The Sun.
London, England, 1859-09-13 00:00:00

G LOCESTER MUSICAL FESTI

GLOCESTER, SEPT. 12.
The 136th meeting' of the three choirs of Gloces-
er, Worcester, and r'Hereford, the origin and his-
tory of which have repeatedly been detailed, begins
to-morrow under auspices more than usually propi-
tious. The fine weather is bringing numbers of
visitor s to the city, and the sale of tickets has already
been so large as to place success almost beyond a
doubt. For the morning performance on Friday
the reserved seats in the Cathedral (nearly 1.000
places) are nearly all disposed ol—the Messiah being,
according to precedent, the oratorio on that day..
A brief summary of its principal features Will .
suffice. There is little novelty, but on the whole
the selection of attract: sacred and secular, is
well made and ve. At the full Cathedral ,
service which inaugurates the festival, besides the
" Te
preces and responses of Tallis, the Dettingen
Deum" of Handel and Mendelssohn's magnlficent
setting of the 42d Psalm are included. The sermon
will be preached by the Rev. Richard Harvey;
both
canon of Glocester. The other oratorio is " Elijah,'„
on Wednesday; Beethoven's " Mount of Olives,
~ Last
Rossini's " Stabat Mater," and Spohr's
On the
Judgment" being combined on Thursday.
s
evenings of Tuesday, -Wednesday, and Thursday
miscellaneous concerts are announced to take place
in the Shire-hall. At each of these entertainments
the first part is to be devoted to the music of one
composer—on Tuesday a selection from Mozart's
" Don Giovanni," on Wednesday Professor Stern-
dale Bennett 's " May Queen," jnd on Thursday a
selection from the operatic worls ofßossini.s Tile
remainder of the time will be devot e ordi-
nary " leather and prunella."
The list of solo singers is ample and powerful,
Madame Clara Novell°, Mrs. Clare Hepworth,
Misses Dolby and Lascelles, Messrs. Montem Smith,
upon
Sims Reeves, and Thomas being largely called
for the oratorios ; while the evening programmes
derive great additional interest from the promised
co-operation of Mr. E. T. Smith's Italian Or
company—uniting the talents of Mademoiselle Tiet-
j ens, Signors Giuglini, Vialetti, and Badiali---
Signor Belletti taking part in both sacred and
secular performances. The absence of Mr. Weiss,
one of the greatest favourites at the meetings of
the choirs. (and deservadly so), has created consi-
derable disappointment in many quarters, and the
more so inasmuch as it is staled he was engaged at
the outset. No explanation has been offered.
At,
Glocester, as at Braord, the ing concerts Will
be agreeaoly interspersed witheven instrumental solos
by M. Sainton and Mr. Blagrove on the violin, and
Tb
by Miss Summerhayes, a performer of growing re",.
putation in the provinces, on the pianoforte. i°
young lady is set down for the " ChoralFan-
tasia' of Beethoven. An excellent band of seveney
executants, picked from the ranks of our e L
nie:
on-
don players, and headed by Messrs. Sainton,
grove, and Willy, as principal fiddles, will supra'.
a choral phalanx of 60 trebles, 48 altos, 56 tenors,
and 60 basses (224 in all), levied from the °rains*.
sources, the whole under the direction of Mr. Am
organist of the Cathedral. Mr. Araott, as usual,
will be assisted by his brother organists of Hereforc!
and Worcester—Messrs. Townshend Smith and
Done—the former taking the organ in the morn-
ings, the latter the piano in the evenings.
of stewards, in
A large and energetic company
the interim between this and the last festival, have
otti,
been exerting themselves to forward the believeprospeFiy
of the meeting, and there is every reason to ..
they will none of them be out of pocket ;
the rich and noble families residing or holdinl
estates in the three counties come forward. Ic.lte_
their accustomed liberality when the plateholdT.
make their eloquent (not always mute) a,ppea!
the termination of the oratorios, there can be littliu
doubt that the fund for the benefit of widows and
orphans of clergymen in the dioceses ( which
orphans
its whole support from the collections u
conatdonations) will be enriched by a handsome ii' glary
Whil it
bution. The stewards' secretary, Mr. Jas. '''-e- in
Brown, has been as indefatigable as formerly for
marshalling things in order and providingn e-
every one's accommodation. Among other ira2r-Te..
served seats in the Cathedral, which
ce-
ments he has widened the spaces between. the 1...,
o ft
drawbackh e
o performancesfperswll Itir.,
aout m ithet onablediinsgeonilisfotertn_edfotroit
concession, however, he has imposed the qruall onc:s
tional tax of ls. 6d. on each seat, the reserved see.,,;
previously at 12s. 6d., being now let at 14s. '-'„r
complaints have been made at this innovation ; lives
was it at all probable, only the wealthier elessin..
being mulcted in the extra fine, which is 'Leaf
sively attached to the secured places. The $ •
companies have afforded every facility to visitor e !
and never perhaps did the prospects of a Gloeestn:
Festival look brighter. The fact is consolingt mats
much as there are now no fewer than 32 apVilealla
to the fund for relief-18 orphans and 14 wi.dol'a
All the artists, singers and players, have arriveu;
To-day there was a rehearsal of sacred music in tr„
Cathedral ; to-night the secular music, or at leas' -
great part of it, will be gone through in the Sili,e'
hall. Devoutly disposed persons arc pleased fe
know that the festival becomes no hindrance to tl's
ordinary church service in the Cathedral. At,
o'clock a.m. on Wednesday, Thursday, and Frinti.:
morning service, and at 5 o'clock p.m. evening s'of
vice, will be held. This judicious step, il°l°.;ta-
some standing, has helped to silence much Fur-
nical clamour.

