The arrangement of the construction of the building resting on isolated
instead of continuous supports, will enable all traces of it to be readily
effaced from the site if it is removed; and, on the other hand, if it
remains, it is evidently peculiarly suited to form a vast winter-garden and
public promenade.
Conclusion.
Before taking leave of the reader who may have patiently followed us thus
far, a few words may be necessary on the general arrangement of the
articles to be exhibited in the building whose outline and details we have
been endeavouring to trace. The first classification is geographical. All
the western half of the building is given to England, and the eastern,
which is rather the larger of the two, to foreign countries; the space
assigned to each country being distinctly defined, so as to avoid the
possibility of any disputes. As far as it was possible, the space for each
country is so arranged as to have a frontage towards the main central
avenue, and in most cases occupies a strip the whole width of the building;
the visitor, therefore, passing up and down the length, will not miss out
any country.
In the central avenue, and immediately on either side of it, are placed the
most remarkable specimens of objects coming under the class of fine-arts,
or otherwise sufficiently remarkable to entitle them to such a prominent
place. Behind these, in the side avenues, will be found the various
specimens of manufactured articles; and along the outside longitudinal
avenues are placed, on the south side, those belonging to the class of raw
products (a portion being devoted to agricultural implements), and the
projecting portion of the building on the north side forms the hall of
machinery, which is separated by a partition of glazed sashes from the rest
of the building. Many of the articles will be grouped in courts, an
arrangement which the construction particularly leads to; and these will
probably form some of the greatest attractions in the Exhibition, each
being, as it were, complete in itself, and the inclosures preventing the
eye from being distracted by distant objects. To enter further into the
detail of this part of the subject would be foreign to the purpose of this
work, the building itself being our text.
We have now, we believe, completed the pleasant task we proposed to
ourselves at the outset, and we hope that in doing so we may have been able
to render interesting to our general readers this description of
operations, usually occupying the attention of the technical professions
only. With this intention, we have avoided as far as possible the use of
technical terms, which would be a dead letter to the uninitiated, at the
risk, perhaps, of being considered inaccurate by those acquainted with all
the details of the subject.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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