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VIEW OF BUILDING FROM THE NORTH.

THE
PALACE AND PARK:
ITS
NATURAL HISTORY,
AND ITS
PORTRAIT GALLERY,
TOGETHER WITH
A DESCRIPTION OF THE POMPEIAN COURT.

IN THE UNDERMENTIONED GUIDES:

[1]. PALACE AND PARK;

[2]. PORTRAIT GALLERY;

[4]. EXTINCT ANIMALS;

[5]. POMPEIAN COURT;

[3]. ETHNOLOGY & NATURAL HISTORY.

CRYSTAL PALACE LIBRARY,
CRYSTAL PALACE, SYDENHAM.
1859.

GUIDE
TO THE
CRYSTAL PALACE
AND ITS
Park and Gardens.

By SAMUEL PHILLIPS.

A NEWLY ARRANGED AND ENTIRELY REVISED EDITION,

By F. K. J. SHENTON.

WITH NEW PLANS AND ILLUSTRATIONS, AND AN INDEX OF
PRINCIPAL OBJECTS.

CRYSTAL PALACE LIBRARY;
CRYSTAL PALACE, SYDENHAM.
1859.

LONDON:
ROBERT K. BURT, PRINTER,
HOLBORN HILL.

PART I.

PRELIMINARY AND INTRODUCTION.

Note.—This Division of the Guide-Book contains the [Index to Principal Objects]; and the [Company’s Official Announcements]; with the [Refreshment Tariff]; an [Introduction to the General Guide-book]; and an [Account of the Building].

ADVERTISEMENT.

The arrangement of the present edition has been made with the view of simplifying, as much as possible, the reference to particular objects; as well as of enabling the visitor to regularly explore with advantage every portion of the Crystal Palace. The splendid Botanical Collection, now thoroughly acclimatised, and very complete, is described as fully as the nature of the book will permit.

PREFACE TO ORIGINAL EDITION.

The following pages are presented to the public as a brief but connected and carefully prepared account of the exterior and interior of the Crystal Palace. It is believed that no important or interesting object in connexion with the Exhibition is without its record in this little volume; although, in so vast a collection of works of architecture, sculpture, and industrial manufacture, it is clearly impossible to compress within the limits of a General Hand-book all the information which is necessary to satisfy the visitor desirous of precise and accurate knowledge of the numberless objects offered to his contemplation.

A general and comprehensive view of the Crystal Palace will unquestionably be obtained by the perusal of the present manual. The Hand-books of the respective departments will supply all the detailed information necessary to fill in the broad and rapidly drawn outlines. In them, Literature will faithfully serve as the handmaiden to Art, and complete the great auxiliary work of education which it is the first aim of the Crystal Palace to effect.

These Hand-books are published at prices varying from three-pence to eighteen-pence, according to the size of the volume. The lowest possible price has been affixed to one and all. It may be fearlessly asserted that books containing the same amount of entertainment, information, and instruction, it would be difficult to purchase at a more reasonable rate elsewhere.

PRINTED BY R. K. BURT, HOLBORN HILL, CITY.

[Large map.]

CONVEYANCE BY ROAD AND RAIL.

The trains start punctually from the London Bridge and Pimlico Stations at the times advertised in the official bills to be found in various parts of the building; but special trains are put on always as occasion may require.

The shortest route from London, by carriage, will be found marked on the accompanying [map]. The ordinary entrances from the road are at the South and Central Transepts. Entrances are also provided opposite Sydenham Church, and at the bottom of the Park, below the Grand Lake and Extinct Animals.

Omnibuses leave Gracechurch Street for the Crystal Palace at intervals from 10 in the morning. An omnibus also leaves the Paddington Station at a quarter to 11 A.M. Also one from the Kings and Key, Fleet Street, at 12 o’clock, and one from the Green Man, Oxford Street, at the same time. Omnibuses leave the City for Camberwell every 10 minutes. Conveyance can also be procured from Peckham and Clapham. On fête days omnibuses run at frequent intervals, at times according to the season.

Crystal Palace and Lower Norwood to Oxford Street, viâ Norwood, Brixton Road, Elephant and Castle, Westminster Road, Whitehall, Waterloo Place, and Regent Street—(c) green; (m) Norwood. From Crystal Palace, week days only, 8.30, 10.25, A.M., 2.20, 5.15, 6.30, 7.10, 8.45, P.M. From King’s Head, Norwood, week days, 8.55, 9.55, 10.50, A.M., 12.55, 1.50, 2.50, 4.5, 5.35, 7.35, 9.15, P.M. Sundays, 9.40, 10.50, A.M., 1.0, 1.40, 2.10, 4.20, 5.50, 7.20, 8.10, 9.35, P.M. From New Church, Tulse Hill, week days, 9.5, 10.5, 11.0, A.M., 1.5, 2.0, 3.0, 4.15, 5.45, 7.15, 9.25, P.M.; Sundays, 9.50, 11.0 A.M., 1.10, 1.50, 2.20, 4.30, 6.0, 7.30, 8.20, 9.45, P.M. From Oxford Street, Regent Circus, week days, 10.0, 11.20, A.M., 12.10, 2.20, 3.10, 4.10, 5.30, 7.0, 8.30, 10.45, P.M.; Sundays, 10.20, 10.50, A.M., 12.0, 2.10, 3.0, 3.30, 5.30, 7.0, 9.30, 10.50, P.M. From Charing Cross, week days, 10.15, 11.35, A.M., 12.25, 2.35, 3.25, 4.25, 5.45, 7.15, 8.45, 11.0, P.M.; Sundays, 10.35, 11.5, A.M., 12.15, 2.25, 3.15, 3.45, 5.45, 7.15, 9.45, 11.5, P.M. Fares, Upper Norwood to Kennington Gate, Charing Cross, or Oxford Street, 1s.; Cemetery, Lower Norwood, and Oxford Street, 1s.; ditto, ditto, Charing Cross, 9d.; ditto, ditto, Kennington Gate, 6d.

A complete system of omnibus conveyance has been established by the London General Omnibus Company between the following districts and the Crystal Palace Railway Station at London Bridge:—Hammersmith, Putney, Brompton, Paddington, Bayswater, St. John’s Wood, Holloway, Hornsey Road, Islington, Kingsland, Hoxton, Newington Causeway, and Kent Road.

Crystal Palace Company.
OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS.

SEASON TICKETS.

FIRST CLASS.

Two Guineas each for Adults, One Guinea for Children under twelve. To admit the holder on all occasions whatever, excepting the three performances of the Handel Festival.

SECOND CLASS.

One Guinea each for Adults, Half a Guinea each for Children under twelve. To admit the holder on all occasions whatever, excepting the three performances of the Handel Festival, and when the price of admission is Five Shillings, or upwards, on payment of Half a Crown.

The Tickets may be obtained at—

The Crystal Palace;

The Offices of the London and Brighton Railway Company, London Bridge, and Regent Circus, Piccadilly; and at the Stations on the Palace Railways, and various Lines in connection therewith.

The Central Ticket Office, 2, Exeter Hall;

And of the following Agents to the Company:—

Addison & Hollier, Regent-street; W. Austen, Hall-keeper, St. James’s Hall; Cramer, Beale, & Co., 201, Regent-street; Dando, Todhunter, & Smith, 22, Gresham-street, Bank; Duff & Hodgson, Oxford-street; Gray & Warren, Croydon; M. Hammond & Nephew, 27, Lombard-street; Keith, Prowse, & Co., 48, Cheapside; Letts, Son, & Co., 8, Royal Exchange; Mead & Powell, Railway Arcade, London Bridge; J. Mitchell, 33, Old Bond-street; W. R. Sams, 1, St. James’s-street; W. R. Stephens, 36, Throgmorton-street; Charles Westerton, 20, St. George’s-place, Knightsbridge.

Remittances for Season Tickets to be by Post-office Orders on the General Post-office, payable to George Grove.

RATES OF ADMISSION, RAILWAY ARRANGEMENTS, ETC.

Ordinary Rates of Admission.—These remain as before, viz.:—

On Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays (unless on special occasions) One Shilling.

On Saturdays, Half-a-Crown, unless on special occasions, and excepting those in August, September, and October, when the Price of Admission may be reduced to One Shilling.

Children under 12 Years of Age, Half-Price.

Books, containing 25 admissions for ordinary Shilling days, till the 30th of April, 1860, are issued at the following rates:—

GRAND MILITARY MUSICAL FÊTE.

To commemorate the suppression of the Indian Rebellion. This Fête, which will bring together a larger number of wind instruments than has been before heard together in this country, will take place in the new Orchestra of the Great Handel Festival, on May 2nd.

FLOWER SHOWS.

There will be Flower Shows at the following dates:—

Tickets for the first two Shows will be issued prior to the day of the Show, at the reduced rate of Five Shillings, on the written order of a Season Ticket-holder.

OPERA CONCERTS.

The Directors have made arrangements with Mr. Gye for a series of Six Grand Concerts, to be supported by the artistes of the Royal Italian Opera, Covent Garden. These Concerts are fixed to take place on—

SATURDAY PROMENADES AND SECOND SERIES OF CONCERTS.

During the period embraced by the Concerts of the Royal Italian Opera Company the Saturday Promenades will be continued as during last Season, admission Half-a-crown.

After the conclusion of that series, it is proposed to combine the Concert and Promenade on the Saturdays, commencing with the 23rd July, for a Second Series.

For these Concerts the Directors are happy to announce that they have entered into arrangements for the services of some of the most celebrated Artistes, Continental and English, amongst whom will be found several who are highly popular with the public, and who have not yet appeared at the Crystal Palace. The admission to these Concerts will be to Non-Season Ticket-holders Five Shillings.

OTHER MUSICAL ENTERTAINMENTS.

Other Concerts will take place during the Season; and of these due notice will be given. In the meantime the Directors may state that they will be favoured with the co-operation of Mr. Henry Leslie’s Choir: Also that some Grand Performances of Classical Music, on an extensive scale, by the Vocal Association, under the able baton of Mr. Benedict, embracing several novelties, may be looked forward to. It is further announced with pleasure that the Metropolitan Schools Choral Society, numbering among its ranks many thousands of the Children of the National Schools, whose singing last year, conducted by Mr. G. W. Martin, elicited such warm approval, will hold another celebration on Saturday, 11th June; as also will the members of the Tonic Sol-Fa Association, under the same able conduct as before. Another great meeting of the Metropolitan Charity Children is anticipated.

THE SATURDAY WINTER CONCERT

Will be resumed in November, as during the last Season. Every opportunity will be taken to widen the range and increase the attractions of these Concerts, and to add to the convenience of the visitors who attend them. With the latter intention, in obedience to a desire very generally expressed, it has been determined that a limited number of Reserved Seats will be provided at each Concert.

OPEN AIR MUSIC.

Performances of Music by a Band of Wind Instruments in the open air having, during former seasons, afforded much gratification to the Public, it is proposed to resume these performances during the coming Summer months, at frequent intervals, and at such times of the afternoon as will be most convenient for the largest number of Visitors.

LECTURES.

