The Sun.
London, England, 1855-01-05 00:00:00

COURT CIRCITLAR.

WINDSOR, J. 4.
The dinner party yesterday included her Royal High-
ness the Duchess of Kent, the Earl of Aberdeen, the
Earl and Countess Granville, Lady Fanny Howard,
' Baroness de Speth, and Lieutenant-General Sir George
Bowles.
The band of the Royal Horse Guards played during
dinner, and her Majesty's private band afterwards.
The Queen and Prince walked in the grounds ad-
jacent to the Castle this morning.
The Hon. Eleanor Stanley and the Hon. Beatrice
Byng have succeeded the Hon. Flora Macdonald and
the Hon. Caroline Cavendish as Maids of Honour in
Waiting.

The 'Earl of Aberdeen arrived at the Castle yesterday
afternoon, and left Windsor this morning for London.
The Earl and Countess Granville and Lient.-General
Sir G. Bowles have also taken their departure to-day.

The Earl of Aberdeen arrived in town yesterday, from
a visit to the Queen.
De,spatchos for the Governors of Australia were sent
last evening from the Colonial Office.

DR U 1 THEATRE.

The brilliant auguries of success held out to the en-
terprising lessee on his "opening night," bid fair to
exceed his most sanguine expectations. Last evening
the theatre was again densely crowded in every part.
The pantomime of Jack and Jill increases in attraction
each night of its representation. This is not to be won-
dered at, for, without doubt, it is one of the best things
of the kind ever produced in London. Great prepara-
tions, we hear, are being made for the production of the
Egyptian drama, which is announced, as being in active
rehearsal, but, taking the crowded state of the theatre
last night into calculation, the pantomime will of itself
prove a sufficient attraction at least till Easter.

THE GALLERY OF ILLUSTRATION.

We have seldom witnessed an exhibition or entertain-
ment more agreeable and instructive than that which
the diorama of Messrs. Grieves and Telbin, now pre•
sented to the public at this gallery, affords us. It opened
with the new year, and is in every way worthy of the
events it unassumingly, but most successfully, seeks to
portray. It is, so far as the mind can fairly form a
judgment from the accounts transmitted to us from the
seat of war, whether through " the Sun Pictures " of
our " Special Correspondent," or the more official de-
spatches of the great leader of the British army, a
happy pictorial illustration of the mighty deeds and soul-
' absorbing incidents that crowd the sanguinary drama,
upon whose last act the curtain has not yet fallen in the
Crimea. The artists follow the steps of the Allied army
from its departure from Varna to its arrival before the
walls of Sebastopol, and its investment of that stronghold
of the Czar ; at the same time faithfully embodying, with
the poetry of life itself, the heart-thrilling scenes by
"flood and field" that fill up the brief chronicle of our
deeds of arms in the East. The proprietors have very
judiciously selected as their lecturer Mr. Stocqueler,
gentleman who seems to possess a very intimate know-
ledge of military affairs, with an apt and felicitous power
of expression in explhining the technical terms used in
the science of war ; and it was not the least amusing part
of the entertainment to witness the avidity with which
the fairportion of the audience seemed determined to tree_
sure up the warlike information he imparted. The lecturer
produced diagrams of bastions, and their curtains, pa7a-
pets, gabions, redans, and redoubt; and lucidly ex-
plained their several uses, interspering, his narrative
with several pleasing anecdotes. There is an exquisite
delivery of touch, and a finish in the whole performance
far superior to productions gotten up for ephemeral ex-
istence. The arrival and landing at Katarinta Bay, the
Battle of the Alma, the Flank Movement in the Forest,
and the Battle of Balaklava—with the splendid and suc-
cessful Charge of the Heavy Cavalry, and the less for-
tunate, but sublimely heroic, headlong dash of the Light
Dragoons, are all charmingly portrayed. In the fore-
ground of this picture is seen the gallant Earl of Cardi-
gan, mounted on his War-horse of goodly Northampton
blood, high in mid-air, impelled by a noble and impetu-
ous daring, taking at a bound as he would a common
fence or gun carriage, and with uplifted arm, is about to
cut his way through the gunners who are serving their
deadly instruments of war. This figure, however, is
irepoetic from its coarseness, and it is quite wanting in
identity. The house was very well attended, and the
exhibition drew forth the marked and decided approval
of the audience.