The Sun.
London, England, 1839-09-06 00:00:00

HON. MISS STUART.

Dress in the costume of Louis XVI., composed of rich
cerise brocades; under-dress of white satin, flounced with
lace ; sleeves of white satin intermixed with cerise riband.
Head-dress, a bouquet of mixed flowers on the left side.

HON. MISS FANNY STUART.

The same.

MISS MALCOLM.

EVENING CO3TUME.—Jacket of scarlet and gold brocade
trimmed with bullion fringe, hanging sleeves of green and
gold, Indian barbes ; long tight sleeves of white satin ;
stomacher of ditto, covered with enamels; petticoat of
white satin, trimmed with green and gold barbel, edged
with cerise velvet. flvad dress of cerise velvet, with white
aigrette and gold bows and fringe ends.

The unlucky Tourney is burlesqued, it appears, even
in Scotland, notwithstanding the money it must have
caused to circulate through the country. A piece has
been brought out at the Edinburgh theatre called the
Rival Knights, which, according to a Scotch Paper, is
more amusing than the grand show at Eglinton. The
Caledonian Mercury thus describes it :—ln the first
scene the mock-heroic performance of Messrs Murray and
Lloyd, along with Miss Newton, was in itself a rich
treat, and one in which many excellent hits were made,
particularly as regards present affairs and the state of
society generally ; but the scene which told best was
that in which the knights, engaged i❑ a combat a
cheval a routrance, put up umbrellas to protect them-
selves from the " pelting of the pitiless storm," and then
resumed the combat, if poking at each other with wooden
poles can be termed so. The procession to the tourna-
ment was greatly applauded. Strikingly contrasting
with this. followed the chivalric knights, armed for the
lists, and mounted on basket horses (not barbed
chargers), the rear being brought up •by a file or two
of Lilliputian policeman.

BRITISH ASSOCIATION.

BIRMINGHAM. FRIDAY EVENING.
AN EXCURSION.

This morning's louring and unpropitious appearance
did not deter those who had obtained tickets for the dif-
ferent
excursions from presenting theinsolves at their i
respective canal boats at the appointed times. I had I
taken a ticket for A. Previously to the party leaving I
the boat the rain fell in torrents, and continued to do so
the whole morning. It is a rule that no boat shall pass
the toll-house of the , magnificent Birmingham Canal \
without a description in the books of her draught, !
tonnage, and contents. There is no exception to this
rule, and one of the entries, therefore, of the 30th of j
August, 1839, stands thus :—" Draught, 13 inches ; 1
tonnage, 34 tons ; cargo, philosophers." Under wha7 1
class of merchandise they will be ranked in the 1
year 2839 it would be impossible to say. But i
I am inclined to think that by accident their I
character will be correctly given ; and if such a word
should then be in use, " miscellaneous," as now, would
be their distinguishing sign. Not only their pursuits 1
but much more are their manners, various, if all the I
occupiers of the boats come under the term philoso- '
phers ; and accommodating, indeed, must that significa-
tion be. The limestone caverns, or rat her excavations,
were sufficient recompense for every inconvenience.
After descending the gloomy pathway for some dis-
tance, a most peculiar, unique, and extraordinary view
burst upon the sight. It is difficult to describe the
effect, and probably it will never again be seen. The
form of the vast excavations resemble most a hollow
wedge. The overlying stratum, the sloping roof of the
stupendous cavern, dips at an angle of more than 7.5
degrees ; and the substrata having been worked out to
a considerable distance, the floor should have been nearly
horizontal, and the proportions of the hollow wedge
increased. But the rubbish, the loose small stones,
and earth accumulating there have attained almost a
like, though more varying, angle to the roof, and still at
an immense distance from it, at what may he termed
the base of the wedge. There enormous pillars of
limestone, stratified, of course, at the same angle as the
superior layer, but broken all round and jagged by the
art of man, support the millions of tons resting thereon.
These appear of greater interest and more attractive to
the human mind, beholding, but not reflecting, than the
works of nature around. Because they seem to have
been piled by man ? Or why ? The Giant's Cause-
way ! Fingal's Cave l ! or beautiful flowers likened to
waxwork !! ! or other of man's descriptives I!! ! At
the narrowest portion of the hollow wedge is the canal,
along which boats pass to carry out the lime worked
at the extremity, a distance of more than a mile and a halt
from the entrance, and up which, on this occasion, they
had borne their living masses. Hundred and hundreds'
besides, from far and near, had entered on foot, attracted
by the announcement of the lighting-up of the caverns.
At other times these wonderful excavations arc as dark
as Erebus, and can only be explored, candle or torch in
hand, bit by bit. To-day thousands of candles, doubled.
or rather, in effect, half increased by their reflections in
the water beneath, attempted to dispel the gloom, but
they only made the moving masses appear as gliding
spectres, and the canal as Styx crossed by silent shades.
It was only when the blue and red lights were fired that
this dint light was increased to awful glare, and the
silence broken by roar and rumble, reverberation anti
echo. The spectacle, as it may be termed, had much
in it also of dramatic effect ; the flitting imps in tilt
wings, with lights on their heads, or in their hands, were
made ghastly and superhuman by the coloured lights.