The Lectures delivered by Mr. Pepper during the past Autumn and Winter will be resumed at the end of the Summer Season, and no exertions will be spared to make them efficient and interesting.

THE GREAT HANDEL FESTIVAL.

The dates of each performance will be as follows:—

The Great Orchestra is 216 feet wide, with a central depth of 100 feet; and will contain on the occasion nearly 4,000 performers.

PARK, GROUNDS, AND OUT-DOOR AMUSEMENTS.

These will continue to receive the attention of the Directors. The Cricket Ground is rising into public favour, and is becoming the resort of several clubs of importance; a Rifle Ground, a Bowling Green, and a Gymnasium of approved construction, are now added to it.

CRYSTAL PALACE ART-UNION.

The detailed plan and arrangements of this Institution are set forth in the official statement issued by the Council, which may be obtained on application at the Company’s proper offices.

EXCURSIONS.

Benevolent Societies, Schools, and other large bodies may visit the Palace at the following reduced rates:—applying only to Shilling Days and Third-class Carriages.

Parties wishing to arrange for Refreshments, must apply at the Palace, to Mr. F. Strange, who is prepared to make a reduction in favour of large parties, according to the kind of Refreshment desired.

⁂ When the Excursion consists mainly, or in part, of Children, it is requested that the persons in charge of them will prevent their touching any works of Fine Art in the Courts, or gathering leaves or flowers in or out of the building. Considerable damage has frequently been thus done by children, and serious noise and annoyance is caused by their running along the galleries, or playing boisterously—a practice which it is desirable to stop.

BATH CHAIRS.

Wheel-chairs for invalids and others, may be hired in the building on the following terms:—

The principal stand is near the entrance to the building, from the railways. Visitors can also be conveyed by these chairs to any hotel or residence in Sydenham or Norwood.

Crystal Palace, May, 1859.

THE REFRESHMENT DEPARTMENT.

The various Saloons and Dining Rooms allotted for the Refreshment Department are all situated at the South End of the Palace, but branch stations for light refreshments will be found in various convenient positions throughout the building, and on special occasions requiring it, in the grounds. Mr. Frederick Strange is the lessee of the whole department.

THE SALOON

is entered at the right-hand corner of the extreme South End of the Palace, and is richly carpeted and decorated, and fitted with every elegant convenience. The very highest class of entertainment is served here to due notice and order.

Hot Dinners—Soups, Fish, Entrées, &c., &c.—to order at a few minutes’ notice. Price as per detailed Carte.

The authorised charge for attendance is 3d. each person.

THE DINING ROOM

is on the left of the Saloon.

SOUTH WING DINING ROOM.

The South Wing Dining Room is entered at the left-hand corner of the extreme South End of the Palace, as the Saloon is at the right-hand. It is the most spacious dining hall of the kind in England, and is constructed entirely of glass and iron. The end and the long façade next the gardens are fitted for the whole extent with magnificent plate glass (which can be opened at convenience), commanding, from the dinner tables, a perfect view of the Terraces, Fountains, the Gardens, and the great prospect of rich landscape beyond. The dishes are served direct from the kitchen by a special covered tramway.

THE TERRACE DINING ROOM

is entered from the garden end of the South Transept, near to the entrance from the Railways. The front, toward the garden, is glass, giving a view of the terraces and grounds. Cold dinners only are served in this room.

THE THIRD CLASS ROOMS

are situated near the Railway Colonnade, in the lower story of the South Wing, and near the staircase at the end of the Machinery Department.

GENERAL TARIFF.

⁂ In case of any complaint against Waiters, Visitors are requested to report the circumstance, together with the number of the Waiter, at the Office of Mr. Strange. Waiters are not allowed to receive any gratuity.

INDEX
TO THE PRINCIPAL OBJECTS OF INTEREST IN THE
CRYSTAL PALACE, ITS GARDENS AND PARK, AT SYDENHAM,
As described or named in the General Guide-Book.

INTRODUCTION.

The [map] of the routes to the Crystal Palace will enable the visitor to ascertain the shortest and least troublesome way of reaching the Palace from the various parts of the great metropolis and its environs. The railway communication is by the London and Brighton, and the West End Railways, which serve as the great main lines for the conveyance of visitors by rail from London to the Palace doors.

We will presume that the visitor has taken his railway ticket, which, for his convenience, includes admission within the Palace, and that his twenty minutes’ journey has commenced. Before he alights, and whilst his mind is still unoccupied by the wonders that are to meet his eye, we take the opportunity to relate, as briefly as we can, the History of the Crystal Palace, from the day upon which the Royal Commissioners assembled within its transparent walls to declare their great and successful mission ended, until the 10th of June, 1854, when reconstructed, and renewed and beautified in all its proportions, it again opened its wide doors to continue and confirm the good it had already effected in the nation and beyond it.

It will be remembered that the destination of the Great Exhibition building occupied much public attention towards the close of 1851, and that a universal regret prevailed at the threatened loss of a structure which had accomplished so much for the improvement of the national taste, and which was evidently capable, under intelligent direction, of effecting so very much more. A special commission even had been appointed for the purpose of reporting on the different useful purposes to which the building could be applied, and upon the cost necessary to carry them out. Further discussion on the subject, however, was rendered unnecessary by the declaration of the Home Secretary, on the 25th of March, 1852, that Government had determined not to interfere in any way with the building, which accordingly remained, according to previous agreement, in the hands of Messrs. Fox and Henderson, the builders and contractors. Notwithstanding the announcement of the Home Secretary, a last public effort towards rescuing the Crystal Palace for its original site in Hyde Park, was made by Mr. Heywood in the House of Commons, on the 29th of April. But Government again declined the responsibility of purchasing the structure, and Mr. Heywood’s motion was, by a large majority, lost.

It was at this juncture that Mr. Leech,[1] a private gentleman, conceived the idea of rescuing the edifice from destruction, and of rebuilding it on some appropriate spot, by the organisation of a private company. On communicating this view to his partner, Mr. Farquhar, he received from him a ready and cordial approval. They then submitted their project to Mr. Francis Fuller, who entering into their views, undertook and arranged, on their joint behalf, a conditional purchase from Messrs. Fox and Henderson, of the Palace as it stood. In the belief that a building, so destined, would, if erected on a metropolitan line of railway, greatly conduce to the interests of the line, and that communication by railway was essential for the conveyance thither of great masses from London, Mr. Farquhar next suggested to Mr. Leo Schuster, a Director of the Brighton Railway, that a site for the new Palace should be selected on the Brighton line. Mr. Schuster, highly approving of the conception, obtained the hearty concurrence of Mr. Laing, the Chairman of the Brighton Board, and of his brother Directors, for aiding as far as possible in the prosecution of the work. And, accordingly, these five gentlemen, and their immediate friends determined forthwith to complete the purchase of the building. On the 24th of May, 1852, the purchase-money was paid, and a few English gentlemen became the owners of the Crystal Palace of 1851. Their names follow:—

Original Purchasers of the Building.

[1] Of the firm of Johnston, Farquhar, and Leech, Solicitors.

It will hardly be supposed that these gentlemen had proceeded thus far without having distinctly considered the final destination of their purchase. They decided that the building—the first wonderful example of a new style of architecture—should rise again greatly enhanced in grandeur and beauty; that it should form a Palace for the multitude, where, at all times, protected from the inclement varieties of our climate, healthful exercise and wholesome recreation should be easily attainable. To raise the enjoyments and amusements of the English people, and especially to afford to the inhabitants of London, in wholesome country air, amidst the beauties of nature, the elevating treasures of art, and the instructive marvels of science, an accessible and inexpensive substitute for the injurious and debasing amusements of a crowded metropolis;—to blend for them instruction with pleasure, to educate them by the eye, to quicken and purify their taste by the habit of recognising the beautiful;—to place them amidst the trees, flowers, and plants of all countries and of all climates, and to attract them to the study of the natural sciences, by displaying their most interesting examples;—and making known all the achievements of modern industry, and the marvels of mechanical manufactures;—such were some of the original intentions of the first promoters of this national undertaking.

Having decided upon their general design, and upon the scale on which it should be executed, the Directors next proceeded to select the officers to whom the carrying out of the work should be entrusted. Sir Joseph Paxton, the inventive architect of the great building in Hyde Park,was requested to accept the office of Director of the Winter Garden, Park, and Conservatory, an office of which the duties became subsequently much more onerous and extensive than the title implies. Mr. Owen Jones and Mr. Digby Wyatt, who had distinguished themselves by their labours in the old Crystal Palace, accepted the duties of Directors of the Fine Art Department, and of the decorations of the new structure. Mr. Charles Wild, the engineer of the old building, filled the same office in the new one. Mr. Grove, the secretary of the Society of Arts, the parent institution of the Exhibition of 1851, was appointed Secretary. Mr. Samuel Phillips was made Director of the Literary Department. Mr. Francis Fuller, a member of the Hyde Park Executive Committee, accepted the duties of Managing Director, Mr. Samuel Laing, M.P., the chairman of the Brighton Railway Company, became Chairman also of the New Crystal Palace, and Messrs. Fox and Henderson undertook the re-erection of the building.

With these arrangements, a Company was formed, under the name of the Crystal Palace Company, and a prospectus issued, announcing the proposed capital of £500,000, in one hundred thousand shares of £5 each. The following gentlemen constituted the Board of Directors:—

The present Board is constituted as follows:—

It will ever be mentioned to the credit of the English people, that within a fortnight after the issue of the Company’s prospectus the shares were taken up to an extent that gave the Directors ample encouragement to proceed vigorously with their novel and gigantic undertaking.

In the prospectus it was proposed to transfer the building to Sydenham, in Kent, and the site chosen was an irregular parallelogram of three hundred acres,[2] extending from the Brighton Railway to the road which forms the boundary of the Dulwich Wood at the top of the hill, the fall from which to the railway is two hundred feet. It was at once felt that the summit of this hill was the only position, in all the ground, for the great glass building: a position which, on the one side, commands a beautiful view of the fine counties of Surrey and Kent, and on the other a prospect of the great metropolis. This site was chosen, and we doubt whether a finer is to be found so close to London, and so easy of access by means of railway. To facilitate the conveyance of passengers, the Brighton Railway Company—under special and mutually advantageous arrangements—undertook to lay down a new line of rails between London and Sydenham, to construct a branch from the Sydenham station to the Crystal Palace garden, and to build a number of engines sufficiently powerful to draw heavy trains up the steep incline to the Palace.

[2] A portion of this land, not required for the purposes of the Palace, has been disposed of.

