The Sun.
London, England, 1848-02-17 00:00:00

DRURY-LANE THEATRE.

Her Majesty the Queen honoured the performances
at this theatre with her presence last night. The en-
tertainments consisted of Balfe's opera The Maid of
Honour, which was given by command, and the new
divertissement for Mdlle. Fuoco, L'lnvitation a la
Fete. The royal party included his Royal Highness
Prince Albert, the Duke and Duchess of Saxe Co-
burg, the Baroness of Waugenheim, Baron Fristch,
Lord Morley, Colonel Buckley, Captain Gordon, and
the Marchioness of Douro. The illustrious visitors
seemed well pleased with the performances, and were
liberal of their applause. Her Majesty arrived
punctually at half-past seven o'clock, and remained
until the end of the opera. The royal box was hand-
somely arranged for the occasion; the lining was trans-
parent gauze of pink and white, with gold stripes,
borders and cornices of flowers. Her Majesty was re-
ceived on her arrival by M. Jullien, who was also in
attendance at her departure. The house was very full,
the opera was exceedingly well played, and every-
thing went off with great spirit. M. Berlioz presided
in the orchestra.

THE « BOYER GALLERY.
The preparations for the distribution of the almos,
innumerable works of art, of which this gallery
consists, are in rapid progress, at the house of Mrs.
Mary Parkes, in Golden-square, and it will nut be
long before the collection will be dispersed amongst
the subscribers. In the meantime we would recom-
mend those who have not examined the collection to
pay it a visit; the time spent in the examination of
the different things contained in it will be well
repaid. The celebrated Bover Bible is to be seen
here, a copy of the Holy Scriptures matchless in the
number and value of the drawings, engravings, arid
etchings, with which it is illustrated, and one of the
finest specimens of typography ever produced by the
printing-presses of this country. This Bible was
printed under the immediate superintendence of Mr.
Macklin, and is one of the early folio copies of the
work known as " Macklin's" Bible, very few of which
were printed. The " Boyer" copy is the finest illus-
trated copy of the work, and may be said to be, in
point of the number and value of the illustrations it
contains, the most celebrated illustrated book in the
world. Some notion may be formed of its import-
ance when it is said that it consists of forty-
five large folio volumes, bound in Russia
leather and silk, and that it contains thou-
sands of illustrations, the works of the most
celebrated continental and English artists. The il-
lustrations were collected by Mr. Boyer himself, an
artist of high reputation, and known by his contem-
poraries as a man of excellent taste and judgment.
He spent some thousands of pounds and devoted many
years of his life to the labour of illustrating these
volumes : they are certainly a monument of un-
wearied industry and research in the prosecution of
a most praiseworthy desire. There are other illus
trated books in the Gallery, via-, " Hume's England,"
in many folio volumes, a noble work, and a beautiful
specimen of the union of art with literature. There
are several hundred illustrations of the military career
of the Duke of Wellington, Lord Nelson, and con-
temporary heroes and statesmen, consisting of dra w-
ings and engraving ot battles, sieges, portraits,
%capes, &c., land-
all by artists of eminence. In addition to
these things, there are paintings, drawings, engrav-
ings, gems, cabinets, so numerous that the mention of
them by their respective titles, though it certainly
would not be tedious, would be too long for our co-
lumns ; there is, moreover, no necessity to set them
forth:at length, when the public can go and see them,
and form their own estimate of their merits and
value.

Letters from Italy contain unfavourable intelli-
gence of th• health of Mr. T. Gisborne, late M.P. for
Nottingham.