'EUROPEAN BUTTERFLIES.'

Sloperton Lodge, Kingstown, Aug. 31, 1885. IN your issue of the 29th Messrs. Cassell complain that the title of my Handbook of European Butterflies' (Macmillan & Co.) is a plagiarism on that of Kirby's European Butterflies and Moths,' demy quarto, published by their firm. The publishers of Dr. Lang's beautifully illustrated work 'European Butterflies' would have a better ground of complaint, but that no one would describe it either as a 16 Manual" or 66 Handbook."

The opening words of my introduction are further excepted to, in which I state that "Kirby's Manual" (the italics are left out in Messrs. Cassell's quotation)" is the only English handbook of the kind." These words, if I remember rightly, are a direct quotation from a recent advertisement issued by the publishers of that work, to whom I refer Messrs. Cassell for explanation. Messrs. Cassell's publications are well advertised, and my friend Mr. Kirby's name carries no little weight, and the size and scope of Berge's work, of which Kirby's European Butterflies and Moths is a reproduction and enlargement, are well known to entomological students; so that the public may be safely allowed to judge of the utility or otherwise of an unpretentious handbook on a part of the same subject by a less well-known author.

The remarks complained of are as follows, and when quoted in full are sufficiently explicit to leave small ground for Messrs. Cassell's strictures

nected with the tubes.

num, and this is accompanied by electric generation, the current being carried off by wires conThe above will convey a sufficient idea of the principles involved; the details of the apparatus demand careful study, and the arrangements are especially deserving of close inspection, as they appear to indicate a new method by which electricity may be generated, and promise a wide field of usefulness. THE treasurer of the Association Française pour l'Avancement des Sciences, at the fourteenth meeting of the Association, held in Grenoble, announced that the Association now possessed 20,000l. invested in public funds, and that its annual subscription amounted to 2,2501. This society is to be amalgamated with the Association Scientifique, which was created by Leverrier; M. Verneuil, the president of the recent meeting, being president of the amalgamated societies. The next meeting will be held at Nancy, and that of 1887 at Toulouse.

M. F. ANGLA presented to the Académie des Sciences on August 10th a certificate from Dr. Ferran, signed by several physicians, respecting the results of anti-choleraic inoculations at Benifayo. This was accompanied by a diagram showing the progress of the epidemic before and after these inoculations.

MM. PAUL GIBIER AND VAN ERMENGEN communicated to the Académie des Sciences on

The object of this manual is twofold, in the first place to supply a want that has long been felt by all

although there are some valuable works on the subject in various languages, yet these either comprise merely the Lepidoptera belonging to a single country or restricted area, or else are costly, and only suited

their experiments have been made from the attacks of cholera.

MM. VICTOR DESPRET AND C. DE BURLET

Judea, which in art lay between Phoenic Assyria, and later Egypt, and had lit design of her own, will be dealt with ne art in Asia Minor, Persia, Greece, Etrur and similar digests of all that is known and Rome will follow. With such spe is research advancing that even since scheme of this encyclopædia was planned so ten years ago new provinces of antiquity ha been exhumed. But a few years have g by since we noticed the discoveries first time made known to the English pul General di Cesnola in Cyprus, and for the general bearings of the vast record of lying in that island, where strata of design completely distinct as if they came of differ planets, lie one above the other, beginn with a nondescript antiquity, which, beca of its rudeness, we are fain to call aborigin From it we pass to a period Dr. Schliema has made familiar, and thence we trave phases of design due to Egypt, Phoeni Assyria, Greece, Rome, Byzantium, the saders, Venice, and the Turks, nearly all which are, so to say, curiously more or incrusted on the native material and meth while, strangest of all, these peculia Cypriote methods never had a sepa existence worth speaking of, although t were never quite absent. Most of all is Phoenician mint mark stamped on Cyp More than any other means we have Tyrian locks, and not Malta herself, a t ployed Cypriote keys to open Sidonian

but it is very incomplete, almost devoid of illustrations, and in many ways falls short of the requirements of entomologists at the present date. It is therefore thought that a comparatively inexpensive

book, which can be carried in a knapsack," &c. W. FRAS. DE V. KANE.

MR. G. C. BOURNE, B.A., of New College, Oxford, for several years captain of the University Boat Club, who has just taken first class in animal morphology, has taken a passage to the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean by one of the Australian mail steamers which call there for coal. The island, one of the Chagos Archipelago, has hitherto not been explored at all scientifically. Bourne intends to stay there some months, and

Mr.