And now the plans were put into practical and working shape. The building was to gain in strength and artistic effect, whilst the contents of the mighty structure were to be most varied. Art was to be worthily represented by Architecture and Sculpture. Architectural restorations were to be made, and Architectural specimens from the most remarkable edifices throughout the world, to be collected, in order to present a grand architectural sequence from the earliest dawn of the art down to the latest times. Casts of the most celebrated works of Sculpture were to be procured: so that within the glass walls might be seen a vast historical gallery of this branch of art, from the time of the ancient Egyptians to our own era. Nature, also, was to put forth her beauty throughout the Palace and Grounds. A magnificent collection of plants of every land was to adorn the glass structure within, whilst in the gardens the fountains of Versailles were to be outrivalled, and Englishmen at length enabled to witness the water displays which for years had proved a source of pleasure and recreation to foreigners in their own countries. Nor was this all. All those sciences, an acquaintance with which is attainable through the medium of the eye, were allotted their specific place, and Geology, Ethnology, and Zoology were taken as best susceptible of illustration; Professor Edward Forbes, Dr. Latham, Professor Ansted, Mr. Waterhouse, Mr. Gould, and other gentlemen well known in the scientific world, undertaking to secure the material basis upon which the intellectual service was to be grounded. To prevent the monotony that attaches to a mere museum arrangement, in which glass cases are ordinarily the most prominent features, the whole of the collected objects, whether of science, art, or nature, were to be arranged in picturesque groupings, and harmony was to reign throughout. To give weight to their proceedings, and to secure lasting advantage to the public, a charter was granted by Lord Derby’s Government on the 28th of January, 1853, binding the Directors and their successors to preserve the high moral and social tone which, from the outset, they had assumed for their National Institution.

The building paid for, the officers retained, the plans put on paper—Messrs. Fox and Henderson received instructions to convey the Palace to its destined home at Sydenham, and the work of removal now commenced. The first column of the new structure was raised by Mr. Laing, M.P., the Chairman of the Company, on the 5th August, 1852; the works were at once proceeded with, and the most active and strenuous efforts thenceforth made towards the completion of the undertaking. Shortly after the erection of the first column, Messrs. Owen Jones and Digby Wyatt were charged with a mission to the Continent, in order to procure examples of the principal works of art in Europe. They were fortified by Lord Malmesbury, then Secretary of State, with letters to the several ambassadors on their route, expressing the sympathy of the Government in the object of their travels, and backed by the liberal purse of the Company, who required, for themselves, only that the collection should prove worthy of the nation for which they were caterers.

The travellers first of all visited Paris, and received the most cordial co-operation of the Government, and of the authorities at the Museum of the Louvre, and the Ecole des Beaux Arts. The permission to obtain casts of any objects which could with safety be taken was at once accorded them. From Paris they proceeded to Italy, and thence to Germany, in both which countries they experienced, generally, a ready and generous compliance with their wishes. At Munich they received especial attention, and were most kindly assisted by the British Ambassador, and the architect Baron von Klenze, through whose instrumentality and influence King Louis permitted casts of the most choice objects in the Glyptothek for the first time to be taken.

The chief exceptions to the general courtesy were at Rome, Padua, and Vienna. At the first-named city every arrangement had been made for procuring casts of the great Obelisk of the Lateran, the celebrated antique equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius on the Capitol, the beautiful monuments by Andrea Sansovino in the Church of S. M. del Popolo, the interesting bas-reliefs from the Arch of Titus, and other works, when an order from the Papal Government forbade the copies to be taken: and, accordingly, for the present, our collection, as regards these valuable subjects, is incomplete.

At Padua contracts had been made for procuring that masterpiece of Renaissance art, the candelabrum of Riccio, the entire series of bronzes by Donatello, and several other important works in the Church of St. Anthony; but, in spite of numerous appeals, aided by the influence of Cardinal Wiseman, the capitular authorities refused their consent.

At Vienna agreements had been entered into for procuring a most important series of monuments from the Church of St Stephen, in that city; including the celebrated stone pulpit, and the monument of Frederic III. A contract had also been made for obtaining a cast of the grand bronze statue of Victory, at Brescia; but although the influence of Lord Malmesbury and Lord Westmoreland (our ambassador at Vienna) was most actively exerted, permission was absolutely refused by the Austrian authorities in Lombardy, as well as in Vienna itself. Thus much it is necessary to state in order to justify the Directors of the Crystal Palace in the eyes of the world for omissions in their collection which hitherto they have not had power to make good. They are not without hope, however, that the mere announcement of these deficiencies will be sufficient to induce the several Governments to take a kindly view of the requests that have been made to them, and to participate in the satisfaction that follows every endeavour to advance human enjoyment.

In England, wherever application has been made, permission—with one exception—has been immediately granted by the authorities, whether ecclesiastical or civil, to take casts of any monuments required. The one interesting exception deserves a special record. The churchwardens of Beverley Minster, Yorkshire, enjoy the privilege of being able to refuse a cast of the celebrated Percy Shrine, the most complete example of purely English art in our country; and in spite of the protestations of the Archbishop of York, the Duke of Northumberland, Archdeacon Wilberforce, Sir Charles Barry and others, half the churchwardens in question insist, to this hour, upon their right to have their enjoyment without molestation. The visitors to the Crystal Palace cannot therefore, as yet, see the Percy Shrine.

Whilst Messrs. Jones and Wyatt were busy abroad, the authorities were no less occupied at home. Sir Joseph Paxton commenced operations by securing for the Company the extensive and celebrated collection of palms and other plants, brought together with the labour of a century, by Messrs. Loddiges, of Hackney. The valuable assistance of Mr. Fergusson and Mr. Layard, M.P., was obtained for the erection of a Court to illustrate the architecture of the long-buried buildings of Assyria; and a large space in the Gardens was devoted to illustrating the Geology of the antediluvian period, and exhibiting specimens of the gigantic animals living before the flood.

As soon as the glass structure was sufficiently advanced, the valuable productions of art which Messrs. Jones and Wyatt had acquired abroad rapidly arrived, and being received into the building, the erection of the Fine Art Courts commenced. To carry out these works, artisans of almost every continental nation, together with workmen of our own country, were employed; and it is worthy of note, that although, but a few years before, many of the nations to which these men belonged were engaged in deadly warfare against each other, and some of them opposed to our own country, yet, in the Crystal Palace, these workmen laboured for months, side by side, with the utmost good feeling, and without the least display of national jealousy.

To the whole of these workmen, foreigners and English, engaged in the Crystal Palace, the Directors are anxious to express their obligations and sincere acknowledgments. They recognise the value of their labours, and are fully aware that, if to the minds of a Few the public are indebted for the conception of the grand Idea now happily realised, to the Many we owe its practical existence. Throughout the long and arduous toil, they exhibited—allowance being made for some slight and perhaps unavoidable differences—an amount of zeal, steadiness, and intelligence which does honour to them, and to the several nations which they represent. To all—their due! If the creations of the mind stand paramount in our estimation, let appropriate honour be rendered to the skill of hand and eye, which alone can give vitality and form to our noblest conceptions. Of the advantages attendant on the erection of the Crystal Palace, even before the public were admitted to view its contents, none was more striking than the education it afforded to those who took part in its production. For the first time in England, hundreds of men received practical instruction—in a national Fine Art School—from which society must derive a lasting benefit. It is not too much to hope that each man will act as a missionary of art and ornamental industry, in whatever quarter his improved faculties may hereafter be required.

At one time during the progress of the works as many as 6,400 men were engaged in carrying out the designs of the Directors. Besides the labours already mentioned, Mr. B. Waterhouse Hawkins, in due time, took possession of a building in the grounds, and was soon busily employed, under the eye of Professor Owen, in the reproduction of those animal creations of a past age, our acquaintance with which has hitherto been confined to fossil remains. Dr. Latham was engaged in designing and giving instructions for the modelling of figures to illustrate the Ethnological department, whilst Mr. Waterhouse and Mr. Gould, aided by Mr. Thomson, as superintendent, and Mr. Bartlett, as taxidermist, were collecting and grouping valuable specimens of birds and animals to represent the science of Zoology. Towards the exhibition of the articles of industry, six architects were commissioned to erect special courts for the reception of the principal manufactures, and agents were employed in various parts of England to receive the applications of intending exhibitors.

Such are a few of the operations that for the first few months went forward in, and in respect of, the Crystal Palace; and, excepting by those whose business it was to watch the progress of the works, no adequate idea can be formed of the busy activity that prevailed within the building and without, or of the marvellous manner in which the various parts of the structure seemed to grow under the hands of the workmen, until it assumed the exquisite proportions which it now possesses. It remains to state that, whereas the parent edifice in Hyde Park rose under the eye and direction of Sir Charles Fox, the present building was constructed under the superintendence of Sir Charles’s partner, the late Mr. Henderson, aided throughout his long and arduous labours by Mr. Cochrane, his intelligent and indefatigable assistant. Mr. William Earee has been the Company’s Clerk of the Works from the raising of the first column, and still occupies that position.

Her Majesty and his Royal Highness the Prince Consort have been, from the first, graciously pleased to express their warmest sympathy with the undertaking, and visited the Palace several times during the progress of the works. In honouring the inauguration of the Palace with her royal presence, her Majesty gave the best proof of the interest she takes in an institution which—like the great structure originated by her Royal Consort—has for its chief object the advancement of civilisation and the welfare of her subjects.[3]

[3] The Queen’s apartments in the Crystal Palace, destined for the reception of her Majesty and his Royal Highness the Prince Consort, when they honour the Exhibition with their presence, have been erected by Messrs. J. G. Crace and Co., in the Italian style. This beautiful suite of apartments, which are placed at the north end of the building, consists of a large entrance vestibule with architectural ornaments, and painted arabesque decorations. A long corridor leads from the vestibule to the several apartments, and is formed into an arched passage by means of circular-headed doorways, before which hang portières, or curtains. To the right of the entrance are two rooms, one appropriated to the ladies-in-waiting, and the other to the equerries; the walls of both being divided into panels, and decorated in the Italian style. On the left are the apartments for the use of her Majesty and the Prince Consort, consisting of a drawing-room and two retiring rooms. The walls of the drawing-room are divided by pilasters, the panels covered with green silk. The cove of the ceiling is decorated with arabesque ornaments.

ACCOUNT OF THE BUILDING.

In taking the structure of the Great Exhibition of 1851—that type of a class of architecture which may fairly be called “Modern English”[4]—as the model for the new building at Sydenham, the projectors found it necessary to make such modifications and improvements as were suggested by the difference between a temporary receiving-house for the world’s industrial wealth, and a permanent Palace of Art and Education, intended for the use of mankind long after its original founders should have passed away. Not only, however, have increased strength and durability been considered, but beauty and artistic effect have come in for a due share of attention. The difference of general aspect between the present Palace and its predecessor is visible at a glance. In the parent edifice, the external appearance, although grand, was monotonous; the long flat roof was broken by only one transept, and the want of an elevation proportionate to the great length of the building was certainly displeasing. In the Sydenham Palace, an arched roof covers the nave—raising it forty-four feet higher than the nave in Hyde Park—and three transepts are introduced into the structure instead of one, the central transept towering into the air, and forming a hall to the Palace of surpassing brilliancy and lightness. A further improvement is the formation of recesses, twenty-four feet deep, in the garden fronts of all the transepts. These throw fine shadows, and take away from the continuous surface of plain glass walls: whilst the whole general arrangement of the exterior—the roofs of the side aisles rising step-like to the circular roof of the nave,—the interposition of low square towers at the junction of the nave and transepts,—the open galleries towards the garden front, the long wings stretching forth on either side—produce a play of light and shade, and break the building into parts, which, without in any way detracting from the grandeur and simplicity of the whole construction, or causing the parts themselves to appear mean or small, present a variety of surface that charms and fully satisfies the eye.

