The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-05-02 00:00:00

FASHIONS FOR MAY

(Prom the London and Paris Ladies' Magazine of Fashion.)
The newest and most fashionable material of the season is
the cameleon silk, deriving its name from the ever-varying
shades it assumes in different lights ; this, with taffetas na-
cre, Pekin Bengal, Ecossais gitana, bareges of many styles,
foulards, mousselines cachemire, &c., are now replacing the
thicker materials of winter ; all shades of grey and violet are
fashionable. Buttons are much used on redingotes and
robes of demi neglige ; they are made of coloured glass,
agate stones, &c., having a gold point in the centre, and are
of a round form. Black lace is almost an indispensable ac-
companiment of every toilette ; camails are of lace, scarfs of
lace, flounces of lace, &c., &c. Point de Venise is also much
in demand, and is made in every colour ; and the patterns
are either antique, renaissance, or pompadour; it is also
made in black and white for shawls, or scarfs of cachemire
or barege. Dresses continue to be made unreasonably long,
particularly behind ; the trimmings are two very deep flounces
with ruche, two tucks, or two biais placed in a lengthened
wave ; the bodies continue high and tight, but many have
full backs, or a little fulness on the shoulders, and the cein-
ture is not excluded ; the pelerine is a little changed in form,
concealing less of the figure; the sleeves are still tight, but
those a la Louis XIII. have many admirers, and it is ex-
pected will become more general as the season advances.
For evening dresses, gauze or linon, forming double skirts
in two colours, the one pink, the other lilac, are much ad-
mired, producing the effect so much approved of the came-
'eon silk. The same style is also applied to bonnets of gaze
lisse ; it produces the opal tints. Mantilles of black filet,
with trimmings of the same, will be very fashionable this
season ; also the manteau Venitienne iu black or white, lined
with lilac or pink silk ; scarfs of glace silk are hollowed out
at the throat, and trimmed ala gi andereere. Crispins and
camails of tarlatane over silk, are made with four rows of
lace and embroidery ; the various styles of mantelet all form
pelerine behind, and the ends are rounded ; they are trimmed
with ribbon X la vieille ; trimmings of ribbon quilled, and
bands of silk decoupees in festons, are much in use. Bon-
nets are made inclining more over the face, and not quite so
deep at the ears, and the crowns are not so low behind, but
rather expose the hair; the more simple for morning wear
are trimmed with plain ribbons. Capotes a coulisses are not
much ornamented, and some are made of straw with silk
crowns, with merely a noeud, and long ends at the side ; the
chou is sometimes of plain net. White satin bonnets are
covered with lace, and ornamented with along white feather;
the Penelope bonnet is the newest style, and capotes a la
Madvne, with long veils of tulle. Leghorns, whether plain
or sewed, are now in favour, and vary in form and trimming
according to the use required. Bonnets of etoffe sylphide
are made rather close, with a narrow bouillonne of tulle, and
bunch of lilac or fleur de cedras ; pailles de riz mixed with
silk form pretty capotes, with sprigs of May and feather
leaves, or wreaths of aubepine.

REBECCA AGAlN.—Trevanaghan Gate was once more en-
tirely demolished on Saturday night last, the toll-house le-
velled with the ground, and the stones of the building car-
ried away and thrown into the river at some distance from
the gate.
At the recent Penrith fair, half-bred sheep (between Lei-
cester and Cheviot,) sold at 225. 6d. each.. The same kind
last year sold for 265. 6d., and tne year previously for 335.
each, so that in two years the prices have fallen fully one-
third. The show of fat cattle was large, and pricAls went down
considerably. The farmers are all looking out foie reduction
of rent.

The period being at hand for presenting to Parliament the
financial statements for the current year, much curiosity is
felt in the city as to their nature, which still appears to re-
main a profound secret. The chief points to which the atten-
tion of capitalists is directed are the possible reduction of the
3i per Cents., or a further reduction of the rate of interest
on Exchequer bills. With respect to the first of these points
the opinion is, that a reduction to 3} per cent. instead of 3 is
far from improbable. At all events, it is believed that the
reduction is, if any there should be, will not take place before
next October.—Times.

We have much gratification in learning that a great part of
the body of dissenters called Irvingites last week returned to
the bosom of the Church of England. The members of the
denomination at Nottingham, Bridgnorth, Stourbridge, and
several other places were, we are informed, regularly pre-
sented to the bishops of the different dioceses. The so-called
" angels " of several churches now assemble daily at their
meeting-house, Newhall-street, in this town, where the larger
portion of the Church of England service is daily read. These
ministers in many respects conform to the ceremonies of the
Church of Rome.—Birmingham Advertiser.

