The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-11 00:00:00

nu SEM LONDON, FRIDAY EVENINCI, DECESIBER 11, 1863,

MISCELLANEOUS—Continued.
Joint: stock Discount, --

Ditto, new, sii"
London l'inamial Association, lira., 23?( 1 5
Mercantile Credit Association, lim., 71 2
National Discount Company, lien, 9/
Oriental inland Steam, lim., to
Peninsula and Oriental Steam, 831 3
Ditto, new, 50/2
Rio de Janeiro City Improvements,
Ditto (.£4), 4i
Van Diemen's Land, 1013

The. People's Theatre—alias the Britannia
Theatre, Hoxton,
(Trod: the Queen
Entering the portals inscribed " box-entrance," we were
not long in finding Mr. S. Lane, the proprietor and mana-
ger of both theatre and tavern, waiting to receive us. Hav-
ing been kindly treated by this gentleman on a former
occasion, I had given him notice of our purposed visit, and
the hospitable good-nature with which ho received us
made me very glad that I had done so. Ho at once led the
way, through the handsome, well-appointed tavern, into
the theatre. As we passed the money-taker's place we
noticed that the prices were set at the moderate rate of °s.
for a seat in the stage-boxes; Is. for the boxes and stalls ;
pit, 6d. ; lower gallery, 4d. ; and upper gallery 3d. There
is half-price to the boxes, pit, and gallery, beginning
at eight and half-past eight o'clock respectively. The
performances begin every evening at half-past six, and
all is over by eleven. As we passed up the stairs and lobbies
leading into the house, we could not help noticing first, the
almost unadorned solidity of the building; secondly, the
ample width and commodiousness of the passages, affording
the easiest means of rapid exit and entrance to the large
audience which this theatre is capable of containing; thirdly,
the scrupulously cleanly state in which everything was
kept ; and, fourthly, the excellent ventilation. These qua-
lities are, moreover, equally noticeable all through the
theatre. The auditorium (as Mr. Boucicault has it) was as
fresh and cool at the end of the evening—having been oc-
cupied all the time by a very numerous audience—as it was
at the beginning. The decorations of the lobbies and stair-
cases are very simple—the brickwork being left quite bare
of plaster, Lord Palmerston's favourite stucco, or imitation
marble. A few sky-borders (as they are technically termed),
imitating umbrageous foliage, and lighted up with coloured
oil lamps, are the only decoration employed, and they have
a very fresh and tasty effect.
Mr. Lane ushered us into a very confortable stage-box,
whence a very good view of the audience could be obtained.
The reader who hears of the Britannic for the first time,
may be surprised at hearing that the salle is nearly as
large as Drury-lane, and, that it will hold 4,000 people,
exclusive of babies in arms. Nor must it be supposed
that these extra little—vocalists, not auditors—make an
insignificant addition to the sum of human souls who enjoy
their evenings under Mr. Lane's auspices. If their pre-
sence and numbers were not made everywhere, and at all
times, manifest, by the cries and demonstrations around
you, the playbill itself must call attention to the important
part which they play at the Britannia Theatre. " Person•
bringing children," enjoins that document, "must please
keep them quiet, or take them out of the theatre; the
public complaining of the obstruction to the acting." The
audience generally seemed to be composed of what poli-
tical writers call the lower middle classes, small shop-
keepers, and the better kinds of artificers, with their wives
and families. Comparing this with former experience at
other cheap theatres, we saw no ill-manners, heard no chaf-
fing, saw no symptom even of a brawl or of a drunkard,
nor any blackguard smoking a pipe with his coat off.
Indeed, if the truth must be spoken, we have seldom seen a
West-end audience behave with such uniform good temper
and good taste as the audience at the People's Theatre, Hox-
ton. They laughed when they ought to do, and melted to
tears at the proper places. Not once in the evening did we
hear the cry, "Turn him out," nor did they even commit
the vulgarity so common at more fashionable houses, of
cheering and "jollying" the footmen when they came on to
clear the stage, a witticism which a West-end audience sel-
dom omits. Indeed, a greater contrast than between this
la:•ge body of decent, orderly:people, and the ramping, roar-
ing, swearing, swilling, and odoriferous audience of the
New Cut, it would be difficult to imagine. The difference
between the people who occupied the various parts of the
house was not very perceptible to the unassisted vision ; in-
deed I question whether it consisted of much beyond the
willingness of some to pay a shilling and others but six-
pence. The playbill informed us that "no person" could
be " admitted to boxes or stalls unless suitably attired,"
but I failed to discover any very remarkable standard of suit-
ability, seeing that cloth caps were as common wear in the
stalls as in the pit, and that babies in arms squalled, as if
aroused thereto by the biz drum, right under the shadow of
the footlights. In answer to a question put by myself, Mr.
Lane replied that the audiences by no means came exclu-
sively from the neighbourhoods immediately surrounding.
"Oh I they come from much farther than Charing-cross, I
can assure you ; we have families come five or six miles;
from Greenwich and Woolwich, and from Hackney and
the East India Docks, and sometimes out of Essex."
The house itself has a handsome ornate appearance, as
well decorated, in every respect, as need be. The lighting
comes from a number of small gaseliers, suspended from
the ceiling. Mr. Lane recommended us, before addressing
ourselves to a careful consideration of the performances, to
take a tour of inspection, through which lie vele, kindly
conducted us. " Behind the scenes" (that region so fairy-
like and so desirable to the imaginative young gentleman
who has never penetrated it, and so commonplace to all
who have ever wandered within its sacred limits)
we found everything as like the same kind of thing in the
West-end theatre as it was possible to be. The same maze of
flats and flies and slots and grooves ; the same kind of car-
penters (vulgarly called scene-shifters) lurking in the wings
and down in the mezzonine floor; similar fierce• looking
neroes, mustachioed, feathered, red-legged and slashed as to
their breeches; similar fairies in tights and tarlatans, flit-
ting and sparkling about. It is true that the latter displayed
a little more emotion and surprise at the sight of strangers
than the nonchalant young ladies in the employment of Mr.
Gye and Mr. Mapleson would have done; but this was, in
our case, attributable—at least, so we thought—to the pre-
sence of our juvenile companion. Girls are so fond of in-
fants you know.
In the painting and property rooms, we found active pre-
parations already going on for the Christmas pantomime.
Masks of grotesque appearance and Dutch-metal glories,
intended to beautify the Bower of Bliss, or the Region of
Calm Delight, were mingled in profusion with gorgeous
sky-borders and triumphal cars of wondrous splendour.
Mr. Lane assured us that he was spending £l,OOO upon his
forthcoming pantomime, and I have no doubt of it. Nor do
I doubt that he will be well repaid ; for the house, when
filled, will hold, even at the small prices charged, a hun-
dred pounds.
But the most interesting part of the whole establishment
to us all was certainly the large refreshment room on the
ground floor. As exemplifying some of the best features of
a refectory, intended for hungry people to refresh them-
selves with good and simple food, and at reasonable charges,
I beg respectfully to recommend this to the notice of the
lessees of some of our more fashionable theatres. It is true
that the shelves were not laden with so many gilt bottles,
inscribed with the unpronounceable names of impossible
liqueurs, as one is accustomed to see; and I must admit
that I missed the attenuated but indurated sandwiches,
placed under bell-glasses, as if to make them grow bigger;
and the quarters of pork-pie, and the fossil sponge-cakes
and sausage•rolls, and the acidulated drops, and the other
undesirable and indigestible condiments to which the West-
end theatre-goer is compelled to habituate himself. But,
as some compensation, there were vast dishes full of hand-
some substantial sandwiches of beef and ham, neatly made,
of capital meat and bread of unexceptionable whiteness.
The price of these sandwiches (oneof which would be ample
supper for a man of moderate appetite, whilst two would
gorge an ogre) is twopence each. These were flanked with
freshly made pies of veal and ham ; huge wedges of bread,
supporting large slices of rich golden Cheshire or double
Gloucester; heaps of savoury polonies, and bushels of
apples, oranges, and nuts. I saw no spirits vended in the
refectory, and believe that those who want them must go
outside the theatre, to the tavern, to obtain them; but the
beer engine was in active work, pouring forth potent floods
of capital foaming porter and beer, and, for the more ab-
stemious, there was quite an army of ginger beer bottles
with their corks:carefully tied down.