[4] We do not know any name more suitable to express the character of this iron and glass building than that which we have chosen. In Gothic architecture we have named one style “Early English,” and we think we may with equal propriety confer the title of “Modern English” upon the new order, which is essentially the creation of the nineteenth century, and which served to house one of the greatest national displays that England ever attempted—The Great Exhibition of 1851. The erection of the building both of 1851 and of 1854, it may be well to remark, is mainly due to the rapid advances made in this country in the manufactures of glass and iron, substances which with only moderate attention will defy the effects of time. The present structure is capable of enduring longer than the oldest marble or stone architectural monuments of antiquity. The iron, which forms its skeleton or framework, becomes, when painted, the most indestructible of materials, and the entire covering of glass may be renewed again and again without in any way interfering with the construction which it covers.

OPEN GALLERY TOWARDS THE GARDEN FRONT.

Unity in architecture is one of the most requisite and agreeable of its qualities: and certainly no building possesses it in a greater degree than the Crystal Palace. Its design is most simple: one portion corresponds with another; there is no introduction of needless ornament: a simplicity of treatment reigns throughout. Nor is this unity confined to the building. It characterises the contents of the glass structure, and prevails in the grounds. All the component parts of the Exhibition blend, yet all are distinct: and the effect of the admirable and harmonious arrangement is, that all confusion in the vast establishment, within and without, is avoided. “The mighty maze” has not only its plan, but a plan of the most lucid and instructive kind, and the visitor is enabled to examine every court, whether artistic or industrial; every object, whether of nature or of art, in regular order; so that, as in a well-arranged book, he may proceed from subject to subject at his discretion, and derive useful information without the trouble and vexation of working his way through a labyrinth.

All the materials employed in the Exhibition of 1851, with the exception of the glass on the whole roof, and the framing of the transept-roof, have been used in the construction of the Crystal Palace. The general principle of construction, therefore, is identical in the two buildings. The modifications that have taken place, and the reasons that have led to them, have already been stated. Two difficulties, however, which were unknown in Hyde Park, had to be provided against at Sydenham: viz., the loose nature of the soil, and the sloping character of the ground. Means were taken to overcome these difficulties at the very outset of the work. The disadvantage of soil was repaired by the introduction of masses of concrete and brickwork under each column, in order to secure breadth of base and stability of structure. The slanting ground was seized by Sir Joseph Paxton with his usual sagacity, in order to be converted from an obstacle into a positive advantage. The ground ran rapidly down towards the garden, and Sir Joseph accordingly constructed a lower or basement story towards the garden front, by means of which not only increased space was gained, but a higher elevation secured to the whole building, and the noblest possible view. The lower story is sufficiently large to serve as a department for the exhibition of Machinery in Motion, and a very interesting exhibition of Agricultural Implements, which important branches of science and human industry will thus be contemplated apart from other objects. Behind this space, towards the interior of the building, is a capacious horizontal brick shaft, twenty-four feet wide, extending the whole length of the building, and denominated “Sir Joseph Paxton’s Tunnel” ([A]). Leading out of this tunnel are the furnaces and boilers connected with the heating apparatus, together with brick recesses for the stowage of coke. The tunnel itself is connected with the railway, and is used as a roadway for bringing into, and taking from, the Palace all objects of art and of industry; an arrangement that leaves the main floor of the building independent of all such operations. Behind the tunnel, and towards the west, the declivity of the ground is met by means of brick piers of the heights necessary to raise the foundation pieces of the columns to the level at which they rest on the summit of the hill.

The building consists, above the basement floor, of a grand central nave, two side aisles, two main galleries, three transepts, and two wings. It will be remembered, that in Hyde Park an imposing effect was secured by the mere repetition of a column and a girder, which, although striking and simple, was certainly monotonous; and, moreover, in consequence of the great length of the building, the columns and girders succeeded one another so rapidly that the eye had no means of measuring the actual length. At Sydenham, pairs of columns and girders are advanced eight feet into the nave at every seventy-two feet, thus breaking the uniform straight line, and enabling the eye to measure and appreciate the distance.

The building above the level of the floor is entirely of iron and glass, with the exception of a portion at the west front, which is panelled with wood. The whole length of the main building is 1,608 feet, and the wings 574 feet each, making a length of 2,756 feet, which with the 720 feet in the colonnade, leading from the railway station to the wings, gives a total length of 3,476 feet; or nearly three-quarters of a mile of ground covered with a transparent roof of glass.

Visitors are fond of reverting to the old building in Hyde Park, and of comparing it with the present structure; in order to help the comparison, we furnish, side by side, the exact measurements of the two buildings; from which it will be seen that either building exceeds the other, in some of its proportions.

Though not exactly in the direction of the cardinal points, the two ends of the building are generally called north and south, and the two fronts east and west.

The floor consists of boarding one inch and a half thick, laid as in the old building, with half-inch openings between them, and resting on joists, placed two feet apart, seven inches by two and a half inches thick. These joists are carried on sleepers and props eight feet apart. The girders which support the galleries and the roof-work, and carry the brick arches over the basement-floor, are of cast-iron, and are 24 feet in length. The connections between the girders and columns are applied in the same manner as in the building of 1851. The principle of connection was originally condemned by some men of standing in the scientific world; but experience has proved it to be sound and admirable in every respect. The mode of connection is not merely that of resting the girders on the columns in order to support the roofs and galleries, but the top and bottom of each girder are firmly secured to each of the columns, so that the girder preserves the perpendicularity of the column, and secures lateral stiffness to the entire edifice. Throughout the building the visitor will notice, at certain intervals, diagonally placed, rods connected at the crossing, and uniting column with column. These are the diagonal bracings, or the rods provided to resist the action of the wind: they are strong enough to resist any strain that can be brought to bear against them, and are fitted with screwed connections and couplings, so that they can be adjusted with the greatest accuracy. The roof, from end to end, is on the Paxton ridge-and-furrow system, and the glass employed in the roof is ¹⁄₁₃ of an inch in thickness (21 oz. per foot). The discharge of the rain-water is effected by gutters, from which the water is conveyed down the inside of the columns, at the base of which are the necessary outlets leading to the main drains of the building. The first gallery is gained from the ground-floor by means of flights of stairs about 23 feet high; eight such flights being distributed over the building. This gallery is 24 feet wide, and devoted to the exhibition of articles of industry. The upper gallery is 8 feet wide, extending, like the other, round the building; it is gained from the lower gallery, by spiral staircases, of which there are eight. The greater number of these staircases are divided into two flights, each flight being 20 feet high; but in the centre transept the two staircases contain four flights of the same altitude. Round this upper gallery, at the very summit of the nave and transepts, as well as round the ground-floor of the building, are placed louvres, or ventilators, made of galvanised iron. By the opening or closing of these louvres—a service readily performed—the temperature of the Crystal Palace is so regulated that on the hottest day of summer, the dry parching heat mounts to the roof to be dismissed, whilst a pure and invigorating supply is introduced at the floor in its place, giving new life to the thirsty plant and fresh vigour to man. The coolness thus obtained within the Palace will be sought in vain on such a summer’s day outside the edifice.

The total length of columns employed in the construction of the main buildings and wings would extend, if laid in a straight line, to a distance of sixteen miles and a quarter. The total weight of iron used in the main building and wings amounts to 9,641 tons, 17 cwt., 1 quarter. The superficial quantity of glass used is 25 acres; and weighs 500 tons; if the panes were laid side by side, they would extend to a distance of 48 miles; if end to end, to the almost incredible length of 242 miles. To complete our statistics, we have further to add that the quantity of bolts and rivets distributed over the main structure and wings weighs 175 tons, 1 cwt., 1 quarter; that the nails hammered into the Palace increase its weight by 103 tons, 6 cwt., and that the amount of brick-work in the main building and wings is 15,391 cubic yards.

From the end of the south wing to the Crystal Palace Railway station, as above indicated, is a colonnade 720 feet long, 17 feet wide, and 18 feet high. It possesses a superficial area of 15,500 feet, and the quantity of iron employed in this covered passage is 60 tons; of glass 30,000 superficial feet.

But vast as are the proportions of the Crystal Palace, novel and scientific as is the principle of construction, we are in some degree prepared for this magnificent result of intellect and industry by the Great Exhibition of 1851. One arrangement, however, in the present structure admits of no comparison; for, in point of extent, it leaves all former efforts in the same direction far behind, and stands by itself unrivalled. We refer to the process of warming the atmosphere in the enormous Glass Palace to the mild and genial heat of Madeira, throughout our cold and damp English winter.

The employment of hot water as a medium for heating apartments seems to have been first hinted at in the year 1594, by Sir Hugh Platt, who, in a work entitled “The Jewel House of Art and Nature,” published in that year, suggests the use of hot water as a safe means of drying gunpowder, and likewise recommends it for heating a plant-house. In 1716, Sir Martin Triewald, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, proposed a scheme for heating a green-house by hot water; and a Frenchman, M. Bonnemain, a short time afterwards invented an apparatus for hatching chickens by the same means. In the early part of this century Sir Martin Triewald’s plan of heating was applied to conservatories, at St. Petersburgh; and a few years later, Bonnemain’s arrangement was introduced into England, where it has undergone several improvements, and occupied the attention of scientific men. The application of hot water to the heating of churches, public libraries, and other buildings, has been attended with considerable success, and it is now looked upon as the safest, as well as one of the most effectual artificial methods of heating.

The simple plan of heating by hot water is that which Sir Joseph Paxton has adopted for the Crystal Palace. But simple as the method undoubtedly is, its adaptation to the purposes of the Palace has cost infinite labour and anxious consideration: for hitherto it has remained an unsolved problem how far, and in what quantity, water could be made to travel through pipes—flowing and returning by means of the propulsion of heat from the boilers. At Chatsworth, the seat of the Duke of Devonshire, the principle has been carried out on a large scale, and the experiment there tried has yielded data and proof: but in the present building, a greater extent of piping has been attached to the boilers than was ever before known, or even contemplated. In order to give the visitor some idea of the magnitude of the operation in question, it will be sufficient to state that the pipes for the conveyance of the hot water, laid under the floor of the main building, and around the wings, would, if placed in a straight line, and taken at an average circumference of 12 inches, stretch to a distance of more than 50 miles, and that the water in flowing from and returning to the boilers, travels one mile and three-quarters. But even with these extraordinary results obtained, the question as to the distance to which water can be propelled by means of heat is far from being definitely settled. Indeed, Sir Joseph Paxton and Mr. Henderson invented an ingenious contrivance, by means of which, should it ever be required, a much larger heating surface may be called forth at any time in any particular portion of the building.

