The Express.
London, England, 1857-09-29 00:00:00

LONDON OUT OF TOWN.

03011 ♦ COI

"ow trAvs.")

VECT IS.

It is time that Mr. John Murray, of Albemarle-
street, should depute Mr. Peter Cunningham or some
other intelligent gentleman to compile a good hand-
book to tbu inland. Weds, or, to drop classicality,
the We of Wight, is too favourite a resort for thou.
sands of pleasure and health seekers to be left to the
descriptive mercies of a well-meaning but feeble old
gentleman whose principal bout is that he has been
a resident far forty years, and whose Guides, of
various sizes and prices, are chiefly remarkable for
the badness of their grammar, the vagueness of their
description, and their general literary shortcomings.
The " Pleasure Visitor's Companion to the Isle of
Wight," which I have now before me, reads like the
narrative of a tour written by an enthusiastic old
maid and revised by Sylvanus Urban, containing an
amount of forcible feebleness, italicised nonsense, and
unintentionally diluted extravagance now seldom met
with. And yet there are few places that could offer a
better field for the display of the peculiar genius
nsoessary for handbook-writing than this small
island, teeming, es it is, with natural beauties,
and by no means lacking in interesting antiqua-
rian and historic associations. But as no such work
is at present in existence, and as there may be
many of your readers who, while not caring how
many hundred inhabitants contains, or
whether has been in the hands of the
Emily ever since the Norman conquest,
might yet wish to have some original jottings about
the island and those places in it which they well
know by name, I send you the result of my own
observations—premising, lest disappointment may
arise and feelings be shocked, that (in the words of
what would be a very good commercial traveller's
sentiment) " the cobweb* of Conventionality will be I
brushed away- by the besom of Truth," sad my
literal cxpenences narrated in defiance of all the ro-
mantic nonsense ever talked about the island by
honeymooning couples, or people with even less ex-
cuse for folly.

Arriving then at Ryde, after a four hours' jour-
ney, including the sea passage, from London, you
find the Ryde population gathered at the head of a
particularly overgrown pier, and your first notions
are that Hyde is • superior kind of Ramsgate.
Thia is not the case; the regular inhabitants are
thoroughly " genteel," retired navy officers, or their
widows and families, forming the principal portion
of the resident population, while the visitors are a
special clam—the yachting men, their admirers,
imitators, and would-be ensnarers. Their craft, per-
fect in the neatness of their rig, and the general
cleanliness and trimness of their appearance, lie off
the pier ; while on the pier, whenevet not actually
on board, are to be met the members of thesquadron.
Pleasant it is to see those old gentlemen, whom you
knew only as Pall-mall pacers, Regent-street
loungers, and club-window fillers, now turned out in
snits of heavy blue, with the club button, stiff glazed
wads-awakes stuck on their poor old white heads,
sad with their mouths and nostrils endeopen, to gasp
at and inhale that fresh air which is to give
them health and strength for the next sea-
are's campaign. Pleasant is it to see the
paths swells vainly endeavouring to assume a
nautical roll, a laisan-aller air, vainly endeavouring
to drop the buckram of swelldom and the haw-
haw hauteur, which is now supposed to be a requi-
site qualification for a gentleman, and which, by the
wa,v is much oftener assumed and carried further
catty an ennobled manufacturer or a tuft-hunting
lawyer than by the descendant of the Plantagenets.
The seeker of quiet and rest will not remain at Ryde,
which is necessarily towny and feebly gay; he will
do better to proceed at once to Veotnor, the coach for
which place starts from the end of the Ryde pier, and
which he will reach after a two hours' drive on a
regular old.feshioned stage coach, behind four excel-
lent horses, and through the most lovely scenery—
Beading, gandown, Shank lin, and Boncliurch—three
mean lovely spots, but I would recommend Ventoor for
headquarters, inasmuch as it is much more central,
and, while thoroughly quiet and retired, possesses
accommodation in shops and other necessaries of
existence such as the other places have not.
For those who want rest of mind end body, who are
thoroughly done up with their twelvemonths' Lard
work, and who fly from London requiring quiet,
though unable to bear dulness, Ventnor is exactly
the place. You will have heard that the heat is
insupportable here, that there is no air, fro., IL:c.;
believe it not, for though sheltered from the east
wind by the large hill in whose shadow it is built,
the town is open to every other breeze, and on any
of the surrounding cliffs you can always obtain air
enough to render a beaver-catcher accessary for
your hat.

