JOTTINGS FROM HOME.

Press, Volume XLV, Issue 7122, 19 July 1888, Page 5

JOTTINGS FROM HOME.

fFROM AN OCCASIONAL CORK—SPONTIEXT.} LONDON, June 1. . The year's high noon has come at last, and brought with it that amount of light, heat and life which bents the heyday of summer. The season is in fuli swing; the Derby is over and the next resting place is already in view. The long day has grown longer, so much longer that now there is but little left- of night, just so much as can be confessed between the hours of 9 p.m. and 3 a.m. After the 21st. however, if all traditions be true, we shall gradually change all this and turn and go down the slow descent to—November. The very worst of the English summer is that you get it mostly after yon have passed the meridian of the year, and consequently when you have au uneasy vague sense of the proximity of autumn. For this reason, if for no other, June is the sweetest month ia the year, for in June we feel ourselves not yet beyond recall, and at liberty to iudulge in summer joy*. Old age comes on apace though.

If yon were in London at the present moment and did mc tha honor to ask mc where you should go for delectation, I should imtnediately say "Not to the Academy." Ido not mean by this hypo, thetical warning that the Academy is not worth seeing; far from it —there ia more arrangement than ever there was on the wails of Buriiugton House. But at present the heat of the rooms is too much of a good thing, and the crush (e_eepting at an unearthly hour in the morning) is so great that it is absolutely impossible to see the pictures with any comfort. I endeavored, the other afternoon for some, thing like a quarter of an hour, to get close to Alma Tadema's "Hoses of Heliogabalus," but failed ignominioualy, and was obliged to put up with a distant viewbetween heads and bhoulders of some scattered rose leaves. It is the same at the other galleries, and if tlie weather keeps as bright and warm as it is just now, we shall have an unbearably dry summer. Already I hear of people living off to cooler resorts—to Devonshire, Scotland, to the seaside, and elsewhere, and really there is good groiind for such excursions. For June is most delightful in the country, where wild flowers and hedge rows are in their perfection, and so to speak Nature has paused to survey her handiwork, and found it good. Our American cousins, as Lord Byron said of Moore, "dearly leve a lord," aud desire above all things that the lord shall be a duke. The Duke of Manchester has recently returned from the States, and the Duke of Marlborough has once more gone thither. It has been stated that he is on the outlook for a wife among the American beauties and heiresses. He has lately bought large estates in Illinois, where he intends to go in for hog-breeding with a view, probably, to the Chicago markets. The Duke, who, as well as being a branded character in English society, is also a great spendthrift, is none too wealthy, and looks upon his new venture as a likely rutins of " raking in the dollars." Be that as it may, it is setl led that Lord Lon«dale (also a "tabu" in society) is to join him in his scheme when he returns from his expedition into the far north. His Lordship, according to paper Earagraphs. has " pushed on to the Pole," ut it is to be hoped that he ha been less guilty of folly than his journalistic friends make him out. At all events, he has gone northward into the limits of Canada, and his return is indefinite. The number of American heiresses, by the way, who are married to English peers is very large. I suppose it is fairly well-known by your readers that Lady Kandoph Churchill was not a daughter of Albion. I wrote some time ago of the marriage of the late Lord Beaconsfield's niece, and at the same time had occasion to mention his nephew, Mr Coningsby Disraeli. The latter is, I hear, also engaged to be married. He is quite a young man, not more than two or threc-and-twenty, and has just finished his course at Oxford. Ido not think it is well known that the earldom of Beaconsfleld would naturally have descended to him had not it. been for his uncle's express wish to the contrary. Lord Beaconsfleld thought it inadvisable that a young man should be placed in the House of Lords so early, and without experience of the Common— It is therefore understood that Mr Disraeli will enter the House of Commons shortly, and, all going well, will be raised to the Peerage in a few years as second Earl of Beaconsfleld. At the dinner given by the Archbishop of Canterbury, a week ago, to. the Bishops at Lambeth Palace, colonial Bishops mustered in force. Among them were the Bishop of Aucklaneland the Bishop of Waiapu. Some narrow-minded wag onoe christened these colonial Bishops "returned empties." Apropos of episcopal matters, a munificent gift has been just made to the London efiocese. Bishop Temple having found that his labors were, wir.h the aid of his present suffragan, too arduous, has applied for and obtained a second assistant for the southern portion of London. A residence was therefore necessary for the new Bishop, and the authorities have been spared the trouble and expense of acquiring one themselves by Mr Alexander Meicmillan. the senior partner of the wellknown publishing house, who has presented the diocese with a beautiful house and charming grounds near the Crystal Palace.

It is stated that Mr. Douglas Sladen, the enterprisingeditor of "Australian Ballads," has arranged for a volume of short stories by Australian writers, and that the book is already in the press. Among the contributors will be Mrs Campbell Praed, Mr Haddon Chambers, and Marcus Clarke.

