”The Moon”, on November the 25th, in the rooms of the Mechanics Institution, had her phases, her existence as an object of heathen worship, her comparative dimensions, her distance from the earth, her motional deviations, her degree of heat and light, her geographical and geological conditions, and her alleged weather influence, all described in an interesting lecture by the Rev. T. Harding, Wesleyan minister to a numerous audience.
“Poets in Action” received able treatment in a lecture delivered on the 5th of December by Mr. Saunders at the Mechanics’ Institution. The lecturer contended that poets instead of being “dreamers” merely as some persons supposed, had supplied some of the most energetic and useful men in every branch of life. This avowal was followed by many examples.
The Poetry of Wordsworth was descanted on by the Rev W. R. Jones, as a closing lecture of the ante-Christmas session of the Mechanics’ Institution, on the 16th of December.
The Waldegrave Memorial.
On page 125 is given a short description of the stained glass window, as it left the hands of its designer and manufacturer. Since then it has been put in its place and a fuller account of the work is here extracted from the Hastings News, of Friday, March 29th:- The beautiful stained glass window in the chancel of All Saints’ church, designed to commemorate the memory of the late beloved and lamented Earl Waldegrave and his connection with this ancient borough, was finished on Saturday last, and the congregations attending the Lent services, as well as the numerous visitors, have unanimously expressed their admiration of this skilled production of an English artist. The subject at a first view commands immediate attention, and a closer inspection serves only to show the exquisite nicety of every detail, and to elicit the highest encomiums upon the refined taste and thoughtful genius which could conceive and execute such a delightful specimen of man’s handiwork as is here shewn. The grouping of the figures; the extremely natural expression of remorse, repentance, overwhelming grief, pity, curiosity, wonder, stoicism, and triumphant cynicism depicted on the countenances of the thirty figures contained in the design; the naturalness and beauty of the colours; the gorgeousness of the draping, and the truthfulness of the subordinate points; all combine to endorse the opinion of a writer well qualified to speak with authority, that “It is altogether a work of high art, and is as original in conception as it is effective and beautiful in execution”. ....The colours are based on metallic bodies, and being incorporated with the molten fabric are of the same enduring character as those early foreign specimens of ornamental glass which are distributed - spar-