THE MEMOIRS OF WEBER, by his son, a work of
great interest, published in Germany, will, it is probable,
shortly appear in au English translation.

PICTURE AUCTION-TRAPS.—On tho morning of
the sale—or the attempted sale—about half-an-hour
before the official arrival of the auctioneer—a little crowd was
always collected on Ludgate-hill turning over the fluttering
leaves of the catalogues that were nailed upon green-baize
boards at the doorway, or looking at the great picture with
which the trap was baited on that particular occasion, and
which was displayed so as to catch the eye of passers-by at
the single window in front. The greatest part of this crowd
consisted of a number of middle-aged men, who were made
up to play a part in such a manner, that they ought not to
have deceived a child. A ragged-edged yellow collar on a
starch :caked yellow shirt, a high black stock worn threadbare
at the sides, a well brushed thin black dress coat, and rather
shiny black trousers that would bear no violent exercise, a
pair of mended Blucher boots, and a pair of ragged cotton
gloves, is not the costume usually worn by wealthy collectors
of art. Yet these were the highly polished men who were
supposed to be regardless of money when a itubens or ar
Corregio came in their way, and who, if not investing for
themselves, were theconfidential agents of Lord 3luurbi epe,g,
a devoted buyer of pictures, who was prevented by Pr
ea
trcal Ye s .
is
from attending personally at the sales. P
they looked with their clean-shaven, melancholy faces, h
fwaces, as if
the slightest whispered invitation to a substantial dinner at
a snug warm City tavern would have thro:n cloud of them off their
balance, and have caused them to fly,
like
swal-
lows, from the barren feast of paint. Inside the auction-
trap was a sprinkling of eager confederate dealers ; the
and
four
or five porters, who were probably "junior partners,"
who looked like prizefighters; and the usual number of
"picture agents." As soon as a promising stranger entered
the room, it was the business of one of these latter men to
fasten on him, and to explain the beauties and defects of
the collection under sale. It must always be delightful to
a man of refinement, to have such agreeable guides at his
elbow, and to overlook their flavour of onions, tobacco, and
stale clothes, in admiration of their intense appreciation of
art. There can, of course, be nothing to jar the moss sen-
sitive nerves in hearing a thick hoarse Spunging-house
voice enlarging upon the minute rendering of the crown of
thorns, or in seeing a grimed knobby finger half hooped with
brassy rings, employed in pointing out the hidden touches
of the agony in the garden,.
.oickeas the Year
.I?Quitd," just published,