The general arrangement of the Heating Apparatus may be described as follows:—Nearly twenty-four feet below the surface of the flooring of the main building, and leading out of “Sir Joseph Paxton’s Tunnel” (the name given to the roadway in the basement story, extending the whole length of the building on the side nearest the Gardens), are placed, at certain intervals, boiler-houses, each containing two boilers capable of holding 11,000 gallons of water. The boilers are twenty-two in number, and are set in pairs. In addition to these, a boiler is placed at the north end of the building, on account of the increased heat there required for the tropical plants. There are also two boilers set in the lower stories of each wing, and two small boilers are appropriated to the water in the fountain basins at each end of the building, which contain Victoria Regias and other aquatic plants of tropical climes. Four pipes are immediately connected with each boiler; two of such pipes convey the water from the boiler, and the other two bring it back; they are called the main pipes, and are nine inches in diameter.

Of the two pipes that convey the water from the boiler, one crosses the building transversely—from the garden-front to the opposite side. Connected with this pipe, at certain distances, and in allotted numbers, are smaller pipes, five inches in diameter, laid horizontally, and immediately beneath the flooring of the building. These convey the water from the main pipe to certain required distances, and then bring it back to the return main pipe, through which it flows into the boiler. The second main pipe conveys the water for heating the front of the building next to the Garden; and connected with this, as with the other main pipe, are smaller pipes through which the water ramifies, and then, in like manner, is returned to the boiler. Thus, then, by the mere propulsion of heat, a vast quantity of water is kept in constant motion throughout the Palace, continually flowing and returning, and giving out warmth that makes its way upwards, and disseminates a genial atmosphere in every part.

To ensure pure circulation throughout the winter, ventilators have been introduced direct from the main building into each furnace, where the air, so brought, being consumed by the fire, the atmosphere in the Palace is continually renewed.

GROUND PLAN OF THE CRYSTAL PALACE.

[Large ground plan.]

REFERENCES

• A Egyptian Court
• B Greek Court
• C Roman Court
• D Alhambra Court
• E Assyrian Court
• F Byzantine Court
• G German Mediæval Court
• H English Mediæval Court
• I French Mediæval Court
• J Renaissance Court
• K Elizabethan Court
• L Italian Court
• M Italian Vestibule
• N Cort of Monuments of Art
• O Stationery Court
• P Birmingham Court
• Q Sheffield Court
• R Pompeian Court
• S Natural History
• T Natural History
• U Foreign Glass Manufactures
• V British Ceramic Manufactures
• W Ceramic Court
• X Fancy Manufactures
• Y Concert Room
• Z Screen of the Kings and Queens of England
• A A South Transept
• B B Great Central Transept
• C C North Transept Tropical Division
• D D Great Organ and Orchestra
• d d Concert Orchestra
• E E Saloon for Dining
• F F Dining Room
• f f Kitchens and Covered Way
• G G South Wing Dining Saloon
• H H The Terrace Dining Room
• J J Mammoth Tree
• K K The Great Water Towers
• L L The Library Reading Room
• M M Colossal Egyptian Figures
• N N Lecture Room

N.B. The numbers indicate those of the Flower Borders

PART II.

THE INTERIOR.

Note.—The following Guide conducts the visitor up the Colonnade from the Railway Station, through the South Wing into the building. Passing through the nearest section of the Natural History Illustrations, he proceeds direct to the front of the Screen of the Kings and Queens of England, from whence he walks up the Nave to the Great Central Transept, and then commences the series of Fine Arts Courts with the Egyptian Court, continuing it with the Greek Court, the Roman Court, and, through the division for the Tropical End, the Alhambra Court, and the Assyrian Court. Then crossing this end of the building, he continues the series of Courts on the other side with the Byzantine Court, the German Mediæval Court, the English Mediæval Court, the French and Italian Mediæval Court, the Renaissance Court, the Elizabethan Court, the Italian Court, and the Italian Vestibule. The Court of Monuments of Art is next, from which the visitor crosses the Central Transept to the west, and explores the Stationery Court and the adjacent departments, then the Birmingham Court, the Sheffield Court, and the Pompeian House, from which he crosses the South Transept, and enters the Natural History Department, having inspected which, he returns up the building on the other side, through the Foreign Glass Manufactures Court, the British Porcelain Manufactures Court, the Ceramic Court, and the Court of Fancy Manufactures. Returning then to the Screen of the Kings and Queens of England, the visitor examines the collections of the Nave, the South Transept, the Great Central Transept, the North Transept, and the Tropical End of the Building. The Botany of the Palace is then described. The Main and Upper Galleries, in which will be found the Picture Gallery, the Naval Museum, the Engineering Models, the Indian Court, the Industrial Museum and Technological Collection, and the Industrial Exhibition (described in the Exhibitors’ Descriptive Catalogue, [page 175]), should be next visited; and, after them, the Agricultural Machinery, and the Machinery in Motion, which are exhibited in the basement story next the Gardens: the basement is reached by descending the stairs from either of the Transepts.

THE CRYSTAL PALACE.

THE ENTRANCE.

The Crystal Palace Railway from London Bridge, and the West End Railway from Pimlico, unite at the Station, in the grounds of the Crystal Palace. The Station is connected with the South Wing of the building by a glass-covered colonnade, along which is planted a brilliant array of flowering plants, whilst luxuriant creeping plants adorn the wall. The Fine Art Courts commence with the Egyptian Court, at the Central Transept, from whence the sequence is continued round the northern portion of the Nave. The Central Transept then will be the proper starting-point. When the weather is fine, the visitor may cross the gardens from the Railway Station direct to the central entrance on the upper terrace. We assume that he proceeds by the more usual way of the Colonnade, through the South Wing, until he attains the floor of the main building. He then passes through the Natural History illustrations which are nearest, and which he will examine hereafter; and, keeping to this, the south end of the Palace, proceeds towards the centre of the Nave, taking his stand opposite the Screen of the Kings and Queens of England, which bounds the long Nave at this end. From this point an unrivalled general view is obtained of the interior of the building. In the foreground is the Crystal Fountain, which adorned the Palace in Hyde Park, but here elevated in its proportions and improved. It is surrounded by a sheet of water, at each end of which float the gigantic leaves of the Victoria Regia, the intermediate space being occupied by various aquatic plants,—the Nymphæa Devoniensis, the Nymphæa cærulea, the Nymphæa dentata, and the Nelumbium speciosum, or sacred bean of the Pythagoreans, being conspicuous, with many others, beautiful, rare, or curious. The basin is also encircled with rich flowers. On either side of the Nave the plants of almost every clime wave their foliage, forming a mass of cool, pleasant colour, admirably harmonising with the surrounding tints, and also acting as a most effective background to relieve the white statues, which are picturesquely grouped along the Nave; at the back of these are the façades of the various Industrial and Fine Art Courts, whose bright colouring gives additional brilliancy to the interior, whilst the aërial blue tint of the arched roof above considerably increases the effect of the whole composition, having the effect of an opal vault. Towards evening the interior of the Palace appears like a vocal grove, the visitor hearing with delight the beautiful note of the nightingale, together with that of blackbirds, thrushes, wrens, and robin-redbreasts, which build and make a perpetual home of this magnificent covered garden.

VIEW OF PALACE FROM SECOND TERRACE.

Let the visitor now proceed up the building until he arrives at the Central Transept, at which point he will be enabled to judge of the vastness of the hall in the midst of which he stands, and of the whole structure of which the transept forms so noble and conspicuous a part.

INTRODUCTION TO THE FINE ARTS COURTS.

In order the better to appreciate the arrangement of those restorations through which we now propose to conduct the visitor, a few words explanatory of the object which they are intended to serve may prove of use.

One of the most important objects of the Crystal Palace is to teach a great practical lesson in Art. Specimens of the various phases through which the arts of Architecture and Sculpture have passed, are here collected, commencing from the earliest known period down to modern times, or from the remote ages of Egyptian civilisation to the sixteenth century after Christ—a period of more than three thousand years.

Perhaps no subject, with the exception of the literature of departed nations, affords more interest to the mind of man, than these visible proofs of the different states of society throughout the world’s history; and nothing better aids us in realising the people and customs of the past, than the wonderful monuments happily preserved from the destructive hand of Time, and now restored to something of their original splendour by the patient and laborious researches of modern times; and, we may add (not without some pride), by the enterprising liberality of Englishmen.

Nor is it the least extraordinary fact, in this view of progress, that the building itself, which contains these valuable monuments of past ages, is essentially different from every preceding style, uniting perfect strength with aërial lightness, and as easy of erection as it is capable of endurance. Thus then, beneath one roof, may the visitor trace the course of art from centuries long anterior to Christianity, down to the very moment in which he lives, and obtain by this means an idea of the successive states of civilisation which from time to time have arisen in the world, flourishing for a greater or less period, until overturned by the aggressions of barbarians, or the no less destructive agency of a sensual and degraded luxury. Sculpture, the sister art of architecture, has also been worthily illustrated. Vainly, in any part of the world, will be sought a similar collection, by means of which the progress of that beautiful art can be regularly traced.

The statues will generally be found as much as possible in or near the Architectural Courts of the periods and countries to which they belong, so that the eye may track the intellectual stream as it flows on, now rising to the highest point of beauty, and now sinking to the lowest depths of degradation. The visitor is invited to proceed with us on this world-wide tour of inspection, but he must bear in mind that our present task is to show him how to examine the Building itself, with its contents, and not to describe them, except by briefly pointing out the most remarkable objects that encounter him on his way. For detailed and valuable information the visitor is referred to the excellent Handbooks of the respective Courts, all of which describe with minuteness not only their contents, but every needful circumstance in connection with their history. The point from which we start is the Central Transept. Proceeding northwards, up the Nave, the visitor turns immediately to the left and finds himself in front of

THE EGYPTIAN COURT.[5]

The remains of Egyptian Architecture are the most ancient yet discovered. They possess an absorbing interest, not only on account of the connection of Egypt with Biblical history, but also of the perfect state of the remains, which enables us to judge of the high state of civilisation to which Egypt attained, and which have permitted the decipherers of the hieroglyphics, led by Dr. Young, Champollion, and Sir Gardner Wilkinson, in our own time, to give us clear insight into the manner of life—public and private—of this early and interesting nation. Egyptian architecture is characterised by simplicity of construction, gigantic proportions, and massive solidity. The buildings were almost entirely of stone, and many of them excavations and shapings of rocks. The examples of this architecture now before us are not taken from any one ruin, but are illustrations of various styles, commencing with the earliest, and terminating with the latest, so that we are enabled to follow the gradual development of the art. Little change, however, was effected during its progress. The original solidity so admirably suited to the requirements of the Egyptians continued to the end; and religion forbade a change in the conventional representations of those gods and kings which so extensively cover the temples and tombs. So that we find the same peculiar character continued in a great measure to the very last.

[5] See the “Handbook to the Egyptian Court,” by Owen Jones and Samuel Sharpe; also, “The Egyptians in the Time of the Pharaohs, being a Companion to the Crystal Palace Collection,” by Sir Gardner Wilkinson, to which is added, “An Introduction to the Study of Egyptian Hieroglyphs,” by Samuel Birch. Crown 8vo., with Illustrations.

Plan of the Egyptian Court.

