more where the violets grew on the Ash-tree root or the Hazel Copse where the blackbirds sang, than he did of that glorious land which Emeral-Crest talked of. At length his attentions were followed by Sheldrake, a pert young bird with a black top-knot, and young Lovefly, who boasted relationship with the King Rider, and had a cynical way of standing on his head in the water and splashing into the faces of those behind, for which little act of mischief he was cordially hated by his companions.

Poor Snowflake! her fate was fast being accomplished.

Of all these suitors none was so favoured as Swallow-Frog; his exultation consequently exceeded all bounds. Wherever Snowflake swam Swallow-Frog was sure to follow. Her days were miserable; and it was only the calm soft evening hours that brought Emerald-Crest, and with him transient happiness, that made life to her endurable.

She had not told him of her sorrow, she durst not think of his despair. But he saw that a blight had fallen upon her, and his gentle words and tender kindness made her lean more than ever on him for hope to cheer her through the trials that daylight brought.

Yes, their trial hour was coming, and their sad fate on the eve of being accomplished.

It was one of those delicious dreamy evenings in July, when the moon looks down on earth as if in reverie, when the winds are hushed and the world is still, that Snowflake stole forth upon the water to meet her lover. He was awaiting her at the trysting-place, and there he won from her the sad avowal of her miseries.

The effect was electrical. His eyes gleamed, his jewelled crest stood upright with anger, his feathers rose and fell, and the waters were troubled with his restless movements.

It was some moments ere he spoke; at length, in a tone hoarse with emotion, he said:

"And I, too, have had my troubles, but I bore them for your sake. I will bear them no longer, neither shall you. This very night shall we seek that better land' of which I told you. Ah! Snowflake, it is a glorious land! Orange and citron trees wave their blossoms over what shall be our home; and the waters play with amber and make precious stones their toys."

"And do any of our own race live there?" asked Snowflake.

"Yes," said Emerald-Crest; "there dwell the Gargany ducks, of whom I told you that, as the rainbow so is their plumage for its glorious tints. And the flowers. Ah! the flowers are of heaven's own painting. It is a fair and beautiful country, Snowflake; come away, dearest, come away!"

"Emerald Crest," said Snowflake, "it is beautiful if you say so, for a desert would be fair to me if you were there; but, ah me! what shall I do? If I go with you I can never come back any more, or see Pearl again; Emerald

Crest, do not tempt me, leave me to myself; I will stay at home."

"And be the bride of the odious and senseless Swallow-Frog. Be it so then. See me depart. Give myself up forever to him. I go to perish in a foreign land. My hopes blighted, and my very life a sacrifice to the caprice of one whom I once fondly believed had loved me. Farewell, then!"

"Stay, stay a moment, (ah! Pearl, for thy wiser counsel), I yield. Adieu, friends. Adieu, home. Adieu, scenes of my happy childhood, I leave ye forever! Emerald-Crest into thy hands I give myself, my life, my happiness, my all; and will go with thee even to the world's end."

And thus did Snowflake leave her home under the influence of excitement. And because of pride in the first instance and want of courage in the next did she neglect to advise with her natural guardians, and fall a victim in the end to her own indiscretion.

When morning dawned over the meadows and sunlight broke upon the stream, Snowflake had left those familiar scenes, once the little world where all she knew or thought of, or loved, were centred.

They sailed on through the clear soft air, Snowflake and Emerald-Crest. The feeling of elasticity and the happiness of being together gave them new strength and life, and for a time they forgot their woes.

Before night again veiled the earth in shadows they had reached the domains of the King Rider," who received his cousin and the beautiful companion of his wanderings with a royal welcome. She was the admiration of that gorgeous and magnificent court. Her spotless plumage, compared with the resplendent beauty of their richer hues, seemed the more lovely from the contrast. And when EmeraldCrest saw it he was proud of her and loved her the more.

The next day Snowflake said to him: "Let us away, dearest, this is no home for us; we were not made for courtly fêtes, and we love not homage nor adulation." Little recked she of her beauty, or knew all the pride which Emerald-Crest felt when he beheld her; she thought only of that distant land with its orange-groves and citron bowers, where she and Emerald-Crest would be always together, and never be separated more. Ere the evening came they had bid the Rider-ducks farewell.

It was late in the day when they set out for the shores of the Mediterranean, and it was with a boding heart that Emerald-Crest watched the sunset. He saw the orb fold its bright face in the glorious mantle of crimson and gold which spread over the western heavens. But when it dipped beneath the wide ocean as they, came in sight of it, and withdrew its brightness; that regal robe became a pall of black nighte and it held the storm which the rising winds blew fiercely along. Thunder now rolled in the distance, and lightning glanced before the eyes

Gold-headed canes, once the distinguishing signs of physicians, who had a species of smelling-box in the top to protect the wearer from infection, are now rarely seen, except at sea-side French watering-places, where the Empress of France has brought them into fashion again, and in the hands of state foot

men.

