n to listen to. But apart from
every consideration of _mal de mer_, and "From Calais to Dover," as
the poet sings "'Tis soonest over," there is not anywhere a better,
and we, who have suffered as greatly as the much-enduring Ulysses,
venture to assert not anywhere as good a luncheon as at the
"Restauration" (well it deserves the title!) of the Calais Station.
Every patriotic travelling Englishman must be delighted to think that
some few centuries ago we gave up Calais. Had it been nowadays in
English hands, why it might even now be possessed of a "Refreshment
Room" no better than--any on our side of the Channel, for there is no
necessity to particularise. From Dover to Calais is the shortest and
best restorative'd route for the traveller, whether ill or well, at
sea.

* * * * *

MOTTOES for the new Lord MAYOR. "_Nil obstet_," "_Nil fortius_," and,
from HORACE, "_Nil amplius oro_." This, in answer to thousands of
correspondents, is our last word on the subject; so after this (except
on the 9th of November), we say--_nil_.

* * * * *

SUCH A "LIGHT OPERA!"

[Illustration: "Pity a Poo' Bar-itone!"]

Had Sir ARTHUR written the music for _The Mountebanks_, and Sir BRIAN
DE BOIS GILBERT the book of _Haddon Hall_, both might have been big
successes So, however, it was not to be, and Sir ARTHUR chose this
book by Mr. GRUNDY, which labours under the disadvantages of being
original, and of not owing almost everything to a French source. It
isn't every day of the week that Mr. GRUNDY tumbles upon _A Pair of
Spectacles_ in a volume of French plays. The period to which the very
slight and uninteresting story of _Haddon Hall_ belongs is just before
the Restoration, but the dialogue of "the book" is spiced with modern
slang, both "up to date" (the date being this present year of Grace,
not sixteen hundred and sixty) and out of date. The "out-of-date"
slang, which is, "_I've got 'em on"_--alluding to the Scotchman's
trousers--has by far the best of it, as it comes at the end of the
piece, and enjoys the honour of having been set to music by the
variously-gifted Composer: so that "_I've got 'em on_," with its
enthusiastically treble-encored whiskey fling, capitally danced by
Miss NITA COLE as _Nance_, with Mr. DENNY as _The McCrankie_, may be
considered as the real hit of the evening, having in itself about
as much to do with whatever there is of the plot as would hav