BRITISH ARCHEOLOGICAL ASS°CI4-
TION.

*
Isl EWBURY, MONDAY EVENINNA
Yesterday afternoon this association opeot.,.- ,
16th annual meeting in the town of Newun',"
Berkshire. At two o'clbck the officers and °we:
mittee met at the Mansion-office, where the arran,fes
nients for the week were determined on. At ..gt'to
o'clock there was a general meeting in the luth;
sion-houses which was elegantly fitted 111) for ble
occasion, the walls being decorated with valua_i
paintings, while the platform contained sveT.
splendid pieces of antique furniture-and manY °le,
ments of value, such as wassail bowls, horns,
_.,.,
There was a very large and fashionable circle VT:.
sent, among whom were the Earl of Carnarvon I.
president), the Bishop of (Mord, Rev. Char',;
Kingsley, Archdeacon Randall, Mr. W.W.BeSit.
M.P., Mr. W. S. Portal, Mr. H. R. Eyre! P`
Palmer, Mr. T. J. Pettigrew, F.R.S., F.S.A., &°',,,,
The Earl of CARNARVON delivered a most in
,resting and eloquent address. He said he thong%
he should best . fulfil the duty devolving ue;
him by calling their attention', in the first OS"'
that day ; secondly, to the particular
the labours 'of the week before them ; and,
to the causes which had brought them togethecf
toI the
h character and objects of t)leir sphere °
%stiff
In is. ' opinion, nowhere in England could Oir.i.
meeting have been called together with grist;
proceedint
• advantage than in Newbury. They occupied at
were a central position, standing upon the borde'"
"or two counties—Ham •
of
,them very rich in historic" associations, both °_.."'
them counties whose historic associations had nelre'
shire and Berkshire--b°t_ils
been properly worked out. The difficulty the as*:
'elation would experience would not be in finding;
field, of labour for their researches, but where
lithit them. His Lordship then proceeded to dw.
,1,1
on the legends connected with the counties, niunr
many of them were waning away, and hw, to
portant it was that they should be preserve...l
society, for in many instances they bespoke the f
character and traits of a people. The charaet
_r,,,i_
the Romans was glanced at, their progress to S'c'iv,
lisation, their grand and noble roatis, and porll_au
larly the ruins of Silchester, that once noble o:
_.
city. The Civil Wars—particularly their eon.
_eue,
ti9n with the counties—in
relative of the noble lord played no uneenisP ell
dshis:
iEs or . .
part, were also vividly sketched.
• terest will
after referring to many objects -of in ouij
the association in their forthcoming rambles: hid
, which a rlistingpstio;
visit, concluded by saying that he thou„h t 'to
should not be discharging his duty' were n,uo
neglect saying a few words with regard to tona
• ifoS
allow him to say in the first place, it , i,
Whic'
general character and objects of archmologY, s
not of that dry, musty character .1,01
the dilettanti of the present age coneel, of
it to be—it was not the mere husk and choPfea
literature, it was rather that study which
and
as it were the golden thread of romance and PI?
in a practical and sometimes utilitarian age, ,„a
which furnished.the man of letters with dots
facts on which to found his history. nkot
The Bishop of OXFORD proposed a vote of titoes
observing that he thought the address had C-the
with peculiar gracefulness. from his lordsbW'hter
e
bearer of a name than which no name bore a rftere,
aspect in English annals, whether in war, in
d e,. letterer
to e
Mr. H. R. EYRE,
or in those gentle acquirements which apPer"
the old English country gentleman. a th
vote_ of thanks, which was carried by accholimitios
Mr. T; S. PETTIGREW then read an interes jell
of Shaw-house, seconoo.
paper on the antiquities of Berkshire, after 1111.310-
the association visited Newbury Chtirch, the
t
seam, alms houses, &c.
At half-past 6 o'clock there was a table c4stgeregi
the Pelican Hotel, and at half-past 8 o'cloel
Papers
was a meeting at the Mansion-house, wile° P'''''
were read, followed by a discussion.

f eel
It is stated that ,Colonel Shaffner, who .0..,011 se,
from Boston on the 29th of August, in the barque 1Y ;' 1,00
to explore the Northern Atlantic for a telegraph reun,t to
received from the Ring of Denmark the occlusive lit,
..o.
lay a cable in Greenland and Iceland. The cours(2 to,
templated is from the shores of Labrador to South Cir'ods,
land, thence to Iceland, and thence to the Faroe Isle:ad,
where the wires will branch—one southward to Sc9tl ~
the other to Bergen, in Norway. According to this Pr„;
the longest stretch of cable will be from Labrador to Grew
land—about 500 miles•