Sorry for the lateness of this post, but I was in a meeting all day and playing cricket in the evening.

 The clues in this puzzle read like a poem in rhyming couplets, and it works for most of the clues.
ACROSS

7 INFORMER - only word that makes sense, although I can’t see the wordplay beyond IN=”trendy”. (Thanks, Muck, for pointing out “at first”=FORMER)

8 RA(IS)IN - “into every life a little rain must fall”

10 ACHE - hidden in “preACHEr”

12 RIGHTS - homophone of RITES, with “mysteries” as the definition.

17 OSBERT - (sorbet)*

20 (<=SID)TASTE

22 MI(DD)LE

23 BEAR GARDEN - (a drab green)* I don’t think I have come across “cloak” as an anagrind before.

24 SAME - double def, although not much difference between the two defs.

25 BANANA - a banana skin is a potentially humiliating situation, I suppose

26 R(ALLY)ING
DOWN

1 (<=CONK)KING

4 WRINKLES - “valuable hints”, anyone?  (see comment from Simply Simon below)

5 GIRLFRIEND - (rider fling)*

6 (<=TIS)SUE

13 HEART-BREAK - “Heartbreak House” a play written by George Bernard Shaw, published in 1919

16 CAST-AWAY - liked this clue

18 TE(LEMAN)N - LEMAN is an archaic word for “sweetheart” or “love”, and Georg Philipp Telemann was a German composer of operas, active in the early 18th century.

19 REDDER - “upstairs downstairs” indicating a palindrome

21 ICE-CAP

22 MANILA - (animal)*

Solving Time: 18 mins 

Due to my odd sleeping patterns with my illness, I get to solve most of the daily puzzles, and I came to Virgilius after tackling The Guardian, Times and FT and I have to say I was feeling pretty deflated.  I thought the Times was OK, but the other two were dull.  My mood didn’t lift when I saw the grid.  I hate grids with “double unches” (adjacent unchecked spaces) as it means it’s tougher  to solve.  This particular grid comprises 24 eight letter words (Eeach one with a double unch)and two fifteen-letter words, that’s all.  However, when I saw it was a Virgilius I perked up.   Good witty clues that are entertaining to solve.

 ACROSS  *= Anagram (CD) =  Cryptic definition  (r) = Reversal

1 CHOP CHOP    Double definition

9 RELATIVE     Double definition

10 ATROPINE   A + PROTEIN*

11 SATANICAL   Great clue which works on so many levels.  nice & lit anag of AIN’T MASS

12 DAMOCLES   Check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damocles for the story if you haven’t heard of this chap.

13 CHILDREN   DR inside CHILE +N

14 BROAD MINDEDNESS  (CD) Tolerant travellers would exhibit B Road Mindedness.

20 ADELAIDE   LAID inside A DEE

21 RECKONED  Virgilius Loves to hide the most unlikely words, and this held me up for a couple of minutes looking how this worked!

22  SURPLICE  SURE holding CLIP*

23 NOBLEMEN  NO (Small number) + L inside B + EM + EN (Printing Measures)

24 ATLANTIC    ATTIC with LAN (a lot of land) inside

25 ETERNITY   Another clever clue  ENTIRE* + T + Y

 DOWN

2 HOT WATER  (CD)

3  PROFORMA  PROF + OR + MA

4 HEIRLOOM  HE + I + L in ROOM

5 PRESS CONFERENCE   Another nice clue.  A conference is a type of Pear.

6 MANACLED  A NaCl (Salt!) inside MED

7 FILIGREE  GIRLIE* inside FE (Iron)

8 TERMINUS  If you studied at Yale, you’d have spent a TERM IN (the) U.S.  Pause for groan!! 

14 BRASS HAT    BRASS (Players as in orchestra) + HAT (Bowler)

16 DRAWLING  DRAW + LING

17 EDUCABLE  BAD CLUE +E*

18 NAPOLEON  N+ A POLE + ON

19 SEVEREST   S + EVEREST