The Sun.
London, England, 1851-12-29 00:00:00

M 0 N A Y EVEN kG, DECEMBER

CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS.

DRURY-LANE THEATRE.

On Saturday Mrs. Cowly's amusing comedy (amu-
sing in spite of its extravagance), The Belle's Stra-
tagem, was revived for the purpose of introducing to
a Drury-Lane audience Miss Fitzpatrick in the cha-
racter of Letitia Hardy. This young lady has for
three seasons been studying her profession at Sad-
ler's Wells, and having frequently had the pleasure
of witnessing her performances at that theatre, and of
marking her rapid improvement, we were not sur-
prised at the hit—the unmiste.keable and decided hit
—she made on Saturday evening. Her Letitia
Hardy was admirable—her pretty and expressive
features, her light and graceful figure, and her fas-
cinating and ladylike vivacity of manner, all mark her
out as the representativepar excellence ofthat line of cha-
racter in which Miss Foote wont to charm the play-
ge

,ers of the days of George IV., and which, since her se-
cession from the stage, has' had no adequate repro-
tentative. Such, however, is no longer the case ;
Miss Fitzpatrick is what Miss Foote was, and the
Letitia liardys and Maria D.arlingtons will once
more fascinate the playgoer. Mr. Anderson's Dorri-
court was somewhat too heavy and sententious. Mr.
Cooper as Sir George Touchvvood was carotid and
effective. The other character:3 were well sustained.
After the comedy the Bateinen children appe.:cred in
tbe Young Couple, and were quite as much at home
in Daury.lane as they were .at the St. James's,
indeed the size of the house and the immensity of the
audience seemed to inspire them ; for, like all true
gmiuses, they rose with the occasion, and their enun-
ciation was so beautifully clear and distinct that every
word they uttered could be heard in the remotest
corner of the house. It would be well if some, of our
grown-up actors would imitate them, and_ strive
to speak as articulately 4a do these clxildren.
At the conclusion they exhibited a degree
of presence of mind which would have r a:Elected
no discredit on the oldest veteran. The green curtain
was descending before they had spoken their tag,
when little Ellen, looking at the descending c u;rtain,
turned to her sister and said, " Well, shall W.J finish
here?" Toe question was heard and the curt ain re-
ascended, and they finished as if nothing particular
had occurred. Thunders of applause- and
showers of bouquets followed this littla3 in-
cident. The juvenile portion of the audience
were delighted at the performance of the
Bateman children, with whom. it was evident ft:ley had
a strong fellow-feeling. Not the least rapturous of
the applause with which these talented childr art were
greeted proceeded from that portion of the audi-
ence which nearest approached them in age trail size.
The pantomime followed ; it has been curtailed, and
went admirably, everything working smoothly and
correctly.

