THE TOILET. (Especially from Puris.) FIRST FIGURE.-Walking-dress of plain Azoff, -than which nothing can be more graceful when green silk, trimmed with nine narrow volants edged well carried. with black lace. The corsage round at the waist, plain, high, and buttoned down the front. Sleeves with jockeys, puffed, and a trimming. Mantelet of the same material as the robe, plaited in the back like a peasant's fichu, with long round ends in front. Belgian straw-bonnet covered with a Clotilde demiveil, inside a bandeau of black velvet. Puffed under-sleeves, with wristbands, and Swedish leather gloves. New taffetas-printaniers, grenadines, and gauzes of Chambery, gossamer-like, as if from fairyfactories-daily make their appearance. I have seen a very charming costume, composed of a robe of plain violet taffetas with round corsage and waistband; the sleeves, style Gabrielle, forming at the top a great puff terminated by a revers. Collar and sleeves of guipure neige. Capote of white silk and black lace, ornamented in the inside SECOND FIGURE.-White piqué dress with two with a bandeau of Parma violets. White brides. skirts, the ground sprinkled with small mallow-Pointe of black taffetas, covered by a pointe of guicolour flowers. The second skirt has a close fitting pure garnished with two volants of guipure. body with revers ornamented with Hungarian point Nothing can be more graceful than this form and its lace. Wide sleeves: puffed under-sleeves. High types. A very distinguished pardessus for this chemisette, terminated round the neck by a narrow demi-season is composed of grey cloth bound with a puffing, in which a mallow-coloured ribbon is run. plaid revers. It looks well, is very simple, and conStraw bonnet trimmed with Parma violets mixed venient for an ordinary toilet. Other shades in cloth with various grasses. Brides and bavolets of are also worn, as well as a variety of silky textures mauve-coloured taffetas. and black taffetas. All the light summer tissues which I mentioned in my last letter are now in the very bloom of fashion. English barêges, piques, jaconets, muslin, popelinettes (a mixture of silk and wool, charmingly effective), besides two new tissues called orientalaine and férandine, soft and bouffant, are destined to produce most graceful robes. I observe a disposition to accompany the robes of English barége with scarfs of the same material As an innovation, we have the Chapeau Gabrielle-for the reign of Henry IV. flourishes at this moment in all the creations. It is of Belgian or Italian straw, bound with black velvet, and ornamented with black velvet ribbon, tied by a cordon of straw, on one side a tuft straw with poppies and field daisies; in the interior, knots of straw and flowers; brides of black velvet ribbon. PASSING EVENTS RE-EDITED. Whilst War, red with carnage, spreads There has also taken place, during the past suffering, devastation, and horrid death through month, a meeting of the supporters and friends the fertile plains of Lombardy, and threatens of Miss Gilbert's Institute for the Blind, with a to include all Europe in the final struggle, view to the extension of its benefits by providlet us thank God that with every manly ing instruction in various available crafts for the heart amongst us responding to the ring many who have not been able to command even ing summons of the Laureate's song-with the benefit of the ordinary training in the spontaneous rifle corps upspringing in every metropolitan and other "schools for the blind;" town, and we trust village, of our land, and and a wider market for the sale of the articles promising to make this weapon effective in the made by them, many of which are in daily hands of modern Englishmen, as was the cross-request in families, and may also be purchased bow at Agincourt in those of our forefathers-wholesale by shopkeepers at the Society's house, we have yet time and peaceful opportunity to in the New-road, very near its junction with carry out and chronicle the laying of the first stone, by a woman's hand, of a new Cancer Hospital at Brompton, of which this lady (Miss Burdett Coutts) is one of the principal benefactors, having advanced £3,000 to the buildingfund, besides subscribing £50 per annum to the charity from its commencement, in 1851, when a small house was taken in Cannon-row, Westminster, for the treatment and study of this most painful and intractable disease. The result has been so hopeful that the establishment of the present asylum, with projected accommodation for sixty in-door patients, bids fair to greatly alleviate the amount of suffering from this dreadful scourge of our race, and more especially of our sex, Tottenham Court-road-a visit to which will repay our readers, and help them to understand with what difficulties these blind strugglers against beggary and want have to contend. It is with great pleasure that we notice the erection of a fountain at Blackheath; and fresh measures for a further application of this simple remedy against intoxication we earnestly hope may be carried out in every town and hamlet of