my great effort for the "_plat de
resistance_" at Sandown; so, at Newmarket--try just a mouthful of July
Handicap _a la_ Duke of DEVONSHIRE's "Selected;" should it choke you,
have a pat on the "Bach" when attacking the Beaufort _Stakes_; and to
wind up with dessert, worthy of a CHESTERFIELD, take a "Meddler." If
this conglomeration of good things is not too much for you, travel
back to town in time for the great race of the week; but, _if_ upset,
don't blame,

Yours devotedly, LADY GAY.

"ECLIPSE STAKES SELECTION."

With _Gouverneur_, _Orme_, and such giants to run,
It needs the cool calm of a PLATO
To fix on the horse that will "capture the bun!"
But I think it will be "_Orvieto_."

* * * * *

OPERATIC NOTES.

[Illustration: Fancy Sketch for a Brazen Statue of a Composer notable
for his "Horns and Brass."]

_Tuesday._--_Premiere_ of _Elaine_. BEMBERG Composer, LEON-JEHIN
Conductor, and Sir DRURIOLANUS Producer. Full House, determined to
give New Opera a fair hearing, and sit it out. Don't get a new Opera
every day. Congratulations to BEMBERG in a general way. "In a first
Opera" (if this be his first), to quote the Composer of the recent
De-La-ra-Boom Buddha, who was complacently listening to the other
Composer's new Opera, "originality breeds contempt." So a little
bit here, and a little bit there, here a bit, and there a bit, and
everywhere a bit, gets rid of all superfluity in the Composer's
brain, and saves the listening critic much trouble. Then his next
Opera--Ah!--_that_ ought to be all genuinely new and original
Sparkling BEMBERG Cabinet. "_Elaine_," observed a lady critic,
"is graceful and airy"--which, in the lady's presence, the present
listener was not prepared to deny.

Contented must have been Composer BEMBERG with such a cast as was made
and provided for him by Sir DRURIOLANUS. MELBA, as the "Lily Maid of
Astolat," charming, with a charming song, "_L'Amour est pur_." The
audience was in an encoring humour, but, thank goodness, only a few
encores were taken, and the others left, otherwise none of us would
have been home till sunrise. In the swan-like dying scene the Composer
wrings our heart-strings with his harp-strings, reminding everyone
forcibly that, as _Mr. Guppy_ observed, "There _are_ chords!"
Wagnerian, sometimes, is our BEMBERG, with his horns and brass. Fine
chorus at beginning of Act II.--the Tournament Act--which shows, as
a foolish pers