corded, and we are pleased to find that we have hitherto under, rather than over-rated her powers of pleasing. Her assumption of four different characters in the same piece, is most happy. Her personation of a "Romp," in particular, is admirable, so also is her assumed character of "A Sportsman,—all blood, and no bone." She throws a sprightliness, and a je ne scai quoi into the part, which are no less original than delightful. Equal praise is also due to Mr. ATTWOOD, as Sam Samson, Mr. ROBERTS as Mr. Masterton, and Mr. G. CooKE as Mr. Wilton. The united efforts of these gentlemen rendered the affair triumphantly successful. In the Bill Sticker, which preceded the above, Mr. HAMMOND shone with his accustomed lustre. We would also particularise the performances of Miss ELIZA HAMILTON, and MISS DALY, who made the most of their respective parts. YOUNGE, ROBERTS, MELVILLE, and COOKE, were all that could be desired, and Mr. H. HALL, as Cats-paw, evinced high powers of excellence. Hercules, and Romeo and Juliet, have, during the week, brought up the rear.

ac

NEW CITY OF LONDON.-On Monday last, a new debutante made her appearance here, in the character of the Young Widow; which she sustained with considerable ability. Her name is DESBOROUGH, and she is a pupil of Mr. Butler, late of the Theatres Royal, Covent Garden, and Drury Lane, to whose admirable system of Stage education she does ample justice. If we remember rightly, Miss Desborough quired considerable repute in the City of York, during the last winter. Be that as it may, we feel justified in giving it as our opinion, that she is a very great acquisition to the Stage-not only for her personal attractions, (which are of no mean order,) but for the ability she displays in the histrionic art. At the conclusion of the piece, she made a modest appeal to the audience, craving their future indulgence; which, if we may judge from the unanimous feeling that was displayed on the occasion, will be readily granted. The performances concluded with the Evolutions of the Real Bedouin Arabs; whose unrivalled feats it is not in the power of language to describe. This beautiful little theatre is doing well.

VICTORIA. Although we announced, last week, that SOMERSET's new piece of "Yorick, the King's Jester," had succeeded with the public, we did not mean to infer that he had succeeded with his subject. All the praise he merits is that of having produced an interesting melodrame, embodying the events supposed to have occurred previous to the opening scene of SHAKSPEARE'S Hamlet; but the genius of the author has been unable to cope with the lofty daring, which suggested the idea. The piece has, however, run through a second week, followed by Othello, The Hunchback, and other "farces," to the no small improvement of the "business."

ASTLEY'S, SADLER'S WELLS, SURREY, and QUEEN'S.-These theatres have been well attended during the week, but have not furnished novelty sufficient to call for any lengthened no

THE THAMES TUNNEL.

THIS stupendous, and truly noble undertaking—

at once the astonishment and admiration of En

glishmen and Foreigners—is rapidly progressing towards completion; and as it is now being visited daily, by some thousands of individuals, an account of its origin and progress cannot fail of proving interesting to our readers.

In

The project of a Tunnel under the River Thames, at Gravesend, was first put forward in 1799, but the scheme was soon abandoned. 1823, Mr. BRUNEL, the celebrated Engineer, proposed and exhibited HIS plan for constructing at once and on a useful scale, a double and capacious road-way under the Thames.

The spot between Rotherhithe and Wapping, selected for the communication, is perhaps the only one situate between London Bridge and Greenwich, where such a road-way could be attempted, without interfering essentially with some of the great mercantile establishments on both sides of the River. The situation is about two miles below London Bridge, in a very populous and highly commercial neighborhood, where a facility of land communication between the two shores is very desirable, and where it must be advantageous, not only to the immediate neighborhood, but also to the adjacent counties. While the necessary steps were taking to obtain an Act of Parliament, and to raise money to carry the plan into effect, the Committee of Subscribers employed competent persons, unconnected with the Engineer, to take borings across the River in that part, in three parallel lines; and on the 4th of April, 1824, they reported that there was upon each line a stratum of strong blue clay of sufficient density and tenacity, to

