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)
an Indian prince, which now faces him, the visitor will notice a case
containing a splendid collection of Javanese arms, some highly wrought
with great beauty in gold and silver. This case also contains some
wonderful carvings in ivory and pith, as well as other objects of great
interest.
Immediately beyond the case which we have just examined will be found a
model of the celebrated so-called gates of Somnauth. History and
tradition have invested these gates with much interest. Nine centuries
since, the temple of Somnauth was perhaps the richest shrine of rich
India, and the splendid stronghold of its idolatry. There are many
records of its unequalled riches--the revenues of 2000 villages are said
to have been allotted for the maintenance of its establishment. In 1025,
the sultan Mahmoud crossed the Indus from Ghuznee, and after many
battles advanced to the temple and sacked it. In the adulations of the
conqueror Hindoo paganism was said to have then irrecoverably bowed
before the sword and faith of Mahomet. The avarice, however, of Mahmoud
probably received greater gratification than his religious fervour. He
is traditionally said to have carried the carved sandal-wood gates of
the temple with him to Ghuznee, and to have made them the doors of the
splendid mausoleum which he built for himself. When Ghuznee was taken by
the British under the presidency of Lord Ellenborough, the doors (of
which the present models are copies) were taken from the tomb, and
invested with high interest on account of their traditional origin, but
the style of art and inscriptions upon the gates themselves prove that
in all probability they formed part of the tomb from which they were
taken and were built with it. Near to this model will also be found some
very finely carved furniture, and a case filled with a magnificent
collection of Indian works, amongst which may be specially pointed out
the beautiful and rich specimens of jewellery from Delhi and other
provinces, some elaborate carvings in pearl, ivory, and tortoiseshell,
and the gold-worked muslins for which, through many ages, India has been
renowned.
The gallery over the Egyptian, Greek, and Roman Courts contains an
interesting collection of Photographs, &c., illustrative of Oriental
Architecture, and the various styles exemplified below, amongst which
the Egyptian remains are particularly to be remarked. The full-sized
casts from the original wall sculptures, which, are copied in the
Egyptian Court below, will be found along this Gallery, as also various
architectural and sculptural remains of classic times.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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