out in a manner decidedly dull. Notwithstanding its doubtless truthful delineation of the character and dialect of the ...

... {u [untrcs By W. MO Y THOMAS THE CHILI WIDOW The ROYALTY Theatre in Dean Street has never looked so bright and cheerful as it did on Saturday evening, when the improvements which Miss Kate Santley ...

... Hlwsic THE PROMENADE CONCERTS IT is gratifying to learn that owing to the success of the first three weeks of the Promenade Concerts at Queen's Hall, the management have decided to continue these ente ...

... THE BOOK AND ITS STORY. THE REAL CHARLOTTE.* The two authors of The Real Charlotte have proved themselves capable of a notable achievement. They have produced a story which deals with a commonplace and sordid phase of modern Irish life, and which is yet interesting and readable, as have been few of the novels purporting to give a true account of life in the distressful country. Widely ...

... PROA1ENADE CONCERTS. There is now considerably less tobacco smoke at Queen's Hall, so that one can sit out the enter tainment with more comfort and derive more enjoyment from it. Tuesday's was an exceptionally good concert, the programme being well chosen and the orchestra in capital form, thanks to the really first-rate efforts of Air. AVood. Dvorak's Carnival Ouverture, Lacombe's Aubacle ...

... . Mr. Oswald Crawfurd's enthusiasm for dialogue as a method of fiction is well known. If he didn't invent it, so far as England is concerned, he did a great deal to induce it to take up its home with us, appealing to it to come forward, and encouraging its appearance generously. In Black and White and in Chapman's Magazine he gave and gives it an honoured place, and now the result of his ...

... THE HISTORICAL CONCERTS AT PRAOITE. THE capital of Bohemia rejoices at present in an Ethno graphical Exhibition, and foremost amongst the attractions of the fair, figure concerts destined to bring to light the achieve ments of all but forgotten ancient Bohemian musicians. Our acquaintance with the music of that country is of the slightest, and it is quite open to doubt whether before the ...