Cirrus@Austlit

An advertisement for a 'farewell demonstration to Grace Egerton' at the Prince of Wales Opera House on 28 August 1868. The advertisement includes a list of distinguished patrons who will be in attendance; the list includes Henry Parkes, Edward Deas Thomson and William Bede Dalley, together with 'many of the leading families in Sydney'.

In addition to Egerton's items, the evening includes a performance of Elizabeth St George's A Handsome Husband, a scene from James Sheridan Knowles's The Hunchback and the 'pretty comedietta' The Sentinel (possibly John Maddison Morton's The Female Sentinel).

An advertisement for William Gourlay's 'Mrs M'Gregor's Levee', to be produced at the Temperance Hall, Pitt Street, Sydney, on 25, 26 and 28 August 1868.

An advertisement, probably placed by Samuel Bennett (sole proprietor, printer and publisher of the Empire), for the sale of a single cylinder printing machine. The sale is being offered 'to make room for a new machine daily expected from England'.

The Empire reinforces advertising carried in its pages (see 'Farewell Demonstration to Grace Egerton') by drawing attention to Grace Egerton's 'complimentary and farewell demonstration' at the Prince of Wales Opera House, Sydney, 28 August 1868.

A brief column noting the 27 August 1868 Prince of Wales Opera House production of George Henry Lewes's The Game of Speculation and William Bayle Bernard's His Last Legs. The performance was a benefit for the Oddfellows' Hall Building Fund, but the Empire reports that while 'the performances were good, ... the attendance was bad'.

'T. H. Price has received instructions to sell the valuable library of the Rev. S. Bromley by public auction'. The advertisement for the sale states the books have been 'selected with the refined taste and critical acumen of a man of letters, are in excellent condition, and comprise standard editions of the classics, the works of eminent divines, treatises on history, biographical sketches, poetry, dissertations and disquisitions on philosophical and scientific subjects, and various productions of his own pen, chiefly in manuscript. The collection contains about 300 volumes.'