- Established here, then, you will eery well while
away a few days in bathing, walking, idling, and
criticising your neighbours, whom you will find to be
my superior to the ordinary run of watering-place
frequenters, consisting principally of families, and
among them are to be found many foreigners.
Ventnor is not a single-man's place ; there is no pro-
menade, no band, no set hours for doing anything
and meeting everybody, and, to tell the truth, there
are very few pretty girls. We abound in children
of all shapes and sizes, in fresh young blooming
mammas, venerable silver-haired grannies, papas
stout and middle-aged or young and dashing, and
round-hatted griffins in the shape of old maids innu-
merable, but of nice girls there is a lamentable
scarcity. This, however, though a serious one, is
Ventner's only shortcoming, fur it has beautiful
scenery, excellent bathing, capital shops, and pure
air; is easily arrived at and departed from, and is,
in short, as good a specimen of a pleasant, quiet
meted@ place as it has been my good fortune to meet

Here, indeed, you might verily pass the entire
time you have allotted yourself for holiday-making,
were it not for those terrible people who insist upon
your seeing the " lions," and some of whom arc to
be found is every party. Away, then, to St. Law-
rence. where there is a well of flabby, lukewarm
water, tasted and pronounced " delicious" by every
tourist, fur dire conventionality's sake; past titeephill
Castle, • modern castellated building with a kind of
" property" posters gate and a general act-drop
Grieve and Telbin-ish appearance; past pretty
Niton, where there is a lighthouse, to " go up" which
I declined, to the astonishment of my fly-driver, as it
is evidently a recognised duty of visitors; past the
whole length of that wondrous Cndereliff, unlike
anything in the world wakes it be slices of broken
pound cake with thin layers of jam between them,
to Illackgang. Here is the celebrated Chine which,
of cone*, you will intend to go down, and to you I
can but repeat the memorable advice of Punch to
persons about to marry—" Don't." It isa greet labour,
with no result ; no, dine quietly at the hotel, where
they will treat you capitally ; after dinner stroll,
cigar in mouth, to the edge of the rent rock, and,
looking on worn and bested persons who have been
rewarded for an hour's toil by the sight of a fissure
in a hill's side, you will thank me for this advice.
Other places to be seen are the Needles, Alum
Bay, and Carisbrook Castle. There is no coach or
public conveyance to Alum Bay, and you most ac-
cordingly hire a carriage and make • two days' trip
of it, sleeping one night at the Needles Hotel, at
Alum Bay. or at Freshwater, where you have the
choice of two hotels. Everybody has seen pictures
and read accounts of the famous Needles, and each
succeeding writer about them has piled a small piece
on to the agony of wonder and delight indulged in
by his predecessor; but to speak the simple
truth, I must enact Sir Charles Coldstream
over again, and declare that I "sew nothing in
them." Two large pieces of rock sticking up
in the sea at a short distance from the land,
broad at the base and jagged at the top, and
no more like needled than candlesticks, may be very
wonderful objects, end it may be owing solely to my
obtuseness that I am enable to perceive their beauty.
Alum Bay, however, is really worth a visit. Thence

doom all that parti-aolourefi sand which is made up
into various shape., and sold in bottles, and the effect
of the sunlight upon the red, yellow, green, brown,
and slate-tinted rocks is very beautiful, reminding
one strongly of the sunset on the Grands Motets, as
seen at the Egyptian-hall. The route from Alum
Bay to Cariabrook take* you past Farringford, where
readies Allred Tennyson. The house strode No far
back as to be invisible from the road (which must be
a great comfort for the laureate, Mho would else
have innumerable visitors poking their !ods, as I
did mine, over his privet hedge.), but the grounds—.
A cameo red garden.
Close to the ridge of a noble down—
looked Tiny pretty and tbm. ughly English. In
another verse of the poem from which I have quoted,
the Invitation to the It :v. F. I). Maurice, he exactly
describes the situation of Farrint:ll—
roves of pine ea either
To bred the blest of svintir, 4 •
And farther on, the hoary Casio'
Tumbles a banker .a clad% .ad se•J.
Everyone well acquainted w ith Tennyson's writ-
ing will have noticed how the spirit of the scenery
which he has depicted has changed, from the
"glooming fiats," the "level waste," where
" stretched wide and wild the waste enormous
marsh," which were the reflex of his Lincolnshire
observation, to the beautiful meadow and orchard,
thoroughly English ruralities of the "Gardener's
Daughter" and "The Brook." Many glimpses in
the neighbourhood of Farringford will call to mind
descriptive pussies in these last-named poems.
Those who have seen Warwick, Kenilworth,
Battle, or any of our stock "show" castles and
abbeys, will not think much of Cariabrook. There is,
of course, the regular business of keep, battlements,
11:c., but nothing specially remarkahle, except swell,
300 feet deep, the water from which is drawn by a
large treadwheel worked by a donkey. Never was
ass so ignominiously treated or so held up to the
morn of the lookers-on as this beset, which walks
into the wheel and starts its treadmill with an evi-
-1 dent notion, while not varying its position one inch,
that it is making vast progress and getting over a
great quantity of ground.
Cariabrook is, moreover, the home of martyrdom,
and the moment an unfortunate stranger sets foot
in the place be is marked out for destruction. More-
over, hie the animalcule in the microscope at the
Polytechnic, fight among themselves the touts on the
outside of the Castle wall, warn you of imposition
which, they meet, will be practised upon you
within. There is a curious anomaly at this place ;
the gate is opened to you, and the principal portion.
of interest ere described in the usual cut-and-dried
nasal twang by two young ladies, perfect ladies in
dress and address, with round hats and the tightest
fitting Jouvin glove., who tout for your shilling,
and take it too, with all the greed of old house-
keepers at show-houses.
Such are a few of my impressions of Vectis—a
place which I hope often to look back to with plea-
sant recollection amid "the dust and drouth of
London life," to which I am returning. Y.

