The Sun.
London, England, 1868-02-19 00:00:00

THE MUSICAL TATTERSALL'S.

The " Oxford"—or "The Musical Tattersall's," as
this hall has not inappropriately been described by
the sporting correspondent of the Daily Telegraph—.
demands particular notice in these columns, de-
voted as they are primarily to sporting matters.
This inauspicious event took place about three
o'clock on Tuesday morning last, and on our re-
porter calling to inspect the scene of devastation
about eleven, he found this elegant edifice a mass of
charred and blackened ruins open to the sky, with,
it ma; be said, little left but the bare walls. The
origin and course of the fire it is not our purpose to
attempt to trace, nor, like many of our contem-
poraries, to suggest means by which it might have
been prevented, but we may remark if the roof
had been constructed of iron instead of timber—
why it was not in these enlightened days we are at
a loss to understand—the catastrophe of Tuesday
morning could not possibly have taken place with
anything like the serious results we have recorded.
The loss of this noble building, with its magnificent
decorations and the high-class entertainments to
which it was dedicated, can be considered little
short of a metropolitan, if not a national, calamity.
Contrasted with the other Halls devoted to what
should be music it stood aloce. Who could listen
to the accomplished singing of Miss Russell here,
and the pseudo-genteel stuff of Mr. Vance, for
instance, elsewhere, —who to the impassioned de-
clamatory vocalisation of Miss Fitz-Henry and the
discordant clap-trap of Mr. Nash's cornet song,—
who to the clever sentimental and real buffo dis-
plays of Mr. Green, and the painful attempts of a
hhndred and one self-styled comic artistes (save
the term I) without feeling the superiority of
the catering at the Oxford to that of all other
similar places in the town ? It is true
Messrs. Morton and Jonghmanns had to put
their experienced heads together at holyday sea-
sons to meet the demand for holyday entertain-
ments, alias nonsense and trash ; but even this
was done most judiciously, and only such of the
" great (1)" people who preside at other halls
employed as were totally free from vulgarity—a
selection of no easy accomplishment.
The loss of " The Musical Tattersall's" to the
racing community will be irreparable, for it was
there alone that on the eve of every important
event they could meet their provincial brethren and
constituents, and those sporting amateurs yclept
"the public," whose money is so essential to the
support of the noble pastime, and who, it may be
said in reality, there parted from it to some tune.
We need only refer to the extraordinary gatherings
during the Derby and Ascot weeks to illustrate
what we mean to those who have been present ;
and those who have not, have missed a scene of ex.,
citement and an opportunity of studying character
never perhaps to be reproduced, unless in the same,
Hall, which we trust will speedily be restored to
both the lovers of rational enjoyment—where the
otium cum dignitate of cigars and refreshments are
permitted,—and to the sporting fraternity, whose
interests are identical with our own.—Racing Times.

The oldest inhabitant of Quebec asserts this to
be the coldest winter in his memory ; not so much from
the occasional state of the thermometer as the steady
average degree of cold.