LONDON TABLE TALK.

Evening Star, Issue 8716, 7 January 1892, Page 4

LONDON TABLE TALK.

[From Our Special Correspondent.] London, November 20. HON. LEWIS WINGFIELD. The Hon. Lewis Wingfield, who died at the end of last week quite unexpectedly, was a sort of end-of-the-oentury "admirable Criohton." He wrote well, acted tolerably, painted a little, and waa one of the first living authorities on costume. Besides this, Mr Wingfield had travelled much, oould hold his own fencing with some of the smartest Parisian maitres d'arme, and possessed a house full of curios in Montague plaoe. The dressing of most of the Lyceum productions fell to his lot; indeed at the time of his death Mr Wingfield had just finished the designs for the oostumes in •Henry VIII.' The general public will, however, best remember the by his books. Three of them—' Lady Grizel' (much the ablest), 'My Lords of Strogue' (founded on his own family legends), and 'Abigel Rowe'—were historical rmiancep, whilst two others were novels with a purpose. The most powerful of the latter bore the title *ln Her Majesty's Keeping,' and described the tormoDti of an unfortunate man wrongfully doomed to penal servitude for life. Mr Wingfield went down (o Dartmoor Prison to study detailp, and the misery he witnessed in that of punishment inspired his pen. 'Ghenna, or The Haven of Unrest,' is a grisly fiction directed against private lunatic asylum?. It, deservedly, did not attract much attention. Mr Wingfield represented ' The Times' iu Paris during the Commune, and had some narrow escapes. In earlier days, too, he went much about in disguite amongst the poor and criminal classes, relating his experiences in 'All the Year Round.' AMUSEMENTS. Paderewski'a last two concerts at St, Jiims's Hall realised LI ,015. This was good business, but not, as Mr Austin points out, record-breaking. Rubinstein's farewell recital realised L 915, and during his last visit to London Liezt was offered and declined L 999 19a lid, or any sum under LI,OOO, for an afternoon performance. Josef Hoffmann, the infant prodigy, has drawn'as much as L6OO from one concert at St. James's Hall. Mr Beerbohm Tree will follow 'The Dancing Girl' (still running to good business) with ' Hamlet,' and also promises to produce at a matines shortly a four-act classical play dealing with the subject of Hypatia. The oostumes for this have been designed by Alma Tadema, and it is beiog rehearsed with special care. 'The Basoche' must, I think, be pronounced—taken all round—the most per-fectly-staged work of its kind London haß ever seen. Mr Hugh Moss graduated at the Savoy under Gilbert, and not even the gifted " Charliarrie," experienced though he is in the manipulation of spectacles.canbeat him at the composition of harmonious and effective tableaux. M. Messager himself deolared he never realised the possibilities of his own opera till he saw it at the gorgeous theatre in Cambridge Circus. The music, I confess, did not tickle my ears—with the exception of the 'Song of the Baaoche'—so much as I expected. One evidently requires to know the score well to enjoy it thoroughly. The librettoand acting deserve all the good things that have been said of them. CHRISTMAS BOOKS. Mr Barrie's ' Little Minister' scarcely needed the now seemingly inevitable puff from Mr Gladstone. A Barrie " boom " is, as the ' Pall Mall Gazette' predicted, well underway, though many readers of this (in my humble opinion) 6omewhat overpraise! book frankly conftts the story is too Scotch for their tastes. Far the best of the shilling annuals is Chrk Russell's 'Tngfdy of Ma Noble,' though what induced Messrs Trischler to select this powerful but ghastly tale for the Christmas number of a girls' periodical like 'Atohnta'l can't imagioa, Mr Gilbert's traditional dameel of fifteen will certainly have a fit when she reads it. Nevertheless, 'lda Noble' must be pronounced the strongest and most original tile the modern Marryat has written for years. From start to fioish the story never flags (a very unusual circumstance with Mr Clark Russell), and the characters are naturally and yet boldly drawn, For the Christmas number of 'All the Year Round' Miss Mary A, Dickens has written a ludy-like love story of the conventional ' Family Herald ' pattern. It is called 'An Outstanding Debt,' and describes the punishment of Bertha Brand for cruelly jilting Rilph Charteris, and hersubsfquent repent ance and atonement.