THE DRAMA.

SURREY.

A " new grand romantic play," called Ambition :
or, the Throw mud tee Tani, wee produced with ilUM•121111
'u M. at this theatre lan *anis& The heroine is Cathe-
rine Howard, the uofortunate Queen of Henry the Eighth,
whine history is treated after a very original fashion. Cathe-
rine is a beautiful damsel of low degree, privately married to
Ethehrold, Rol of Derby, • courtier, who haa fallen
in love with her and made her his wifo, while she
line In retirement doormat of the rank of her
husband. The King, who has already got rid of four
wave., having sea her by accident, after his fashion falls
doleally la lees with her, and give. Rthelwold a confidential
corwairion to bring her to court. The Earl endeavours to
keep his wife from the King by giving ber • ilaping draught
which throws her into • rate resembling death, sod be her
buried for the ass (like Juliet) in his emu family vault.
The lady, however, takes • different dew of the matter
from her husband. Raft of ambitions theme, her
conjugal love is swallowed up in her eager de-
sire to become a Queen. Thy engraving parkin
utterly depraves ber, and ea at length gains bee
object of obtaining the King's had, abler having sides-
vowed to get rid of her husband by the sacrifice of bis life
The husband escapes ; and, after her marriage with the Kira,
haunts her on all °canons like as avenging spectre, and at
length bring. her to the ecaffold. On the eve of her execu-
,ion she bribes the executioner to disappear, in the desperate
hope of gaining time to implore the King's mercy; but ber
husband appears and destroys this hope, by announcing that
he himself will corm Ibrward and do the duty of hadantaa.
He appear. accordingly on the =gold, having Ora swallowed
poison. in order tat he may f,llow to the tomb
her whom he still love. At the moment when he is to strike
the blow, be rushes from the aaffuld exclaiming that he
cannot do it, and immediately falls sad supine. Catharine
utters a scream of joy for her rape ; but, to bee horror, the
fugitive executioner, who hoe been pursued and brought
back, suddenly makes his appearance, and es be mounts the
scaffold the curtain falls.

Thaws are only a few of the principal incidents of this
most wild sad extravagant drama, which will certainly not
bear criticism. )(eas•red, however, by the ruburbea solo-
dramatic stands d, it is entitled to • (evadable
judgment, kr it is latter written than ems►
things getwmily are and eons of the incideets
end situations are effective and startling. The performance,
too, ia above the common run of melodramatic acting. /4r.
Creswirk's acting, In the part of the Earl of Derby, is more
than melodramatic ; he frequently display. tragic genius of a

high order. Miss Khania, who personated Catherine
Howard, hoe likewise considerable tragic power, but her
action is violent and exaggerated. Mr. Buil Potter looks
and ode bluff King Ilia very well; and the subordinate puts
are respectably sustained. The gloominesss of the subject is
attempted to be relieved by some comic owns,, in which. knot
of cttisena, ales the manner of Shalispeare, make their
comments (meant to be humorous) on the state of affairs.
They are dull clowns, huwevir, and make up for their lack of
wit by language which I/1 often offensively grans and even in-
decent. The piece is got up in a manner which deserves the
highest proles, and is, indeed, one of the most splendid
spatulas we bare our um in this theatre. The house wee
crammed to the doors ; the applause wee lucemat, and the
curtain fell mill shoots end aeclesetioes.

