The Sun.
London, England, 1866-08-22 00:00:00

The Foresters' Fete.

ThiS once great metropolitan fete, which two or
three years ago assumed almost the proportions of a
Derby-day, seems lately to have fallen off in the
numbers which attend it, and therefore, of course,
in the interest which it excites. The Foresters' Day
at the Palace used to be the great popular holiday
of the autumn, and the scene which the grounds
used to afford, when some 80,000 or 90,000 people
met in them to celebrate a great "outing" and picnic
on the most wholesale scale, was one which no other
place of amusement in the world could offer. Lately,
however, the attractions of the Foresters' Day at
Norwood seem to have fallen off—not, indeed,
among the general run of the lookers on, but, we
are sorry to say, among the Foresters themselves.
The Crystal Palace management should look to this,
and by a more liberal programme for the day's
amusement at once prevent a further diminution
from the numbers that used to crowd to the great
day of the year at Norwood. What the festival used'
to be, and what it may still be made, can be judged
from the fact that even in spite of the diminished
numbers we have spoken of, at least 62,000 holiday-
makers were in the building and grounds yesterday
and to all outward seeming did enjoy themselves
most thoroughly. Such a concourse gathered to-
gether at one place of amusement, of course, makes
a great popular festival, and its festivity is still
farther kept up when all, or nearly all, who visit the
Palace will come in vans, or carts, or "'busses."
There is no day when, considering, the numbers that
attend, so small
•a percentage come down by rail as
on the occasion of the Foresters' Fete. Spring carts,
with eight or nine inside, and a select, but by no
means small, party on the shafts, seem to be in favour
on these occasions, except when tradition is so far de-
parted from as to allow of a whole street being driven
out bodily in four-horse vans. the rule, however,
is almost invariable, and it is that on this fete
day all visitors prefer road to rail, and apparently
any description of conveyance, no shatter what its
appearance or rate of progress, is considered prefer-
able to au express train. As a matter of course,
therefore, when some 62,000 people go down to
Norwood in this fashion the effect for a time in no
way falls short of the road to Epsom on a Derby-
day. Indeed, though there is less variety in the
vehicles, which, as a rule, being carts and vans,
have somewhat an air of sameness, there is more of
novelty about their passengers than one ever sees
on any Derby-day. Every second van has, at
least, its bugler, if not its band, all the members of
which appear to play their tunes with equal diffi-
culty. Costume, too, is more diversified, for, apart
from the paper plumes which are for sheer fun
always worn on those days, some of the weaker
members of the order will persist in arraying them-
selves after what is supposed to be the style of
dress of Robin Hood, and it would be impossible to
conceive any feebler representations of that redoubt-
able outlaw than were visible at the Palace yes-
terday.
The programme at the Palace was, as we have
intimated, not on a very liberal scale considering
the occasion, but the Foresters came to amuse
themselves, and the day being fine and no less than
five or six bands going in the gardens the fun and
da-ncing and merriment of all kinds along the ter-
races and up and down the grounds were begun
early and incessantly kept up till dark. Kiss in
the ring seemed to be the most patronised of all
the games, and the amount of running which some
of the most popular fair favourites must have done
when they did throw the handkerchief would have
entitled them to prizes at any meeting for athletic
sports. Polkas, too, were unusually popular, and
every part of the lawns was covered either with
dancing parties or with rings, within which the
handkerchief was thrown quickly and constantly
far and near. The band of the Duke of York's
School was present, and among these fine boys
some most amusing sports were got up. The
fountains, too, played, and a balloon went up,
though neither attracted any very particular atten-
tion; for the great amusement of all was in the
space of the grounds and terraces, where the people
between intervals of dancing feasted or made sing-
ing parties under the trees, and kept up the sports
till after dusk. The whole fete passed of with the
utmost success, and, as far as could be known
when near its close, not a tipsy man was visible
among the immense crowd, nor was there quarrel
or disturbance of any kind.

THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION.

NOTTINGHAM, TUESDAY.

The thirty-sixth annual meeting of the British Associa-
tion, whose Object is "to give a stronger impulse and
more systematic direction to scientific inquiry, to promote
the intercourse of those who cultivate science in different
parts of the British empire with one another and with
foreign philosophers, to obtain more general attention to
the subjects of science and the removal of any disadvan-
tages of a public kind which impede its progress," will
commence to-morrow under favourable auspices. Time
was when the sturdy pioneers of scientific investigation
had to pursue their researches and their labours in the
solitary garret or the cloistered cell—well for them if it
were not actually within the prison walls. But in these
days professors are not only free to study as they list, but
when they meet, once a year or oftener, in the light of day
and on the public platform, to exchange greetings and to
discuss the progress made since their last muster, society
rises to do them honour,fites aro organised, and wherever
they go they are welcomed and lionised. This year cir-
cumstances led the association to visit Nottingham, and
there is every prospect of a successful meeting. The town
can hardly be spoken of as rich in public buildings, but
with judicious arrangements those edifices which do exist
are capable of being turned to good account, and the com-
mittee swat to have exerted themselves most creditably
with that end in view. One central feature in Nottingham
which never fails to excite admiration is the market-place,
a well-paved triangular area of five acres and a half, cele-
brated as long ago as the reign of Henry VIII. " for the
buildings on the side of it, the very groat wideness of the
streets, and the clean paving of it, as the fairest, without
exception, of all England."

In its present aspect it is surrounded with lofty and well-
built houses, the fronts of which nearly all project over the
basement story, and, being supported by massive pillars,
form long piazzas, under which aro the shops, many of
them with considerable pretensions to opulence. In the
act of crossing the noble area one is tempted to forget for
the moment that it is not a Continental place, and to
feel half angry with the spacious front of the Exchange
for lacking that quaint tracery and elaborate carving
which distinguish the town-halls of the Pays-Bas. At
short distances from the principal streets, which are all
remarkably clean and orderly, innumerable factories may
be seen—not huge, clumsy, sooty erections, like those of
Manchester, but tall, cheerful, red brick buildings, with
some attempt at architectural display. Nottingham, how-
ever, is mainly, if not exclusively, dependent for prosperity
on its lace manufacture, and latterly trade has been the re-
verse of brisk. The state of the money market has exer-
cised a further depressing effect ; so that the visit of the
British Association is looked forward to by many not
merely as a pleasurable event in itself, but with hopeful
sensations on account of the expenditure that it will occa-
sion. To judge, however, from the bearing of the inha-
bitants, no one would imagine that distress or suffering
existed. In the evening especially the streets are filled
with comfortably if not with well-dressed persons, and the
prevalent air is that of cheerfulness and content. The
peculiar character of the industrial manufactures,
proximity of large mining and other important woorfcs
the town, and the interesting geological features) of the
i the
surrounding district, all justify the choice
r.
Association made.of a place of meeting this Leta.
lon,
theiclotano
30ft.
The great hall of the Exchange, a
wide, and 35ft. high, beautifully decoch:a.otaoesd,
warily for a variety of pm poses,
such
be devoted during
public meetings, and exhibitioDs,
purposes of a central refresh-
and usedconcerts,
balls,o
ally,
the stay of the savants to the
PuargPernent at the theatre has
of fortnight.
the their
theatre,The
meat-room. A successful
been interrupted to' • oejlan area sufficiently large for
porfo ut dh
yeare
ago, and, internally, is
the evening
inoriihginal plan has certainly
meetings and lecturesj.ustly
among the best proportioned kingdom, though ex-
ternallyn 0 been
attended with happy effect. Probably the pre-
parations at the Working Meu's Exhibition Building are
pwehoipch e oaf was
dNe erected
itui og nb a only
from are
the
entitled to rank as the most meritorious feature in the
<general arrangements. This building, which originally
WAS only intended to be temporary, has been secured for
the town, and has been fixed upon as the place where two
soirees will be held, and is receiving comprehensive addi-
tions. The walls of the gallery have been covered with
paintings, photographs, &c., lent by gentlemen resident in
the neighbourhood, and to the original building an annexe
has been added, in which the elaborate arrangement of
artificial rockwork and cascades, flowers, shrubs, and
ferns, 'when illumined, as they are to be, by the electric
light, can hardly fail to afford pleasure to the guests of the
evening.

