OUR LONDON FLANEUR. Literary, Social, and Theatrical Jottings.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 93, 14 March 1885, Page 3

OUR LONDON FLANEUR. Literary, Social, and Theatrical Jottings.

LoNi'ON, January 16, 1885. I have been up in the North spending Chii&tmas after "ye goode olde fashion" and only returned to town a few days «go, so that my knowledge of what has been going on in London duiing the festive t-eason is somewhat limited. We had an " awfully good time" in Lancae-hire. The weather was, indeed, cold and frosty, but sunshiny, and the amusements practically unlimited I dined and danced, and dined and danced again. There were several good < hribtmas and Now \ ear balls, but the bett of them all was given in a small house, ana in a comparatively unpretentious fashion. I was bpecially btruck with the airangements here, which, from fiiat to last, were in their way almost perfect. To begin with, the house was hung from top to bottom with Japanese rugs, weapons, ivories and fans, the doors being draped in Eastern iashion. There were only about 100 guests, so that inotead ot the crowding usually inseparable irom such dances, everybody could move i>bout comfortably. It was however, the supper that specially excited my admiration Ball suppeis are generally speaking, exactly alike. From the stuffed tuikey cold game, and chicken in various forms, the triflus, jellies, creams, &c , one knows exactly what one will get. At our friends' there were hardly any of the ordinary things. A splendid dessert, including hot • house pines, glares, peaches, certainly ornamented the tables, and I tancy 1 saw all the inevitable jellies, creams, and tiifle*. ; but the pieces cf e resibtan cc were neaily, or rather mostly, appetising little dainties one could eat with a lork. To mention the lot would be impossible, but for the benefit of gwois of colonial " at homes," a hint or two may bo of u&e. Some tiny cold cutlets, up parently made up of mashed up game and chickens, were especially good, a^ weie the croquettes of shrimps, the stuffed eggs, and the mayonaises ot lobster, ?a mon. and chicken. Balads (both French and Rus t-ian) abounded 1 counted at lt-a<t ten sorts of sandwiches. The latter we.c formed of the very thinnest wafers ot white and biown biead lightly butiend, and about the size ot a fat man's finger. The mu.->t popular seemed to be the chicken (made from very thin slices otf a tendei fowl's, breast and .slightly d. »'ied with red pepper) the pate, de fuile yras the pheas mt, the VVeHtphnlixn hum and the devilled anchovy A bonne, bouuhe sandwich \va* in .»p«cial demand with the men, a-* were some caviare sandwiches made ot toast. The former you make thus : cut a f-ingle round about a quarter of an anch thick from a brown French roll anout 2 inches in diameter, anil butter faiily well. On this spiead a layer of mu-'tird and cress, followed by a section of haid-boiled eirg. Wrap a thin slice of an anchovy round the t-gg, crown the edifice with a small stoned French olive and your bonne bouch' 1 is peitect — a thi'ig of boauty and a joy to the palate Champ igne cup ab bills is generally execiable. At this dance it w^ excellent. Here i* Hie recipe, which the host a- ures me and he is a man who -ought u> know is the only one the Prince of Wales will permit to be ut-ed at hi.-* table : To one bottle of a thoroughly sound dry champagne, and one wineglass of white curacao one gla»s of Hennessey's three-star brandy, a little lemon-peel, a squeeze of lemon, a suspicion o f nutmeg, ice (not too much), and two bottles of Schweppes sodaw ater. If not sweet enough or too sweet, increase or les-en the curacao. Halt-a dozen glasses of this eleemos\mry mixture is warranted to put tone into even a " masher." Thechampagne (parsenl) was Heidsieck Dry Monopole of 874. a superb vintage. Altogether, I don't think 1 ever

enjoyed a dance more, and towards 2 a.m. everybody was paying the same thing. What Londoners call the "pantomime season " is now at its height, and twice dailv the two great theatres at Drury Lane and Covent Garden, not to mention a dozen or more transpontine houses, are filled with a rapturous and perspiring audience of juveniles, whose crowing laughter and amazed shouts of delight are by no means the least interesting portion of the show. Drury Lane has this year tbe only really first rate West End pantomime. The classic shades of Covent Garden having, to the great scandal of Italian opera-goers, been converted into what Holland, the new manager, calls the " Cirqueries." Full of memories of Patti, Nillpon, Titiens, Lucca, and other great singers, an aesthetic musician strolled into Covent Garden the other evening. He didn't stop ten minutes, ior on the stage sacred to Wagner, Bellini, Kossini, and Meyerbeer, stood Mr Harry Richards, braying as only a star-comique can bray— a dismal ditty descriptive of hia chaste affection for a certain "Matilda Morgan." The visitor departed hurriedly to his club, whence he despatched to the daily papers an affecting history of hia woes. The Drury Lane show is, as usual, very splendid, though possibly just a trifle heavy. Its great feature is a procession of London city companies in which 700 supers are employed. This is certainly a triumph of stage management, and outvies anything I ever before witnessed even at Old Drury. There are two very pretty children's ballets and a wonderful cat (young Charles Laurie) —a really cat like cat that purrs and spits and curls its back in a manner which sends the youngsters nearly frantic with delight. The music, too, is well arranged. In pome of the concerted pieces I noticed morceaux of no less than 10 comic songs welded together with the greatest skill, and full of *'go." Yesterday, there were no stalls or dress circle peats to be had at Drury Lane for a week, and yet two per* formances are given daily. At this time of the year there i* always some waltz tune which one hears everywhere, ut pantomime, balls, and even on the barrel-organs, and being whistled about the streets by dirty urchins Last year it was the " Ei»tudiantina," the yeat before the " Mia Cara," and the year before that the "My Queen " of Bucalossi This season we hear nothing half so often as Crowe's* jingling " See-saw," which, however, is excellent to dance to, played by a good string band. Talking of dancing reminds me to mention that the "chic" thing in dance cards is now just a thick, white card with gilt bevelled edge, about the size of a rather large gentleman's visiting card, on which the dances are inscribed in gold, leaving ample room for partners' names to be inscribed opposite. The pencil is attached as usual by a silk cord to one corner of t'<e carH, and on the reverse side the name of the house where the dance is given is in-oribt-d. The =peeittl advantage of the s 6 caids is that they aie ca a y to write on, and fan be put in the ve.-t pocket without fear of cru-hing.