Rings have in all ages been regarded as the most important of all ornaments. As a symbol of spiritual alliance and insignia of eternal dignity they date back to the fourth century, when we find a ring used in the consecration of bishops. In conformity with the ancient usage recorded in scripture, the primitive Christian Church early adopted the ceremony of the ring of betrothal as a symbol of the authority which the husband gave the wife over his household, and over the earthly goods with which he endowed her.

A contract of eternal bond of love,
Confirmed by natural joinder of your hands,
Attested by the holy close of lips,

Strengthened by interchangement of your rings."

In the ancient marriage ritual, the husband placed the ring on the first joint of the bride's thumb, saying, "In the name of the Father;" he then removed it to the forefinger with the words, "In the name of the Son;" then to the middle finger, adding, "And of the Holy Ghost;" finally the ring was left on the fourth finger, with the word "Amen!" About a century ago it was the custom to wear the marriage ring on the thumb, although at the nuptial ceremony it was placed on the fourth finger. The coronation ring of the kings of England

is plain gold, with a large violet table ruby, whereon a plain cross of St. George is curiously engraved. The queen's ring is also of gold, with a large table ruby and sixteen small diamonds round the ring. Nor must we omit the curious Venetian fashion of the Doge of Venice wedding the Adriatic. Annually for six hundred years, the magnificently-appointed Bucentaur bore the Doge to the shores of the Lido, near the mouth of the harbour. Here, letting a ring fall into the bosom of his bride, the bridegroom uttered the words, "We wed thee with this ring in token of our true and perpetual sovereignty." Napoleon I. dissolved the marriage, and the couple never came together again.

One

Among ring curiosities we may mention the gimmal, often alluded to in old writers. It is composed of twin or double hoops, fitting so exactly into each other that, when united, they form but one circlet. Each hoop is generally surmounted by a hand, the two being clasped when the rings are brought together. hoop was sometimes of gold, and the other of silver. The custom of wearing inourning-rings is ancient: thus we find Shakspeare bequeathing to John Henninge, H. Burbage, and Henry Condell "twenty-six shillings eightpence apiece to buy them rings." Rings were also given away to attendants on the day of their master's marriage. The fashion of wearing thumb-rings is very ancient in England. When the tomb of the Venerable Bede was opened in 1831, a large thumb-ring of iron, covered with a thick coating of gold, was found in the place which the right hand had occupied before it fell into dust.

NEW DRAMAS AND BURLESQUES. REVIVAL OF LORD LYTTON'S "MONEY." The theatrical barometer during the month of May has marked to frequent "change," and indicated fluctuations in the aura-popularis of the most erratic kinds. The production of new pieces has been attended with stormy results, and attested that there was danger in agitating the Lethe in which the theatrical deities have so long luxuriously disported. Half-a-dozen new dramas and as many burlesques have seen the light-albeit without very strong constitutions in any case.

As we shall hardly be called upon to trouble the readers of this page with the details of the burlesque literature, we shall dismiss the latest novelties of this description briefly.

The most remarkable feature of the new extravaganza or opera-buffa "Columbus," produced at the GAIETY theatre, is the superb scenery; the dresses, too are very rich and gaudy; also there is a grand ballet, with a new danseuse from Madrid (Mdlle. Rosseri), a lady of rare saltatory abilities and gymnastic capabilities of leg. Miss E. Farren made a very

&c.

stylish Columbus, Miss Constance Loseby and Miss E. Fowler are attractive actresses and good vocalists.

Our succeeding burlesque establishment is the new GLOBE theatre, in the Strand, under the management of Mr. Sefton Parry. Mr. J. Clarke (a quaint little comedian) is one of the able expositors of the comedy and farce element of the Globe stage. The "Corsican Bothers," the Globe burlesque, closely follows the plot of the ghostly play of the Princess's, but violently travesties the characters, as the apparition brother, Mr. J. Clarke, instead of gliding across the stage in the approved manner, most comia drunken man. cally stumbles along, like Miss Brennan, as Chateau Renaud, and Miss Hughes, as Emile de Lesparée, are fully entitled to mention for their sprightly acting.

