The Sun.
London, England, 1836-12-12 00:00:00

the buffalo breed.— These animals were of immense size,
and seemed hardly fat. Their horns are the longest of
any of the oxen kind. The animals are very vicious, and
although firmly tied up, visitors were ordered not to go too
near. The Durham cows gave greater promise of beef, in
proportion to their size, than any of the various species of
oxen. It was a cause of complaint that the oxen were kept
so closely together, for it was impossible for a visitor to
go between in many cases, and they had to form an idea
of the proportions of the beasts from an inspection of
their haunches. The placards stated the beasts to have
been fed upon some or all of the following articles ;—grass,
cabbage, mangel-wurzel, meal, and oil cake. The style in
which the names of the purchasers were cut out with scis-
sors on the flanks of the animals, gave the country gentle-
men an exalted idea of the mart& of intellect amongst the
London butchers.

There was nothing extraordinary in the sheep. There
were three of the Cape species, but except the singularity
of so much mutton upon the tail, neither their wool nor con-
dition excited much interest.

The variety and extraordinary pinguitude of the pigs ex-
cited even more admiration than the oxen. Poor Cobbett
would have been ravished with delight had he seen them.
The Surrey, and Suffolk, and Norfolk, and Essex pigs were
most interesting. Some of the former, though not more than
17 weeks old, were so fat that a ma❑ could not lift one of
them. Few delicate persons, however, would like to eat
them. The chief of the pigs was a hog of 90 stone, fed
upon common food. He bad a whole pen to himself to
grunt in, and neither scratching, beating, or feeding could
induce him to stand. A gentleman of fashion, who had in
vain tried with his stick, pulled off his glove, and endea-
voured to scratch the hog into compliance ; but the guar-
dian of the hog, alarmed at the length of the gentleman's
nails, swore he would pitch him into the pen if he did not
give over. The gentleman withdrew amidst great laughter.
Messrs. Gibbs and Co. had no competitors in their hor-
ticultural exhibition, which was very fine.

The following outline of the plan of the Repository of the
Club may be interesting to our country readers :—lt is in
the form of a parallelogram, with a long hall or entrance,
on one side of which are the sheep pens, on the other spe-
cimens of horse furniture, harness, and bags, aprons, tents,
and all other kinds of leather and canvas articles used in
farm, barn, or stable work. Around the sides of the area
the oxen are tied up ; down the middle are two t of
pens, chiefly for pigs. There are entrances from the sides
into offisc..s, and beli:ud the eastern there is another line of
stalls. Over the southern and eastern sides are galleries for
horticultural and agricultural productions, and the exhibi-
tion of farming implements. The walls are covered with
every kind of paper in every style of print on every subject
that the ingenuity of author, printer, and bill-sticker can
devise, and at every angle the reader beholds a sheet large
enough to cover an ox, appealing to his sympathies as an
Englishman, and assuring him that he can find John Bull's
pride and glory—a baron of beef—roasted and served up
in real national style only at the house of the man whose
name stands at the head of a bill in letters every one
itself as large as a leg of beef.

On Saturday se'ennight, the performance at Co-
vent-garden Theatre was for the benefit of a charitable in-
stitution, and Mr. Macready exerted his fine powers gratui-
tously on the occasion. After the first piece was over, a
deputation from the Committee waited on Mr. M. in his
dressing-room, and presented him with a beautiful silver
ewer, splendidly worked, with a suitable entablature, as a
token of gratitude for his kind and masterly performance
on that evening. The cost of the present was defrayed out
of the private purses of the Committee, and not the funds
of the institution.

