The Sun.
London, England, 1871-02-16 00:00:00

HER MAJESTY.

WINtSOR CASTLE, FEBRUARY 15.
The Queen, accompanied by Princess Beatrice, drove
out yesterday afternoon.
The Hon. Mary Lascelles and the Hon. Mary Pitt
were iu attendance.

The Princess of Wales drove out yesterday, attended
by the Countess of Macclesfield.

LITERATURE.

New Grooves. By Annie Thomas. 1 vol. Charlton

Tucker.

It is impossible for Annie Thomas to be otherwise than
interesting. Whatever other merits her books may have
or may lack, they always possess the power of
arresting for the time-being the attention of the reader,
and this is no mean qualification for the story-teller; it is
one, in fact, for the absence of which no other excel-
lence can atone. The • heroine of this little
volumette is Ethel Borodaile, or Ethel Wes-
ton, for her marriage takes place in the
earlier portion of her history. She is described to us, on
her first introduction, as possessing "beauty of an order
that was beyond dispute ; the beauty of rich warm
colouring, of suppleness of form, of intense vitality ; the
beauty of untried power, and untainted youth,
of a perfectly pure organisation, of a. self-reliant
heart and an untroubled conscience ; the beauty
of one void of all desire to injure and all dread of
being injured ; the beauty of youth and unsuspicion, of
fidelity and faith, of eyes bright and cloudless as a summer
sky, and of warm golden hair." Such is Ethel
Borodaile, while her husband's cousin, Flossy Cartwright,
is decribed as p. "blue and white fairy-like creature, with
clouds pf lemon-coloured hair, framing the most charming
little face in the world." The moment we heard of the
"lemon-coloured hair" we felt a sure presentiment that
the fair Flossy was to be the evil genius of the tale, very
fair hair d la Brinvilliers being the recognised mark of the
female fiend of the modern sensational romance, from
"Lady Audley" downwards. We will not reveal
the secret of the fair Flossy's animosity to
the. strong-minded Ethel. We have already
spoken of the story as an interesting one. The title,
" New Grooves" is for a-while a mystery, and the mind
is bewildered. Its meaning bursts upon the reader with a
sudden surprise, Ethel's admiring husband marks with
pleasure, the development of her mental powers. "He
had seen in her a fixed resolve to do something. It
would be something good, and yet at the same time some
thing that would be liable to be cavilled at by prejudice.
He felt almost convinced, yet what could' -
be

Ethel was suoh a sweetly domestic femi-
nine woman, such a gentle charming, lovely lady
that it could not be anything detrimental to or in any way
opposed to these characteristics." The " something "
reveals itself later on in Ethel's determination
to qualify herself for assuming a place in the
ranks of Female Physicians The causes that bring about
this decision and induce her to adventure ' upon such
" New Grooves," we must leave the readers of her history
to discover.

"GREAT POVERTY."
TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SUN."

Sin,—l beg to acknowledge the following donations for
the many thousand poor starving people in the district I
visit, just close behind Regent-street, on whose behalf you
kindly inserted my appeal to the public some few weeks
ago :—Mr. Davey, £lO ; Mr. Martineau, 5 guineas ; the
Hon. Mrs. G. Cavendish, £1 10s. ; the Earl of Carysfort,
£5; E.G. B. Como, 55.; the Hon. Mrs. Leopold Paget ,22 ;
a Friend to the roor,2lo;LadyMoore ,1 guinea ;Anonymous,
2s. 3d. ; Theophilus Levett, Esq., £5 ; Mrs. Hall, Sheer-
ness, 10s. ; E. M. N., Cuppenham, £2 10s. ; Messrs.
Russell and Ullen, £2 ; Anonymous, ss. ; R. B. L., 2s. ;
Dowager Lady Sinclair, £l. In addition to the above
Messrs. Herries, Farquhar, and. Co. have transmitted to
me the sum of £l2 15s.

Your obedient servant,
GEOB.GE CAVENDISH.
Burlington Gardens, February 13, 1871.

Lord Redesdale is regaining strength. Dr.
Symonds, his medical, attendant, holds out hopes of his
early attendance in the House of Lords,
A. meeting of the English Bishops of the pro-
vinces of Canterbury and York has been held in relation
to the present condition of the Irish Church.
We are enabled to state that there is no intention
on the part of Mr. Baxter of resigning the post of Secre-
tary to the Admiralty.
The honour of knighthood has been conferred
upon Mr. C. It. Turner, late senior Master of the Court
of Queen's Bench.

Mr, Andrews, a young student, of Exeter College,
Oxford, has been missing several weeks, and his friends
are much alarmed at his continued absence.

Prince Mensdorff Dietrichstein, formerly Austrian
Minister of Foreign Affairs, and latterly Governor of
Bohemia, died on Tuesday night. The deceased Prince
was a relative of Queen Victoria

The dinner to the Master of Balliol is fixed for
Friday, the 24th inst. The Dean of Westminster will be
in the chair, and the Archbishop of York and the Bishop
of Exeter will, we believe, be presel4