""be Optttator" Yanuarp 3rb, l832.
CHRISTMAS SIGHTS
THE Christmas season of 1851 has not been very fruitful in novelties in that department of supply which is the more special demand of the time. The Panoramas, Dioramas, Cycloramas, Polyoramas, Cosmoramas, Diaphoramas, and what not, are in the ascendant ; the hold of this form of entertainment upon sightseers is evidently growing firmer year by year .
If art is wanted, there is the gallery in Pall Mall, with its " sketches and drawings " to resort to : if mesmerism, with a problem to solve, M. Lassaigne and Madamoiselle Prudence Bernard at Hungerford Hall ; if electro-biology, the lectures and experiments of the Reverend Theophilus Fiske, in Leicester Square . . . If a real undeniable money's worth is in request, you will find the Zoological Gardens in Regent'S-Park still pleasant, in spite of January—the hippopotamus and ourang- outang holding levee from eleven to four.
And, while adverting to the animal kingdom, let us not, through any party-spirit in favour of the larger collection or of mammalia in particular, omit all notice of the allurements—(tor which, however, personal experience has not enabled us to vouch)—of certain so-advertised protegees of the Emperor Nicholas, domiciled at No. 5 Leicester Square—" Herr Leider- droph's industrious and learned fleas." Here do " fleas of all nations give their astonishing performances " ; here they " fire cannon and boat-race " ; and here are -lo be contemplated " Kossuth on an Austrian flea, and Louis Napoleon on a Russian flea."
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