The Sun.
London, England, 1868-05-26 00:00:00

HER MAJESTY.

BALMORAL CASTLE, May 23.
The Queen drove out in the morning, attended
by the Duchess of Athole ; and her Majesty agagi
drove out in the afternoon, accompanied by POI'
cess Louise.

The Prince of Wales and Prince Arthur went
out fishing.

His Royal Highness the Crown Prince of Den'
mark arrived at Marlborough House yesterdaY
afternoon on a visit to the Prince and Princess ot.
Wales.

The Princess of Wales drove out afterwards, ac-
companied by the Crown Prince of Denmark.

LITERATURE.

From Olympus to Hodes. By Mrs. Forrester,
Author of " Fair Women." Three Vols. Hurst
and Blackett.
Avery charming heroine is Olive Hamilton. She
enlists the readers sympathies from the first moment
of her introduction. The opening scene of the
story is very gracefully described. We find ourselves
in one of those pleasant gardens that slope down to
the river Thames. Two fair girls are in a little
boat preparing to set off on some pleasant expedi-
tion, when their younger sister Olive hurries across
the lawn and proposes to join them. The two
elder sisters peremptorily refuse. It is their habit
to treat Olive as a child, and to keep her in the
background. The boat glides over the tranquil water,
and poor Olive with a swelling heart, embittered
with a sense of unjust treatment remains behind•
It might seem that the heroine is introduced to to
at a somewhat unfortunate moment, but we under-
stand at once her sensitive, impressionable tempera-
ment, and the peculiarly trying position in which
she is placed. Her sisters are fair and elegant, her
mother is " blond and precise," and regards her
dark-haired little Olive somewhat like the ugly
duckling of Haus Christian Andersen's famous
fable. Very bitter are poor Olive's thoughts that
bright July afternoon. "She felt as if she could
never be happy again. No one loved her—nay, she
thought they hated her, and she was ugly !" 110
a few minutes afterwards one passing incident
changes the whole aspect of the world to Olive, and
she becomes "gladly conscious of the brightness of
the summer day, of the beauty of the tranquil
scene, and the blithe carol of the birds," we shall
not relate. Her mother never again has occasion
to chide Olive far careless dress or gloomy mood.
The happiness which the first dawn of love awakens
in little Olive's sensitive heart is very tenderly de-
picted ; and soon afterwards, when her joy is at the
full, and she is for the time being (according to the
theory of the authoress) high up in Olympus, she
exclaims, in the exuberance of her heart, to her old
nurse, who had been, the confidante of all her
childish griefs, " Oh, Greet ! I am so happy ; I do
not think I could complain if I never had any more
happiness all my life long !" The old woman hastily
checks the thoughtless expression, and later on,
when her darling is (according to the metaphor)
down in the depths of Hades, very tender and wise
is the teaching with which poor Greet endeavours
to speak comfort to a heart made desolate. The
extremes of joy and sorrow, as experienced 14
Olive Hamilton, so vividly described in this
history, remind the reader of a glimpse Of
the two widely contrasting portraits of ,4 M ►r-
guerite," when she is kneeling before the
shrine animated with such different emotions.
But Faust's Marguerite was abased in a deeper
Hades, and endured an anguish to which, in all
her afflictions, the innocent Olive is a stranger.
So very vividly is the great passion of the heroine's
life depicted, that the reader who has followed her
through the various phases of emotion is inclined to
quarrel with the termination of the story. We d 3
not like to reveal what that termination is ; but we
can assure the authoress that it has disap-
pointed us. The love of Olive for her husband
so beautifully and powerfully portrayed should
never have given way to a lesser emotion, and it
should, by all the laws of poetical justice, have
produced a happier result. Some of the other por-
tions of the story, indeed the whole career and
character of Henrietta French, are singularly re-
pulsive ; and it is much to be regretted that a
novelist who can write so well, and who can 00
vividly pourtray good characters and enforce noble
sentiments, should introduce in her pages passages
from the life of an adventuress, which are neither
pleasant to read nor worthy of being recorded. The
charming remembrance of Olive Hamilton, how-
ever, will linger in the reader's mind when the de-
testable Henrietta is forgotten.

ROY AL GARDENS, NORTH WOOLTFICIL

This delightful suburban retreat, which is now
under the management of Mr. Charles Morton, of
the Oxford and Canterbury Hall, was thrown open
to the public on Saturday last, in honour of her
Majesty's birthday, when a day and night festival
took place. In consequence of the inclemency of
the weather very few persons witnessed the opening
of the fete, but towards 5 o'clock the sun made its
first appearance through the dark clouds, and pro-
mising a splendid evening the boats and trains
from London brought down a large number
of pleasure seekers. A concert, conducted by
Mr. Jonghmans, took place in the colossal
Hall, in which Miss Fitzhenry sang her descriptive
song of " Launch the lifeboat" most charmingly,
and received a perfect ovation from the audience,
who having demanded an encore she sang, " Home,
sweet home." Mr. Jonghmans sang " The Mule-
teer" and " Rule Britannia." Amongst the ce"
miques Miss Kate Santley, Sidney Franks, and T.
Foster vied with each other who should carry away
the palm. At eight o'clock the gardens were bril-
liantly illuminated by Duffel!, and when the
dancing commenced on the monster platform to Herr
Jonghmans' bande'of fifty peformers we might have
fancied ourselves in Fairy Land. A display of
fireworks took place on the borders, of the lake,
concluding with the Flight of Fancy. The com-
pany departed at midnight, having passed a most
enjoyable evening. We wish Mr. Morton every
success in his new undertaking, as we feel certain
he is the right man in the right place. Great pre-
parations are being made for Whitsuntide, when
a new ballet is to be produced, the scenery painted
under the superintendence of Mr. M. Morgan,
of the Theatre Royal, Covent-garden. We under-
stand that over 3,000 persons patronised the gar-
dens on this occasion.

Mr. Josiah Smith, Q.C., judge of the county
courts of Shropshire, Herefordshire, and Mont-
gomeryshire, and the legal gentlemen who practise
throughout his extensive circuit, have, mutually, 3
very unpleasant time of it, altercations between
the bench and bar being of frequent occurrence.
At a court held .last week, Mr. Bodenham,
solicitor in charge of a case, objected on technical
grounds to a certain piece of evidence being ad-
mitted, whereupon a " scene " occurred, in the
course of which Mr. Smith called upon Mr.
Bodenham to apologise, and reminded him that
there was " such a thing as contempt of court.''
Mr. Bodenham refused to apologise, on the ground
that he had nothing to apologise for. His Honour
hoped that Mr. Bodenham " would live long
enough to be sorry for what he had said." Mr'
Bodenham, in subsequent remarks, showing no
present signs of sorrow, the judge was moved to
the following outburst :—" I say it without fear of
contradiction, and I wish it to go through the
United Kingdom, that no one emanated from Lin'
cola's Inn with a better reputation for legal know-
ledge than myself—no one either on the bench or
at the bar, unless it be Lord St. Leonards himself'
And now a gentleman who, on my appointment to
this circuit, expressed his gratitude for my legal
a.
labours, which have been the means of educatinb,
the generation of lawyers for the last twelve °`
sixteen years, sets me at nought, and imputes
me that I do not administer a course of things 113
accordance with the law of the land."