The Palace and Park: Its Natural History, and Its Portrait Gallery, Together with a Description of the Pompeian CourtLatham, R. G. (Robert Gordon)
History
The Palace and Park: Its Natural History, and Its Portrait Gallery, Together with a Description of the Pompeian Court
Latham, R. G. (Robert Gordon)
Crystal Palace (Sydenham, London, England)
Periodicals and Pamphlets, Directories, Gazetteers, Maps, &c. &c. The
very latest news, by special telegraph, is exhibited immediately on its
receipt, and a regular Daily Telegram is received from Paris, with the
state of the French Funds, and Money Market. A Register for
Appointments and Messages is kept, and a glass case in which unclaimed
letters, and letters for visitors, are exhibited. There is a postage-box
upon the reading-table, and one outside, from which letters are
collected several times in the course of the day; and paper, envelopes,
and postage-stamps can always be obtained from the attendants at a
moderate charge.
THE GREAT CENTRAL TRANSEPT.
Passing along in front of the Reading Room, we return to the Nave, and
enter the Transept, the arch of which rises nearly 175 feet high in a
light and graceful span. From the first terrace, however, to the summit
of the Transept is 197 feet 10 inches. There are five galleries here,
one above the other, the topmost of which runs entirely round the
Transept, and the third of which extends round the whole length of the
building on each side. In the second of these galleries, on the garden
side, is the Industrial Museum and Technological Collection, of which we
shall treat presently.
Not far from the angle of the Transept and Nave, towards the Stationery
Court, stands a cast from the colossal statue of Rubens, by Geefs, of
Brussels, erected in the cathedral square at Antwerp, of which city
Rubens was a native: the original is in bronze, and a fine example of
the modern Romantic school of sculpture. Opposite the statue of Rubens,
on the other side of the Nave, is placed a cast of the fine bronze
statue, by Dantan, which has been erected at Dieppe, in honour of the
great French Admiral Duquesne. It is remarkable for its noble
expression, and the spirited romance of its treatment. The celebrated
Farnese Hercules and the Farnese Flora, both colossal antique statues
from the Museum at Naples, occupy the corresponding positions across the
Transept. The Hercules is a fine and artistic example, characterised by
a massive and somewhat exaggerated muscular development, not, however,
altogether inappropriate to the hero of physical force. The whole of
this the western end of the Great Transept is occupied by the great
orchestra, capable of accommodating 4,000 performers, which has been
erected for the Great Handel Festival. In the centre of the orchestra is
the great organ which has been built by Messrs. Gray and Davison
expressly for the position.[26] The eastern end of the Transept is
occupied by a handsome orchestra for musical and choral performances. On
the northern side of this end of the Great Transept are ranged some
choice statues of the modern schools; the graceful Amalthæa by Julien
(113); Psyche (103*); Veritas (150), a veiled figure by Monti; and
Endymion (129), the Graces (125), and Paris (129), by the late famous
sculptor Canova.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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