A curious book is looked for soon from the pen of Lawrence Oliphant, to which attention has been lately drawn by the at. James' Gazette. Mr Oliphant ia a very curious mixture. He must be now a man of nearly sixty years, and during his life has seen many countries and many experiences. At one time be was Times' correspondent in Paris; later, a war correspondent in the East; subsequently, he belonged to a curious community in America. He is the author of that cynical novel "Piccadilly," and of that somewhat worldly novel "Altiora Peto," which appeared some sis. years ago. He has written an account of some of his adventures, which he terms "Mosses from a Rolling Stone," andhe is the author of "Haifa," an account of a small village of that _ame in Palestine. The book to which I have referred, aDd which is sure to create a great deal of <;alk, concerns a new religion which Mr Oliphant and his late wife are said to have practically invented. Here is a curious position. If there is one man who might be said in London society to be a man of tbe world, and to have the greatest cause for cynicism by reason of his large experience of men and manners, it is Mr Lawreuce Oliphant. Yet he conies out in this book as a mystic o£ a most pronounced type. Some idea, of the peculiarity of this affair may be gained from the assertion that the book has been written, as he "does not hesitate to say, under the direction of his wife's spirit. You may expect to hear more of this. One of the now least known characters in "Literary London" is Mr Paul dv Chaillu, whom every boy will remember as the author of the famous gorilla books. Mr Da Chaillu is by birth an American (his grandfather having been a settler in Louisiana),Jand he is proud of being ;:n Amei ican. Yet as a matter of fact he is a typical Frenchman in many ways. He speaks with a pronouncedly French accent, and many of his characteristics are French, and not English or American. Nevertheless nothing annoys him more than to be mistaken for a Frenchman. Twenty or twenty-five years ago Mr Dv Chaillu was one of the best known characters ia London. As the first European who had ever seen the gorilla—in fact, as the modern discoverer of the torilla —he was v noted man in scientific and literary circles. But since then he has allowed himself to drop out of sight. It is about ten years since he published his la«t book on " The Land of Ihe Midnight Sun " whioh met with a great success here', and a greater in America. From that book he derived the idea of the one he is at present engaged upon, which treats of the ancestry ot the Knglisb people. " The Viking Age" he calls it, and from what he tells mc, its publication cannot fail to give rise to a great deal of discussion, as he entirely runs counter to the orthodox notions concerning the English invasion. It is not a work of a day, but has, in fact, occupied him during eight years, in which time he ba3 had several secretaries at work for him, has gone over most of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, and has accumulated a vast mass of information. Messrs Marray and Son are to publish the book in October. M. Dv Chailln lives usually in London, in order to secure copyright here, but his books have a very much larger sale in Amerie». The new Australian prima donna, Madame Melba (is her name derived from Melbourne, by the way?) has come, been heard, and conquered. She made her debut on the operatic stage here at Covent Garden a few ni_hts ago in "Lucia oi

Lammemlopr," and inaeie a great success. Another new prima donna Is —03s Mar-gn.-rifce Macintyre; w-ho is said to be as lovely in persOu as she Is sweet iv voice. She is the daughter of a General Macintyre, who, needless to Bay, did nob approve of her going on the stage. Mr Gilbert, tho author of so many successful librettos, and the evergreen l 'Bab. Ballads," has a ready wit. The latest' story concerning him is that he was standiugone evening in the hall of a house where he had been at a party, when a heavy swell came up, and mistaking I—in for a waiter, said, "Haw! Call mc a fourwheeler." Mr Gilbert put his eyeglass in his eye, and earefuliv surveyed "the other, andthen replied, "You're a four-wheeler." " What on earth do you mean,sirf gasped the swell in surprise. " Well, you asked mc v> t call you a four-wheeler," was Gilbert's reply: "and I couldn't call you hamJsome, you know." Of course everyone knows the old story concerning Mr Gilbert's repartee to Mr Bnrnand, the editor of Punch. Mr Burnand, looking across the dinner table where both were met, said, "Hulloa, Gilbert, it's you! You're the man who scuds funny tilings to Punch which never get in*, areu t jou,'" Gilbert, without a moin<_it's hesitation, made answer, " I don't know who sends funny things to Punch, but I know they never get in. The most fashionable actor in London now is Mr Charles Wynelham, of the Criterion Theatre. " David Garrick," in which he is at present playing, has run over 300 nights, and yet it is only a revival of Sothern's great piece. Doubtless his visits to Berlin and St. Petersburg have had something to do with his success, for the mau who plays by especial invitation before the Czar "must Of necessity be a great actor and worth seeing. Yet he has a great deal of power iv his acting, and 16 is not all fashion. A short time since Priucess Mary of Teck did him the houor of supping with him after the performance, and stayed, I believe, till three o'clock in the morning. This is an evidence of fashion. An item of possible interest to your readers in the theatrical world ia the forthcoming marriage of Miss Winifred _mery to _Tr Cpil"Maude. The lady in question is Miss Terry's understudy, and one of the graceful and charming of actresses, though compelled perforce to hide her light under a bushel. When that necessity is removed, she will doubtless come to the fore.

A most ingenious toy has been infesting our streets for ihe past, two months. It is the figure of a postman wheeling behind him a handcart, and when wound up the legs of the figure move in such a way that it is precisely as if he were walking and dragging the cart after him. It is a most neat "contrivance, and has attracted universal attention. Indeed, it is very difficult to walk down the streets without treading on several, for they crawl all over the pavements from the hands of thestreet vendors.

The Australian cricketers have at last been conquered by Lancashire, and have sulTered a moral defeat at the hands of the Gentlemen. If is to be hoped that these are not preludes to further disasters, and that Ferris and Turner will resume their old form. The match with the Gentlemen was especially unfortunate, as there was no possibility of its being finished, as everyone knew. Only two days were allowed, as Derby day is'always held sacred at Lord's. Grace showed his old form, and vindicated his right to be considered far and away the greatest cricketer England has produced. His continuance itt " form *' is most remarkable, and his achievements this season bid fair to raise his already high record.