The Sun.
London, England, 1867-11-25 00:00:00

THE BELGRAVIA. ANNUAL.

By M. E. Braddon. Ward, Lock, and Tyler.
Miss Braddon's Christmas Supplementary Double
Number of her popular magazine—an extraordinary
number, but just now published under the above-
mentioned title as the Belgravia Annual—is cer-
tainly a very marvel and paragon among all such
seasonable instalments of light literature. Half a
dozen years ago the Annual now purchaseable for
one shilling would have readily secured for itself an
honourable circulation at half-a-crown. Five-
and-twenty years ago it would as certainly
have won its way at a price something more
nearly approaching to half-a-guinea. It is, in truth,
a marvel of cheapness, of beautiful typography,
of graceful and imaginative illustration, of animated
and entertaining narrative—never dull, full of
vivacity, often laughter-moving, here and there
mastering the reader's interest by a very glamour
of fascination. Although issued at no more than a
shilling, the letterpress numbers upwards of 128
pages of original matter, penned by hands as skilled
among our feuilletonists or magazine contributors
as Miss Braddon herself, Walter Thornbury, George
Augustus Sala, William Sawyer, Ashley Sterry,
Hume Butler, and Alfred Crowquill. Although
issued—we cannot help repeating it—at no more
than one shilling. it contains within it, besides a
variety of whimsical wood-cuts interspersed among
the body of the letter-press, eight full-page em-
bellishments, most of them charmingly engraved
from pencillings by Thomas Beech, F. W. Lawson,
Hablot Knight Browne, Alfred Thompson, Louis
Huard, J. C. Staniland, Thomas Gray, and (again)
Alfred Thompson. , There is—just to begin
with—a tale entitled " Found in the Muniment
Room," by the author of " Lady Aud-
ley's Secret." There is a tale of Baby-
lon called " King Esar's Slave," by (sounding
rather incongruously one must admit) the author
of " Kiddle-a-wink." There is a story of a
Knocker, by J. R. Ware, in relation to a place
known as " Abbey House." There is T. H. S.
Escott's story of " A Madman." There is an
Acting Charade with four funny little illustrations,
to say nothing of illustrative music as well. There
is a :Last Reliquc of Father Prout, yclepped
" Saint Patrick and the Serpent," with a
comical cut by Phiz. There is Charles Chel-
tnam's Legend of Hunaudaye, with four
diabolically grotesque limnings, by W. Brun-
ton. There is Ada Buisson's " Story Told
in a Church"—and W. Sawyer's " Legend of
Verity's Court"—and Babington White's " Doro-
thy's Rival' and C. H. Ross's " Elopement in High
Life"—told by no less than thirty of his absurdly
odd illustrations. Besides which there are other
contributions not yet particularised—namely,
" Christmas Eve," " Kismet," " A Life Watch,"
"The Water Spirit," " On Some Christmas Bells,"
"The Death's Head Club," "The Children's
Crusade" (being a Ballad of the Thir-
teenth Century), " Cora, a Psychological Mys-
tery," " The Serious Ball," " Nicodemus," and
" Unconsolable"—various, no doubt, in merit,
but none of them below the level of the majority
of " Christmas Numbers"--a mélange of prose and
verse by authors and artists of more or less known
ability, such as will gladden many a hearth and en-
liven many a firelit hour during the more social even-
ings at home of the now fast approaching month of
December. In her new Annual for the Yuletide of
1867-1868 the glow of the indoor fire light and the
sheen of the out-door snow has for once transformed
into scarlet and white the delicate green cover of
the now popular Belgravia.
GUTCa'S ALMANACK (for 1868)—again appear
betimes. Published by W . Stevens, of 421,s
Strand—it is now in the twenty-seventh year of its
publication. And, as an omnium gatherum of use-
ful facts and information, it is certainly as full as
an egg is of meat, according to the old adage. A
mass of statistics, such as this, could alone be the
result of many years of carefully revised compila-
tion.

CASSELL'S POPULAR EDUCATOR—Part I. and
Number I. (Cassell, Petter, and Galpin)—begins,
now, week by week, and month by month, a re-
issue—in the form of a beautiful New Edition,
revised up to the present date, and embellished with
a portrait of the Earl of Derby, K.G., the work in
this new form having been dedicated by special
permission to the Prime Minister of England.
The republication of " Cassell's Popular Educator"
thus revised, and in a serial shape so wonderfully
cheap as to place it within reach of every thrifty
artisan in the:land, is of itself an immense oppor-
tunity for the intelligent labouring population
throughout the United Kingdom. Of this oppor-
tunity, the wiser among them should at once avail
themselves. For, of the work, as a whole, we might
say as the graceful epigrarnatist said of the pretty
woman—to know her, to sec her (here, we would
say, merely, to read it, to know it) is of itself a
liberal education.

THE NAVAL NIEDICAL SERVICE.--We are pleased
to find that the naval medical 6ervico is again becoming
popular among the students at the principal schools.
as twelve candidates lately went up for examination at
Somerset House, and it is satisfactory to know that the
whole body passed with a considerable degree of éclat.
—Army and Navy Gazette.
HARE SHOOTING IN PNRTHSHIRE.— Tile principal sport
at present is hare shooting, and there have been numerous
hunts of late. The hares are very numerous, and the sport
has been good. A -large quantity of game has been killed
of late on the preserves of .Drummond Castle, tenanted last
year by Mr. Cunliffe Brooks, and the year previous by Lord
Ravensworth. The shooting in 1866 was very superior,
which, with the loss through the disease, has thinned the
preserves considerably. They are, however, generally
among the best stocked in the shire. This year thorn was
uo tehaut.—The Shorting Gag*,