Illustrated London Letter.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1024, 16 October 1891, Page 15

Illustrated London Letter.

{FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.) London, August 28. Lord Tennyson’s Birthday. The Freshwater folk celebrated the Laureate’s eighty-second birthday.by ja performance of his songs set to music. A

good instance supposing the music satisfactory—of his own line, ‘ Perfect music set to noble words.’ Lord Tenny- - son’s great age does not preclude the hope that we may yet have another volume of poems from his pen. Most of liis days

are still passed in his study at Farringford House. The only event wuich draws Tennyson from his retirement is the annual Haslemere Flower Show, held in the middle of August in the lovely grounds of Mr J. Stewart Hodgson, at Lythe Hall. He is very friendly with. the Hodgsons, who are his nearest neighbours, and possess a lovely house, adorned with many beautiful works of art. Tennyson has very few dealings with the villagers. They come and go unheeding and unheeded, but there are a few of the older inhabitants of Haslemere with whom he is more or IeBS friendly. Adieu, M. Ader. There is a story of a young and povertystricken inventor, who loved a rich man’s daughter. Said the Plutocrat: ‘lf within three months you should have invented a machine, appliance, or what not, that Bhall be worth £IO,OOO, Gladys shall be yours.’ The inventor set to work, and evolved a flying-machine out of his inner consciousness and an antique egg-chest. Then he invited his future father-in-law to be his guest on the initial journey of the JEiial Queen. Curiously enough, all went well until- the Plutocrat intimated his desire to descend. Then it was that the inventor turned a ghastly white as the thought whizzed home to him that there was no descending attachment to the machine.

Here we have the usual faults of ethereal navigation reversed. As a rale there has been too much of the facilis descensus (as witness the horrible end of Cocking, Groof, and Higgins) attendant on all attempts at mrial flight. But, undeterred by a dismal record of disaster, we have Mr Maxim, in England, and M. Ader, in France, to the fore with the latest devices in flying machines. M. Ader’s machine, here illustrated, is shaped like a bat, and is propelled by electricity. In the air it has the appearance of. Sinbad’s Roc—a huge blue-coloured bird—that has actually flown a few hundred metres from the ground. The machine is composed of two large articulated wings, and of a kind of cone form.

ing the body of the bird, and enclosing the traveller as well as the electrical mechanism. The whole is made of silk, covering a light bone framo.

Henry Arthur Jones ha 3 stepped in where more angelic persons fear to tread. In other words, he has taken a theatre, where, in process of time, he will probably illustrate the old axiom, that a dramatic author and his money are soon parted. In the Theatre Royal, Jones, the author of * The Dancing Girl/ intends to show an intelligent British public what an English dramatist really can do when ho is his own master, aud unfettered by Jones’ bete noir , the actor-manager. He will also demonstrate how much pure and unadulterated Jones the public will stand at a sitting without signifying to the contrary in the usual manner— by stopping away. Mr Williard is not with Mr Jones in the contention of the latter that his knowledge of stagecraft is overwhelming, and intimates that The Only One requires a good deal of stage managing. Well, as Mr Jones will be his own stage manager, I suppose that difficulty will ke amicably settled, as will be any friction between the box-office and the stage, where Mr Jones will be again omnipotent. The Patti Theatre. It is expected that Prince Henry of Battenburg and Princess Beatrice would bepresent at the opening of the theatre which Madame Patti has built at Craig yNos. The new theatre, it will be re membered, forms the northern wing of

Madame Patti’s Welsh castle. It was opened on August 12, when an r.ct from ‘La Traviata’ and the garden scene from ‘ Faust ’ was given. There was -a ball on the following evening, and on Friday a performance of a scene from ‘Martha’ and the balcony scene from { Romeo and Juliet.’ Signor Arditti conducted the orchestra, led by Mr W. F. Hulley, the chorus being selected from the members of the St. David’s Operatic Company. A Parliament of Health. A Parliament of Health should be an institution after the ‘Lancet’s ’ owe heart,

though many irreverent parsons have called the annual meeting of Hygiene and

Demography ‘A Congress of Cranks.’ The eminent foreign and British medical and sanitary authorities, who form this association, are this week foregathering for the purpose of scotching, and, if possible, killing the merry little miirobe in its lair. The Prince af Wales, who is President, came to town for the special purpose of delivering the inaugural address at St. James’ Hall on Monday afternoon. He was ably supported by Lord Basing (formerly Mr Sclater Booth), to whom the framing of the Public Health Act was mainly due, and who is the working president of the London gathering-