LAUNCH OF A ROYAL STEAM YAcirr.—The launch of
her Majesty's steam vessel, Victoria and Albert, took place
at the Pembroke dock yard, on Wednesday, in the presence
of ten thousand spectators. The vessel was named by Lady
Cawdon, and precisely at half-past three o'clock the last
supporter was knocked away, and the Victoria and Albert
glided gently and gracefully into the water, amidst the cheers
of the assembled thousands. The dockyard band, which
was in attendance, then struck up " God save the Queen,"
and immediately ten thousand voices joined in singing the
national anthem. The following are principal dimensions
of this beautiful vessel : Feet. Inches.
Length, extreme
Length on the deck
Length between perpendiculars.......... 200 0
Length of keel for tonnage
Breadth outside paddle-boxes ....... 59 0
Breadth for tonnage
.... 33 0
Breadth moulded
...31 11
Depth in hold
is 22 0
Burthen in tons 1,049. She divided into five water-tight
compartments, and her engines are of 450-horse power.
Some idea may be formed of the novel and peculiar style of
her construction, as well as of her great strength, when it is
stated that she is built only with plank, the first two layers
being of oak, 11 inches thick, placed across each other diago-
nally, at an angle of forty-five degrees, the outside plank
being of larch, three inches thick, lying longitudinally, or with
the sheer of the ship, and the whole being bound up with
vertical and diagonal iron bands. Between each layer of
plank the surface is covered with thick tarred felt. The ves-
sel, therefore, cannot leak, nor be in the least degree damp,
inside, and being divided into five compartments by four
water-tight bulkheads, extending as high as the state-deck,
it is impossible for the body ever to sink, although it might
be bilged in any part from accident. Her keel was laid on
thr 9th of November, 1842.

FOUNTAIN OF ELISHA.—Our ride of the morning, though
trifling in respect of time or distance, had left some of our
party and myself but little disposed for further exertion.
Lady F., however, was unexhausted ; and the beauty of the
evening and its comparative coolness induced her and myself
to undertake a visit to the neighbouring spring, which bears
the name of the Prophet Elisha, and is the source of the
waters which he sweetened. Never was a trifling exertion
better rewarded. Our indefatigable jannissary and escort
mounted with the utmost alacrity ; and the latter skirmished
again incessantly during our ride of some twenty minutes
through the jungle. The fountain is situated at the base of
the hill chain, a neighbouring summit of which is pointed out
as the ecene of our Lord's fasting and temptation. I have
scarcely seen a nobler source. It might vie in volume with
Holywell, or with another spring dear to my recollections,
that of Woolmers, in Hertfordshire, whose waters the Duke
of Bridgewater projected to conduct to London in rivalry
with the New River. Some ancient masonry fences in the
water on the one side ; a gigantic fig tree, its white stem
gleaming through its leaves, overshadows the source ; and
the stream rushes on through high reeds and dense jungle,
over which the distant hills of Moab were seen, crimson
with the last glow of parting day. The red aspect of these
bare mountains is very striking, even when not thus illumi-
nated. The bare and bald effect of this species of Syrian scenery
has been very happily rendered in a panorama lately exhibited
of Damascus. It suggested here to the recollection the passage
of 2 Kings, iii, 22, which commemorates the dispersion of
the hosts of Moab, when the flood came down in the night
from a mountain rain which refreshed the exhausted hosts of
Judah, Israel, and Edom, and which, by the redness of its
current, made the Moabite believe that the allied powers had
fought among themselves, and that the trenches wereredd-
dened with the bloodshed. ' And they said this
Now, therefore, Moab to the spoil. The kings are surelyreeking
slain, and they have smitten one blood
.
horses of our escort needed no invitation to the stream ; and,
while they refreshed themselves in its pellucid waters, the
scene formed as compact, manageable, and complete a sub-
ject for the pencil, as ever made me sigh over my inability
to do it justice. We know that when Sir Walter Scott visited
Carlisle Castle, he was gravely shown the dungeon in which
Feargus Nfaclvor was confined. Had he been of our party,
he would doubtless have been told, as I was, that this was
the Diamond of the Desert so admirably described in his ro-
mance of the Talisman. I know not whether some traveller's
allusion to this scene may have suggested to him that lovely
passage of his later works ; but no detailed account of it
would have supplied him with the peculiar features of that
passage, for which he drew on an imagination whose visions
he could invest with all the charms of reality. To his ad-
mirers it will probably be always a matte: of doubt, whether
he most excelled in delineation from the life or from fancy.
Between Jenny Deans and Rebecca, Teviot or the Diamond
of the Desert, I, for one, should be at a loss to decide.
Mediterranean Sketches by Lord Francis Egerton.