Bourse des Métaux, Brussels, which has the dustriels. It is expected that the office of pretitle of Société Belge des Ingénieurs et des Insident will be accepted by M. Montefiore-Levi. THE report for 1883-4 of the progress of the Government chinchona plantations in Bengal is highly satisfactory. During the year no fewer than 174,000 of the chinchonas known as Calisaya verde and Calisaya morada were added to the plantations. These are the best varieties yet discovered suitable to the climate of Sikkim. About forty seedlings of a hitherto untried variety, known as Cuprea, produced from a kind of Remija, have also, after much trouble in procuring the seed from South Africa, via the Kew Gardens, been added to the plantation.

FINE ARTS

THE VALE OF TEARS.'-DORE'S LAST GREAT PICTURE, completed a few days before he died, NOW ON VIEW at the Doré Gallery, 35, New Bond Street, with Christ leaving the Prætorium,' Christ's Entry into Jerusalem,' The Dream of Pilate's Wife,' and his other great Pictures. From Ten to Six Daily.-Admission, ls.

can. A grant of 100l. towards his expenses has been made from the Government fund at the disposal of the Royal Society.

MR. J. A. KENDALL, of Middlesborough, shows at the Inventions Exhibition an electrical

generator which, by its ingenuity and novelty, is so far removed from analogous machines as to require especial notice. Mr. Kendall uses two platinum plates or tubes as poles, one being exposed to hydrogen and the other to oxygen. Hydrogen gas is supplied to the inner platinum tube, the entire apparatus being maintained at a high temperature by Fletcher's gas blowpipe. The hydrogen is absorbed by the heated plati

cies.

By G. Perrot and C. Chipiez. Translated by W. Armstrong. Illustrated. (Chapman & Hall.) 2 vols. IT seems but the other day since we gave an account of the labours of MM. Perrot

and Chipiez in condensing and arranging all the important discoveries and theories of the learned concerning Chaldea and Assyria, and already the third instalment of a valuable series of books, embracing a later deep discovery of the subterranean world," lies on our table in two forms, each with the same illustrations, 654 in number.

46

the Phoenician Venice and Genoa, of w Sea shake at the sound of thy fall?" } Ezekiel said, "Shall not the Isles of

been so useful. The chief of those of the Sea was Cyprus, and to her p liar situation and history we owe far than to the great daughter of Tyre, thage. It was, therefore, not without re that our authors bracketed together names Phénicie and Chypre on their page, and, as others have done, made cop use of the unfortunately irregular lab of Cesnola with rather less than adeq acknowledgments of their value. Wit them it is not too much to say that publication of this section of the 'Hist de l'Art' would have been long dela and might never have taken place.

Indeed, not the least remarkable relating to this section is that it sh appear at all. Little more than ten y ago not enough of "Phénicie et Chyp nine hundred and odd pages and the was known to furnish matter for half than six hundred illustrations they clude. Now a compact and well-ord digest of what we know demands space and many plans, sections, view architecture, sculptures, decorations, arranged This voluminous matter has been d in eight chapters, and ninth what may chapter contains

called the philosophy of the whole u the aptly chosen title "Le Rôle Histor des Phéniciens." The upshot of this ma far as art is concerned and art and h crafts are now all or nearly all that re of "these English of antiquity"— b peated in the same terms that we years ago when dealing with the sub

Phoenicia had hardly any native sense of art; her people were manufacturers and raders. What she built, carved, chielled, moulded, painted, cast, dyed-even what she wove and what she spun-were, o to say, reflections or repetitions of what ther nations did. MM. Perrot and Chipiez ersely put it thus:

"A peine en effet peut on dire que la Phénicie it un art, au vrai sens du mot. Elle n'a pas éé de type architectural qui lui appartienne 1 propre; elle n'a pas donné de la forme vante une représentation, une traduction qui i soit personnelle. Partout, dans son archicture et dans sa sculpture, nons avons trouvé s réminiscences et des imitations. Ce peuple beaucoup bâti et beaucoup sculpté; il faut ne bien parler de son art; mais essaie-t-on de definir, cet art s'évanouit en quelque sorte 18 le regard du critique qui cherche à en saisir principe. Comme ces composés chimiques i ne sont pas stables, il se décompose en ses ments, que l'on reconnaît les uns pour ptiens, les autres pour chaldéens ou assyriens, parfois même, lorsque nous avons affaire aux numents les plus récents, pour grecs." ch was the medley Phoenicia made. "The ly thing the Phoenicians can claim as their n," says Mr. Armstrong, "is the recipe, to speak, for the mixture." With rerd to their craftsmanship-we prefer this m to the absurd phrase "industrial arts" which South Kensington rejoices—the ts were quite different. Sidonian dyes, weaving of Tyre, the hammer work and As of that narrow strip of coast which was enicia, enchanted the world. Eschylus kes Pelasgus assert that the tissues worn the daughters of Danaus were woven men of Cyprus (Suppl.' 282-3); women re the weavers of Greece. The Cypriote le was even in his time closely allied to t of Egypt. Carthage made carpets and broidered cushions which were famous antiquity. The Phoenicians exported these ngs to all the known world, and their ds have been found in our own time in inge places, far beyond the reach of their ps and the lean, dark, eager-eyed Sidan packmen. Phoenician beads have n dug up or found in use beyond the thern tropic, in Hebridean islands and Itie holms. To carry on their barter the ders established marts on headlands essible from the sea and strongly tined landwards. It has been supposed the cyclopean cliff-castles which watch ocean all along the Cornish, Welsh, 1 Irish coasts, whose rocks have reted time, wind, and wave, are, or were ginally, fortified marts of the ubiquitous ders whose sails alone then explored the i which the ships of other races dared not verse. For ages they bartered "with ormous profits to the more civilized party a bargain." At length they coined after e fashion of Lydia and Ægina.

The Phoenicians did not invent money, se they could do without it; but they did Fent alphabetical writing, because it was nesary to the proper keeping of their books, ch would have been next to impossible in the plex notation of Egypt or Mesopotamia. And invention is sufficient for their glory. So as they themselves were concerned, they de but a restricted use of it, but they transed it to every nation with which they cked. It was, as it were, one of their staple urts. In every market to which they went y took good care, as they thought, to get the

better of every bargain they struck, but, after all, the profit was to those with whom they dealt. For when they sailed away, elated with success, they left behind them the knowledge of that wonderful machine through which the Greeks were to create philosophy, history, and science; they left behind them, too, those figurines of bronze, of ivory, of glazed earthenware and stone, and those vessels of painted clay or chiselled metal by which the sentiment of plastic art was awakened in the race that was to produce Phidias and Praxiteles."

Of what character were these wonderworking figurines and vessels with pictured sides which these strange traders left behind? It is agreed among experts and antiquaries that there is but a feeble trace of nationality in the relics of Phoenician craftsmanship; commonly, too, their qualities are such as we describe by the epithet "Brummagem." Of course there are exceptions, such as sculptured sarcophagi, notably the noble Sidonian cist in the Louvre (which is quite of an Egyptian type); but the small and easily portable articles, such as gold and silver trinkets and personal ornaments of bronze, are almost invariably indifferent; the coins of later dates generally are bad, some being respectable, while very few indeed are excellent, unless they are copies of good foreign coins. The art employed in these works is, in short, more or less disloyal and perfunctory. As to the types generally affected by Phoenician craftsmen, we may epitomize the experience of experts by saying that when an eminent collector put before us a tray full of gold ornaments found within hail of the great trading centres of the Levantine coast, and bade us select those which were Phoenician per se, it was not difficult to recognize quasi-Egyptian seals, rings, and beads; quasi-Assyrian armlets, bracelets, rings, and hair-pins; and quasi-Greek figurines, carcanets, rings, ear-rings, and gems. But nearly every specimen perceptibly lacked freedom and spontaneity. The objects, however delicate and neat their casting, chiselling, or engraving might be, were made to sell. Their merits were due to the choice of fashionable types, which happened to be fine. The perfunctory character of the work was typically Phoenician.

