PETERSFIELD.
OUR GRAND NAVAL REVIEW AND THE EXCURSIONISTS.—Strange causes produce strange effects, even from a Sultan to a peasant, and all the interaliuses, particularly when the weather is concerned, as was evidenced in the thousands ‟big with hope” in the anticipation of seeing the wonders of the grand naval review announced for the day, with the illuminations and fireworks for the night, of Wednesday last, between the Wight and the mainland—regardless of the shadows cast by the watery saint, or even of an assurance from the clerk of the weather office for comfort. Those of our immediate neighbourhood, who were free from the business pursuits of the market, started in early morn, beneath the smiling rays of a too brilliant sun, some by post and private conveyances, and others later by rail, to their respective destinations of almost pitiable position for the day; while others, having passed through the cares of business hours, determined also upon a start, to witness the cherished illuminations of the night. Alas! for the never-to-be-forgotten trials and discomforts from the wind, wet, imprisonment in railway carriages, and, though last not least in the catalogues of misery, the impenetrable hazy mist which overhung and intervened so as to completely shut out from vision the gratifying sight of the grand illuminations and fireworks in the air above, and on the waters below. Various doleful and amusing little episodes have come to our knowledge, which we purposely abstain from individualising, believing that ‟sufficient for the day was the evil thereof;” yet we must not refrain from stating that, in addition to those who ‟weathered the storm” throughout the day upon the shores of the Solent, some others of our fellow-townsmen, who had proceeded by rail later, were not allowed to leave their carriages till the return carriages were ready to take them back from whence they came. Others proceeded by postal conveyances to the high ground of Portsdown-hill, where they exposed themselves to see nothing but a ‟Will-o’-the-Wisp” glimmer of but two rockets through the mist; and, furthermore, others obtained guinea tickets to steam away in ships that did not appear, making bad worse, and tempting us to exclaim ‟O tempora! O mores!”