OUR ILLUSTRATED LONDON LETTER.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume VI, Issue 26, 28 June 1890, Page 10

OUR ILLUSTRATED LONDON LETTER.

There will soon be no Old London. The old relics are fast disappearing, and no one seems to care much, I'rnly a week or tvo since that irrepressible London wanderer and antiquary. Mr Walter Besant. was telling about a beautiful little garden in the heart of the citv. but he would not tell where it was situated lest some vandal should deem it needful to purchase and build over it. Now the little cottage close to Shepherd s Bush Green, in which Syndercombe arranged his plan- for the assassination of Cromwell in 1657 while the Protector was on his way from Hampton Court to London has been acquired by a 'local firm, and will in a short time be pulled down for the purpose ofbuihiingabrewerv on the site. This extremely-interesingoll relie of the Commonwealth has annually been the point of destination of hundreds of visitors to London. and to all Americans and colonists it is a well-known -pot. In less than a vear it will have ceased to exist, and in its place will stand the extension of a flourishing beer-making establishment. The house was Lnilt in 1625. except the addition of the right end. including the window, which was built in 1762. The room which Oliver Cromwell occupied is on the right of the doorway. ami is not more than six feet from floor to ceilin-*. There is a tradition that in later days the famous Jack shepherd reside! there in the short intervals left him by the myrmidons of the law. Hence the name Shepherds Bu-h. r SIR CHARLES AXD LADY HALLE. By the time this letter will have reached you Sir Charles Halle and his distinguished consort tformerlv the great Nornian-Neruda will be in Australasia, delighting you colon i-t- a- they have for years and years delighted us iiere on their respective instruments of piano and violin. The evergreen Sir Charles is in hi- 71st year.and is as good asever he was. while his wife, with whom he has been a-sociated in concert-touring for years previously to their marriage, is

more than twenty years his junior. There have been monarchs of the piano before Sir Charles was born, but Lady Halle is the first of her dynasty, for though queer*, or song have been many, she ia the only woman who has hitherto attained to the rank of a queen* of the violin. If not actually born in the purple, she soon appeared there, for at the early age of six she was exciting public enthusiasm in Vienna by her performances. Sir Charles Halle has been domiciled in England now tor more than forty years and his wife for about half as long. Hence, when it was known that they seriously intended to visit the colonies measures

were taken to give them the merited tribute of a ioa-rowroc party at the great pianoforte room of Broadwoods, where all the leading musical lights and society lions assembled to do them honour. They are to give forty concerts in different p*arts of Australia. [Since the arrival of our correspondent's letter we see that these two celebrated musicians have been obliged to extend their series of concerts in Melbourne by five extra ones, after which they are to proceed to Svdnev and Brisbane, ami probably afterwards to New Zealand.] THE TRAFAL*,ARThe largest ship in the British Naw has been commissioned at Portsmouth. The Trafalgar—what a glorious name for a war vessel —has a displacement of 12 nro tons. She has taken four years ami three months to

build, and when complete with coal is only 15 inches down by the bows—a triumph for the constructive deportment. Her captain is Capt. Alan Thomas. She carries 550 men, and has joined the Mediterranean squadron as flagship* to Admiral Lord Walter Kerr. MR JESSE COLLINGS. It is not improbable that the fame of Mr Jesse Collings, one of the members for Birmingham. mar have penetrated as far as the colonies. Born fifty-eight years ago of the class of agricultural labourers on the mother side, hi- sympathies and efforts are directed to the service of them, and of the labouring class in general. He was originally in opposition to the Salisbury Government, and was instrumental in getting them thrown out of oflice in the famous ■ three acres and a eow ’ debate. Now the whirligig of polities has

carried him round to Lord Salisbury’s side, and he is with the Conservatives in opposition to his former leader upon the question of Home Rule. He remains, however, heart and -on! with the labourer upon questions of domestic and sanitary reform. In conjunction with Sir Edward Birkbeek and Mr G. N. Bom! he -ucceederl in pushing through a Bill enlarging the powers of the rural sanitary authorities, whereby they are empowered to secure sufficient ledroom accommodation and proper drainage and ventilation in all new cottages erected for the lals*uring p«*or. and to procure them suitable gardens and allotments of land.