LONDON CHAT.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 12903, 7 September 1907, Page 2

LONDON CHAT.

(FROM OUK OWN CORRESPONDENT.) LONDON, July 26. A brilliant, but unsatisfactory, London iSoason comes to an official close next week with the Goodwood Races. That it has been brilliant, using the abjective in tho 6ense in which, it fa customarily employed' in this connection, nobody, I presume, will deny. There has rarely, if ever, been such a tremendous accumulation of gaiety, festivity, and hospitality-dispensing. But, on tho oUior hand, it has been distinguished by one most unsatisfactory feature—the weather, which has been sunless, gloomy, chilly, and cheerless, to an extent which hae no parallel in English history. There have been far wetter seasons, such as the record rain-yoar, 1903, only four years back, whose depth of rainfall that of the present season has not even remotely approximated, while the "Coronation Summer, ,, of 1902, was very much wetter than that of this year. But even those two generally deplorable summers had their—literally—'lucid ii.torvals," periods also of warmth and sunshine, such as have virtually been lacking in to to during this so-called "summer" of 1907. Even this week, tho last of July, although fairly fine in tho sense of general rainlessnoss, has been far from warm, and sunshine has been almost entirely absent.

Naturally, such conditions have militated grievously against the success of garden parties and other al fresco iv actions, of which the name was to havo been legion, but which generally resolved themselves into indoor squashes. Through some special and marvellous good fortune, the Public Schools Match Day at Lords proved fairly fine, although not rainless, but most of the out-of-door festivities of the year have been hopelessly marred by the inclement -weather. At the present moment, when the general*lioliday exodus is beginning, people fare trj ing to entertain come vague hopes that more favourable meteorological conditions may set in with August. Certainly it will be very nice if they do, but there is another phase of the situation to which this possibility gives prominence. A friend of mine recently remarked to the head of a big drapery firm, with purely consolatory intention, that no doubt w« should have some hot weather in August and September. '•Good Heavens! 1 hope not," exclaimed tho great draper. "That would almost epell ruin to usl What's tho good of hot weather to us now? The time has gone by. Kverybody has bought all the light eiimmer things that will bo bought, and we have had our sales to clear off the rest. What we want now is cold weather, to make people buy furs and thick woollens, and other winter goods!". So you sec, it is impossible to please everyone, but I must confess that however much I may sympathise with that worthy draper, I do hope, if only' for tho sako of tho numerous New Zealanders in London, that we may have at least a few weeks of warm weather before another dark and dreary winter sets in. Not unnaturally it is especially the fashion just now to attribute everything to the weather. Tho list of attributions—also naturally—includes exceptionally vivid ebullitions of bad temper. This might be accepted as the explanation of an extraordinary disturbance, which the newspapers call a "riot," that occurred et Lords' Cricket Ground on Tuesday, while the Lan-cashire-Middlesex cricket match was in progress. I say in progress because it had begun and wasn't finished; but tho trouble arose through its not actually "progressing." There had been heavy rain on Monday which left the wicket in a very soft state, and cricket at the ordinary time for beginning play in the morning was quite out of the question. Unfortunately, however, as events turned out, the public were admitted in the usual way by payment at the gates. There being no wind or sun to dry the turf, the wicket did not improve, end the umpires from time to time pronounced it unfit to play upon. Matters went on quietly enough until about 4 p.m., when the crowd grew impatient and made a demonstration of protest in front of the pavilion. The climax was reached whem, it having been determined to postpone the game until next day, the umpires pulled up the stumps, and it wes announced that there would be no cricket that day. A number of the would-be spectators, most of whom hnd boen in their places for more than four hours, were furiously enraged at this disappointment, and, breaking loose from all restraint, invaded the playing area in largo numbers, tramping over the soft wicket, and of course doing a ffood deal of damnge before thoy could bo swept off by the police. This proceoding excited the grievous ire of Maclaren, the captain of the visiting (Lancashire) team, who is rather celebrated for having o fine, earnest temper of his own, and who has on one or two previous occasions, allowed this some temper to explode, with formidable consequences. He. promptly went over the ground with the groundnnrl after a consultation with the latter, issued the following official statement': —"Owinc to the pitch havinr been deliberately torn up by the nnblic, I, as captain of the Lancashire nlerea, cannot see my way to continue the prame. the bearing mc out that the wicket could not again bo put right.—A. C. Maclaren." I irn nfraid that the solution of tho whole trouble is to be found in the nrevelenco of the habit of betting. The outcome of tho pending match might, indeed almost certainly would, have had a stron? influence on the result of the County Championship contest. Lancashire, it is true, is no

