The Press. — London, England, 1855-03-10 00:00:00

"CURIOSITIES OF LONDON." TO THE EDITOR OF " THE PRESS." Sir,—The writer of the review of the above work, in your journal of last week, has made two or three charges of 011a8S1011, of which I am anxious to clear myself. 1. Re states that no earlier name than Londinium or Augusta is noted in my volume ; if he will turn to page 645 (Roman London) he will find the early British Llyn-dun, and Llong-dinas, referred to. 2. Taylor, the water-poet, is mentioned elsewhere than at the page your reviewer refers to. See " Long acre " (p. 473), where, in Phcenix-alley, Taylor kept an ale-house. 3. The artiele on "Coffee-houses" (see p. 200) ex tends to six pages, and includes notices of thirty-two coffee-houses, although the reviewer implies the " catalogue" to contain only half a dozen. 4. The article on the " Gardens and Public Walks " (see p. 319) extends to seven pages ; and "Parks" to fourteen pages (583 to 597) ; whereas the reviewer states that they "are dismissed with notices so scanty that a foreigner could never gather from the book the slightest notion of the importance once attached to these scenes." 6. " The Mulberry Garden," the reviewer objects, is only noticed in three lines ; whereas, had he re ferred to the article on "Buckingham Palace," pp. 565-566 (the actual locality of the Mulberry Garden), he would have found quoted Pepys's de scription of the plate ; the anecdote of Dryden and his mistress eating tarts there; and a note of the garden by Sedley and Dr. King—the very illustra tions of the omissions of which he complains. I will not take up more of your valuable space than to say that, although I did not aim at writing a history of London, I hoped that the labour of years might accomplish a somewhat "higher object than that of bringing together a miscellaneous collection of local facts and illustrations," " a great mass of desultory facts," &c.—l am, sir, your obedient J TIMBS. servant, Sloane-street, Feb. 28, 1855. WE very willingly concede to Mr. Timbs whatever benefit his labours may derive from the publication of this note ; although we need scarcely say that the practice of reopening such matters would lead to great inconvenience. That we have not done Mr. Timbs any injustice in our notice of his book will be sufficiently evident from a glance at the points to which he draws our attention. 1. We did not state that " no" earlier name than .Londinium or Augusta were noted in his volume ; but we stated that there was an earlier name than either which was not noted in his volume. That name is neither Llyn-dun nor Llong dines, which Mr. Timbs must know very well were only the early forms of the name afterwards Latinised into Londinium, and which, therefore, do not supply the omission to which we alluded. e thought, and still think, that in a book intended to contain a descrip tion of London, the origin of the city should have been stated ; and very little research in channels open to everybody would have enabled Mr. Timbs to have informed his readers that London was founded by the Trinobantes, of whose kingdom, including Middlesex, Essex, and a part of Surrey , it was the capital, and that its ancient name was Tri now, or the New City—a name which may be traced through the various languages of Europe, employed in the same way to mark the sites of early settlements. 2. We did not say that Taylor, the water poet, was not " mentioned elsewhere." We said that if he were worth mentioning at all he ought to have been mentioned more accurately. The manner in which his acquaintance with Ben Jonson is alluded to clearly shows that the information, scanty as it is, was taken at second - hand , and that the authentic sources concerning Taylor's relations with Jonson, touching upon the most curious passages in his life and writings, were not consulted. 3. We hope we did not express our meaning so obscurely as to justify the inference that Mr. Timbs bad noticed only half a dozen coffee-houses. We have no doubt there are thirty-two coffee-houses n Aiced, and we perceive that they occupy nearly six pages, but it was not the number to which we took exception. Our observations referred to the deft• ciency in the early history of coffee-houses, taverns, and ordinaries. Having adopted a system of classifi cation, Mr. Timbs had a favorable opportunity of exhibiting the changes of customs and manners illus trated by the annals of these houses. We felt the want of that kind of information in the early part of the book, where the reader is likely to look for it ; and the fact that Mr. Timbs has filled six pages with notices of thirty-two coffee-houses does not seem to . of not THE PRESS. convey to foreigner an adequate notion of their historical interest. 