1848—Sermon by the Very Rev. the Dean of Worcester. Mdlle. Jenny Lind had promised to take a part at this festival, but Mr. Lumley compelled her to break her engagement, and she was actually singing at Birmingham on the first day of the Worcester meeting; notwithstanding this, the festival was one of the most successful, in point of attendance, which has ever been held at either of the three cities. On the first morning at least 1,500 people were present in the nave of the Cathedral, and at the last concert in the College Hall it is computed that 1,100 persons were crammed into the room. There were this year four morning performances; the oratorios performed entire being the _Elijah_ and _Messiah_, with selections from _Palestine_, _Creation_, and _Engedi_. In the evenings parts of Mendelssohn’s _Midsummer Night’s Dream_, Haydn’s _Seasons_, and Weber’s _Oberon_ were performed, with miscellaneous selections. The principal vocalists were—Mdlle. Alboni, Madame Castellan, the Misses Williams, and Miss Dolby; Mr. Sims Reeves, Signor Lablache, Mr. Lockey, Mr. Robinson, and Mr. Machin. The amount collected for the charity was £960, and the receipts by sale of tickets reached £3,080; yet the expense attaching to the engagement of the “stars” was so great that the loss was very considerable. NATURAL PHENOMENA. IT is altogether beyond the province of this work to enter into any detail of the scientific peculiarities of the county of Worcester; but it would have been very satisfactory to have been able to have recorded here—besides those isolated disturbances of nature’s more ordinary course, which arrest the attention of indifferent spectators—the results of observations made by competent persons which might have formed the basis of a county meteorology. But, in truth, none such exist; excepting in the daily memoranda of one or two gentlemen extending over only a very few years, there are no data for arriving at any conclusions on the subject. As the members of the medical profession and the scientific agriculturist become increasingly alive to the important part which atmosphere and electricity play in the conditions of animal and vegetable life, the want of such tables will be severely felt. The city of Worcester itself stands but thirty-six feet above the level of the sea; and, from its peculiar position, its temperature is generally higher than that of the surrounding country or of the kingdom generally. Though Worcestershire may be considered as the central county of England, and consequently the most inland, yet we have our fair share of rain, and perhaps even more than an average quantity. Such observations as could be procured on this point will be found in the Appendix. The principal part of our rain, and the greater number of storms that visit us, come from the S.W., and the prevailing wind is also from that quarter. In some parts of the year it may be matter for every day observation to