COST 07 Two PARLIAMIINTAZT BRATIt.—The
auditor's statements of the payments made In Pinot of the
election for South DINIIIIO2 has just been published. The
two seats have cost upward. of 14,000/., toward. which the
sitting members. I.ad Harry Vane and Mr. Prose. ecotri-
bete 8,0001., and Mr. Poor, the defeated tort t andidate,
6,3961. In one district. Mr. Foreis professional" ex-
posers were equal to about 30s. co each vote polled ; sad
throughout the whole division la paid his solicitor* an ammo
of 20e. Sd. per vote. Lord Rory paid his lawyers at the rate
of Ins. 4d. per vote; and Mr. Pease fie. In hotel end olecetr
tepee= charges, too, Mr. Ferrer holds first place ; his ex.
under this had being 1,9911. ; whilst those of Lord
Ctlr7 Vane were 1.1011. ; and Mr. Peoria 5531. By is
da-
gulor coincidence, it appears that Mr. Pose, who shod at
the heed of the poll, employed 13 solicitors ; Lod Harry
Vann, who stood second, employed double the number, via.,
28; and Mr. Purer, who stood lot, had just three boss
13, Ma., 39.
BRAINTRZR AND BOCK ING MYCHANIcs'
INSTI-
Tttnott.—On Saturday evening, Mr. Buckmaater delivered
so address in the Corn Rxchange, explanatory of the Society
of Art.' whom of examination, and the importance etiolating
slaws In connexion with Mechanise institutions. The
chief joints of the address were—the desirability of inducing
young men to attend evening closes (non the period at which
they leave school until they heroine orropkd with the
duties and responsibilities of adult life; that they should
work with a view to the examination of the Society of Arta.
The employers of labour were strongly urged to encountge
th;. novenn set, by prnmottng and &deeming the interests of
throe young men who had occupied their leisure butts by
regular attendance at the classes. A discussion took Soo
co the different points advanced by Mr. Buckrooter. In
which Mr. Courtauld. the Rev. Mr. Davie, and other leading
gentlemen sod working men, took part. A revolution was
unanimously adopted to establish evening eluser in connexion
with the ; e.oitution. Mr. Saunders, a gentleman who hie
bad considerable experietwo as a trochee, offered to undertake
the genreal superintendence of the classes. Instruction in
the ordinary au4ects of an elemeatary edumtion is all that
win be onenipkid Inc the preset.

THE INDIAN MUTINIES.

THE 731 D BENGAL NATIVE INFANTRY.

The following is an extract from a letter of an
after in the Thd Bengal Native Infantry, one of the very
few that have not yet mutinied. The headquarters of tho
regiment mat Jamelpore ; there an only have been a de-
tachment at Jet • town near the Bhutan frontier, 62
mike north of
" Jelpinorre, July SO.
" We have been • little unshed lately in coneequence of a
v mnovery that there were some 12 or 16 men in the regiment
• tie wen dispelled to mutiny, and, if ble, kill theft Ai-
. m. We et alter arteeted the ringWde s, tried them by
coertemertial, sad sent them to the gaol heavily ironed.
'1 be paving OS of irons in almmt the greatest indignity
n Itch ma be offered to a high mats thipoy, so we
naturally telt anxious during and after the priori*. How-
ever, ell wait smoothly, and they are now on their way to
Calcutta. After this we breathed a little more lively, but the
sequel will show how nearly we brought the storm on our
own heads. A day or two after information was broght us
lity a faithful Popo), that two men bad been to him, regretting
that they could 094 get up a party to attack the officers at
man; they sneered themselves as ready to do so if they
could induce three more to join them. Our informant pre-
reload to join them. The next day they got their party
eugnientA to sin, end made their arrangement, for that very
evening ; they were to have • boat wetting on the river,
which runs elms under the mesehonse, to arks • dash at
the officers while at droner, jump into the heat, end strii
Ito Photon. They dared not trust themselves as this
es the regiment would not join therm We beard all
this just se we were going to a grand entartainmeat given by
our regiment to the Inegular Cavalry. We thought it
better to go, and we therefore went. We remained three
boars in the midst of them all, knowing that some few were
miatemplating oar murder In the evening.. Up to this time
we bad bed no opportunity of coneninag a• to what wee
to be done ; in het nothing wee settled till I stunted my
horse, and went down to the lines in • tremendous storm of
rain. I had the whole parry arrested. They were taken up
by &Nye, guarded by them all night, and pecked off by
them in • boat next morning for Calcutta
" This means to prove fully that we may rely on the regi-
ment as a body ; they never would Imes imprisoned their own
companinne had anything hie a mutinous spirit been rife
among than."