The Sun.
London, England, 1851-09-11 00:00:00

HAYMARKET THEATRE.

Mrs. Fitzwilliam is the Grandmother Grizzle, who
gives the name to the new piece brought out at this
theatre last night. The old lady, who has passed
her 80th year, has the extremest notion of decorum,
and she resolves that the wedding-day of her grand-
daughter with the silly old baronet whom she has
selected for her shall be celebrated with the most
careful and unexceptionable propriety. She produces
a bottle of wine, the remnant of the bin which exhi-
larated her husband on the occasion of her own nup-
tials more than half a century before, and pledges the
company all round; and the little old lady, in the
fulness of her potations, gets fairly fuddled, and
laughs and chirrups till she exhausts herself with her
exertions. We easily infer from her name that she
is habitually cross, peevish, and tyrannical, and we
see that she is aggravatingly parsimonious ; but the
fumes of the venerable liquor accomplish her cure,
and, like the ungenial Scrooge in Dickens's Christmas
story, she awakens to a more kindly state of huma-
nity. She lets her grand-daughter marry the mid-
shipman she prefers, dismisses the baronet with
contempt, and is disposed to make everybody about
her happy. Grandmother Grizzle, in fact, astonishes
us all by her amiabilities, brought about, as her
lacquey Phil has it, by " generous living ;" and
the audience more or less applaud when she sermonises
a wholesome tag at the end. Mrs. Fitzwilliam
did all this very well. She mimicked the decre-
pitude of age with her accustomed versatility,
and though the garrulity of the old lady was rather
tiresome, the spectators fully appreciated the indus•
trious accuracy of the acting, and the shrill infirmity
of the accents. But this was not v.ll that Mrs. Fitz-
william did. She intervened another character—
that of a rude schoolboy, a second grandson, who,
red-hot from school, enters the house with mad• cap
audacity, and plays pranks which certainly no police-
man would forgive. We preferred the querrulous
Grizzle, and infinitely more so when she appears in
the new-found clothing of heartiness and benevolence.
But what is to be said of Phil Fuddle (Backstone),
the aforesaid lacquey, who finds his own ale, and gets
drunk thereun ; whose speech is a chaos of disjunc
tions and non-sequiturs, and who sadly wants fifty
pounds, in order to marry the widow Biddies, who
keeps the Three Jolly Sandboys ? We are afraid the
sympa'hies of the audience last night went wholly
with Phil Fuddle ; and that the tipsey comicalities of
this worthy saved the farce there cannot be a shadow
of doubt. Grandmother Grizzle is an adaptation by
Mr. Buckstone himself, from a vaudeville called La
Douairi&e do Brionne.

SCENE IN A BAPTIST CHAPEL.
At the Cambridgeshire petty sessions, on Saturday
last, a man named Dowman was charged with illegally
disturbing the congregation of a Baptist chapel in the
village of Coton (about three miles from Cambridge). It
would seem that the congregation of the chapel are not
celebrated for their erudition, and in a public-house on
the East-road, Cambridge, a conversation arose over
some potations as to how easily they could be duped, and
eventually it was agreed between some parties whose
❑ames were freely stated, that an imposition should be
attempted, and several wagers were laid upon the re,uit.
It was arranged that Dowman, who is a travelling
hawker from Colchester, and who was considered
the best hand at recitation, should personate a Bap-
tist minister, and he being dressed for the part and
put on large spectacles to prevent recognition, pro-
ceeded to Coton with his confederates, on the 18th
of May, introducing himself to the deacon,
and presented a letter (with a fictitious signa-
ture), saying that he was engaged in preaching
and collecting on behalf of a missionary society.
Eventually the appointed preacher made way for him,
and he ascended the pulpit, gave out a hymn, engaged
in prayer, and then taking his text, Ezekiel, c. ix., v. 33,
proceeded to read sundry passages from a printed book,
which turned out to be Baxter's" Saint's Rest." The
congregation being used to extempore discourses,
evinced symptoms of disapprobation, and at last the
mock preacher fairly broke down, entreating the audi-
ence to excuse him, as he was not in the habit of ad-
dressing such large congregations. Mr. Bradfield, the
regular preacher, then rose and cautioned his congrega-
tion not to part with any money, as ho knew nothing of
the party who had addressed them. This spark caused
an explosion, the storm burst, and the term " impostor"
resounded o❑ all sides, and Dowman had to make his
escape to a fly, in which his confederates were waiting
for him. Dowman was met in Cambridge next day by
Mr. Bradfield, and having been identified this process
was eventually issued. The magistrates sentenced Dow-
man (who let judgment go by default) to pay a fine of
101. and the costs, which was made up among the con-
federates who had planned this ill-timed joke.

DEATH OF SIR THOMAS PELHAM HAYES, BART.—
This gentleman died on the sth instant, at Dieppe, in the
57th year of his age. He was son of the first baronet, by
the eldest daughter of Henry White, Eeq., of New York.
Sir Thomas was for many years connected with the civil
department of the East India Company on the Bengal esta-
blishment, and filled several important offices of trust. He
returned home from In, is in 1823. The first baronet was
physician to the forces during the American war. The title
was created in 1797, the deceased having succeeded his fa-
ther in 1809. Sir Thomas married, 1840, the relict of Lieu-
tenant-Colonel Hill Dickson. He is succeeded by his brother,
the Rev. John Warren, born 1799.
VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS IN THE WEST INDIES..—The
last West India mail has brought detailed accounts of the
recent volcanic eruptions in the island of Martinique, whose
violence has caused so much alarm to the inhabitants of St.
Pierre, and peasant population of the neighbouring parishes.
It appears that the Montagne I'elee, the seat of the new vol-
cano, has long been conspicuous for its formation, which
marks it as an extinct crater, and for its springs of hot sul-
phuretted water. In July last these springs were observed
to emit a powerful smell of sulphur. Large quantities of hot
water and mud were ejected by some internal convulsion,
until, on the 6th of August, about midnight, a violent erup-
tion took place. A rumbling noise, similar to the rapid ap-
proach of large masses of cavalry, alarmed the inhabitants
of the villages around the Montagne Pelee; and, on their
rushing into the open air to save themselves from the effects
of what they believed to be an earthquake, they saw three
colums of a whitish vapour rising from the top of the moun-
tain. It appears that the mountain movements and subter-
ranean explosions did no mischief whatever beyond forcing
up the coatings of the old crater of the Montagne Pelee,
when the soil was thrown up, burnt, and impregnated with
sulphur, very much in the way in which it would have been
defaced by the springing of a mine. When the mail left the
crater was still open, and continued to exhale poisonous
(i. e., sulphuretted) gases.
WE ALL HAVE OUR HOBBIES.—The philosophical
world, being rather addicted to the dreamy, has only just
woke up to a knowledge of the agitation that has prevailed
on the great Lock question. We understand, however, that
the subject will be thoroughly investigated, and that the
next number of the " Philosophical Transactions" will con-
tain a very profound treatise on the relative merits of the
philosophy of Lock and Hobbs.—Punch.
THE FATAL ACCIDENT ON THE BUCKINGHAM-
SHIRE Ramwev.---The inquest on the persons killed by this
accident on Saturday was resumed yesterday at Bicester,
and again adjourned.