His Royal Highness the Duke of Orleans honoured
the proprietors of the great Vauxhall balloon with a visit, at
an early hour on Monday, at the Hotel de 'Ville, and mi-
nutely examined the balloon, car, and all the apparatus con-
nected with this vast machine. The balloon was inflated to
the fullest extent the ball-room would admit of, which was
about 30 feet high, and 80 long, though even then its great
dimensions were not half developed. His Royal Highness
appeared much interested with the various explanations and
anecdotes of the recent extraordinary voyage, for which he
felt no doubt an additional interest from the accounts given
by the Marquis of Clanricarde, upon his recent visits at
the Tuileries, regarding his aerial trip, a few weeks be-
fore, from Vauxhall-gardens. In the course of the de-
tails relative to the preparations for ascension given to
the Duke, it was made obvious that the method of in-
flating the balloon in England differed very materially
from the means adopted in France ; and that the English
method with coal gas is of much more simple and easy ac-
complishment, and entirely supersedes the use of the inflam-
mable materials employed in generating pure hydrogen, with
which the French aeronauts have hitherto inflated their
balloons. We are sorry to find that the exertions of the
proprietors to find a spot suitable for the ascent in Paris
have as yet been unsuccessful.—Gdignani's Messenger.
It is our painful duty to record one of the most
melancholy occurrences which have taken place in the
Isle of Man for many years. On Monday the 28th ult.,
it appears that some small boats put off to sea from the
town of Peel, for the purpose of fishing ; and among these
was a very fine yawl containing a crew of seven men.
After reaching the fishing ground, the weather, which
had hitherto been comparatively mild, became squally and
boisterous, accompanied by heavy falls of rain, which con-
tinued during the evening. While the others made the best
of their way to gain the land, this boat was observed at a
considerable distance with a press of the canvas, bearing up
against the foaming waves, and at this moment a heavy
shower coming on, she became lost to her companions, and
nothing more was seen or known of her fate ! We have
been informed that the wreck of the boat and some of the
unfortunate sufferers have since been washed ashore.—
Mona Herald.

THE HAGUE, DEC. I.—The day before yester-
day a storm ravaged this city and its environs, which can
only be compared to that of the 9th of November, 1800.
The atmosphere was very mild, and agitated only by a
south-west wind. A few minutes before the storm began
the thermometer was at 58. The fury of the wind caused
a great injury to several houses. Many of the chimneys
have been thrown down, and several of the roofs stripped
of their covering. In the neighbourhood of the town, and
on the highways, a great number of trees have been torn
up by the roots ; but it was principally in the beautiful
wood of the Hague that the storm exercised its ravages.
We have, however, only heard of one life being lost. Car-
riages have been overturned and upset into the canals. The
same violence has prevailed in all the cities of Holland,
and at Amsterdam, in particular, a great deal of injury has
been done. Rotterdam likewise has suffered much. At
Breda, Haarlem, and Arnhem, the same scene was re-
peated. Everywhere alehouses and plantations have suffered.
Slavery at Mocha is carried on to a great extent. It
is encouraged by the Egyptian authorities, owing to the duty
of two dollars levied on each slave passing through the
Custom-house. Nearly 700 women, or rather girls from 10
to 16 and 18 years, had been imported in the short space
of ten days.
THE GIPSIES IN RUSSIA AND IN SPAIN.--
MOSCOW, SEPT. 23, 1835.—Those who have been accus-
tomed to consider these people as wandering barbarians, in-
capable of civilization, and unable to appreciate the bles-
sings of a quiet and settled life, will be surprised at learning
that many of those in Moscow inhabit large large and hand-
someb houses, appear abroad in elegant equipages, and, if
distinguishable from the genteel class of the Russians, arc
only so by
superior personal advantages" and mental accom-
plishments. Of this singular phenomenon at Moscow, the
female gipsies are the principal cause, having, from time im-
memorial, cultivated their vocal powers to such an extent,
that although in the heart of a country in which the vocal
art has arrived at greater perfection than in any other part
of the world, the principal gipsy choirs in Moscow are al-
' lowed, by the general voice of the public, to be unrivalled,
and to bear away the palm from all competitors. It is a fact
notorious in Russia, that the celebrated Catalani was so
filled with adoration for the powers of voice displayed by
one of the gipsy songstresses, who, after the audience had
sung before a splendid audience at Moscow, stepped for-
ward, and, with an astonishing burst of melody, ravished
every ear, that she took from her own shoulders a shawl of
immense value, which had been presented to her by the
Pope, and, embracing the gipsy, compelled her to accept it,
saying that it had been originally intended for the matchless
singer which she discovered was not herself. The sums ob-
tained by these performers are very large, enabling them to
live in luxury of every description, and to maintain their
husbands in a princely way. Many of them are married to
Russian gentlemen, and every one who has resided for any
length of time in Russia cannot but he aware that the
lovely, talented, and domestic wife of Count Alexander
T— is by birth a gipsy, and was formerly one of the
ornaments of a Rommany choir at Moscow, as she is now
one of the principal ornaments of the married state and of
illustrious life.