HOME GOSSIP.

Thames Star, Volume III, Issue 1685, 28 May 1874, Page 2

HOME GOSSIP.

(FBOM OUS OWN COBBBSPONDMrt.) London (via San Fbanoisco),

-; April 7th, 1874. To tell any one in any of our colonies, at this time, that Cambridge has won the boat raoe, would be something like telling him that " Queen Anne is dead," but there is a good deal to be said nevertheless about these yearly boat races, generally. The crowd that attends them is steadily increasing; yet there was not so great a crowd this year as last, but that is easily accounted for. Last year's was an afternoon race, when the general Saturday half-holiday set almost all the working people free to indulge themselves with the sight; and a great many of those to whom the half holiday was not a regular thing were able to procure it by favour. This was a forenoon race, taking place at the very busiest hour of the day; and even those who might have got, by indulgence, an interval from their work, were (debarred; from;, asking jit in consequence of the extra holiday given a*, the Duchess of Edinburgh's entry into London. Tl» crowd ttoniaincmwng year

by year. We accept that as a fact; and it is really a very curious fact, because it is combined with another fact which is, that the public has lost all interest, or rather does not now affect to get up any interest in the winning of either crew. Up,to the last few years every one attending the race considered it necessary to mount a bit of ribbon of either Oxford or Cambridge blue, a3 a declaration of being on one side or the other. Now all London goes in for blue: blue altogether. It is a blue day But;there is no distinctionof parties. The most elegant thingindeed is to mix the two different shades of blue, where they can be mixed, as in a bonnet,or a rosette; but even Where this is not done an Oxford sash or neck ribbon is worn with a. Cambridge skirt, and vice versa; or ah Oxford ribbon in the button hole with a Cambridge ditto on the hat. Now it is more annoying to see all London gone mad this way without any reason for its madness, than anyone at the antipodes can well imagine. I asked two friends thi»year, who I knew had at great inconvenience left their business to go (the lady was Oxford and Cambridge to her very gloves), " Well, were you greatly -pleased P" "Oh ! dear no.; its nothing of a sight you know, even if one could see it at the best advantage, only its an excuse for an outing." Had I ventured to ask the lady whether she considered I blue her most becoming color, I have no doubt the true answer, if she would have given it, would be, " Oh! dear no; its I only an excuse for a new dress." I have used the words " indulge themselves with the sight" above, but they are quite incorrect as applied to the actual sight of the boat race. Like the wearing of blue by thousands wko don't even affect any interest in the result of the contest, is the crowding to, or towards the river side by thousands, who have not the slightest expectation of seeing the race. Long after the boats have started the crowd is ■till tending riverwards; and long before this every passage to the river side has been effectually blocked. But all the same—on rolls the mob through the thoroughfares. To start for the boat race after the boat race has been run, and to Btand struggling, pushing, fighting in a crowd which impedes the return or those who have really seen the race, is the. only object to be attained, and yet they'll attain this at almost any price; and the few who don't go with the mob are considered as having by taeir own stupidity left themselves quite out of a good thing. Another peculiarity is that a "good thing " is considered rather the better— however people may grumble at the time —for coming accompanied with a grievance. The race of 1872 is a memorable one, always spoken of with relish, because it was run in a snow storm; and the race of 1871 exceeded in enjoyment any before or since, because a tidal wave covered all the people on the banks knee d«ep in water and mud. This year sky and river were propitious, but the railway companies opportunely stept in, and raised the prices for the day on the lines, • both ways. To the excitement and interest of boat race millinery, which crowded all the shops, and all the space in front of all the shops /or a week previous to that event, has succeeded the interest . and excitement of church millinery. Grand Duchess millinery made an attempt to assert itself en the " entry " day and before, but it got itself set upon by the severity of our ideas just now on the subject of Lenten mourning. Why we cast off our black garments for one day to assume blue, without any scruple, I don't know, nor, I dare say, does any one else; but I do know that the most strenuous efforts of drapers and' milliners could not fet yellow into general wear until after Saster. Our church millinery this year exceeded anything we have done in that way before ; and must have been felt by every one to have been quite worthy of our church decoration; and in fact these two things now seem to be done by a mutual compact. No time, trouble, or expense being spared by ritualistic ladies in procuring the rarest "hot-home" flowers for the decoration of the altars, and no scruple being allowed to prevent them poisoning .the whole atmosphere of the churches with cart loads of hyacinths, lUlies,'and daffy-down-dillies.;! their favorite ecclesiastics must adorn, themselves in a get-up* worthy of these offerings. Well, it majr be only a matter of taste, and jny taste may be a bad one, but what is the difference, after all, between an opera singer covered with wreaths and bouquets, 'curtseying her acknowledgements to her admirers, and a priest pos-ture-making before the flower-pots and bouquets presented by his- admirers. No right-minded Protestant thinks or speaks with anything but reverence of the ornate ceremonial of Catholic worship; because it is a thing which has always existed in that church, and been accepted by all its ministers and teachers; and because they know that no true Catholic believes thai the vitality of his religion really consists in such things : he only receives them as a form for a purpose—a means for an end. But these sham priests put the image in place of the life; and make these forms and these means their purpose and their end. Not one of us can doubt that Easter Monday morning's papers were looked at with avidity for the reporters' accounts of their several doings, which, by the way, in most of the papers were placed side by side with the notices of the new plays to be brought out at the theatres that night. How gratified must not one rev. gentleman have been on reading the description of his "magnificent cape of white watered silk, embroidered on the back, and lined with scarlet, each side of the vestment being held up by an attendant. robed in scarlet and' white}" ' and also that said " cape, when extended by his attendants," during one por'ion of , the service, " extended the full lci^th of tb» iabfc" The ooactajrion of Uii» del- J

