The GREAT CONSERVATORY, one of the wonders of Chatsworth, besides its own attraction as the finest conservatory in the kingdom, possesses an historical interest as being the first of its kind ever erected, and from which the idea of the Great Exhibition building of 1851, and all the later exhibition buildings, including the “Crystal Palace” at Sydenham, was taken. This splendid conservatory was erected some years ago by Sir Joseph, at that time Mr., Paxton, and is, in its interior, 277 feet in length, 123 feet in width, and no fewer than 67 feet in height in its centre. Its form is that of a trefoil; the transverse section showing a semicircle 70 feet in diameter, rising from two segments of circles springing from breast-walls. The whole building is of glass, constructed on the “ridge and furrow” principle, with iron ribs. About 70,000 square feet of glass are used in this gigantic building, and the iron sash ribs alone are calculated to extend, if laid together lengthways, no less than forty miles. At each end is a large doorway, and along the centre is a wide carriage-drive, so that several carriages can, on any special occasion, as on the Queen’s visit in 1843, be within the building at the same time. Besides the central drive, there are side-aisles running the entire length, and a cross-aisle in the centre of the building. A light and elegant gallery also runs round the entire interior, and is approached by a staircase hidden among the rockery. Of the collection of trees and plants preserved in this giant conservatory, it is not necessary to speak further than to say that from the smallest aquatic plants up to the most stately palm-trees, and from the banana down to the papyrus and the delicate ferns, every conceivable rarity and beauty is here, flourishing in native luxuriance and in endless profusion. Beneath the conservatory a railway runs around the entire building, for fuel and other purposes. [Illustration: _Part of the Rock-work—the Rocky Portal._] Not far from the conservatory, and approached by a path between tall and stately yew hedges, is a sweetly pretty circular pool of water, with central fountain, filled with water-lilies, and surrounded first by a broad circular band of grass, then by a broad encircling gravel-path, edged on half its circumference with a closely-cut yew hedge with arched entrances, and the other half planted at regular intervals with cypress-trees. This, however, is but one of many charming spots which characterize the grounds at Chatsworth. [Illustration: _The Emperor Fountain._]