THE THE PEOPLE'S PALACE. HE phenomena of a brilliant sun and a cloudless sky tempted us forth upon an expedition to the Crystal Palace at Sydenham. We catch a distant view of the building almost as soon as we glide out of the Brighton railway station, and know it immediately, though it appears but an undefined gray spot upon the summit of a hill six or seven miles off, by the flashing reflection of the sun's rays from its coating of glass. A ride of some halfhour brings us to the Annerley station, whence we have to climb the hill for another mile ere arriving at our destination. As we advance, the proportions of the building come gradually into view, and, long before reaching the level upon which it stands, we are struck with the immense superiority of such a site for such a structure compared with that occupied by the building of 1851 in Hyde-park. We enter, with other visitors, in the rear of the edifice; and desirous, before an examination of its contents, of contemplating its appearance and effect as viewed from its own grounds, we cross to the VOL. V.-34 garden front, and descending a flight or two of stairs, emerge upon the upper terrace, along which runs a gravel walk fifty feet in width, and exceeding in length that of the entire building. From this upper terrace three broad flights of steps lead down to a lower and larger one, whose area is not much less than thirteen acres, which is about equal to that occupied by the palace itself. It is laid out in walks and flower-beds, after the manner of an Italian garden, and ornamented with six fountains of novel design, symmetrically arranged. On either side of the central flight of steps leading from the upper to the lower terrace, and in front of the grand central transept, two pairs of colossal sphinxes, reposing upon ponderous basements of granite, look out with stony eyes upon a glorious English landscape, stretched far away before them, and fading out gradually in the misty atmosphere of distance. These sphinxes are close and faithful copies of the Egyptian original now at Paris, and are placed with admirable effect on their present site. De the size of a hippopotamus, and by his side the frog of the fable has actually swollen to the dimensions of the ox. Here are creatures with the body of a duck, the fins or flappers of a phoca, the neck of a boa-constrictor, and the head of a crocodile. Here is the ichthyosaurus, clothed with his invulnerable armor, and furnished with his screw-propeller tail. Here is the scending the slope yet further, and verging to the right among natural mounds and declivities, planted with flowering shrubs and evergreens, with here and there a noble tree whose spreading branches yield a welcome shade in summer, we arrive at a point of view favorable for a glance at the entire structure of the palace. We feel at the first impression the justice of the universal praise which has been award-lordly elk standing erect among a congreed to the improved design. The reduction of two hundred and forty feet in the length enables the spectator to embrace the whole building within the compass of his vision, without withdrawing to a distance too great for observation of its details. It is true that much of the idea of vastness is lost; but if that be a loss,-though we are inclined to think it is not,-ample amends are made by the imposing spectacle of just, elegant, and grand proportions-elements to which, notwithstanding its superlative merits of adaptation to a specific purpose, the building in Hyde-park had but little pretension. The erection of three transepts in place of one, the noble elevation of the central transept, and the substitution of an arched roof for a flat one along the entire length of the nave, altogether have, by replacing parallel lines and sharp angles by flowing lines and graceful curves, entirely altered the character of the general outline. The result is a structure upon which the eye loves to rest, and toward which it instinctively turns so long as the object is in sight. From either end of the building, wings bearing the appearance of conservatories, and terminating in square towers, project forward sufficiently far to embrace the whole of the terraces, which are thus partially inclosed from the rest of the grounds. Into one of these wings the railway from London runs, and thus discharges its passengers beneath the roof of the palace. The grand avenue, which may be said to terminate between the sphinxes in front of the central transept, extends in a straight line down the entire slope of the park to a distance of two thousand feet,-something more than a third of a mile. We follow mechanically a party of visitors who are making their way toward a long, low building in the lower grounds, and, being courteously admitted, find ourselves in the presence of a portentous group of monsters terrific to behold. Here is what seems a common toad amplified to gation of prostrate lizards of colossal longitude. Here are ravenous-looking leviathans of the alligator family, with jaws above a yard in length, bristling with countless fangs as large as fingers-together with monsters which we cannot pretend to name, and which Adam never named at all, (belonging as they did to an antecedent period,) of shapeless form and hideous aspect. Here, too, is the stupendous iguanodon, in whose body a score of gentlemen met to dinner. Professor Owen, it is reported, did the honors of the table, and seasoned the substantial fare with a colloquial lecture on the subject of antediluvian remains. He dwelt briefly on the discoveries of Cuvier and John Hunter, and of Buckland, who, from a single tooth, constructed the megalosaurus; and at the close of his remarks proposed as an appropriate toast the memory of Mantell, the discoverer of the iguanodon-a toast which was received in mournful silence. These strange monsters, suggestive as they are of the history of the earth ere its inhabitants were subjected to the mastery of mankind, will form one of the most striking and significant of the numberless attractions of the new palace, and will render valuable assistance to the study of geology. Water, whether in motion or at rest, forms a principal feature as well in the palace itself as in the delightful gardens mapped out before it. The ornamental fountains spout water to a great height, and, in order to effect this, water is pumped into tanks placed on the summit of the lofty towers at either end of the building. The outer casing of the towers being formed of hollow cast-iron columns, the water