GOSSIP AND NEWS ITEMS.

Press, Volume XLVIII, Issue 7862, 13 May 1891, Page 5

GOSSIP AND NEWS ITEMS.

The " unknown donor," who has offered £80,000 to build the Art Gallery at South Kensington, about which Sir Henry , Roacoe asked a question in the interest of science, is understood to be Mr Henry Tate. Hβ haa already, it will be remembered, offered his collection of modern pictures—valued at J875,06G-— to form the nucleus of an ♦'English Luxembourg." Hβ haa now offered £80,000 in order to ge#the kind of Luxembourg in the matter of building that he wants. Mr Tate made hie money In sugar refinery. He Iβ now giving It Dad in the means of refinement.

Mr and Mrs Kendal were driving from the theatre to their hotel at Brooklyn an Saturday, March 21st, when the hones of their carriage ran away. After proceeding for m m iffiUfl HfpfS the driver -was horled from hie box, both horses at the same time being thrown to the ground. Mrs Kendal received a severe shock and was carried to a drag store in the vicinity "in » fointiajj condition. After restorative* kai Leflfl })o\Vever, she revived,, and it -was tben. seen that neither site nor Mr Kuadal had tustabed any injuries from the accident. Brother Ansebn, night porter at the Grando Chaitreuee Momtem has just died. It yna under tide humble same that M. de Brecourt, who oooe a brilliant part in the highest Parisian society, finished nis days. M. de Brecourt was married three times, and by bis third wife he had a daughter. One day, on coming home from shooting, he discharged hie gun into a thicket behind which hie daughter happened to be standing. She fell, ehct dead. In despair M. de Brecourt entered as a simple friar the Monastery of Grande Chartreaee in the most hamble and trying of functions.

What trouble, says the "Pall Mall Budget," our artists nowadays take with their work! Bir Frederic Leighton has a Perseos and Andromeda, and he has modelled the -victim, the monster, and the deliverer in Slaster. They are in hie studio, not roughly one either, but with a finish worthy of bronze. neighbor, Mr Fildcs, has for his Academy picture, a doctor visiting a sicJc child. All one side of the big studio is m gloom. The very room, with its low raftered ceUinjr, Is built up within the studio. It holds all the furniture--table, S bed? the lamplight falls on the doctors face outinth©QDea (tfurt k to tb» nadadwa**

part of the big studio) the easel is set up, and the artist works upon his canvas. They did not take this kind of trouble in old. times.

X At Kennington Oval on Saturday, March 2lEt, the final tie of the Association Challenge Cup football competition was won by the Blackburn Rovers, who scored 3 goals against 1 goal scored by the Notts County 'team. The spectators, it was estimated, numbered nearly 30,000, most of them having come by special train from the North and Midlands. Considering that Notta defeated Blackburn Rovers on the previous Saturday, their reverse in the final tie came as a great surprise to their supporters, but their weak point was in their defence, which proved decidedly poor in comparison with that of the Lancastrians. This is the sixth occasion of the Rovers winning the cup, their previous victories having been in 1883, 1884, 1885, 1886, and 1890. They have thus broken the record, the Wanderers' team having won the cup on five occasions only. ' What constitutes a valid marriage, according to Scots law, is reported to have been solemnised in Edinburgh the other day in a somewhat original fashion. Two welldressed couples, accompanied by a clergyman, entered the Exhibition of the Royal Scottish Academy at an hour when, owing to the bad weather, the gallery was almost deserted. The party proceeded to the most retired part of the Exhibition, where, forming a group with the reverend gentleman in their midst, they remained for some time, the four lay visitors apparently listening with great earnestness to the softly-spoken exhortations of the divine. They left the gallery soon after, each gentleman with a lady on his arm—the first pair looking supremely happy—and the clergyman bringing up the rear. The object of their visit was not suspected until the •second lady produced a paper bag and scattered a shower of rice over the couple in front. It is believed that the chief parties to the transaction had taken this novel means of tying the matrimonial noose in order to baffle the watchfulness of their relations.

The theatrical anecdote is generally such a dull affair that it is with pleasure, says the "Hawk," I print the following, which is just now going the round. It arose out of the cariosity of the Queen at the recent performance of"" The Gondoliers " at Windsor Castle. Her Majesty, who followed her copy of Mr Gilbert's libretto closely, observed that certain additions were made to the text by the leading performers. Mr Carte was summoned to the elbow of Royalty, and the Queen graciously inquired of him the meaning of the interpolations. " These, your Majesty," said Mr Carte, "are what we call 'gags,'" "Gags," replied the Queen, "I thought 'gags' were things that were put by authority into people's mouths." "These 'gags, , your Majesty," answered the manager, " are things that people put into their own »outha without authority."