SPORTING INTELLIGENCE.—This Day.

THE

,TH.

(From the Registrar- General's Return.)

General Register-office, Somerset-house,
Aug. 20.
In the week that ended on Saturday, Aug. 18,
the births registered in London and 12 other large
towns of the United Kingdom were 3,968 ; the
deaths registered 3,510. The annual rate of mor-
tality was 30 per 1,000 persons living.
In London the births of 944 boys and 927 girls,
in all 1,871 children, were registered in the week.
In the corresponding weeks of ten years, 1856-65,
the average number, corrected for increase of popu-
lation, was 1,922.
The deaths registered in London during the week
were 1,799. It was the 33d week of the year, and
the average number of deaths for that week is, with
a correction for increase of population, was 1,332.
The deaths in the present return exceed the esti-
mated number by 467.
The deaths are less by 500 than the numbers re-
corded in the previous week. The deaths by
cholera have fallen from 1,053 and 781 in the two
previous weeks to 455. The decrease of deaths by
the two forms of cholera and diarrhcea is absolutely
greatest in childhood, but relatively greatest in man-
hood. Thus the deaths under the age of 20 have
fallen in the week from 538 to 373, at the age of
20-40 from 175 to 121, at 40 and upwards from 332
to 155. Thus this epidemic explosion, which has slain
in a few weeks so many people in the East, and has
threatened the whole population of London, is sub-
siding. It has been felt in every district, but its
great ravages have not yet extended beyond the
original limits.
The annual rate of mortality last week was 31 per
1,000 in London, 24 in Edinburgh, and 22 in Dublin;
20 in Bristol, 19 in Birmingham, 56 in Liverpool,
27 in Manchester, 27 in Salford, 25 in Sheffield, 25
in Leeds, 29 in Hull, 32 in Newcastle-upon-Tyne,
and 25 in Glasgow.
In the borough of Liverpool, of the 518 deaths
registered during last week, 157 were referred to
cholera and 63 to diarrhcea. The cases of cholera
showed an increase of 31 upon those returned in the
previous week, while diarrhcea had declined 12. The
deaths from cholera in Liverpool during the past
seven weeks had been respectively 4, 19, 45, 87,
101, 126, and last week 157. The decrease in the
fatality of this disease, which has been in the last
fortnight so rapid in Loudon, has not yet commenced
in Liverpool. Epidemic cholera does not exist in
any of the other larger towns.
At the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, the mean
height of the barometer in the week was 29.680 in.
The barometrical reading decreased from 29.90
in. at the beginning of the week to 29.51 in.
on Thursday. The mean temperature of the air
in the week was 58 deg., which is 3.5 deg. below
the average of the same week in 50 years (as de-
termined by Mr. Glaisher). The highest day tem-
perature was 72.2 deg., on Saturday. The lowest
night temperature was 46.9 deg., also on Saturday.
The entire range of temperature in the week was,
therefore, 25.3 deg. The mean of the highest tem-
perature of the water of the Thames was 61.4 deg. ;
that of the lowest was 60.4 deg. The difference be-
tween the mean dew-point temperature and air tem-
perature was 7.3 deg. The mean degree of humidity
of the air was 77, complete saturation being repre-
sented by 100. Rain fell to the amount of 0.62 in.
The direction of the wind was variable. The blue
mist was observed daily, but it was less dense than
in the preceding week.
MORTALITY OF THE SEVERAL LONDON DISTRICTS