Mr T. W. Sptight, as usual, supplies the ' Gentleman's Annui),' the title of bis story being'Bick to Life.' He relates how, to test the sincerity of some new relations, rich Myles Tiernay (who has beeu soured by a lore disappointment) pretends to be dead and buried, and assumes the pseudonym of Mayfield. The rest can be guessed. Of Mr Henty's Bumptuously bound and spiritedly-illustrated contributions to this season's gift books, ' A D*sh for Khartoum ' appears the most generally attractive. It is, as the title indicates, a story of the Nile expedition, acd the melancholy abortive attempt to rescue Gordon. The narrative commences with the deliberate mixing up of a couple of babies by an abandoned wet nurse, who informs her employer—a certain Csptuin Clinton's wife—one evening that she oinnot discern which fine chubby boy is her own and which Mrs Clinton's. The latter poor mother becomes equally perplexed, and ultimately persuades her husband to solve the difficulty by looking upon both lads as their son?. Years afterwards, when Edgar Clinton is a lad of fifteen, he meets Nurße Humphreys. From baby-mixing the woman has taken to liquor, and in order to get money for drink she pretends Edgar is her son. At first the boy is sceptioal, but by birth-marks of a, Box and Cox order she convinces him the speaks truth. Intensely mortified by the revelation, Edgar runs away from home, and enlists as a trumpeter in the First Huisars. The regiment is one of these ordered to Egypt, and Edgar goes with it, playing a gallant part at Abu Klea, Metemmeb, and El Teb, and at Gubat coming aoross his pseudo-father, Sergeant Humphreys, badly wounded. Later the young trumpeter gets papfcured by Arabs, eaoapas disguised as cue, tweets his brother Rupert under remantio circumstances, and ends the campaign by being recommended for a Victoria Cross. Needless to say, Nurse Humphreys's maternal yearnings for the young herg sre shown to be a fraud, and the secret of which boy is which, remains a secret always, The period of • Held Fast For England' is about 1779. It relates the adventures of Master Bob Repton, who commences life with some rather unusual school experiences, notably the capture of a gang of burglars by himself and two ohums whilst breaking bounds at night on an surreptitious rabbiting expedition. After leaping sohool Bob goes on a visit to Gibraltar, ana is blockaded on the Rook during part of the famous siege. He joins the English privateer Antelope, and takes a prominent part in the stratagem whereby a silver-laden Spanish merchantman falls an easy prey to her. Altogether, the tale brims with iuoident, pyen for 3 boy's book. By the way, on page 148 there occurs a stupid blunder. The date of the " taking of Gib.'' by the goglish was 1704, not 1800. Personally we much prefer Mr Manville Fenn's style to Mr Henty's. He strikes us as being more natural and less didaotio. Mr Henty writes like a sohoolmaster endeavoring to unbend, whilst Mr Fenn is oon pamarade. 'The Crystal Hunters' will certainly be one of the most popular boys' books of ti»e winter, ft is intended for rather younger lads than Mr Henty's stories, and relateß what befell Mr Richard Bale and his pupil Saxe during a delightful summer holiday in the Higher Alps. Mr Dale, though a tutor, thoroughly enjoys wholesome adventure, consequently it scarcely needs the entreaties of Saxe and fchiip Swiss guide, Melobior Staffeln, to induce him to ioty|,the fatter in a search for a wondrous cave of root cryßtaJb kijown to exist in the adjacent mountain*, Jjfo w , site? muoh perilous olimbing up wad glissading down, the trio discover the cave ; hew they load themselves with crystals t how this treasure is stolen frees thes at night by a ghostly visitor; how they are evertappn by an ayalanoheand all but smothered; and how eventually the robbers are discovered and the plunder recovered, Mr Fenns teJls viva-

