hanges to a view of Hyde Park and the Serpentine River on
a frosty morning in January: in which is represented, with admirable
effect, a display of patent skating. An oil cloth is spread upon the
stage, a group comprised of various laughable characters are assembled
on it, and skate about with as much rapidity, and precisely as though it
were a sheet of ice. The adroit skill of old stagers on the slippery
surface, with the clumsy awkwardness and terror of novices in the art,
are well represented. A prodigious fat man makes his appearance; when a
race is called for, he, of course, tries his prowess, when the ice
cracking beneath the heavy weight assembled on it gives way with a heavy
crash, and "Fatty" is consigned to a watery bed. Assistance is
immediately tendered, when, by Harlequin's power, a lean and shrivelled
spirit of the deep rises from below to the great alarm of the beholders,
and whose limbs continue to expand till his head touches the clouds. The
whole of the scene is one of the most laughable and best managed in the
Pantomime. Kew Gardens, on a May-day morning, is also a very pleasing
scene, in which some pretty Morris dancing is introduced. The Barber's
shop, in which shaving by steam is hit off, is excellent in its way, but
not so well understood in its details, as to make it equally effective
in representation. Vauxhall Bridge, and the Gardens which succeeds it,
are also charmingly painted by the Grieves, and from hence the Clown
and Pantaloon take an "Aeronautic excursion" to Paris. This is a
revolving scene--the balloon ascends--and the English landscape
gradually recedes from the view--the gradual approach of night--the
rising of the moon--the passing of the balloon through heavy clouds--and
the return of day, are beautifully represented; the sea covered with
ships, is seen in distant perspective with the French coast; a
bird's-eye view of Paris follows, and the balloon safely descends in the
gardens of the Tuileries. The adjoining palace, mansions, and gardens
being brilliantly illuminated, give the scene a most splendid and
picturesque effect. A variety of other scenes, but far too numerous to
mention individually, deserve the highest applause, particularly the
village of Bow, Leadenhall Market, with a change to an illuminated civic
feast in the Guildhall; Burlington Arcade at night, and the village of
Ganderclue by sunrise. The Temple of Iris, formed of the "radiant
panoply of the heavenly arch," by