The Sun.
London, England, 1853-07-04 00:00:00

ROYAL ACADEMY OF MUSIC.

The fourth and last concert this season of the Royal
Academy of Music, took place on Saturday last, at the
Hanover-square Rooms. It was the best attended and
the most successful of the season, and we were glad to
notice that the programme displayed a larger selection of
the compositions of students and ex-students than has
been the case for some time. The most prominent of
these, among the MS. works, were—a very clever over-
ture, entitled the Student's Dream, by Mr. Brinley
Richards ; a chorus, by Miss Charlotte Rowe ; a song,
with clarinet ob/igafo, by Miss Ann Baird Spratt ;
a trio and chorus, of remarkable merit, by Mr. W.
Lovell Phillips ; an overture, by Mr. Cusins ;
song, by Mr. R. Thomase ; a part-song, by Mr.
B. Gilbert ; and a song, by Miss Jane Finch.
The instrumentalists Mr. Cheshire, on the harp,
in two movements from a well written concerto of the
late Parish Alvars ; Miss Fox, in the first movement of
one by Hummel ; and Mr. M. Clementi in a violin con-
certino of Kalliwoda, were all, the last especially, entitled
to praise. Mr. Arthur O'Leary performed on the piano
forte the first movement of a concertino by Sebastian Bach,
in which he introduced a cadenza no less spirited than
ingenious. The singers—Misses Jackson, Murie, Ber-
tha Street, Freeman, Amy Dolby, Buckland, and Hughes,
Messrs Blake and Bolton—must be credited rather for
the pains they took generally than for the excellence
they displayed individually.

ASTLEY'S AMPIIITHEATRE.-MISS EMILY

COOKE.

We had the pleasure the other night of witnessing,
' between the roar of the Battle of Waterloo and the ex-
citement of The Chase, the very adroit and daring leaps
taken by Miss Emily Cooke, through paper " balloons,"
from the back of a horse, not cantering at common circus
pace, but at a quick gallop. This young lady— she does
not appear to be above eleven years of age—gives un-
' mistakeable tokens that she is destined to take a fore-
most place in the art of equestrianism. She possesses
a neat, slight, compact figure ; and, if we may be al-
lowed the expression, "stands" her horse with perfect
steadiness and self-confidence. After two or three ordi-
nary exploits, eight paper "balloons," which, as most
people know, are large hoops, with circles of tissue paper
stretched over their diameters, were held in the usual
way all round the circus, a greater number by nearly one-
half than we ever saw ordinary equestrians venture upon.
To Miss Emily Cooke, however, the matter seemed per-
feet child's play. Urging her horse—a noble animal—
' to its speed, she leaped through the eight balloons almost
in as many seconds, and then, without the shadow of a
pause, took four of the eight backwards. The fifth was
carried away by her dress, and she stopped for a moment
until it was disengaged, when, putting her horse again
to its mettle, she actually leaped backwards through
twelve hoops without touching one of them, and alight-
ing on the saddle after every spring as deftly as a fairy
—only, however, to bound from it, and through the
next hoop. The display was certainly a wonderful spe-
cimen of conjoined daring, adroitness, and perfect pre-
sence of mind. A single swerve or a single falter would
have spoiled the whole, and perhaps given rise to an
awkward tumble ; but the young performer seemed, so
far as her features could be distinguished in her rapid
round, to be so perfectly at her ease that the audience
were so too. We cordially recommend Miss Emily
Cooke's performance to the public. It will well repay,
of itself, a visit to Astley's.