insure the safety of the intended Tunnel, and of considerable value, as the excavation proceeded. Upon this encouraging report, the Committee approved of the locality proposed for the Tunnel. The very satisfactory account of the soil to be expected in the line of the intended excavation, induced Mr. BRUNEL to enlarge the dimensions of his original plan, and, consequently, the apparatus by which he intended to protect the excavation, until it should be secured by brickwork. The Act of Parliament having been obtained on the 24th of June 1824, Mr. BRUNEL began his operations by making preparations for a shaft of 50 feet in diameter, which he commenced at 150 feet from the River, on the Surrey side. This he effected, by constructing first, on the surface of the ground, a substantial cylinder of brickwork of that diameter, 42 feet in height, and three feet in thickness. Over this, he set up the steam-engine necessary for pumping out the water, and for raising the earth to be taken from within the cylinder, he then proceeded to sink it en masse into the ground in the way that the shafts of wells are usually sunk. By this means he succeeded in passing through a bed of gravel and sand 26 feet deep, full of land-water, constituting, in fact, a quicksand, in which the drift-makers of the former undertaking had been compelled to suspend their work.

The

While this operation was in progress, Mr. BRUNEL received an intimation from eminent Geologists, warning him of the existence of a bed of sand lying at a greater depth, and advising him to go as little as possible below the bottom of the River. This information corresponded with the account given before by the drift-makers respecting the existence of a quicksand, and its depths beneath the level of high water. 50-feet shaft having been sunk to the depth of 65 feet, another smaller shaft, 25 feet in diameter, destined to be a well or reservoir for the drainage of water, was also sunk from this lower level; but on approaching the depth of 80 feet, the ground gave way suddenly under this latter structure, which sunk several feet at once, the sand and water blowing up at the same time. Thus was the previous intelligence confirmed, of the existence, and the nature of the bed of sand in question, by which information the Engineer of the Thames Tunnel had been guided in the level that he has followed for his structure. The shaft and reservoir having been completed, the horizontal excavation for the body of the Tunnel was commenced at the depth of 63 feet; and in order to have sufficient thickness of ground to pass safely under the deep part of the River, the excavation was carried on a declivity of 2 feet 3 inches per hundred feet.

It must be remarked here, that the excavation which has been made for the Thames Tunnel is 38 feet in breadth, and 22 feet 6 inches in height, presenting a sectional area of 850 feet, and exceeding 60 times the area of the drift which was attempted before. As an illustration of the magnitude of the excavation for the Tunnel, it may be added, that it is larger than

the interior of the old House of Commons, which being 32 feet in breadth by 25 feet in height, was only 800 feet in sectional area; and it may further be observed, that the base of this excavation, in the deepest part of the River, is 76 feet below high water-mark.

This

It is by means of a powerful apparatus, which has been designated a Shield," that this extensive excavation has been effected, and that the double road-way and paths, which now extend beyond the middle of the River, have at the same time been constructed within it. Shield consists of twelve great frames, standing close to each other, like as many volumes on the shelf of a book-case: these frames are 22 feet in height, and about 3 feet in breadth. They are divided into three stages, or stories, thus presenting 36 chambers, or cells, for the workmen-namely, the miners, by whom the ground is cut down and secured in front; and the bricklayers, by whom the structure is simultaneously formed.

The Shield was placed in its first position at the bottom of the shaft by the 1st of January, 1826, and the structure of the double archway of the Tunnel was commenced under a bed of clay; but on the 25th of the same month, the substantial protection of clay was discovered to break off at once, leaving the Shield, for upwards of six weeks, open to a considerable influx of land-water, copiously issuing from a bed of sand and gravel fed at each tide, and the progress of the work was in consequence much impeded.

On the 11th of March this fault, or break in the clay, was cleared, and the Shield being again under a bed of clay, the work proceeded; and, on the 30th of June, 1826, entered under the bed of the river; and by the 30th of April, 1827, the Tunnel had advanced 400 feet under the river; these 400 feet of the Tunnel were excavated, and the double archways substantially built with brick-work in ten months and a half. On the 18th of May, 1827, and again in the month of January, 1828, the river broke in, and filled the Tunnel, thereby occasioning the apprehension that the undertaking must be abandoned. After, however, filling with strong bags of clay, the holes or chasms in the bed of the river, where the irruptions had occurred, and clearing the Tunnel of water, the structure was found in a most satisfactory state, and perfectly sound. The works, from that time, remainded suspended during a period of seven years. They have now re-commenced under the most favorable

auspices, and have advanced to 740 feet in length, which EXCEEDS one-half the contemplated length of the Tunnel!

We should add, that both archways are kept lighted with gas-that the Works are dry-and the descent by a safe and easy staircase.