Advancing up the avenue of lions, cast from a pair brought from Egypt by Lord Prudhoe (the present Duke of Northumberland), we have before us the outer walls and columns of a temple, not taken from any one particular structure, but composed from various sources, to illustrate Egyptian columns and capitals during the Ptolemaic period, somewhere about 300 years B.C. On the walls are coloured sunk-reliefs showing a king making offerings or receiving gifts from the gods. The capitals or heads of the columns are palm and lotus-leaved; some showing the papyrus in its various stages of development, from the simple bud to the full-blown flower. The representation of the palm and the papyrus occurs frequently in Egyptian architecture; the leaves of the latter, it will be remembered, were made into a kind of paper, and its flowers were specially used as offerings in the temples. We shall afterwards inspect some growing specimens of this curious plant in the fountain basin at the north end of the Nave, as well as of the lotus, when these restorations may be remembered with interest. On the frieze above the columns is a hieroglyphic inscription stating that “in the seventeenth year of the reign of Victoria, the ruler of the waves, this Palace was erected and furnished with a thousand statues, a thousand plants, &c., like as a book for the use of the men of all countries.” This inscription is repeated, with some slight additions, on the frieze of the interior of the Court. On the cornice of both the inside and outside of the Court, are the names of her Majesty and the Prince Consort, engraved in hieroglyphic characters, and also winged globes, the symbolic protecting deity of doorways. Entering by the central doorway, on the lintels and sides of which are inserted the different titles of King Ptolemy, in hieroglyphics, we find ourselves in the exterior court of a temple in which the multitude assembled; the decorations of the walls are similar to those we saw outside, and it must be borne in mind that the colouring is taken from actual remains in Egypt. On the wall to the left is a large picture copied from the great Temple of Rameses III. or Rameses Mai Amun, at Medinet Haboo, near Thebes, showing the counting of the hands of the slain—three thousand as we are informed by the hieroglyphics engraved over the heads of the scribes—before the king who is in his chariot; on the right-hand side of the Court is a representation of a battle-scene, with the Egyptians storming a fortress. Turning to the left, after examining the eight gigantic figures of Rameses the Great, forming the façade of another temple, we enter the Court of Amunothph, a colonnade of an early period, its date being about 1300 B.C. The columns represent eight stems and buds of the papyrus bound together, and are cast from a black granite column bearing the name of Amunothph, now in the British Museum.

First order of Egyptian Column.

Passing on we find ourselves in a dark tomb copied from one at Beni Hassan. It is the earliest piece of architecture in the Crystal Palace, its date being about 1660 B.C. The original tomb is cut in the solid chain of rocks that forms a boundary on the east of the Nile, separating the sandy desert from the fertile valley of the river. Although architectural remains exist in Egypt of a much earlier date than this tomb, it still possesses great value to us, for it may be considered as exhibiting the first order of Egyptian columns, which was employed in constructing buildings at as remote a period as two thousand years before Christ; this fluted column in another respect claims our attention, for there can be but little doubt that it supplied the Greeks with the model of their early Doric. The original tomb has but one instead of four entrances as here represented, and is accordingly more gloomy and impressive. What is lost in sombre effect, however, is made up to the visitor in convenience.

Passing out, we behold, in front of us, a beautiful colonnade, or portico, from the Island of Philöe, and of the same period as the Egyptian wall which we first saw fronting the Nave. Within this we cannot fail to remark the scattered statues, especially the Egyptian Antinous, executed during the Roman rule, the life-like development of whose limbs, representing, as it no doubt does, the Egyptian type, is sufficient to convince us that when Egyptian art was not tied down by the hierarchical yoke, it was capable of producing works of truth and merit. Another work of art, executed when the country was under the Greek yoke, is the remarkable bas-relief portrait of Alexander the Great, inscribed in hieroglyphics and Greek characters. The Greek name is spelt wrongly—a sufficient proof that the work of art is from the hand of an Egyptian artist. Amidst the statues will be found two circular-headed stones—copies of the celebrated Rosetta stone (so called from having been found at the little town of Rosetta, near Alexandria) from which Dr. Young and Champollion obtained a key to the deciphering of hieroglyphics. The stone is engraved in three characters: Hieroglyphic, Enchorial—the writing of the country—and Greek; the inscription is an address from the priests to the Greek King of Egypt, Ptolemy V., in which the sovereign’s praises are set forth, and orders are given to set up a statue of the king, together with the address, in every temple. The date of this interesting remnant of Egyptian manners and customs is about 200 years before the Christian era.

Further on to the right, as we face the west—in a recess—is the model of the Temple of Aboo Simbel, cut in the side of a rock, in Nubia. The sitting figures which, in the original, are of the size of the gigantic figures which we shall afterwards see in the Northern Transept, represent Rameses the Great, and the smaller ones around, his mother, wife, and daughter. The original tomb is ten times as large as the present model. It should be remembered that nearly all the models here introduced are very much below the size of the architectural remains which they represent. For example: the majority of the columns in the Temple of Karnak are 47 feet high, and some are 62 feet. Turning from this recess, and after looking at the beautiful lotus columns to the left, surmounted by the cow-eared Goddess of Love of the Egyptians, and having examined the two large pictures on the walls of the temple—one of which represents a king slaying his enemies with the aid of the god Ammon Ra, and the other a feat of arms of the same king—we direct our attention to the columns before us, which are reduced models of a portion of the celebrated Temple of Karnak at Thebes. This temple was, perhaps, one of the largest and most interesting in Egypt; the principal portions are said to have been erected by Rameses II. about 1170 B.C. It seems to have been a fashion with the Theban kings to make additions to this temple during their respective reigns; and, as each monarch was anxious to outvie his predecessor, the size of the fabric threatened to become unbounded. Temples and tombs were the grand extravagances of the Egyptian kings. The sums that modern rulers devote to palaces which add to their splendour whilst living, were given by the remote princes of whom we speak, and who regarded life as only a fleet passage towards eternity, for the construction of enduring homes when life should have passed away. Inasmuch as, if the career of an Egyptian king proved irreligious or oppressive, the priests and people could deny him sepulture in his own tomb, it is not unlikely that many Egyptian kings lavished large sums upon temples, in order to conciliate the priestly favour, and to secure for their embalmed bodies the much-prized sanctuary. It is to be observed, however, with respect to the names and inscriptions found on Egyptian monuments, that they are by no means always to be taken as an authentic account of the remains within. Some of the Egyptian kings have been proved guilty of erasing from tombs the names of their predecessors, and of substituting their own; an unwarrantable and startling deception that has proved very awkward and embarrassing to Egyptian antiquaries.

Column from Karnak.

The portion of Karnak here modelled is taken from the Hall of Columns, commenced by Osirei the First, and completed by his son, Rameses the Great, a most illustrious monarch, whose deeds are frequently recorded, and whose statue is found in many parts of Egypt, and who flourished during the twelfth century before Christ. Before entering the temple, we stay to notice the representations of animals and birds on the frieze above the columns, which is the dedication of the temple to the gods. Entering between the columns, on the lower part of which is the name of Rameses the Great, and, in the middle, a representation of the three principal divinities of Thebes receiving offerings from King Osirei; and, after thoroughly examining this interesting restoration, we return again into the outer court. The visitor who wishes to realise to himself the actual condition of the principal Egyptian temples and wall-sculptures of Karnak and Kalabshee, can do so by inspecting the splendid collection of French photographs of these ancient works of art in the Gallery immediately over this court, or by consulting the works of Champollion and Sir Gardner Wilkinson in the Reading Room of the Library. Regaining the Nave, a few steps, directed to the left, bring us to

TOMB OF BENI HASSAN.

THE GREEK COURT.[6]

Architecture and sculpture have here made a stride. We have noted even in Egypt the advance from early rude effort to a consistent gigantic system of art, which grew under the shadow of a stern hierarchical religion. We step at once from the gloom into the sunshine of Greek art. The overwhelming grandeur of Egypt, with its austere conventionalities, is exchanged for true simplicity, great beauty, and ideality. Just proportions, truth, grace of form, and appropriate ornament, characterised Greek architecture. The fundamental principles of construction, as will readily be seen, were the same in Greece as in Egypt, but improved, added to, and perfected. The architecture of both countries was columnar; but, compare the Greek columns before us with those which we just now saw in Egypt, taken from the tomb of Beni Hassan: the latter are simple, rude, ill-proportioned, and with slight pretension to beauty, whilst, in the former, the simplicity still prevailing, the rudeness and heaviness have departed, the pillars taper gracefully, and are finely proportioned and elegant, though of great strength. The specimen of Greek architecture before us is from the later period of the first order, namely, the Doric; and the court is taken, in part, from the Temple of Jupiter at Nemea, which was built about 400 years B.C., still within the verge of the highest period of Greek Art. Passing along the front, we notice on the frieze above the columns the names of the principal Greek cities and colonies.

[6] See “Handbook to the Greek Court,” by George Scharf, jun.; also, “An Apology for the Colouring of the Greek Court,” by Owen Jones.

Plan of the Greek Court.

We enter the court through the central opening. This portion represents part of a Greek agora, or forum, which was used as a market, and also for public festivals, for political and other assemblies. Around the frieze in this central division are the names of the poets, artists, and philosophers of Greece, and of their most celebrated patrons, the list commencing immediately above the place of entrance with old blind Homer, and finishing with Anthemius, the architect of Saint Sophia at Constantinople. The names, it will be remarked, are inserted in the Greek characters of the period at which the various persons lived. The monograms within the chaplets on the frieze are formed of the initial letters of the Muses, the Graces, the Good and the Wise. The colouring of this court, with its blue, red, and yellow surfaces, blazoned with gold, produces an excellent effect. It is the object of the decorators to give to the whole of the architectural specimens in the Crystal Palace those colours which there is reason to know, or to believe they originally possessed; to restore them, in fact, as far as possible, to their pristine state, in order that the imagination of the spectator may be safely conducted back in contemplation to the artistic characteristics of distant and distinctive ages. In this court are arranged sculptures and models of temples. Amongst the former will be recognised many of the finest statues and groups of the Greek school, the Laocoon (16); the Farnese Juno (6); the Dione (3); the Genius of Death (24); the well-known Discobolus (4) from the Vatican; the Ariadne, also from the Vatican (27); the Sleeping or Barberini Faun (19); and, in the centre, the unrivalled Venus of Milo, which affords perhaps the most perfect combination of grandeur and beauty in the female form (1). We make our way round this court, beginning at the right hand. After examining the collection, we pass between the columns into the small side court (next to Egypt), answering to a stoa of the Agora. Around the frieze are found the names of the great men of the Greek colonies, arranged in chronological order. The visitor has here an opportunity of contrasting the architecture and sculpture of the Egyptians with those of the Greeks. On one side of him is an Egyptian wall inclining inwards, with its angular pictorial decorations, and the passive colossal figures guarding the entrances. On the other side are the beautiful columns and bold cornice of the Greek Doric, surrounded by statues characterised by beauty of form and refined idealised expression. In this division will also be found the busts of the Greek Poets, arranged in chronological order, commencing on the right-hand side from the Nave: these form a portion and the commencement of the Portrait Gallery of the Crystal Palace.

