The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-08-24 00:00:00

COURT CIRCULAR.

Her Majesty and her august mother attended Divine ser-
vice on Sunday morning. in the Chapel Royal, St. James's.
'['he sermon was preached by the Rev. Dr. Maddy, wbo took
his text from St. John, chap. ii, verses 23, 24, and 25. The
prayers were read by the Rev. Mr. Knapp; the lessons by
the Rev. C. Wesley; and the altar service was read by the
Rev. Messrs. Knapp and Wesley. The Te DE UM and Jubilate
were by Aldrich; the Sanctus by Hawes; and the responses
by Nares. The anthem (full) " Wherewithal shall a young
man," was by Boyce. Sir George Smart presided at the
organ.
The Dean of Hereford was the deputy clerk of the closet
in waiting. In the royal suite were the Marchioness of Nor-
manby, Lady Flora Hastings, Hon. Miss Pitt, Hon. Miss
Murray. Lord Gardner. Hon. Colonel Cavendish, and the
Hon. Major Keppel.
After the service her Majesty and suite returned in three
carriages to the New Palace.
The Queen, attended by the Marchioness of Normanby,
took an airing in the parks on Sunday afternoon, in an open
barouche andfour. Her Majesty visited the Princess Sophia
at Kensington. The Hon. Colonel Cavendish attended her
Majesty on horseback.

The Duke of Sussex visited her Majesty on Monday, at
the New Palace.

Viscount Melbourne had au audience on Monday of the
Queen.
Their Serene Highnesses the Prince and Princess Hohen-
lobe Laugenburg left Buckingham Palace, where their serene
highnesses have been staying on a visit to the Queen, at
half-past twelve on Monday, for Woolwich, to embark on
board the Lightning steam-packet, for Ostend. The Hon.
Colonel Cavendish, clerk marshal, attended the Prince and
Princess to Woolwich, and afterwards returned to town.
Viscount Melbourne and Sir Frederick Watson joined the
royal circle at dinner on Monday evening.
Mr. Baxter had the honour of attending at the palace to
make a sketch of her Majesty's coronation dress for his pic-
ture of the coronation.

Her Majesty, accompanied by the Duchess of Kent, and at-
tended by the Marchioness of Norman by, left the New Pa-
lace at half-past four o'clock on Tuesday afternoon, in au
open barouch and four, with outriders, for Windsor Castle.
The Marquis Con vngham, lord chamberlain, and the Earl
of Belfast, vice-chamberlain, attended her Majesty and her
august mother to the carriage. The royal suite in two car-
riages and four followed, and included Lady Mary Stopford,
Hon. Miss Pitt, Hon. Miss Murray, Lady Gardiner, Ba-
roness Lebzen, and the Hon. Col. Cavendish. A party of
hussars escorted the Queen. The royal standard was lowered
from the marble arch on her Majesty entering the park.
The Queen, gave audiences on Tuesday, at the New Pa-
lace, to Viscount Duncannon and Viscount Melbourne.

MELANCHOLY FATE OF A POOR STROLLING

PLAYER AND HIS SON.

(From the Inverness Courier.)
About eight or nine months since, when autumn was fading
into winter, and—in the words of the Scottish song—
" When the wan leaf frao the birk tree was fa'ing,"
a poor strolling player, his wife, and two children—a fine
boy and girl—arrived at Lairg, in the county of Sutherland.
The inhabitants are literally " few and far between," separ-
ated on all sides by rugged mountains, which impart a feeling
of utter solitude and seclusion to the scene. A cluster of
cottages, however, lie about the manse, on the south side of
Loch Shine, and there are huts scattered among the hills,
.which, though they at first elude observation, are rife with
inmates. The player resolved to try a performance, but, it
being Saturday evening, he deferred astonishing the simple
people till Monday or Tuesday. He put up at the inn, and
the respectable landlord—Mr. Mackay—informed us that the
intelligence and information of the man made a strong im-
pression on all who conversed with him. The poor wanderer,
however, was destined not to gratify the people of Lairg by
" fretting his hour" upon their stage. He set out towards
Altnaharrow to rouse the country and collect an audience,
taking with him his son, to bear him company over the
mountains. Neither of them retuned—the " play" was, of
course, postponed—and day passed after day without bring-
ing any tidings of the actor or his boy. 'The wife and daugh-
ter departed, and the circumstance was forgotten, when, last
week—on a solitary part of the farm of Shines—the bodies of
a man and boy were discovered in a state of great decoinpo-
sition. The occurrence was noised abroad, and the moulder-
ing remains were identified by the people of Laity, as those
of his unfortunate stroller and his son. It has been conjec-
tured that they lost their way among the hills, and were over-
taken by a storm, which they had not strength to resist.
They had apparently sank down on the ground exhausted, and
the boy's head was supported by his father, over which he
had thrown a part of his coat, as a protection from the night
or the storm. The man's name and history are unknown—
and thus perished the lone outcast of the drama, with his un-
fortunate son, in a land of strangers, amidst the wildest scenes
of nature, and under circumstances as touching as any which
have drawn tears or applause on the stage. What a contrast
to the gay and crowded theatres in which the poor player had
probably performed in his better days!
" The angel of death in the desert had found him,
And stretched him unseen by the side of the hill."
[What has become of the poor wife and daughter the Inver-
ness paper does not say.]