oiously, supplementing the narrative with an abundance of detail and looal Information. The author is well baoked up by the artist, whose illustrations pioture exciting incidents eminently calculated to arouse ouriosity and convert casual inspection into a desire for permanent possession. If Mrs Ross Church's novels (especially her more recent efforts) were as fresh, harmless, and wholeßome as ' The Little Marine,' her name wonld never have fallen into comparative disrepute at the circulating libraries. ' The Little Marine' is the story of a small busier who was attached to a regiment of "Jollies" during the brief campaign of 1864 in Japan. The leading events are founded on fact, being copied, Miss Marryat tells us, from the diary of a Royal Marine officer, written on the spot during the Simono seki War. In reality, as in the Btory, the little bugler's life was saved by the fortunate incident of his carrying a Japanese helmet in his haversaok; and in faof, as in fiction, the regiment adopted a Japauese baby found on the field of battle clinging to her dead father's body. Miss Marryat has, however, invented a fanciful conclusion to the story of this little waif, christened by the small bugler the Japanese Lily. The Huocesa which attended Meßsra I Hutohinson'i) 'Fifty-two Stories for Boys' last year has encouraged this enterprising firm to repeat the experiment, and before us lies another obese volume, resplendent in green and gold binding, the cover deoorated with a couple of aggressive looking white bears anathematising space, and emblazoned with the legend ' Fifty-two Further Stories for Boy p.' It is surely sufficient to say that this new volume seems in everyway equal to its predecessor. The familiar names, loved by fin dc siecle youth, are all there, flanked by several fresh ones, and every conceivable sorb of taste, from adventure yarns and school experiences to ghost stories, has been carefully catered for. Mr Alfred H. Miles again acts the judicious editor. To one part of the ' Arabian Nights' add two parts of Jules Verne, a dash of science, some indifferent verse, and a flowery style, and you have Dc Gordon Stables's " wild, weird, and wonderful" 'Cruise of the Crystal Boat.' We never, as a boy, much cared ourselves for the artful author who endeavors to sneak in instruction with entertainment. Perhaps this prejudico has blinded us to the real merits of Dr Stables's work. The illustrations, at any rate, are excellent. joe hatton's last. Mr Joseph Hatton belongs to the rapidly increasing number of novelists who, without ever attaining any superlative degree of excellence, can yet be generally depended on for a thoroughly readable story. Not that the 'Princess Meziroff' is altogether a fair specimen of Mr Hatton's work. Unless memory plays us very false, ' Clylie,' * The Qacen of Bohemia,'' In the Lap of Fortune,' and even that early effort ' Christopher Kenrick,' were far abler novels, Still ' Princess Maziroff' should not be missed by fiction readers. Its chief defect is a rather tedious first volume. We can't avoid thinking, indeed, Mr Hatton to bfgin with worked out his central idea as a shilling "shocker," and padded it subsequently. Directly he really gets to business in the second volume the story at onoe becomes exciting. To tell the plot wonld be unfair. We may, however, say that, through allowing himself to be tempted from virtue's path by a too seductive Russian princess, the hero, "six feet odd, of careless good nature, brown velveteens, and calfskin slippers," presently finds himself apparently doomed to the gallows. Of course a murder occurs, and the hero is the seeming sinner. Mr Hatton has ingeniously coiled tush an invincible chain of circumstantial evidence around him that we doabt extremely whether the expedient he adopts to break it down would answer in real life, LIVERPOOL ACTCJIN CCF. Another week and the flat-racing season of IS9I will be a thing of the past. No one is likely to feel very sorry, for the weather from March to November has been (bar a few weeks) simply awful. The Epsom Summer, Newmarket July, Goodwood, York, Newmarket Second October, and Liverpool Autumn meetings proved miserable beyond expression or description. At Liverpool last week a regular gale blew over Aintree, and the Ring fully expeoted to have a good thie. Bat wind and rain notwithstanding, favorite after favorite "lobbed" home; and when on Friday old Alec Taylor's Madame d'Albany (backed for pounds, shillings, and pence by the public) made backs of a large fiold in the Autumn Cup, there were some very long faoes amongst the ready money bookmakers. As the Manton folks were in grim earnest the stable commission was heavy, and in a field of sixteen the winner started at barely 3to 1. Mr Legh'a Red Eagle (4yrs, 7 2) and M. Ephrus«u'd Aleoante (4yrs, 8 12) were seoond and third favorites at 7 and 8 to 1, but never showed prominently. The Irish oolt, Mervyn, however, gave the Ring anotl er touch np by running second, as he was first favorite for a place, though 10 to 1 oould be had about a win. Old Lady Rosebery (6yrp, 8 9), the heroiDe of this event in 1888 and 1890, again showed her partiality for the course by gaining a situation; but she finished a long way behind Mervyn. Wall, who was on Madame d'Albany, had had 6fty-two losing mount) this season np to Friday last and not one win. Many trainers would hardly have dared to put such an unlucky pokey up on a big public fancy, but Alec Taylor is not superstitious. A DEAR VICTORY. For the Great Lancashire Handicap at Liverpool on Saturday there was another large field, and the Manton Coromandel (said be be much the same animal as Madame d'Albany) Btarted a great favorite. The good thing wonld have come off but for Mr Milner's outsider Gavotte, which, running with unexpected gameness, won by a head. It subsequently transpired that Mr Mitaer had telegraphed to his trainer not to run the filly, but that when the man got the message the horse was already in the starter's hands, and the stewards deolarcd it was too late to withdraw her. One of the stewards responsible for this decision was the owner of Ciromandel. His feelings and language later can be better imigined than described. The sole winner (bar, of course, the Ring) by Gavotte's success was the stable-boy who " minds" the daughter of Isonomy and Polonaise. This youth accepted a wager of 100 " dollars " (in racing parlance, ss) to 4.