5. We have referred to Buckingham Palace, and must humbly say we do not find the omissions we complained of respecting the Mulberry Garden sup plied. What Mr. Timbs calls Pepys's "description of the place" consists of two phrases. " Pepys (we quote the whole passage) refers to it as ' a silly place,' but with a ' wilderness somewhat large.' " The anecdote about Dryden, dropping out the inci dents of the sword and the ohedreuse, which impart colour and intent to it, is dwarfed into a ling : " According to a contemporary, the poet ate tarts there with Mrs. Anne Reeve, his mistress." Even this im perfect quotation is incorrect, for the "contemporary," who, we may observe, is supposed to have been Southern, does not say that Mrs. Anne Reeve was Dryden's mistress. But these are minor points : the insufficiency of the description still remains. We are told nothin? of the origin of the Mulberry Garden, except that it was planted by James I. ; the fact that it was planted for the purpose of introducing the silk worm in England, with a view to the encouragement of our national manufacture of silk, is passed over in silence. Granting, however, that these fragmentary notices are as much as we have a right to expect in such a compilation, which we certainly cannot admit without a protest, the place in which we found them confirms our assertion that the book has not been put together upon an intelligible plan. We are referred to the section "Palaces " for an account of the Mulberry Garden. We might as reasonably be required to look for it under the head of " Churches." We are aware that Buckingham Palace was built on a portion of the ground formerly occupied by the Mul berry Garden, but as Mr. Timbs devotes a sepa rate section to the " Gardens," the proper place for a description of the Mulberry Garden was obviously the chapter expressly dedicated to gardens. A stranger who desires to know something about the Mulberry Garden will exhaust all the usual modes of looking for it without obtaining what he wants. Finding no such head under the alphabetical arrange ment of the articles, he turns to the index. Here, also, he is at fault. There is no such reference. At last he lights upon the general head "Gardens," and he is here directed for an account of the Mulberry Garden to page 322. Pursuing this direction, the only one in the index, he finds the following state ment :—" Here, too, was a grove of mulberry trees, planted by James I. ; afterwards the Mulberry Garden ; '" and this is the whole of the information to which he can obtain a clue by alphabet or index. He will, therefore, close the book, as we did, under a very natural impression that it contains nothing more on the subject. It is not our fault, but Mr. Timbs', that we could not find out his account o the Mulberry Garden. We went over the whole index in search of it in vain ; and now that we have found it, we do not think it as coipplete as it ought to be. y usit. THE SECOND CONCERT OF THE HARMONIC UNION took place at the Hanover-square Rooms on Wed nesday evening. Mendelssohn's Lobgesang, and Rossini's Stabat Mater, two works as antipodal in their character and treatment as it is possible to bring together, were presented to an audience corn posed almost equally of talent and fashion. Though a short work, the Lobgesang is entitled to the highest consideration as the outpour►ng of a great master in his happtest mood; whilst the well-known chef ttceurre of Rossini, however theatrical and overstrained it may be in some parts, yet recains its place in public estimation. Both were performed, on the whole, in a manner highly creditable to the directors of this well-known society, who in general secure first Tate executive talent, and compose their programmes of excellent classical productions. Tile history and character of both these great works is so well known already to lovers of music that we will only proceed to speak of the actual performances on Wednesday evening. We may say, without hyperbole, that the performance of the symyhony to the Lobgesang was perfect. The leading melody, impressive and solemn in its character, is exquisitely brought to bear by the composer throughout the entirety of the three move ments, and was enforced by the orchestra with a distinctness rarely to be met with in performances of this nature. The "Adagio Religioso" is, perhaps, the most complete embodiment of devotional feeling that ever emanated from Mendelssohn's brain; and in no respect did the performers deteriorate the native grandeur of this magnificent movement. After its entrancing strains had merged into the grand burst of wind instruments which Mendelssohn employs to impress finally the pervading and chief melody on the minds of his hearers, the vocal part commenced, and, though imperfect in many points, the opening chorus was well and grandly given. Of Mr. Sims Reeves, who sustained the principal part in the first performance, we wish we could speak in terms of praise, but this is not easy. Except in the well-known recitative. "We called through the darkness," his singing was in many • places defective—in all, blatant and exaggerated in the alto, and ineffective in the mezzovoce. In one passage his interpretation of the composer's idea was a positive mistake, and we regret to find that he is falling into the fatal error of commencing his holding notes out of tulle, and only arriving at the proper tone in the middle of the sostenuto. However, in the recitative he displayed great taste, and