Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-02-15 00:00:00

THE INTERIOR.

Legends of fairy land comprise many a tale of falm-
kais magnificence, but no language employed to paint.
to the imagination scenes of ideal splendour could
be too glowing for a description of the interior
of the_hall. , Eastern grandeur would have• appeared
inferior beside it, and even the Y Fairy Queen
herself could scarce exhibit to mortal eyes a
supernatural festivity by which it would be surpassed.
If Queen Mab could by magic influence draw to-
gether the monarchs of every nation and the natives of
every clime, each arrayed in their peculiar habits—some
in costumes of the most gaudy hue, others in less pre-
tending garb—then, indeed, might she claim to have
conjured up a scene equal to'that which was last night
witneifek ,No mere description in words could convey
its effect: To be appreciated it must have been seen.

Nind'o'clock was the time appointed for the assem-
bling of the motley party, and soon after that hour the
company began to arrive‘;

"Till gladly finding each progressive hour,
Heighten their number and augment their power,"

the scene soon reached the height of its splendour, and
the pleasures of the masquerade were warmly entered
into. it would be idle to attempt a ' description
of the varied costumes; almost every variety of
character - was represented ; scarcely a nation but
bait 14 deputy present.; but few of the plays of our noted
dramatists but contributed one or more of its dramatis
persona to augment' the gathering, The hall was like
fairy land, or a court filled with the ambassadors of
every nation.

• To one who looked from upper air
. O'er all the enchanted regions there,
How beauteous must have been the glow,
The life, the sparkling from below.
Churchill might here have found those whom he called

Expletive kings and queens without a name.
More sparkling still appeared the scene when the whole
assembly whirled in the gay dance ; and the most
grotesque partnerships were formed fur this purpose,
even the miracle of. Babel being surpassed in the
easy manner in which foreigners, whom one would
suppose had never spokon a word of English in
their lives, forgot their assumed nationality, and spake
soft words to the ,fair ones at their sides. Fair,
indeed, they were; for, perhaps never in the history
of our town, were so many of the most fair of
our townswomen assembled' together ; and a circum-
stance not less remarkable, was the taste they
had displayed in the selection of costumes--even surpass-
ing the other sea in this respect. One felt almost in-
clined to wish, when gazing upon some of them,
that the days of crinoline were passed, and we
had returned to the time when hoops were discarded,
and pretty feet were not hidden under " long clothes."
The beauty of the fair sex was remarked on every
hand, and

What's female, beauty, but an air divine,
h shine ?
hrot gh which the mind's all-gentle graces
Anoter remarkable feature not
former f peculiar to 'the
Y ball, was the presence of a
large number of the members of our Rifle and Artillery
Corps; and it Was satisfactory that they had not
assembled in numbers so disproportionate as in any way
to mar the beauty of
the scene
their presence in too large numbers would have done.
se which it was feared
,