longer "in it," but Middlesex diSlihcjtly is, being, like Nottinghamshire, still undefeated. Had Lancashire defected Middlesex in the match which was abandoned, Notts would have gained a large advantage. The excitement of the situation had drawn up to town for the occasion a good many Lancashire enthusiasts, many of whom, like their Yorkshire brethren, are betting-mad, and who doubtless had "books" alike upon Manchester* chances against Middlesex, and alst, on Middlesex's chances on the championship. "Hence these weeps. At least, 1 strongly suspect so. But the scene was a strangely unedifying one, and smacked far too much of those semi-barbarous—no, wholly barbarousconclusions of certain Lancashire foot ball matches when a referee, who may happen to give a decision damaging to the interest* of the local men, has, in the exent of these latter being defeatod, incontinently to flee for his life to the nearest refuge. One does not wish to see such "methods of barbarism" imported int-o cricket, or flourishing on the dignified and aristocratic Loids ground, that headquarters of tho whole cricketing world. No contrast could be more striking than that presented to-day and a month ago by the front advertising pages of the bis London dailies. Todny not one single concert of eny description is advertised at all. A month ago, the concert announcements filled seven or eight columns, and often half a dozen would t3ke place on a single day. Tho tame sort of tiling is, of course, usual at tho close of eacli season, but I never knew a concert season cut off qnito so sharply end cleanly, or the difference between now and then, to bo so exceedingly vide. The Grand Opera swison is, however, etill in full swing, but will clo*e next week, and the Moody-Manners English Opera Company «ro playing a very creditable se%ison of foreign operas in English, at tho Lyric Theatre. At Covent Garden, wonderful to relate, i positivo sensation has been created by what may be called a second revival this season of Donizetti's o!d-f«shione<l opera, "Lucia di Lnntmermoor' , : to ite earlier revival, for Melba, I -referred in a previous letter. Tho present one 13 to enable that delightful and amazing singer, Selma Kurz, to be heard in the title-part, as the ill-starred heroine. Xow, it may well bo said tha. the florid music assigned to poor Lucy, particularly in ncr well-known mad scene, could not po-sibly be more brilliantly executed than it has been for nearly twenty years past by Melba. That may at onoe be admitted. But tho point in this present case is mat Solma Kurz not only sings the florid music with at least all the skill and ease and orispnoss and' brilliancy that Melba brings to bear upon it, but also adds to those qualities a charm and sweetness of voice which the elder" vocalist cannot fully rival, and a dramatic force which Melba almost whody lacks. The "mad scene" as deliverer by Selma Kurz was a revelation; tho audience could no longer listen admiring but unmoved to the brilliant warblinge and vocal gymnastics of the heroine in white muslin with a look of hair straying over one shoulder, as in the case of the Meiua interpretation, Selma Kurz forced them to realise that a tragic ueroine was on the stage, acting as well as singing a most pathetic part- As actress as well as singer, Selma Kurz Bcored a complete triumph, and 1 it is morauy certain that by means of her remariinblo genius she will compel the future revival and maintenance on the operatic stage of an old-fashioned wora, which, while containing much delightful music and some dramatic points— such as the two great duets, tho still greater sextet, the malediction and mad scenes, and the "Fra pooo" finale —is, on the whole, one must recognise, hopelessly effete and tiresome. Hut a really great einger and actress like Selma Kurz will always be able to gaivanise it into temporary vitality. As a thorough-going Socialist has just been elected to fill the latest Parliamentary vacancy, rather to the disquiet of the Government, it may be interesting to mention that amon£ Mother old-fashioned things which tno Socialists are going to get nu of when they attain full power are the institution of marriage and parents' possession of their own children. It is just as well to know this in- time. Some people don't appear at all to like tho ideal

To-day'e "big gooseberry" is no less sensational an event than the finding of the "Holy Grail"—the real, original Holy Grail. Everyone knows the tradition that this" drinking-cup, said to 'nave been used by the Redeemer on the occasion of tno Last Supper, was brought to Glastonbury by Joseph <yt Arimathea. A few days ago a small glass goblet was actually found in a' rather muddy pond near Glastonbury Abbey ruins, and was at once nronotinced to be the real original v-rail, of which, i was further added, tae hiding-place had boen miraculously indicated by a vision. Two oolumns of particulars and a loading article arc devoted io this subject by one of this morning's London dailies.