WONDERFUL FACT!'-Mr. B. of, has in his

possession an oyster, 2 months and 7 days old, which is very tame, and follows him up and down stairs like a dog.-Kentucky Advertiser.

CHIT-CHAT.

Mr. BUTLER, the tragedian, has taken an academy and farm, about three miles from Calais ; where, by the aid of three ushers and sundry husbandmen, he has commenced " teaching the young idea how to shoot," designing, like his scholars, to PLAY in the vacations. He has completely recovered the loss of his theatrical wardrobe from the proprietors of the packet to whose care it was entrusted, and which is supposed to be now on its way to a Mr. Butter, either in Stockholm or Smyrna, whose camp-bedstead was carefully transmitted to the tragedian, instead of the expected royal robes of Richard and the inky cloak of Hamlet!!

A NEW FARCE under the title of the Winterbottoms, or My Aunt the Dowager, has been written by MONCRIEFF for his friend JERROLD, and will be produced, on Monday, at the Strand theatre. Green-room report speaks very highly of this trifle. That favorite and much-esteemed comedian, HAMMOND, is said to have a crack part in it. JERROLD is also dramatizing his popular paper, The Man who couldn't help it, for the same theatre.

Mr. GEORGE JONES, the tragedian, on his return to New York, married a lady who, in person, is said to resemble Miss. O'Neill. The lady made her début as Bianca, in Fazio, on the American stage, and left a most favorable impression on the minds of the audience, of her merits as an actress.

Mr. FOREST, the tragedian, has announced a work in the New York Journals, entitled RAMBLES IN EUROPE.

FINE ARTS.-Arrangements are making at Bristol to open an annual exhibition of paintings,

ADVERTISEMENTS.

AMUSEMENTS OF THE WEEK.

The Thames Tunnel,

NEAR THE CHURCH AT ROTHERHITHE, on the Surrey side of the River, is open to the public daily, (except Sunday) from nine in the morning until dusk.-Admittance, One Shilling Each..-Both Archways are brilliantly lighted with Gas, and the descent is by an easy Staircase.-The Tunnel is now 740 feet long, and is completed to within 180 feet of low-water mark on the Middlesex shore. By Order,

J. CHARLIER, Clerk to the Company. Walbrook Buildings, Walbrook.

N. B.-There are conveyances to the Tunnel, by an Omnibus, every half-hour from Gracechurch-street, and Charing Cross; also by the Woolwich and Greenwich Steam Boats, from Hungerford, Queenhithe, Dyer's Railway Carriages from London Bridge, every quarter Hall, and Fresh Wharf, every half-hour; and the

of an hour.

The whole beautifully illustrated with 38 Engravings by George and Robert Cruikshank, Seymour, and BonPrice only 5s. 6d. handsomely bound.

ner.

"This book is certainly unique of its class, and can

early in the present month.

ZINGARELLI, the celebrated composer and author of the Opera of Romeo è Giuletta, died at Naples, on May 5, at the age of 87. He was director-in-chief of the Conservatoire of that capital.

HANDEL'S Messiah will be performed on Wednesday evening, June 7, at the Hanover square Rooms, for the benefit of the Royal Society of Musicians, by the performers of the King's Concerts of Ancient Music. The public rehearsal is to take place on Monday next.

MADAME VESTRIS has provided herself against the loss of LISTON next season, by engaging FARREN, the "cock salmon," at a high salary.

MADAM SHROEDER DEVRIENT has kindly overlooked the insult she received from Mr. BUNN, and has again condescended to sing at his theatre. It is more than he deserves.

The Royal Nassau Balloon is announced to ascend, on Monday next, from the Montpellier Gardens, Cheltenham.

VAUXHALL GARDENS open for the season on Monday next; and there will be a GALA every evening during the week. This is commencing with spirit.

JOE GRIMALDI, the only clown, properly so called, that ever lived, breathed his last at half past two o'clock last Thursday Morning.

The Amusements, Exhibitions, Pleasures, Miseries, Frauds, Deceptions, &c., of London and its Environs, are detailed in a masterly manner, and the ensemble contains all that the most fastidious visitor, or inhabitant, could desire to know. The engravings confer on it an additional value-they are numerous and spirited." -Times.

"It far, very far, surpasses in value, interest, and variety, any of the 'Pictures of London now in use." -Satirist.

London: W, Kidd, 7, Tavistock Street, Covent-
Garden; and G. Mann, 39, Cornhill.