descending through them supplies the jets of the fountains. These towers also serve the purpose of chimneys to the furnaces used for heating the water required for warming the building in cold weather; and further, being fitted with a spiral stair rising to the height of nearly two hundred feet, form a succession of available galleries for viewing the surrounding scenery. There are broad basins of water between the flights of steps leading from the upper to the lower terrace, into which numerous dolphins, ranged in the vaulted niches of the terrace-wall, spout a continuous stream. The grand water-works are arranged at the bottom of the main avenue. Before entering the building for a brief survey of its contents, we may as well perform what will be expected of us, by stating, as shortly as possible, the actual dimensions of the present structure, referring at the same time to that of the Hydepark palace. The entire length of the new pile is 1608 feet, that of the former being 1848 feet; the entire length of the central transept is 384 feet, against 456 feet, the greatest depth in the first building; the height from the floor to the roof of the nave is 110 feet, against 66 feet, the height of the former nave; and the height from the floor to the center of the middle transept is 180 feet, against 108 feet, the height of the first transept. Owing to the fact that the ground upon which the new palace is built shelves considerably toward the park, the elevation on that side is 194 feet, an increase in height which tells well upon the general appearance. The actual space inclosed by the new building is 542,592 feet, or about 13 acres, against 767,150 feet, or about 19 acres, in the old one. Thus it will be seen that while the inclosed area is nearly one-third less in the new pile than in the old, the height is about two-thirds greater-and it will be readily imagined that proportions so entirely different give a new character to the present undertaking. Add to this, that what was formerly the side is now the front of the edifice-that the device of breaking the long flatness of the façade by deep recesses at the ends of the transepts has been resorted to, and the immenselyimproved effect is readily conceivable, even without the aid of pictorial representation. But without such aid, or a personal visit, it is not easy to conceive what a really picturesque object the new palace becomes when seen from one of the many favorable points of view which the park presents. Our engraving perpetuates but one aspect of the picture, which the spectator may contemplate with renewed pleasure from a hundred different spots. On entering the building from the ter race, we find ourselves in an underground chamber, to which has been given the name of Paxton's tunnel. We mentioned above that the ground slopes downward from the rear to the front of the building; the descent from one side to the other is as much as twenty-five feet, and of this circumstance the architect has availed himself in constructing a long tunnel or basement story, extending the whole length of the edifice. A portion of this long chamber is allotted for the exhibition of working machinery, and another portion is fitted up with boilers for the heating of the water designed to raise the temperature of the interior in cold weather. To effect this, above fifty miles of iron piping, seven inches in diameter, are laid down beneath the floors, and connected with ventilators traversing the galleries, making together a huge arterial system dispensing warmth to every part. The pipes are so arranged that the water, after circulating through them, and parting with its caloric, returns to the boilers to be again heated. The furnaces will consume their own smoke, and thus there will be no visible effluvia projected through the central shafts of the water-towers at either end of the building. Experiments which have been made with the warming apparatus have satisfactorily proved its efficiency. On ascending to the level floor-line, and proceeding to the end of the nave toward the Dulwich Road, we are enabled to compare the effect of the interior view with our recollections of the same effect in the former structure. Indisputably, one striking charm is nearly lost altogether. We allude to that dim, mysterious, hazy, and eminently picturesque effect which arose from the much greater length of the Hyde-park palace, which delighted, because it deluded the eye of the spectator with the idea of unfathomable depth and distance. Here there is no mystery to deal with; the eye commands the entire perspective, and, as it were, takes possession of the whole with a glance. In all other respects, however, the interior aspect of the Sydenham Palace is infinitely superior to that of its predecessor. The perspective of the long, lofty, arching nave excels the low, flat roof of the exhibition as much as the vaulted arch of a Roman temple does the ceiling of a barrack. The addition of forty-four feet to the height gives an air of sublimity and grandeur to the new building wanting to the old. Again, the monotonous repetition of columns and girders, complained of as wearisome to the eye in the first building, is avoided in the new one by the projection, at regular intervals, of pairs of columns, which, advancing forward into the nave, break the perspective lines on either side, and impart a degree of variety to the view. On ascending to the galleries, where space is allotted for the different classes of manufactured goods, and viewing the area below from various points, the old idea of vastness grows upon us again, and by a judicious arrangement of the botanical and artistic specimens, that picturesque element of indefinite extent is fully restored. We must now turn our attention to the works of art which form the principal features of attraction to this realm of fairy land. We enter first, as it happens to be nearest at hand, what is called the Pompeian Court, which is nothing more or less than a fac-simile of a Roman mansion restored to its beauty and brilliancy as it existed in Pompeii nearly eighteen hundred years ago. The building, as it stands here, complete in all its ornate elegance and luxury, presents a spectacle which can nowhere else be witnessed. In design it combines the most enchanting simplicity with the most elaborate art, and, though never overloaded with ornament, is yet an example of all that ornamentation can accomplish in the production of chaste architectural effect. The apartments, which GROUP OF EXTINCT MONSTERS. |