CHRISTMAS IN THE SNOW. —Right and left: Sleigh-cycling at Murren. Centre: Servian guns near Durazzo.
This week it falls to our lot to wish all our readers
a happy New Year. “ Neweers-day ” (to write it as many Scots pronounce it) is, of course, a great day in Scotland; but while England is beginning to celebrate Hogmanay, if not New Year’s Day, Scotland is beginning to pay more attention to Christmas Day. In many of the big towns across the Border the larger shops are shut on both days.
Although the Christmas box of the South has
not invaded Scotland, Hogmanay is a kind of substitute. It is especially a children’s occasion, as the old rhyme reminds us:
Rise up, good wife, and shack yer feathers, And dinna think that we are beggars; For we arc bairnies come to play. Rise up and gie’s our Hogmanay!
Hogmanay celebration was introduced into
London by the Scots youths who gather round St. Paul’s, though it is difficult to say whether its present popularity has been made by the hotels or whether the hotels have simply answered a widely expressed demand. London’s way of bringing in the New Year is certainly preferable to the extraordinary street scenes that occur in Scotland, where the chill night air,
acting on the wine of the country, frequently leads to a New Year’s Day spent on a sick-bed.
To the Northern ear it must be amusing to
hear at these hotel gatherings “ Auld Lang Syne ” sung as if the last word began with a Z.
If the bulk of the singers only knew what “syne” meant, they would not attempt to
pronounce it as if spelt zine. ” Certain
it is that the two countries can borrow from one another to advantage, although the North, with all its Radicalism in politics, is probably less inclined to change its customs than the South.
The introduction of the New Year idea is not
the only change that has taken place in our Christmastide customs. A most welcome change is occasioned at Drury Lane in the abolition of the principal boy as played by a woman, the part being
In a season of such rejoicing, death and disaster are un
usually melancholy, and the homelessness of the sea has a peculiar significance at a moment when home is the dominant note. Our thoughts turn to this when we think of the terrible voyage of the P. and O. liner
Narrung, illustrated elsewhere in this issue. And there was a grim maladroitness in the stroke directed against the Viceroy at Delhi
after his tour in Bikaner, which our special artist, Mr. Jacomb-Hood, has illustrated in this issue. Germany is also a severe sufferer in the loss of Herr von Kiderlen-Waechter.
While the Peace Congress is with us it is
timely to read the article by Mr. J. Howard Whitehouse, M. P., in the new issue of the Nineteenth Century on the war. Great Britain, he says, is still the traditional friend of
Bulgaria and Servia, for we are the countrymen of Gladstone, the reverence for whom is to-day as great as when he thundered against their enemies and oppressors. The affection of the nation, ” he adds, is not a treasure to be lightly held. ” The secrets of Bulgarian success are described by our correspondent, Mr. Philip Gibbs, in the opening article of the latest maga
zine, the British Review, which has risen on the ashes of the Oxford and Cambridge Review. Mr. Gibbs insists on the heroic spirit of the people, “ animated by a common purpose, inspired by a passionate ideal, and irresistible in thought. ”
In the same issue Mr. Gerald Maude writes on
the late Father Tyrrell, apropos of the fascinating life by Miss Petre, while in the Nineteenth Century Professor Tyrrell has some good things to say about style, notably a common-sense criticism of certain preciosities in Stevenson’s obiter dicta. R. L. S. ’s criticism of a passage by Milton is described as worthy of Bunthorne in ‘ Patience. ’ ” That wanted saying.
A CHRISTMAS BLANKET FOB A CENTENARIAN
Mrs Scott, aged 102, receiving her gift of a blanket at Addlestone from Mr. H. Payne, Hon. Secretary of the Feoffees.
taken by a tenor real singer (Mr. Douthitt), while a real prima donna (Miss Florence Smithson) is also introduced. Pantomime will undergo many more changes within the next few years.
Foulsham and Banfield
THE TSAREVITCH A REAL BOY” AT DRURY LANE IN MEMORY OF CHINA S BISMARCK A PRIMA DONNA AT DRURY LANE LORD HARDINGE restored to health. Mr. Wilfrid Douthitt as Prince Auriol. The monument to Li Hung Chang at Shanghai. Miss Florence Smithson as ” Beauty. the victim of the Delhi outage.