MISCELLANEOUS.

VOL. I.-No. 5.]

TO OUR READERS.

In justice to the Newsvendors, and other dealers in Periodicals, we deem it right to inform our NEW subscribers that, in consequence of their very extensive sale, there HAS been a difficulty in obtaining the first and second numbers of the "IDLER." This difficulty, howis NOW removed by the RE-PUBLICATION of BOTH NUMBERS, which may be had at OUR OFFICE. PART I is also published-stitched in a handsome wrapper-containing the numbers for the entire month of May; and, in this form, it is particularly recommended to the notice of NEW Subscribers.

ever,

THE PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE.

How true is it, that the more simple the expression, the more forcible, oftentimes, is the meaning it conveys!

We were sauntering, on Tuesday last, down the London Road-when our attention was arrested by two little half-starved-looking boys, who were gazing intently on the various joints of meat, exhibited in the window of a cook's shop. We paused to watch their motions.

After some few moments of deep cogitation, the bigger of the two, addressing his fellow, asked him if he would "stand a penny to his penny, and have a treat?" (It was evident that one penny each was the extent of their fortune). The little boy consented; and the spokesman, at a single stride, entered the shop. WE followed close on his footsteps.

[PRICE TWO-PENCE.

No sooner was it his turn to be served, than he asked, with a watering mouth, for "two penn'orth of WEAL,-cut with a HAM-y KNIFE."(!) The young woman stared at him for a moment, and then complied with his request; the fat of the ham, which adhered to the blade of the knife, having literally inoculated the veal. No sooner was the said veal wrapped up in paper, than out rushed the boy in an ecstasy; and out rushed we-just in time to see the two little urchins meet in an agony of joy. "We could have hugged the greasy rogues !!"

MADAME PASTA.

[The following REMINISCENCES of the unrivalled Queen of Song, MADAME PASTA (as Prima Donna of the London Opera), need no apology for their insertion on the front page of the IDLER":

MADAME PASTA made her first appearance at the London Opera House, when about twenty, in the month

of January 1817, when she played Telemaco, to the Penelope of Camporese in Cimarosa's opera of that name:-she personated the page in Mozart's "Nozze di Figaro," and other similar characters during the same season. We cannot ascertain, however, from the testimony of those who were conversant with the Opera of twenty years ago, that her talents at that time gave promise of her subsequent greatness.

Immediately on her return to the Continent, in the autumn of 1817, Madame Pasta devoted herself with unceasing diligence to the study of Music and to the cultivation of her voice. Supported by the strong consciousness of her capability, and by the determination not to be baffled in her pursuit of glory, she neglected nothing that could make her a good singer and a good

actress her success, therefore, was certain. Her musical education being, at length, completed, she reappeared on the boards of the Academie at Paris in the season of 1821; and a rich harvest of wealth and honor speedily rewarded her for all the toil and anxiety of cultivation. Surprising as it may appear, that the people who could admire the artificial and exaggerated style of acting adopted by Talma and Mademoiselle Georges, could so far forget their prejudices as to applaud the naivete and apparent artlessness that are the great characteristics of Pasta's acting, it is no less true, that they received her with delight and enthusiasm:-she soon became the absorbing theme of conversation in the salons, and the object of an admiration almost amounting to idolatry.

Madame Pasta's high renown in Paris, augured well for her reception by a London audience; and when at length in April, 1824, she revisited our Opera-house, she claimed as a right the respect due to her now unquestioned genius and attainments. Her first appearance in the Desdemona of Rossini's "Otello" was an era of triumph as great as any that had ever been known in the country, and the most rigid critics of the music and drama were compelled to acknowledge, that the enthusiastic reports of her talents were not over-colored nor exaggerated. Her acting was such as at once placed her in the same rank with Mrs. Siddons and Miss O'Neill, while her vocal powers were so great that she could utter

"sounds that might create a soul Under the ribs of death."

66

Pasta's personation of Desdemona is so well known to all who visit the opera, that it would be almost an impertinence to give any detailed account of it. The most generally admired parts are the scena commencing with "Desdemona infelice" aud concluding with the exquisite cavatina "Oh quante lagrime," the impassioned air "Che smania! aime, che affanno" with its never-to-beforgotten dying, dying fall" at the close (in which Pasta never had an equal),-the plaintive, melancholy air "Assisa a pie d'un salice," and her prayer on retiring to rest Del calma, O ciel, nel sonno.' Indeed her whole treatment of the last act was such as to place the character in a situation far more conspicuous and attractive than was ever intended by Rossini, who employed all his talents in giving power to the Otello of his opera.

