At last it was settled that the _tableaux_ were to represent the
story of "Beauty and the Beast," "Elizabeth knighting Raleigh," scenes
from "Hamlet" and "The Bohemian Girl," an emblematic group of the
nations included in the British Empire, surrounded by representatives of
the army and navy, and some well-known statues. Assuredly there was
variety enough in our programme to suit all tastes!

Our dress rehearsal, held in the old church before mentioned, was more
amusing--to the actors, at all events--than the performance itself. The
"sides," which looked well enough to those without, proved a delusion and
a snare to those within. They were used as dressing-rooms, but their
partition from the stage being only partial, and their flooring stopping
far short of the front, a great gap was left--a pitfall down which
everything tumbled. Their appointments were primitive, consisting of a
small looking-glass, a pincushion, and a piece of comb in each room. The
"properties" on the ladies' side were an old straw bonnet wreathed with
artificial flowers, and a gaudy overskirt; and on that of the gentlemen,
two hats, and a pistol and tin mug--which had probably done duty for the
"dagger and the bowl," in the last scene of a dreadful tragedy. Some of
our amateurs were fortunate enough to get complete costumes made, but
others appeared in a fragmentary condition, with a bodice of the time of
Elizabeth, and a petticoat of that of Victoria. Sir Walter Raleigh wore
the old felt hat belonging to his dressing-room, and pathetically
appealed to the spectators to imagine it adorned with a white feather and
jewelled clasp.

The girls who appeared in more than one scene had to change their
dresses, and it is impossible to describe the confusion of belongings
then thrown in a vast heap on the floor, or the despair of one young