This week it falls to our lot to wish all our readers
a happy New Year. “ Neweers-day ” (to write it as many Scots pronounce it) is, of course, a great day in Scotland; but while England is beginning to celebrate Hogmanay, if not New Year’s Day, Scotland is beginning to pay more attention to Christmas Day. In many of the big towns across the Border the larger shops are shut on both days.
Although the Christmas box of the South has
not invaded Scotland, Hogmanay is a kind of substitute. It is especially a children’s occasion, as the old rhyme reminds us:
Rise up, good wife, and shack yer feathers, And dinna think that we are beggars; For we arc bairnies come to play. Rise up and gie’s our Hogmanay!
Hogmanay celebration was introduced into
London by the Scots youths who gather round St. Paul’s, though it is difficult to say whether its present popularity has been made by the hotels or whether the hotels have simply answered a widely expressed demand. London’s way of bringing in the New Year is certainly preferable to the extraordinary street scenes that occur in Scotland, where the chill night air,
acting on the wine of the country, frequently leads to a New Year’s Day spent on a sick-bed.
To the Northern ear it must be amusing to
hear at these hotel gatherings “ Auld Lang Syne ” sung as if the last word began with a Z.
If the bulk of the singers only knew what “syne” meant, they would not attempt to
pronounce it as if spelt zine. ” Certain
it is that the two countries can borrow from one another to advantage, although the North, with all its Radicalism in politics, is probably less inclined to change its customs than the South.
The introduction of the New Year idea is not
the only change that has taken place in our Christmastide customs. A most welcome change is occasioned at Drury Lane in the abolition of the principal boy as played by a woman, the part being
In a season of such rejoicing, death and disaster are un
usually melancholy, and the homelessness of the sea has a peculiar significance at a moment when home is the dominant note. Our thoughts turn to this when we think of the terrible voyage of the P. and O. liner
Narrung, illustrated elsewhere in this issue. And there was a grim maladroitness in the stroke directed against the Viceroy at Delhi
after his tour in Bikaner, which our special artist, Mr. Jacomb-Hood, has illustrated in this issue. Germany is also a severe sufferer in the loss of Herr von Kiderlen-Waechter.
While the Peace Congress is with us it is
timely to read the article by Mr. J. Howard Whitehouse, M. P., in the new issue of the Nineteenth Century on the war. Great Britain, he says, is still the traditional friend of
Bulgaria and Servia, for we are the countrymen of Gladstone, the reverence for whom is to-day as great as when he thundered against their enemies and oppressors. The affection of the nation, ” he adds, is not a treasure to be lightly held. ” The secrets of Bulgarian success are described by our correspondent, Mr. Philip Gibbs, in the opening article of the latest maga
zine, the British Review, which has risen on the ashes of the Oxford and Cambridge Review. Mr. Gibbs insists on the heroic spirit of the people, “ animated by a common purpose, inspired by a passionate ideal, and irresistible in thought. ”
In the same issue Mr. Gerald Maude writes on
the late Father Tyrrell, apropos of the fascinating life by Miss Petre, while in the Nineteenth Century Professor Tyrrell has some good things to say about style, notably a common-sense criticism of certain preciosities in Stevenson’s obiter dicta. R. L. S. ’s criticism of a passage by Milton is described as worthy of Bunthorne in ‘ Patience. ’ ” That wanted saying.
A CHRISTMAS BLANKET FOB A CENTENARIAN
Mrs Scott, aged 102, receiving her gift of a blanket at Addlestone from Mr. H. Payne, Hon. Secretary of the Feoffees.
taken by a tenor real singer (Mr. Douthitt), while a real prima donna (Miss Florence Smithson) is also introduced. Pantomime will undergo many more changes within the next few years.
Foulsham and Banfield
THE TSAREVITCH A REAL BOY” AT DRURY LANE IN MEMORY OF CHINA S BISMARCK A PRIMA DONNA AT DRURY LANE LORD HARDINGE restored to health. Mr. Wilfrid Douthitt as Prince Auriol. The monument to Li Hung Chang at Shanghai. Miss Florence Smithson as ” Beauty. the victim of the Delhi outage.