The conclusions of MM. Perrot and Chipiez are to the same effect. The Phonicians borrowed the types of their neighbours; they manufactured copies and "versions " more or less mechanical, and exported them by thousands. Cyprus, rich in copper, timber, and other materials needed by toreutic crafts, took numbers of these things in barter. The Cypriote craftsmen, especially the stone-carvers, workers in clay, and painters of terra-cotta, had a distinct style of their own, which, though tinged by foreign influences, is very obvious in the limestone (not, as our authors say, marble) statues found in the Isle of Venus by MM. di Cesnola, Mr. Lang, and others who have succeeded them in everything but good luck in discovery. The museums at New York, London, and Paris abound in examples of this. Hardly less clearly is this style to be noticed in numerous terra-cottas Major possessing a peculiar vivacity of their own, di Cesnola found at Salaminia. While which is not unlike the realistic modes of Assyrian art, the sculptures and terracottas of Cyprus remind us in their

naturalism of the relics of the art crafts of Etruria, grim, sedate, and stern though the motives of that extraordinary people are. Cypriote artistic motives may broadly be said to stand between those of Egypt and Etruria. But there are curious differences between the customs and tastes of those nations; among them is to be noticed the abundance of amber in Greek, Crimean, more ancient Etrurian, and (of all periods) Roman jewellery. Notwithstanding the beads of amber, riveted in gold, which are mentioned in the Odyssey as offered by a Phoenician trader, the younger M. di Cesnola, in reply to our questions, expressly stated that he had found nothing of the sort in Cyprus, while his brother is silent about a material which

was attractive from the earliest times. Thus we may estimate the preciousness of the chain mentioned by Homer and the farreaching commerce which brought amber, probably from the Baltic, to the trader's hands.

Unless they come from Greek settlements in the island, the dates of which are more or less doubtful, the relics found in Cyprus are, like those from Sardinia, but little affected by Greek motives. In the larger island nearly everything was Phoenician, Syrian, Cypriote, and, later, Carthaginian. The inference is irresistible that Greek commerce was for a long time practically nil. What Cyprus was to Tyre, Sardinia was to Punic Carthage. It is in the "Isles of the Sea,' in the Balearic Islands, Cyprus, Malta, Gozo, and Sardinia, rather than in the narrow strip of that coast, we recognize the Phoenicia the antiquary inquires about. To them he turns for knowledge of the dominion and arts of Tyre. Corsica was left to the Phocæans and Etruscans, who did not make much of it. Sicily was essentially Greek.

To this general account of the conclusions of our authors as to Phoenician art-conclusions which are almost identical with those we formed long ago—it remains for us to add that MM. Perrot and Chipiez have produced an admirable summary, as clear and well arranged as it is happy in expression, of the results of their predecessors. The translation is excellent, and, although a good deal condensed, clear and exact.

Great Expectations, by C. Dickens (Robson & Kerslake), is a neat little portfolio, containing etchings by Mr. F. W. Pailthorpe. The publishers have sent us a charming copy of the work; it is "one of a few sets printed for presentation only, and numbered. It is likewise

as it goes, and amateurs will welcome its terse definitions of terms of painting, sculpture, architecture, the minor arts, and their subsidiary crafts. Heraldry, symbolism, ceramics, and other subjects have a limited number of their terms explained and illustrated in a characteristically French way, i. e., by means of a few lines to the purpose suited to the demands of those who love to read while running. M. Adeline has done his work of compilation successfully, and erred, if at all, on the side of brevity in the descriptions and analyses of the objects and terms describing them. He has deftly inserted historical notes here and there, as in regard to "mansard" he has told us that windows of that kind were said to have been brought into vogue by Mansard in 1650, but that they had been previously used by Pierre Lescot in the Louvre. While describing the convenience and artistic effect of mansards M. Adeline is silent about their defects and liability to dangers of more than one kind. The woodcuts, of which there are some thousands, are simple, satisfactory, and clear, with so many details as their function as explanatory diagrams admits. They are drawn with French precision and intelligence. Such are not the qualities usually found in English books of the class and price in question here. The English book most nearly like that before us is Mr. Mollett's very handy Dictionary of Words used in Art and Archæology' (Low & Co.), which is founded on M. E. Bosc's capital work, and includes nearly all its cuts, which are, of course, French. We reviewed Mr. Mollett's book about two years ago. The work before us is rather more compact than, and not quite so large as, the English compilation. General readers should welcome such books as M. Adeline's, because ordinary dictionaries are, owing to their compilers' defect of technical knowledge, frequently and ludicrously wrong about" termes d'art."

THE CHURCH OF ASHBURNE.