SURREY THEATRE.
The Surrey has always been a popular theatre,
but the crowds that besieged it on Friday Cight were
such as few places of amusement in Lon( ton could
boast of. Of course after this it is needless t.a say that
every part of the house was crammed. Of the first
piece (Shiel's tragedy of Evadne) it is unnecessary
to say anything further than that from first to last it
was performed amid the most deafening noises, which
utterly prevented our hearing a single syllable.
After. the first piece, the pantomime of harlequin
Blue Cap and the King of the Golden Water, taken
(as the bill informs us) from the Persian of " Hafiz
Al Thun," fairly commenced. The first s cene of the
abode of the fairy Trifla (Miss G. Hodgsoi I) was en-
tirely devoted to a ballet of fays, in which the danc-
ing of Mdlle. T. Cushnie elicited much we dl-merited
applause. Upon the appearance of Queen Barli
Shoogar, the whole scene was, admirably tr ansformed
to the " City of Splendour on the shore of tl ie, Golden
Waters," the colours in which were really I. teautifully
blended, and with much taste and view to, dramatic
effect. Mr. Sheppard, the lessee of the theatre, came for-
in answer to repeated calls, and bowed his acknow-
ledgments. Here the Emperor of Alecam pane and
King of the Golden Seas (Mr. Ilszlewood) enters,
accompanied by his daughter, the Princess Oaccha-
rine (Madlle. Annie Cushnie), and announws in the
presence of a gorgeous train of sweetmeats h is inten-
tion of bestowing the princess upon Gri su guftin,
monarch of the Ugli Isles (Mr. Bradbury). Fortu-
nately for the princess, and in spite of the pre se nce of
Grimguftin, and his attendant Uglier, this decision is
opposed by Prince Bluecap, heir apparent to the
throne of Noideawbare, in the Kingdom Knur as wry-
tales (Miss Harriet Gordon), who obtains per) aission
to wed the princess on condition n
bringima; three
gifts to her father from the animal, vegetable, and
on
mineral kiegionis. Nothing daunted by these con-
ditions, the prince sets out on his travels, very well
represented by a pretty, though rather brief, piano-
rams, which, as the bills informed us, " might have
been three miles long," but which certainly WI )5 not.
Arrived in the animal kingdom, he makes thte ac-
quaintance of a benignant fairy who, as her first
gift, presents him with a dog, which is to guide
whose palace is depict,
his footsteps for the future. Conducted b.r this
sthageaVeilegu:tablt
g, be starts for the cou ri; of
leimal,
lin
a model of the Crystal Palace turned into a w inter
garden, and where his army and court of c a,srots,
turnips, pigs, potatoes, &c., isiadmirably represented
by the various masks, who caused continued r(►aiss of
laughter. Here Prince Bluecap receives aspad e, to
enable him to reach the mineral kingdom, wlie)re he
is supposed to acquire huge masses of the precious
metal, and then returns to the, court of the King of
the Golden Seas to claim the hand of the Prix icess.
But the obdurate Grimguffin is more pertinacious
than ever, and still disputes the right of Prince Blue-
cap to the hand of Saccharina, until the apparance
of the Fairy Trifla in the hive of a thousand :sweets.
It is almost impossible by mere description to do jus-
tice to this really splendid scene, which we haves never
seen anything of the kind to surpass. The hou st) rose
en masse in a perfect furore of admiration, and, again
called Mr. Sheppard on to the stage. In this scene
the transformations were effected, and the Harle-
quin (M. Milano), Clown
(M
(Mr. Bradbury), Columbine (a;'. Buck), Pa etaloon
,cllle. Annie Ci nihnie),
and Sprite (Herr Deani) weroent forth up. ma their
usual mission of mischief ani
confusion. In the
scenes which followed several snlart hits were made at
the follies and vices of the day hat told admirably. One in particular, labelled t, pre curiosity for the
British Museum," and which toed out to b e a vote
at St. A lban's not sold, elicited much a pplause.
Bloomerism, Smithfield, &c., ewe in for thy share
of satire, and the whole went di
effect produced by which brought swimmingly amid
shouts of laughter until the tenni) iou of the piece in
the Pavilion of Shoogar Candi—a
at
scene the tasteful
and most successful hit. down the curtain
with tremendous applause. Tbp pantomime was a
decided
Cushtde was
a pretty and graceful Columbia, while the Sprite
a back -bone and ribs, one
(Herr Deani)—who also performed the part of the
dog in the opening—was, for a ,person encusabered
with
sprites we ever had the pleasure d witnessirig.!' The
whole of the performances were o of the most supple
fer before midnight.

This popular and fashionable Vst end resort is so
ARGYLL R0055'
well supported at all seasons ofithe year, that it is
difficult to distinguish an extraordinary from an or-
dinary occasion in the numhers
d class of its fre-
quenters, but on Friday night the sprit and animation
of the dancers, together with the brilliant and numerous
aspect of the company, told pretty
Plainly here, at
in a least, Christmas was being spent right merry,
jovial, though, withal, a quiet mood however noisy
it may have been elsewhere. Una recently it was
erroneously supposed that the English people were
not partial to dancing, it was universally conceded
that it was only on the other side of the Channel
that a quadrille or a cotilian codi be executed in
public by amateurs with any degree of taste or
credit, but the existence of the Al yll Rooms has
served to destroy that delusion. 'he metropolis of
England is as famous for its dancing assemblies as
any other capital in Europe; indeed it may be said,
almost without fear of contradiction, that the suc-
cess of this description of past time and amusement
is more visible in London than In Paris or any
other similar city, a result which ina great measure
is attributable to the decorum erhich is always
in force in our public ftembly rooms.
But in addition to the excitement of the dance, we
have at the Argyll the advantage of an efficient and
powerful orchestra, whose performances are really
admirable; and wbi'e the pleasure-seeker rests from
the momentary fatigue which the waltz or the polka
has called forth, he has the influence of an instru-
mental concert acting joyously upon his ear. Never
did M. Laurent and his able band of instrumentalists
play for a happier company than that which applauded
his exertions on Friday night. Bourcault, upon the
cornet-a-piston, was splendid, and in the exquisite
music of the new Redo wa, which is at present all the
rage, he—and in fact all the other solo performers—
are,perfect in,their tasks. The performance included
the " Young Couple Polka," the " Dew Drop
"Beresfordew:and"Storm
Mantlet Galop." The
Quadrille," the "La Plus
dances were all well arranged, and the entire manage-
ment reflected the greatest credit upon the tact and
ability of Mr. G. F. Bryer, the affable and popular
IJVoaliletz R"o dtho ~
director.

EXHIBITIONS.
BURFORD'S PANORAMAS.

Mr. Burford's new panoramic view of the valley of
the Tigris, *from which Mr. Layard has exhumed
the architectural- remains of ancient Nineveh, had, on
Friday, an unusual number of visitors. We have so
recently described the pictorial excellencies and the
wonderful faithfulness of this painting, that we need
only remark, that a second visit has only more
strongly confirmed the favourable impression we at
first conceived. The other views, viz., Lucerne, the
Falls of Niagara, and the City of Jerusalem, still
continue to attract.