The Sun.
London, England, 1860-12-20 00:00:00

THEATRE ROYAL, HAYMARKET.

At this popular theatre, so famous for its elegant
Christmas pantomimes, which all who remember
its " Three Bears," " Little 80-Peep," " The Sleep-
ing Beauty," " Valentine's Day," and many others,
must acknowledge to be the fact, the one this
year is founded on the old nursery rhyme—

" Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home ;
Your house is on fire, your children alone 1"
and is entitled—" Queen Ladybird and her Chil-
dren ; or, Harlequin and the House on Fire." The
scenery of the fairy story has been painted by Mr.
F. Fenton, who will this year produce some effects
of firs and water never yet attempted in any theatre;
the elaborate machinery by Mr. Oliver Wales, the
dresses by Mr. Barnett and Miss Cherry ; while
the overture and appropriate music has been
composed and arranged by Mr. D. Spillane. The
harlequinade is by Mr. Dorrington, the scenes of
which have been painted by those excellent artists
of the establishment, Messrs. O'Connor and George
Morris. The story of the pantomime is this :
Once upon a time, when birds, and beasts, and
fishes, and even insects could talk—which was a
long time ago—there lived in a very green place 0.
certain monarch called Aphis, king of the green-
flies, who, with his people, committed great devas-
tation on the neighbouring rosebuds and trees, and
to this day his descendants nay be seen feeding
in swarms upon a budding rose, and blighting the
beautiful young flower. Well, this Aphis bad a
great enemy in the queen of the ladybirds, who,
with her family, devoured the green-flies wherever
she could find them, whether in the honeysuckle,
the hop plant, or the rose tree, which service made
the fairies of these plants very grateful to the
queen, and they all became her friends. King
Aphis, finding that his subjects were daily eaten by
the ladybirds, proposed to the queen that he should
marry her eldest daughter, the Princess Threespots,
and so become friendly together. But the queen
would not listen to this, as she designed the Prince
of April to be the husband of the princess. This so
enraged Aphis that he called a council, when
they determined to assassinate the queen and
set fire to her house. One night, when the Queen
was stopping at the Palaoe of Prince April, set-
tling her daughter's marriage, the wicked King,
with the aid of some mercenary Fire-flies, set light
to the bower of the Queen, in which all her chil-
dren were left alone ; but it luckily happened, as
their mother was out, they were all sitting up,
playing and dancing, and having all sorts of diver-
sion, else every one would have been burnt. The
Queen, seeing the reflection of a fire from the
Prince's palace, and hearing fairy voices bidding
her " fly away home," set forth with all speed. On
arriving at her house, she found it burning, and
thinking her children had all fallen a prey to the
flames, nearly went mad ; but the Prince of April,
who was in the bower with the Princess at the time
of the conflagration, caused some heavy showers to
fall, which put out the fire, while the Queen's good
friends, the fairies, built her a new house, much
handsomer than the old one. To punish King Aphis
the Fairy of the Rose changed him into Pantaloon,
and his chief officer into Clown. The Prince of
April and the Princess Threespots became Harle-
quin and Columbine, by which transformation their
constancy was to be tested before they could be
married. After many strange accidents, they were
united, and lived happily ever after. The panto-
mimists will be the unrivalled Leclercqs. Harle-
quin, Arthur Leclercq ; Clown, Charles Leclercq ;
the Princess Threespots, Louise Leclercq ; while
Herr Cole will be Pantaloon, and Fanny Wright
Columbine.