Ashburne Vicarage, Derbyshire, Aug. 22, 1885. A FRIEND has just placed in my hands your report of the Archæological meeting at Derby, published August 8th. The paragraph referring to my church is so inaccurate from beginning end, that I hope you will allow me to state :

to

1. That the town of Ashburne did not commemorate the tercentenary of its Grammar School on Wednesday, July 29th.

2. That no effigy has been moved since my appointment to this vicarage.

3. That the monuments are not situated in the south transept.

4. That I have never placed any iron rails in the chapel.

5. That "no white noses or toes" have been added during my incumbency.

6. That I am not responsible for the narrow gangway.

7. That the dedication plate had not been fixed on the south-east pier of the tower for two centuries.

the south transept in the family chantry. Some of these were removed to the other transept and placed among the Cokayne monuments during the "restoration" of 1840 An altar monument to Jane Sacheverell, a daughter of the house of Bradborne, remained in the south transept till quite recent years; it was stated in the church the other day that this had been removed during Mr. Jourdain's "restoration." If we are wrong, we apologize most fully to the present incumbent.

3. "South" is obviously a slip of the pen for "north." Every one who has ever visited the church knows that the array of monuments is in the north transept.

4, 5, and 6. Mr. Jourdain is here defending himself against complaints that were never levelled at him.

7. The dedication plate was affixed to the tower pier about 1702, as is shown in one of the registers. There it remained for nearly two centuries, until placed in its present position under the auspices of the present vicar.

8. We cannot understand Mr. Jourdain's correction. The interior masonry of the newly restored part of Ashburne Church is picked out in the most painfully vivid way with black or dark-coloured mortar or cement.

Fine-Art Gossip.

6

IN December Messrs. Sampson Low will publish the first part of Mr. William Anderson's elaborate and sumptuous treatise on The Pictorial Arts of Japan.' Mr. Anderson, who has studied his subject on the spot, has tried to produce a complete history-the first of its kindof Japanese painting and engraving. He divides his essay into four sections. In the first he treats of the general history of his subject, from prehistoric times to its latest developments at the hands of Hokusai and the Katsugawas; while the second is devoted to technical processes, the third to all the "forms and applications " of Japanese pictorial art, and the fourth to "General Characteristics." With a vast number of minor illustrations, the work will contain some eighty plates in chromolithography, photogravure, wood engraving, and etching, these last the work of native artists.

AMONG a few amenities of the Thames in the neighbourhood of London is that long, well-wooded islet called Brentford Eyot. This island, the being rapidly washed away; both ends suffer lowest, except two, of the Thames eyots, is from the scour of the ebbing and flowing tides, the action of which has been of late years increased and expedited by engineering operations, not only in the immediate neighbourhood, but at comparatively remote spots, having accelerated the movement of the water. Winter after winter witnesses the destruction of trees whose roots bound together the soil-it is a stiff clay-of which the island is formed. Nor are the ends the only sufferers; the Kew side yields more and more annually. About half a century since the water company, whose lofty and elegant tower now marks the district, was in the habit of drawing a considerable portion of its this purpose erected a large iron cylinder in water from the Thames at Brentford, and for the bed of the river, the domical head of which may be seen at the eastern apex of the eyot. This cylinder has divided the flood tide; without it a great deal more of the island would have been carried away. Even a few piles driven into the bed of the river would save a great deal of the other end and the sides of the eyot; nevertheless, nothing has been done. The Thames Conservancy might be expected to do something towards inducing the Woods and Forests to prevent the utter destruction of the island. To build an "ornamental wall" round Brentford Eyot would be a remedy as bad as the disease. Yet this has been proposed.

THE Thames Conservancy is, perhaps, not t blame for the neglect of Brentford Eyot, but is an active sinner in respect to the next isle that fronting Strand-on-the-Green, which wa long ago taken possession of and converte into a storehouse for old lumber and odds an ends. It was once a very pretty place. Th next islet is at Chiswick, where destruction is pr gressing much more rapidly than at Brentfor More than ten feet of the eastern end here annually carried away; the other extremi suffers only in a less degree, while the south si crumbles in proportion. It is about two centurie we believe, since this island was, by will of th then owner, divided for the benefit of the po between the parishes of Fulham and Chiswic and a transverse ditch marked the division. that time the estate extended from near opposite Chiswick Church so far eastwards the villa of Catherine of Braganza on Hamme smith Upper Mall, or a little further. Original it seems to have reached in a long spit below t site of Brandenburg House. The Fulham po tion, which fell to Hammersmith parish wh the former parish was divided, is now alm entirely gone. Will nobody drive in a few pi to save the rest of the islet, so as to prevent t increase of a muddy expanse and costly dredgin

THE press view of the fifteenth autumn e hibition of pictures in oil and water colours, be held at Liverpool in the Walker Art Galler took place on Friday, September 4th; t private view is fixed for Saturday, and the hibition will be thrown open to the shilling pub on Monday.

