The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-01-15 00:00:00

CHILDREN'S BALL AT THE MANSION
HOUSE, LONDON.

oft

Describing this novel entertainment, the Daily
Nrws says :—" Although there was a great variety of
costumes no one could be in the room for a minute
without discerning that there had been a great run
upon sailors' dresses among the boys, while it was
equally evident that a great number of the girls had
reForted to the delightful Watteau dresses. Indeed,
one could hardly move without encountering a
pretty shepherdess, some tiny Phillis luring on
her Corydon with her crook, and following in
her wake was pretty certain to be either a Man-o'war's
man or a Jester. Of the Lord Mayer's family eleven
were present. Miss Jessie Cotton impersonated
Meonlight ; Miss Violet Cotton, Queen of the Fairies;
Miss Olive Cotton, Queen of the Roses; Mr. Sydney
Cotton, Romeo; Mr. Stanley Cotton, the Shah of
Persia—high cap, diamond aigrette, and ; Master
Cecil Cotton, Gaiusborough's Blue Boy; and Master
Rowland Cotton, Ilasaniello. It was from the
gallery that the scene looked prettiest. From that
point of vantage the spectator could see huntsmen,
foresters, sailors, Watteau shepherdesses, fairies with
silver wings and silver wands, vivandibres attired
perfect'y true to life, Boulogne fish-wives, wearers
of the pretty Spanish dress, jesters in the
motley, sailors, riflemen in dark green uniforms,
Neapolitan fishermen, young Highlanders, naval
officers, and not a few girls in the costume which pre-
vailed in England between the fifteenth and seven-
teenth centuries. Refreshments were served in the
Long Parlour all the evening, and at nine o'clock the
first batch of 200 guests, old and young, went into the
idd ball-room to sup, before returning to the Egyptian
Hall to renew the dance. Few prettier pictures can
be conceived than that witnessed on Thursday evening
at the Mansion House."

An order has been is-ued by the Field Marshal Com-
manding-in-Chief that the carcases of dead hones are not to
be interred within 200 yards of inhabited buildings, went', or
other source of water sup ly, and that when burled they
should be covered with q e.

I

THE TRAINING-SHIP DISASTERS.
On Saturday/an examination was made of the wreck
of the Warspite by. Capc.ain P'nipps and Mr. F.
Wyatt, the ship's carpenter, in order to gain informa-
tion as to the origin of the fire. One of the theories
Islet up has been that the fire was occasioned by sponta-
,ineou,s combustion among the coals but a diver, who
wasffient4pwn„into this hold, rrPort4 th 4 the firefihad
41-fevet ntei'ed.tfie cog/hole. Captain Pfiipps ha 4 had
the 'masts and rigging realoved from the ship's Side,
-andelaken by a tug to her Majesty's dockyard,
Woolwich, wivere.. the. are now- lying on the ma-t-
-ponfe slip ; and the ship's boats, all of which
iwerer-- saved are also at the dockyard. The
MO ol" the vessel is nearly submerged at every
high tide, and _nothing has yet been done to-
wards her jein rival e .ef 0,14ep-- hea vzjaich
-brokii" away-frau its-Tositioxi, Ms, 14.4 f imbedded in.
le•uppel de7k;ltiorrile jother guns till rhuain .11d
thirLJaul.,Jar-twz-eck. ItroliaMy be n
okeii ue-.4.leaaars,--Oasars rt,,it-ist---prement_ gag d
-in-similar work-upon the Goliath at Grays. The boys
of the last-named vessel are nearly all distributed
among the unions to which they belong, and the War-
spite lads are mostly at their own homes, a few only
who have no relatives to go to being provided for by
the Marine Society or the Woolwich guardians.