England; always hoping, too, that the lower basin, for our dumb friends, be not forgotten; and that the thirsty sheep-dog and his panting charge be suffered to cool their fevered tongues in passing. But over and above these local acts of beneficence, another noble institution is projected, for which the sympathies of the whole kingdom will be awakened: I allude to the founding of an asylum "for the orphans of musicians (of all classes), British, or who have been resident in Great Britain," to be called the Handel College, and become a lasting testimonial in our land to the memory of the great composer, whose genius belongs to Germany, but who found a home amongst us, and bequeathed us, in return, works that have made his name immortal. A hundred years have passed since the death of this great master; and we English are only now waking up to a right appreciation of all we owe to him, of which, within the past ten days, the commemoration at the Crystal Palace has so sublimely reminded us. A hundred years, during which hunger and want, and the sharp thorns of poverty have been suffered by the offspring of many a professor of the art of which Handel was the inspired exponent; and which of all the professions is, we believe, the only one hitherto unrepresented in the magnificent list of English charities which rise up like altars through the length and breadth of the land, redolent with the grateful praise of tens of thousands of fatherless children; of the helpless, the aged, and the desolate. It is well said, in the synopsis before me, "that the study and toil of the musician do not always lead to large pecuniary rewards;" the working musician is too often a struggler even for an inadequate portion of the necessities of life. The wants of a family absorb his earnings, from whatever source they are derived; and even if, by the aid of teaching or other engagements, he manages to keep up appearances and avoid debt, a fit of illness, or the loss of pupils, throws him out of all his calculations for a time; an accident, paralyses, nervous derangement, even a fit of rheumatism may rob his right hand of its cunning, and deprive him of the smallest means of providing for his children, and lastly his death while they are yet young and helpless throws them upon the world unprotected and penniless. The purpose of the Handel College is to provide such orphans with a home whilst they are too young to assist themselves, and so to educate them as to enable them to obtain a respectable living when they arrive at a proper age to go out into the world. A plot of ground, valued for building purposes at not less than £5,000, has already been offered gratuitously for the site of the college, and Mr. Owen Jones with answering liberality comes forward with voluntary proffers of his important aid, as honorary architect, to draw the plans and superintend the building. It is but just that the sister-arts should assist by pen and pencil, and every other office in their power, to express their sympathy and aid the growth of this good work, in which every family may take a part and be no poorer for it. How true it is that the good we do never dies! and in the very means by which it is intended to honour the memory of the author of the "Messiah," of "Saul," "Judas Maccabeus," and "Israel in Egypt," there is a special applicability and justice; remembering that when the tenderhearted old sea-captain Coram had, after long years of disappointment (during which, however, he never allowed his efforts to flag), at last succeeded in establishing the Foundling Hospital, amongst its principal benefactors the great Handel stands unquestionably the first. "Here in the chapel," says Cunningham (in his "Handbook of London"), "he frequently performed his oratorio of the 'Messiah;' at which times it was greatly crowded, and as he engaged most of the performers to give their assistance gratis, the profits to the charity were very considerable, and in some instances approached nearly £1,000." Surely what he did for these utterly orphaned babes shall be repaid a hundred-fold for the fatherless children of that profession which he did so much to ennoble in this land, and to which so much of the refinement and social happiness, and family union amongst us may be attributed. C. A. W. ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. POETRY accepted with thanks: "The Silent Poets ;" "A Quick Beginning;" 66 Beauty;" "A. A. T. ;""Sunset." POETRY declined: "The Lonely One;""Edith's Dream;" "The White Fawn."-Homerton. We object to epitaphs-"The Shamrock and Thistle and Rose." PROSE received: "Pas de Calais." As soon as we receive the concluding pages of this paper the writer shall have our decision. "Ice, Polar and 'Fropical;" ;""Tale of a Giant "-rather abstruse for the "Little Ones," but we will see what can be done with it. B. B.-We beg to thank this correspondent for his offer, and to decline it: our space is too much occupied to allow of long notices of books. Aspirants. We too frequently have occasion to Frinted by Rogerson and Tuxford, 246, Stran'l, London. |