A SUBSCRIPTION is on foot to rehang and arrange the bells of Exeter Cathedral, by way a memorial of the Rev. H. T. Ellacombe, father of bell archæology, whose death we corded a few weeks since.

To Mr. R. W. Edis was committed the t of designing and superintending the erection the new pedestal for Wyatt's statue of the Du of Wellington, removed from Hyde Park Cor to Aldershot. The work is now very nea completed.

THE Vicomte Henri Delaborde, since 1 attached to the Print Room of the Bibliothe Nationale, Paris, of which since 1858 he been the chief officer, has resigned his post, has been succeeded by M. Georges Duples until now Conservateur-Adjoint of the sa department. It is expected that M. Raffet succeed to the latter gentleman's duties.

E. M. S. writes:

"May I call yours and your readers' attentio what I believe is a wrong name of one of De W water colours in the National Gallery? It is N in the Henderson Bequest, and is entitled Ruin Lincoln Castle.' I know of no part of the c which presents, or has presented, Gothic wing such as De Wint has introduced in the foregro nor is there any position in the castle whene Wint's view of the Rood Tower and that only ca obtained. On the other hand, it so exactly e sponds with a view from part of the Bishop's Pa a little east of the ancient cellars aud directly s of the Alnwick Tower (which the late bishop stored), that I at once thought it must have taken from that spot."

WE regret to hear of the death of Mr. The Thornycroft, the well-known sculptor, and fa of Mr. Hamo Thornycroft.

A CORRESPONDENT sends the following le which is mentioned in the Eighth Report of Historical Manuscripts Commission. It th light on the destruction of painted glass, a addressed by John Berry, glazier, at Har near Salisbury, to John Lloyd, Esq., Cor Street, Hanover Square, London :

This day I have sent you a Box full of old S and Painted Glass as you desired me to due w hope it will Sute your Purpos it is the best t can get at Present. But I expet to Beatt to Pe a great deale verey sune as it is of now use to w we Due it for the lead if you want Eney mo the same sorts you may have what thear is, if i Pay for Taking out, as it is a Deal of Truble to Beating it to Peceais his you will send me a li

magician!" and we heartily endorse the statement. While the weird and supernatural elements of the story are treated with the hand of a consummate master, the necessary relief is obtained by solos and duets of the most exquisite beauty. Dvorak never tortures his melodies; they flow as naturally as those of Mozart, while they are throughout perfectly fresh and original. Such numbers as the two soprano airs, "Mine did I once a lover call" and "O Virgin Mother, gracious be," and the duets "Ah, dearest child," "Fair is the night," and "Now when the night so fair doth show," are as beautiful as anything in music; while the choruses describing the fearful journey, and more especially the scene in the dead-house, are overwhelming in force and intensity. The orchestral colouring is wonderfully picturesque and dramatic, and it is not too much to say that The Spectre's Bride' dwarfed into absolute insignificance all the other novelties of the festival.

Like all Dvorak's other works, his new cantata is of no ordinary difficulty, whether for soloists, chorus, or orchestra; the performance, nevertheless, was truly magnificent. Madame Albani has never sung more finely than in the soprano music, while Mr. Joseph Maas ably seconded her in the duets, and Mr. Santley did ample justice to the difficult and somewhat thankless part of the narrator. The Birmingham chorus, which had been singing splendidly throughout the week, surpassed itself on this occasion. It may fairly be said that more superb chorus-singing has never been heard ; and Mr. Stockley deserves the heartiest congratulations on the result of his labours as choir-master. The orchestra was no less excellent, and the composer, who conducted his own work, received at the close an ovation which he will certainly never forget.