Making our way through the opening in the back, opposite the Nave, we enter a covered atrium, commonly attached to the portion of the agora here reproduced. The massive antæ, or square pillars, and the panelled ceiling—the form of the latter adapted from the Temple of Apollo at Bassæ in Arcadia—give the visitor another specimen of Greek architecture. We proceed, to the right, down this atrium, occasionally stepping out to examine the sculpture arranged in the gallery, and the restored and coloured frieze of the Parthenon of Athens, which extends its length along the wall. The coloured portion has been executed under the direction of Mr. Owen Jones, the golden hair being founded on authentic examples which still exist on analogous remains of ancient Greek art.[7] The tints on the different figures are put forth rather as suggestions than restorations. We really know nothing certain of the manner in which these celebrated relievos were coloured. Acknowledging this fact, Mr. Jones, in thus boldly supplying pigment, has proceeded upon the known principle of the Greeks—using the tints so as to enhance the effect of the sculpture. This frieze represents the Panathenaic procession to the temple of Athene Polias, which formed part of the display at this greatest of the Athenian festivals, and took place every fourth year. Dividing the frieze, is one of the most interesting objects in the Crystal Palace, a model of the western front of the Parthenon itself, about one-fourth the size of the original structure. This is the largest model that has ever been constructed of this beautiful temple, and possesses the great charm of a veritable copy. The scale is sufficiently large to give a complete idea of the original. This admirable model is due to the intelligent and successful researches prosecuted in Athens by Mr. Penrose, whose labours have thrown so much new light upon the refinements practised by the Greeks in architecture. Mr. Penrose has himself directed the construction of the model. In this gallery are ranged statues and groups, including the celebrated Niobe group, from Florence (187 to 187 L, inclusive). This subject of the punishment of Niobe’s family by the gods was frequently treated by Greek artists; and certainly the group before us is one of the most beautiful examples of Greek sculptural art. It is supposed that the portion of the group at Florence occupied the pediment of the temple of Apollo Sosianus at Rome. The Niobe group belongs to one of the brightest periods. Casts from those most beautiful and wonderful remains of ancient art, the colossal figures from the pediment of the Parthenon at Athens, are also here (185 to 186 B). The originals, brought over to England by Lord Elgin in 1801-2, are in the British Museum, and the nation is indebted for the acquisition to the painter Haydon, who was the first British artist to recognise the value, and appreciate the beauty, of these mutilated but inimitable monuments of art at the highest period of its glory. They belong to the Phidian school, and are characterised by simple grandeur, great repose in the attitudes, and a deep study of nature in their forms. The Theseus more particularly displays a marvellous study and appreciation of nature, and the figures of the Fates (185 B), headless though they be, are the most awfully grand impersonations the world has ever seen. In connection with the Parthenon will also be seen a cast from a part of one of the actual columns, also in the British Museum (150). Here also is the wonderful Belvedere Torso, from the Vatican (67); the far-famed Venus de’ Medici (198), from Florence, and the exquisite Psyche (199), from the Museum at Naples. The visitor will not fail to be astonished, no less by the number than by the charming effect of these works which have come down to our time, and which will descend to the latest posterity as models of excellence. Proceeding until we arrive at the junction of the Greek and Roman Courts, we turn into the right-hand division of the outer court; round the frieze of which are the names of the statesmen and warriors of Athens, the Peloponnesus, and Attica. The busts ranged on either side are portraits of the Greek philosophers, orators, generals, and statesmen, arranged in chronological order, commencing at the entrance from the Nave.

[7] The remainder of the frieze is erected in the gallery above the Courts.

We walk through this court until we reach the Nave; then turning to the left, find ourselves facing

THE ROMAN COURT[8]

On approaching this Court, the visitor will at once notice a new architectural element—as useful as it is beautiful—namely, the Arch, a feature that has been found susceptible of the greatest variety of treatment. Until within the last few years the credit of the first use of the arch as an architectural principle has been given to the Greek architect under Roman rule, but discoveries in Egypt, and more recently in Assyria by Mr. Layard and M. Botta, have shown that constructed and ornamented arches were frequently employed in architecture many hundred years before the Christian era. It is to be observed that architecture and sculpture had no original growth at Rome, and were not indigenous to the soil. Roman structures were modifications from the Greek, adapted to suit the requirements and tastes of the people; and thus it happened that the simple severity, purity, and ideality of early Greek art degenerated, under the Roman empire, into the wanton luxuriousness that characterised its latest period. In comparing the Greek and Roman statues, we remark a grandeur of conception, a delicacy of sentiment, a poetical refinement of thought in the former, indicative of the highest artistic development with which we are acquainted. When Greece became merely a Roman province, that high excellence was already on the decline, and the dispersion of her artists, on the final subjugation of the country by Mummius, the Roman general, B.C. 146, hastened the descent. A large number of Grecian artists settled at Rome, where the sentiment of servitude, and the love of their masters for display, produced works which by degrees fell further and further from their glorious models, until richness of material, manual cunning, and a more than feminine weakness characterised their principal productions; and the sculptor’s art became degraded into a trade, in which all feeling for the ancient Greek excellence was for ever lost. Thus, in the transplanted art of Greece, serving its Roman masters, a material and sensual feeling more or less prevails, appealing to the passions rather than to the intellects and high imaginations of men. The cumbrous dresses and armour which mark the properly Roman style, hide the graceful and powerful forms of nature under the symbols of station and office, creating a species of political sculpture. It is very curious and instructive to notice at a glance the high intellectual expression of the great men of Greece whose busts adorn the Greek Court, and to contrast their noble countenances with the material and sensual aspect of their conquerors, the Romans, who range peacefully close by: much of the past can be gleaned from such a comparison.

[8] See “Handbook to the Roman Court,” by George Scharf, jun.

Plan of the Roman Court.

In the wall now before us we have a model of a portion of the outer wall of the Coliseum at Rome, pierced with arches and ornamented with Tuscan columns. The Coliseum is one of the most wonderful structures in the world, and the Pyramids of Egypt alone can be compared with it in point of size. It is elliptical in form, and consisted outwardly of four stories. In the centre of the interior was the arena or scene of action, around which the seats for spectators rose, tier above tier. The enormous range was capable of seating 87,000 persons. Vespasian and Titus erected this amphitheatre, and the work commenced about A.D. 79. In this vast and splendidly decorated building, the ancient Romans assembled to witness chariot-races, naval engagements, combats of wild animals, and other exciting sports. A very beautiful and highly finished model of the Coliseum restored will be found in the Court, which it will be interesting to compare with the present state of the ruin as seen in the model of the Roman Forum close by. A model also of the Pantheon will be found here. These were all executed at Rome under the superintendence of the late Dr. Emil Braun.

Entering the Roman Court through the central archway, we come into an apartment whose walls are coloured in imitation of the porphyry, malachite, and rare marbles with which the Roman people loved to adorn their houses. This style of decoration appears to have been introduced a little before the Christian era; and so lavish were the Romans in supplying ornament for their homes, that the Emperor Augustus, dreading the result of the extravagance, endeavoured by his personal moderation to put a stop to the reckless expenditure: although it is recorded that the lofty exemplar was set up for imitation in vain.

Following the same plan as in the Greek Court, we proceed round from the right to the left, examining the sculptures and models. Amongst the former will be noticed the statue of Drusus from Naples (222); the beautiful Venus Aphrodite from the Capitol, Rome (226); the Venus Genitrix from the Louvre (228); the fine statue of a musician, or female performer on the lyre, from the Louvre (230); the Genius Suppliant (232); the Marine Venus (233); the Venus Aphrodite from Florence (236); the Venus of Arles (237); the Venus Callipygos from Naples (238); and the Bacchus from the Louvre (241). Around the Court are placed the portrait-busts of the most celebrated kings and emperors of Rome, arranged chronologically, commencing, on the right-hand side of the entrance, with Numa Pompilius (34), and terminating with Constantius Chlorus (73). Having completed our survey, we enter the arched vestibule at the back adjoining the Greek Court. This vestibule, and the three others adjacent, are founded, in respect of their decorations and paintings, on examples still extant in the ancient baths of Rome. The bath, as is well known, was indispensable to the Romans, and in the days of their “decadence,” when they had sunk from glorious conquerors and mighty generals into the mere indolent slaves of luxury, the warm bath was used to excess. It is said that it was resorted to as often as seven or eight times a day, and even used immediately after a meal, to assist the digestive organs, and to enable the bather to enjoy, with as little delay as possible, another luxurious repast.

We proceed through these vestibules, as in the Greek Court, studying the objects of art, and occasionally stepping out to notice the continuation of the Parthenon frieze on the wall at the back, and the sculptures ranged around. In the centre of the first vestibule is the Venus Victorious (243); and in the third, the Diana with the deer (261),—two chefs-d’œuvre of sculpture, that give an idea of the highest state of art under Roman rule. We soon arrive at the sides of the Alhambra, when, turning to the right, we find ourselves in a Roman side court, which is surrounded by the busts of the most renowned Roman Generals, of Empresses and other women.

Passing through this compartment, we once more make our way to the Nave, and bring ourselves face to face with the gorgeous magnificence of

THE ALHAMBRA COURT.[9]

The architectural sequence is now interrupted. We have arrived at one of those offshoots from a parent stem which flourished for a time, and then entirely disappeared: leaving examples of their art which either compel our wonder by the extraordinary novelty of the details, as in the case of Nineveh, or, as in the court now before us, excite our admiration to the highest pitch, by the splendour and richness of the decorations. The Saracenic or Moresque architecture sprang from the Byzantine, the common parent of all subsequent styles, and the legitimate successor to the Roman system. We shall immediately have occasion to speak more particularly of the parent root when we cross the Nave and enter the Byzantine Court. Of the Moorish architecture which branched out from it, it will be sufficient to say here, that the solid external structure was of plain, simple masonry; whilst the inside was literally covered, from end to end, with rich arabesque work in coloured stucco, and adorned with mosaic pavements, marble fountains, and sweet-smelling flowers.

[9] See “Handbook to the Alhambra Court,” by Owen Jones.

Entrance to Alhambra Court.

Ground Plan of the Alhambra Court.

The vast fortress-palace of the Alhambra,[10] of a portion of which this court is a reproduction, was built about the middle of the thirteenth century. It rises on a hill above the city of Granada (in the south of Spain), the capital of the Moorish kingdom of that name, which, for two hundred and fifty years, withstood the repeated attacks of the Christians, and was not finally reduced until 1492, by Ferdinand and Isabella. The Alhambra, under Moorish rule, was the scene of the luxurious pleasures of the monarch, and the stage upon which many fearful crimes were enacted. Within its brilliant courts, the king fell by the hand of the aspiring chief, who, in his turn, was cut down by an equally ambitious rival. Few spots can boast a more intimate association with the romantic than the Alhambra, until the Christians ejected the Moors from their splendid home, and the palace of the unbeliever became a Christian fortress.

[10] “The Red,” probably so called either from the colour of the soil, or from the deep red brick of which it is built.