cription, however, may not have been quite refreshing to his feelings; for the reporter, less polite than just, adds that the reverend's "appearance, while the lining of his garment was thus ostentatiously held out was most extraordinary." I have underlined the words. May Ibe excused for mentioning a subject so sacred, but what has ostentation to do with Calvary, or even with the sublimely simple rising from the tomb, witnessed only by the angel who roiled away the stone ? What was there extraordinary-— in that sense of the word—in the appearance of Him who said "Woman, why weepest thou? " and then revealed Himself, and dried tfer tears by the one word, "Mary."

' We have one most extraordinary object among our national possessions now, enough to raise Jonathan Oldbuck and every other, antiquary from his grave. It is neither more nor less than a "speech from the throne " spoken three thousand years ago: a speech of- Pharaoh Hamses the Rhampsinitus of Herodotus. \ It is written on papyrus, and was among the collection of the late A. C. Harris, Esq., which was purchased from his daughter by the trustees of the British Museum. And this speech, the papyrus manuscript of which has cost £2,000, is to be lithographed and published for us; and its contents are already known to us through the newspapers; and considering the time that has elapsod it is really not very unlike other "speeches from the throne " the speaking of which we can remember. A little wanting in reticence, perhaps; not quite oracular enough: Bamses speaks more plainly than we should consider good taste of the triumph he feels in having made some of his enemies '• wallow in blood," and of having brought home others " captive, trussed like geese, before his horses," but probably some of the coarseness may be, without injustice, laid to the translator. Taking into consideration all I have been saying upon the subject of ritualistic " celebration," and the incalculable amount more I might have said, the ideas of old Pharoah upon acceptable religion do really jump very closely with the modern ideas of some among us. Seventy nine written pages of this speech are devoted to a list of nis offerings to the gods. And the gods it seems were propitiated by his offerings and gave him the peace and prosperity, and the " Wallowing in blood/' and " trussed geese T and all the rest of it, which his honest old heart desired, and no doubt watched over his papyrus books and preserved them safely for our edification ; for gods are not capricious or fickle—with the exception of one among them, and so this regal speech-maker and writer has fared better than many among us who disport ourselves in speechmalting and writing. Notably there is one literary gentleman here just now who bespeaks our commiserations. This gentleman, Tracey Turnerelli by name, has written a book, of which, as he says himself, he sent copies not only to "every member of the royal family," but to all the highest, greatest, and most honoured personages in the Kingdom:" and- these " personages '* feeling themselves, no doubt still more highly and greatly honoured by Mr Tracey Turnerelli's attention, " accepted and gratefully acknowledged " the same. One might suppose that this would be quite enough for Mr Tracey Turnerelli's ambition; and that as he expressly wishes the public to know he" is net a poor author "~ which indeed the public might have known, if they cared to know, by his gratuitous distribution of his book—he might have born* with calmness one very small subsequent slight. But we remember the story of Haman and Mordecai. Mr Turnerelli's is a parallel case, vln an evil hour for his own peace of mind he sent a copy to the Lord Mayor; and the Lord Mayor, through some wonderful forgetfulhess of his usual courtesy, did not "gratefully acknowledge " tho receipt of it; and this is the bitter drop which destroys all the sweetness of Mr Turnerelli's authorship I am sorry I cannot tell you the name or the contents of Mr Turnerelli's book. He did not state them himself in the indignant letter which he addressed to the papers concerning the Lord Mayor's want of politeness ; therefore, though some few select libraries may have been honored with copies, there is an awkwardness in going in and asking simply for "Tracey Turnerelli's book." If 1 knew any of these " greatest, highest and most honored personages" I might ask them for a loan of it; but I don t. Perhaps, before next mail some happy accident may throw it in my way. Perhaps the public generally may know nothing about it until it is discovered some three thousand years hence, like the speech of Pharoah Ramses.