Of the miscellaneous second part of the concert it is only necessary to notice one item-the setting by Dr. Bridge of Mr. Gladstone's Latin version of the hymn "Rock of Ages " for baritone solo and chorus. In this short piece the talented organist of Westminster Abbey appears in a very favourable light. The composition is not only scholarly, but musically interesting, and well scored for the orchestra. It was excellently performed under the conductorship of the composer, the solo being most artistically given by Mr. Frederic King, and was very favourably received.

factory than on some previous occasions due to no shortcomings in the manageme but to the general depression of trade the Midland Counties. We warmly gratulate the festival committee on a liant and thoroughly deserved success; we trust that they will be encouraged persevere in their efforts for the cause English music, and that their example be followed at our other important festiv

Musical Gossip.

chorus of Assyrians, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion," to which the Jewish women respond, "How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?" The whole of the first part is excellent, and the final chorus of this section of the work, "The heathen shall fear Thy name," contains some admirable fugal writing, forming a most effective climax. The second part of the oratorio is, as a whole, distinctly inferior to the first not, let it be said, in the workmanship, which is of the highest order, but in the nature of the ideas. Here the scene on the plains of Dura is treated. The opening THE 162nd meeting of the Three O hymn to Bel is very good, and the instruwill be held at Hereford during the com week. On Tuesday morning 'Elijah' will mental interlude with the chorus of Assyrian worshippers (No. 9) is admirable in tone given; Gounod's Redemption' will be formed on Wednesday morning, and in and feeling; but some of the other moveevening Spohr's Last Judgment' and B ments, especially the solo and chorus "Ye "A stronghold sure ("Ein feste Bur are my witnesses," and the long tenor air Thursday morning will be occupied by Dra "Blessed art Thou, O Lord God of our 'Stabat Mater' and Mendelssohn's Hym fathers," are not free from a suspicion Praise,' while the Messiah' will be giver of dryness. Dr. Stanford, however, makes Friday morning. Besides these perform ample amends in his final chorus, "0 all of which will take place in the cathe all ye works of the Lord," which is remark- there will be concerts in the Shire Hall on 1 day, Thursday, and Friday evenings. At able for breadth and grandeur of effect no two novelties will be brought forward-a can less than for technical skill. It is a signifi-St. Kevin,' by Dr. J. Smith, of Dublin, cant fact that in four out of the five large a solo and chorus, 'The Song of Balder vocal works produced at Birmingham Leit- Mr. C. Harford Lloyd, both written expr motive have been freely employed. Dr. for the festival, and conducted by their re Stanford has used them with great felicity tive composers. The principal vocalists eng and ingenuity throughout. Though a someare Madame Albani, Miss Hilda Coward, what unequal work, The Three Holy Anna Williams, Madame Patey, Madame Children' will take high rank among the riquez, Mr. Edward Lloyd, Mr. Harper Kea novelties of the festival. It received an Mr. Brereton, and Mr. Santley. Dr. Colb the organist of Hereford Cathedral, will con excellent performance under the direction and Mr. Carrodus will be leader. of Herr Richter, the solo music being in the safe hands of Miss Anna Williams and Messrs. Maas, King, Foli, and Watkin Mills. The oratorio was followed by Beethoven's Choral Symphony, in which both orchestra and chorus distinguished themselves greatly. The solos were sung by Mrs. Hutchinson, Madame Trebelli, Mr. J. Maas, and Mr. F. King.

A repetition of Gounod's Mors et Vita' on the same evening brought to a close one of the most interesting and memorable festivals ever held in Birmingham. In concluding our notice it is only due to Herr Richter that we should first acknowledge his invaluable services, to which the great success which has attended the festival has been very largely due. That he has justified the action the action of the committee in appointing him as successor to Sir Michael Costa it is impossible to deny. Of the only weak point of the performances

A NEW and revised edition of Mr. E. H Allen's work, 'Violin-making as it Was an is now being produced by Messrs. Ward, & Co.

WE regret to announce the death of Wendland, for many years the first horn Crystal Palace band.

HERR S. DE LANGE, the conductor famous Männergesangverein at Colog leaving that city to return to his native Holland, where he has undertaken the

ductorship of a choral society at the Hagu

Ar the coming season of the Gürzenic certs in Cologne, Dr. Wüllner, who has suc the late Ferdinand Hiller as conductor, i to produce Bach's Great Mass in в min Berlioz's Requiem.'

A NEW musical journal, entitled Musi Rundschau, is about to make its appear Vienna..

guished baritone singer, has taken the d HERR CARL HILL, of Schwerin, the of the Stadttheater at Nuremberg.

DRAMA

THE WEEK. MEMORIAL THEATRE, STRATFORD-ON-AVON.Like It.'

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