presented a most effective and artistic reading. "Indisposi tion" prevented him from sustaining the part allotted to him in the Stabat Mater, and his place was con.: sequently inefficiently supplied on a short notice by Mr. Herbert, of whom we think little, and will say less. The consequence of this breach of faith was that the " Cujus annum " was entirely omitted, and it was, perhaps, as well ; though we cannot but con sider a performance unsatisfactory in which the prin cipal air, indeed, the very acme of the whole (impo sition, is suppressed. Mrs. Weiss's singing was throughout most successful, full of feeling and graceful expression. She manages her voice, in itself both sweet and powerful, so as to exhibit its qualities to the best advantage. In music of this description she has found her rattier. In the duetto, " I waited for the Lord " (Lobgesang), where the parts are interwoven with ex quisite and subtle contrivance, both she and Miss Lascelles was loudly applauded ; indeed, we never remember to have heard a difficult =arid better and more smoothly executed. For Miss Lascellk we earnestly recommend her to persevere ; she is a most promising young singer, works indefatigably, and, though contending with an organ naturally harsh, she has done much, and we venture to assert will do much more. Her reading of " Fax utportem" (Stabat Mater) was highly meritorious. For Mr. Weiss, his singing was bold and loud as ever, his in tonation true, with one exception, but that a most flagrant one, in Rossini's last and best quartet. The chorus was, in general, passably good, but it evidently requires a more energetic leader and stricter baton than Herr Molique can supply. On the whole, the best sung chorus in the Lobgesang was " All ye that cried," the tender and melting strains of which cannot but awaken a devotional feeling in the mind of the most rigid detractors of Mendelssohn's compo sitions. The orchestral accompaniments, though ad mirably performed, were more than an equivalent for the num per and strength of the voices employed in the chorus ; the effect of the latter was, therefore, considerably marred. Light and shade, too, that most important result of careful training, was not suffi ciently attended to, and the only concerted piece on which elaborate attention tied evidently been bestowed was the unaccompanied chorus, "Let all men praise," in the Lobgesang, when the tenori and bassi really sang admirably well. The room was filled by a superior and attentive audience, who seemed most fully to appreciate both the great works pre sented to them. HANOVER-SQUARE Roots.—The great popularity of the glee and madrigal reunions has induced Mr. Mitchell to revive some of those excellent composi • lions by Sir Henry Bishop, and to give four conceits, the selections for which are to consist solely of the glees and concerted vocal pieces of our well known composer. The first concert, which was performed on Tuesday afternoon, consisted of three glees, four quartets, one sestet, and two concerted pieces, and the selection (which was made by Sir Henry Bishop) was chosen from some of his principal works, Maid Marian, Don John, The Miller and his Men, &c. It would be superfluous to enlarge upon the beauty of Sir Henry Bishop's compositions. His works once and for a long course of years enjoyed the most unbounded popularity upon the stage; but because they are no longer heard upon the stage, they are not yet, nor ever will be, forgotten by lovers of pure English melodies. Vocal harmony is becoming daily more cultivated among all classes, and with this resuscitation of a pure and graceful species of music the varied and beautiful compositions of Sir Henry Bishop, many of them not to be surpassed in melody and simplicity of expression, will regain, let us hope, their just and undeniable influence. The concert on Tuesday was presided over by Sir Henry Bishop at the piano, and, among the most successful pieces, the quartets "Breathe, my harp," and " Sleep, gentle lady" (the latter from the famous opera Clari,) were very warmly applauded and encored. The vocalists consisted of Messrs. Francis, Benson, Ruckland, Lawler, and Land, and several boys from the cathedral choirs. The concert was highly successful, and the room crowded. The second concert takes place this afternoon, between the hours of three and five, upon which occasion complete chorus of men's voices will be introduced, for the more efficient execution of the concerted pieces with choruses. The programme of this con cert is exceedingly well selected. THE ROYAL ITALIAN OPERA. will reopen about the 10th of April. Mdlle. Fanny Ney, prima donna of the Royal Opera of' Berlin, will appear early ing e season, in Verdi's If Trovatore, and - junction with Mme. Viardot Garcia, whose per formance of the contralto part in that opera has vos• II 1 il I notices of tuu t i ,,,,„ ~—__ _ _ us a satisfactory answer to our objection. 4. The same observat ion applies to the gardens i and parks. We give Mr. Timbs all the credit he •clairns for the facts he has collected, and are still of 'opinion that his account of these places would not