Of the numerous parts in which Madame Pasta appeared, during the different opera-seasons which brought her to our Island, we cannot speak at length; but, as brief chroniclers of the past, we may be permitted to offer a few passing remarks. In Rossini's "Tancredi," (the chief male character of which Pasta assumed for the first time in England on the 18th of May, 1824,) the "Tu che accendi" and the "Di tanti palpiti," are those by which she will best be recollected; but the deep yet subdued feeling of her acting and the chaste but emphatic expression, exquisite taste, and profound science of her singing throughout the opera were such, that the impression of them must be felt in order to be properly comprehended. In the "Semiramide" of the same composer, she was perhaps more successful, on the whole, than in either of the pieces yet mentioned. The fascinating grace, majestic dignity, and deeply pathetic expression of Pasta's Queen of Babylon-even had it been merely acting-can never be forgotten; but, besides that, her singing is of the most exalted kind. We instance particularly two scenes, in which her talents are better displayed than in others,her quarrel with Assur, in which that beautiful duet

occurs

"Quella ricordate Natte di morte,"

and that grand scena in which the ghost of Ninus appears. The Queen's offended and scornful dignity in the former scene, and the daughter's absorbent affection subdued by superstitious terror in the other, were portrayed with a force and truth that only another Pasta can exhibit.

Zingarelli's "Romeo e Giuletta " was chosen by Madame Pasta for her benefit at the close of her first season. The interest of the opera is condensed in two scenes, that in which the lovers plight their vows, and the closing scene in the cemetery; and in both of these,

the representative of Romeo acts and sings with an intense and absorbing feeling, that none besides Pasta has ever exhibited on the opera stage. The deep tenderness of the lover in the scene, which contains the duet with Giuletta, "Dunque, mio bene, tu mia sarai,' could scarcely be listened to with unmoistened eye, so touchingly tender was it in every respect; but her grandest achievement was, beyond all question, the "Ombra adorata" of the desperate and death-devoted Romeo over the tomb of his Juliet. The perfect abandonment of the grief-worn lover, is portrayed in a way that very few English representatives of the son of Montague have ever equalled.

Her "Nina" and "Medea" are the characters by which Madame Pasta will live in the records of song; and to these characters we shall confine our few remaining observations. Paesiello's Nina is essentially a poetical opera,-one of the most imaginative productions that has ever issued from the Italian school:-it is a great but only a just compliment to Pasta, to say, that she did full justice to the composer's conceptions, which so much remind us of our own Ophelia. The mad and care-crazed wretchedness in the earlier parts of the play require a dramatic power that none in our time, except Pasta, has been able to command; and on her return to reason, when she gives herself wholly to joy-unmingled, deep-drawn pleasure, the effect to wellconstituted minds must be very striking. In short, if there be any character in which she has excelled, more than in any other, in the delineation of the more tender passions of female humanity, we should say, that Nina was her ne plus ultra.

The "Medea" is a very different character, and affords abundant scope for the exhibition of the darker passions of the female sex-jealousy and revenge. Her interview with Jason before his marriage,-her interruption of the nuptials of Jason and Creusa,-her incantation scene,and her scene with Jason's children, have an appalling and teriffic interest, that can never be effaced from the memory of any one who has once beheld her in this character.

We might extend our observations; but onr space will not permit us. Long may MADAME PASTA live to enjoy the fruits of her genius and enviable attainments!

[The above is taken from the MONTHLY MAGAZINE of the present month.]

"A council was now called to arrange where to dine: the Park, Star and Garter, were to their left; an hotel, a row of houses, at their back; a quantity of ditto to their right, and the view in front of them. It was evident that this was not a place for Pic-nic-iana. To be within gaze of the world had nothing very rural in it. So, after a slight deliberation, they filed off to the right, and, with a little winding about, found a nice place,a spot encompassed by a few trees, and commanding an extensive view. Here they stopped, and, with as much speed as might be, the cloth was laid upon the grass; the eatables brought forth; and, in an inconceivably short period, were being discussed by the party.

"Well, I likes this," said Mrs. Bodger, with her mouth full; it certainly is nice to heat your wittles in the hopen hair.'