The part here reproduced is the far-famed Court of Lions, the Tribunal of Justice, and the Hall of the Abencerrages and the Divan. The outside of these courts is covered with diaper work, consisting of inscriptions in Arabic character, of conventional representation of flowers and of flowing decoration, over which the eye wanders, delighted with the harmony of the colouring and the variety of the ornament. Entering through the central archway, we see before us the fountain, supported by the lions that give name to the court; and, through the archway opposite, the splendid fringe of the stalactite roof of the Hall of the Abencerrages, composed in the original of five thousand separate pieces, which key into and support each other. The Court of Lions here is 75 feet long, just two-thirds the length of the original; the columns are the same height and size as the columns of which they are restorations, and the arches that spring from them are also of the actual size of the original arches. Over the columns is inscribed in Cufic characters, “And there is no Conqueror but God.” Round the basin of the fountain is an Arabic poem, from which we take two specimens:—

“Oh thou who beholdest these Lions crouching—fear not!
Life is wanting to enable them to show their fury!”

Less, we must think, a needless caution to the intruder, than the poet’s allowed flattery to his brother artist. In the verse of Greece and modern Italy, we find the same heightened expression of admiration for the almost animating art of sculpture. The following passage is oriental in every letter:—

“Seest thou not how the water flows on the surface,
notwithstanding the current strives to oppose its progress.
Like a lover whose eyelids are pregnant with tears, and
who suppresses them for fear of a tale-bearer.”

Through this brilliant court, the visitor will proceed or linger as his spirit directs. There are no statues to examine, for the religion of the Moors forbade the representation of living objects; in truth, the exquisitely wrought tracery on every side, upon which the Moorish mind was thus forced to concentrate all its artistic power and skill, is in itself sufficient exclusively to arrest and to enchain the attention. A curious infringement, however, of the Mahommedan law just now mentioned, which proscribes the representation of natural objects, is observable in the lions supporting the fountain, and in three paintings, which occupy a portion of the original ceilings in the Tribunal of Justice and the two alcoves adjoining. It is also to be remarked that, although the followers of Mahommed scrupulously avoid stepping upon a piece of paper, lest the name of God should be written thereon, yet that name is found repeatedly upon the floor of the same tribunal. However, during the State visit of the Princes of Oude to the Crystal Palace in 1858, while they were inspecting this Court it was noticed that they, and many of their attendants, avoided as much as possible stepping upon the inscribed pavement. From these circumstances it would seem that the Mahommedans of the West were more lax in their observances than their brethren of the East, having in all probability imbibed some of the ideas and feelings of the Spanish Christians with whom they came in contact.

Passing through the archway opposite to that at which we entered, we find ourselves in a vestibule which in the Alhambra itself leads from the Court of Lions to the Tribunal of Justice. This is, however, only a portion of the original passage. The arches opening from the central to the right and left divisions of the vestibule are of the size of the originals, the patterns on the Avails and ceilings being taken from other portions of the Alhambra. It should also be remembered that the different apartments here brought together do not stand in the same relation to each other as in the Moorish Palace, the object of the architect in the Crystal Palace being to give the best examples of this style of architecture in the smallest possible space.

The visitor may now proceed through the left-hand arch into the division next the Roman Court. On the right of this division he will find a small room devoted to models, and specimens of the original casts of ornaments of the Alhambra, brought by Mr. Owen Jones from Spain, from which this Court has been constructed. Returning to the central division, he sees on his left the Hall of the Abencerrages, with its beautiful stalactite roof, already spoken of. All the Courts on this side of the building, up to this point, were erected under the superintendence of Mr. Owen Jones. Proceeding onward, we quit the Alhambra, and emerge into the north transept.

The visitor passing into the Tropical division now crosses the Transept, immediately in front of the colossal sitting figures, which he will be able to examine with more effect when he commences a tour through the nave, which we propose that he shall shortly make. Passing these figures then for a moment, he directs his attention to

Pillar from the arcade of the Court.

THE ASSYRIAN COURT,[11]

which faces him. This Court is larger than any other appropriated to the illustration of one phase of art. It is 120 feet long, 50 feet wide, and has an elevation of 40 feet from the floor line. Its chief interest, however, consists in the fact of its illustrating a style of art of which no specimen has hitherto been presented in Europe, and which, indeed, until the last few years, lay unknown even in the country where its remains have been unexpectedly brought to light. It is little more than ten years ago that M. Botta, the French Consul at Mossul, first discovered the existence of sculptural remains of the old Assyrian empire at Khorsabad: and since that time the palace, now known to have been erected about the year 720 B.C. by Sargon, the successor of Shalmaneser, has been mainly explored, as well as the palace of his son Sennacherib at Koyunjik, and that of Esarhaddon and Sardanapalus, at Nimroud, besides other older palaces in the last-named locality. In addition to the explorations that have been made on these sites, extensive excavations and examinations also within the last few years have been made into the ruins of the palaces of Nebuchadnezzar at Babylon, and of Darius and Xerxes at Susa.

[11] See “Handbook to the Nineveh Court,” by Austen Henry Layard.

It is from the immense mass of new materials, so suddenly revealed, that Mr. James Fergusson, assisted by Mr. Layard, has erected the court before which the visitor now stands—an architectural illustration which, without pretending to be a literal copy of any one building, most certainly represents generally the architecture of the extinct but once mighty kingdoms of Mesopotamia, during the two centuries that elapsed between the reign of Sennacherib and that of Xerxes, viz., from about B.C. 700 to B.C. 500.

The oldest form of architecture in these Eastern parts was probably that which existed in Babylon: but the absence of stone in that country reduced the inhabitants to the necessity of using bricks only, and for the most part bricks burnt by the sun, though sometimes fire-burnt brickwork is also found. The face of the walls so constructed was ornamented with paintings, either on plaster or enamelled on the bricks, whilst the constructive portions and roofs were of wood. All this perishable material has of course disappeared, and nothing now remains even of the Babylon built by Nebuchadnezzar but formless mounds of brickwork. In the more northern kingdom of Assyria, the existence of stone and marble secured a wainscoting of sculptured slabs for the palace walls, whilst great winged bulls and giant figures, also in stone, adorned the portals and façades. The pillars, however, which supported the roofs, and the roofs themselves, were all of wood, generally of cedar, and these having been destroyed by fire or by the lapse of ages, nothing remains to tell of their actual size and form. Yet we are not left entirely to conjecture in respect of them. Susa and Persepolis in Persia—the followers and imitators of Nineveh—arose in districts where stone was abundant, and we find that the structures in these cities had not only stone pillars to support the roof, but also stone jambs in the doorways, thus affording an unmistakeable clue to the nature of such portions of building as are wanting to complete our knowledge of the architecture of the Assyrian people.

As now laid bare to us, the Assyrian style of architecture differs essentially from any other with which we have hitherto been made acquainted. Its main characteristics are enormously thick mud-brick walls, covered with painted bas-reliefs, and roofs supported internally by slight but elegant wooden columns, ornamented with volutes (spiral mouldings), and the elegant honeysuckle ornament which was afterwards introduced through Ionia into Greece—this Assyrian style being, according to some, the parent of the Ionic order, as the Egyptian was of the Doric order, of Greece. The very greatest interest attaches to these architectural remains, and to the records cut in enduring stone, which they have handed down to us, inasmuch as they corroborate, in a most remarkable manner, certain statements in the Bible connected with Jewish History. There can be little doubt that the Assyrians and Jews sprang from the same stock; and no one can fail to remark that the physiognomy of the Assyrians, as pourtrayed in these sculptures, bears a strong resemblance to the Israelitish visage. As far as we can judge from descriptions, the architecture of ancient Jerusalem was almost identical with that of Assyria.

Entrance to the Nineveh Court.

The whole of the lower portion of the exterior front and sides of this Court is taken from the palace at Khorsabad, the great winged bulls, the giants strangling the lions (supposed to represent the Assyrian Hercules), and the other features, being casts from the objects sent from the site of the palace, to the Louvre, and arranged, as far as circumstances admit, in the relative position of the original objects as they were discovered. The dwarf columns on the walls, with the double bull capitals, are modelled from details found at Persepolis and Susa, whilst the cornice and battlements above have been copied from representations found in one of the bas-reliefs at Khorsabad. The painting of the cornice is in strict accordance with the recent discoveries of that place.

Plan of the Assyrian Court.

Entering through the opening in the side, guarded by colossal bulls, the visitor finds himself in a large hall, in the centre of which stand four great columns copied literally from columns found at Susa and Persepolis. The walls of the hall are covered with sculpture, cast from originals brought to this country by Mr. Layard from his excavations at Nimroud, and deposited in the British Museum. Upon the sculptures are engraved the arrow-headed inscriptions which have been so recently, and in so remarkable a manner, deciphered by Colonel Rawlinson and Dr. Hincks. Above these is a painting of animals and trees, copied from one found at Khorsabad. The roof crowning the hall represents the form of ceiling usual in that part of Asia, but is rather a vehicle for the display of the various coloured patterns of Assyrian art than a direct copy of anything found in the Assyrian palaces. In the centre of the great hall the visitor will notice a decorated archway at the back of the Court. The very recent discovery of this highly ornamented arch at Khorsabad, and also of a pointed example, proves—somewhat unexpectedly—that the Assyrian people were far from ignorant of the value of these beautiful features of architecture. A complete detailed account of this interesting department will be found in Mr. Layard’s valuable Handbook to the Nineveh Court.

Having completed his survey of the interior of this Court, the visitor may at once quit the Court by the central entrance, and turning to the left cross the north end of the Nave, stopping for one moment on his passage to look from end to end of the magnificent structure within which he stands, and to glance at the exterior of the Court he has just quitted, the bright colouring of which, the bold ornaments, the gigantic bulls, and colossal features, present as novel and striking an architectural and decorative display as the mind can imagine.

Having crossed the building, past the avenue of Sphinxes, without stopping at the colossal Egyptian figures to be noticed hereafter, the visitor will continue the architectural illustrations with

THE BYZANTINE AND ROMANESQUE COURT.[12]

Before the visitor is conducted through the architectural Courts on this side of the Nave, which have all been erected by Mr. Digby Wyatt, it is necessary he should understand that they differ considerably in arrangement and treatment from those on the opposite side, which have already been described. In the Egyptian, Greek, and other Courts through which he has passed, the forms or characteristics of some one distinctive structure have, to a greater or less extent, been given; but the Courts into which we are now about to penetrate are not architectural restorations, but rather so many collections of ornamental details stamped with unmistakeable individuality, and enabling us at a glance to recognise and distinguish the several styles that have existed and succeeded each other, from the beginning of the 6th down to the 16th century. In each Court will be found important details, ornament, and even entire portions, taken from the most remarkable or beautiful edifices of the periods they illustrate. Thus the palaces and Christian temples of Italy, the castles and churches of Germany, the hôtels-de-ville and châteaux of Belgium and France, and the cathedrals and mansions in our own country, have all been laid under contribution, so that here, for the first time in the history of architecture, we have the opportunity of acquiring a perceptive and practical knowledge of the beautiful art during the period of its later progress.

[12] See “Handbook to the Byzantine Court,” by M. Digby Wyatt and J. B. Waring.