"Asmodeus," the burlesque at the new QUEEN'S, is not the least worthy of the new extravaganzas, and we hear draws good houses, in association with the comedy of "Seraphine," its piece de resistance. Apropos of Seraphine head our notices of dramatic novelties of a higher character than the burlesques, by a

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glance at the characters of M. Sardou's curious piece. Seraphine has become a French dévote, and is entirely in the hands of her priestly director, Chapelard; while her drawing-room is haunted by numberless varieties of pseudobenevolent and unctuously religious classes. Seraphine, to save herself from detection as regards an early liaison, implores her daughter Yvonne (who is beloved by the seducer of Seraphine) to enter a convent. It is in this scene between mother and daughter that the most powerful situation occurs. We cannot follow the piece further through its intricacies: suffice it to say that the seducer of Seraphine (Colonel de Montignac) is made to point the moral-that to expiate sin a mother should not force a daughter to a vicarious sacrifice! Miss Herbert acted with much pathos as Seraphine, being well supported by Miss Patty Josephs (late of the Holborn) in the ingenue part of the daughter Yvonne. Mr. Herman Vezin was impressive in the part of De Montignac. The character of Chapelard, the sleek director of the devout Seraphine, was allotted to Mr. Emery. The comedy is remarkably well put upon the stage.

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A new melodrama has been produced at the PRINCESS'S, with the imprimatur of Mr. Dion Boucicault, entitled Presumptive Evidence." A new three-act comic drama, entitled "Fox and Goose," the characters and incidents of which belong rather to the domain of farce, has been produced at the STRAND. The plot turns upon the expedients of a gentlemanly swindling adventurer, one Fox Fowler-well played by Mr. Belford-to possess himself of a young lady betrothed to Young Gosling a stupid fellow of provincial proclivities, of course played by Mr. J. S. Clarke, the American comedian. Mr. Clarke is a pronounced grimace actor. The piece met with moderate success, the audience all the while impatiently awaiting the advent of "Joan of Arc," the vulgar burlesque. In producing "Money" at the HOLBORN, Mr. Barry Sullivan, in a venerating spirit, goes back to the time of the original production of the comedy to ascertain, apparently, the intention of the author in composing it. In the preface to the published play (original edition) Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton wrote that the notion of writing a comedy of manners, in which the use and abuse of money should form the theme to be moralized and philosophized upon and satirised, was suggested by the apophthegm conveyed in a homely versicle:

""Tis a very good world we live in,

To lend, or to spend, or to give in; But to beg or to borrow, or get a man's own, "Tis the very worst world that ever was known."

But to proceed with our impressions of the performance of "Money." As the reels (so to speak) of terse and polished dialogue supplied by the dramatist were wound off, we more and more appreciated the true philosophy, the genuine humour, and sparkling wit manifested

in every scene. Next, the construction of the play struck us for its perfection in all its parts, and its general compactness. The well-known characters, as one after the other they appeared before us once again, delighted us with their reality, as living portraits and humourists. "Money" was produced thirty years ago at the Haymarket, and Macready was the first and the best Evelyn. Mr. Barry Sullivan played Evelyn on the present occasion with great care and spirit; in the portrayal of the deeper and subtler emotions leaving nothing to be desired. He was ably supported by Mrs. Herman Vezin, who gave us a graceful picture of the heroine, Clara Douglas. The gallery of portraits, which includes such fine old faces and expressive features as those of Capt. Dudley Smooth, Graves, and Mr. Stout, was done fair justice to by the Holborn representatives. Mr. J. Cowper played Wrench's famous part, Capt. Dudley Smooth, satisfactorily; but Mr. Cowper probably never saw Wrench. Mr. George Honey, may not have Mr. Ben Webster play Graves; but, without being like the unctuous Graves of Mr. Webster, Mr. Honey impersonated the halfcynical widower, resigned to his fate (but being much taken with the full-blown charms of Lady Franklin) with great gusto and humour. The comedy has been played nightly for several weeks to large audiences, without appearing to abate in attraction; but we hear that a new five-act poetical play of the, so called, "legiti mate" stamp, by a dramatist of repute, (Mr. Buchanan) is in rehearsal.

seen

The ORATORIO CONCERTS reached their penultimate performance on the 12th ult., with those classical works, Rossini's "Stabat Mater," and Mendelssohn's "Hymn of Praise." These fine works were executed under the excellent conductorship of Mr. Joseph Barnby, who has had almost a generation's experience of choir management. The solo and choral executants of the Oratorio Concerts at the ST. JAMES'S HALL, in the noble music they last performed, did every justice to each other; and the eminent vocalists and powerful chorus were both ably seconded by a band of brilliant instrumentalists. We have been requested to correct a mis-statement we fell into through our admiration of the perfect time kept by Mr. Barnby's choir. We said, in a previous notice, that the choral performers were

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professional" singers, but Mr. Stedman for Mr. Barnby politely writes thus: "The choir is not a professional one, being the least so of any of the principal choirs in London, but all the members are carefully chosen, and only admitted when found to have good voices and musical ability; constant practice and training have brought the choir to its present state."

The "Christy Minstrels," ST. JAMES'S HALL.This talented and popular company, frequently varying their very attractive entertainment, and being en permanence at St. James's Hall, continues to draw large and fashionable audiences,