The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-06-29 00:00:00

11116,..

OPENING of the EAST-END MUSEUM

in LONDON.

The opening of the Bethnal-green Museum by the
Prince and Princess of Wales on behalf ot her Majesty,
took place on Monday. The appearance of Royalty
at the East-end is of rare occurrence, and the
I efforts made by the inhabitants in the way of demon-
strations of welcome showed how fully they appreciated
the honour. Bishopsgate-street although not within
the precincts of the East end proper, but as form-
ing an officially recognised portion of the route,
Bishopsgate-street blazed forth with a glory of flags,
festoons, and welcoming mottoes. The firemen at the
hical station had conceived the original idea of doing
honour to the occasioa by stuffing a spare uniform and
placing it on the window-ledge above their station,
where, with numerous medals on its breast and the
hose in its hand, it formed a prominent feature in the
"decorations." From the corner of Church-street to
the top of the Bethnal-green road—a distance proba-
bly of about a mile— flags and banners were hung
across the street at frequent intervals, and nearly
every house was decorated with flags, mottoes,
paper flowers, or other ornaments. The inhabitants
of one humble house displayed their loyalty by hanging
from one window to another a number of children's
Chinese lanterns. At several points wooden platforms
of considerable sae had been erected, and in the grounds
of St. John's Church, near the Museum, a large covered
platform at least 100 yards long Was put up, hand-
somely decorated with crimson cloth and other
draperies. Two or three railway arches along the
route of the procession were covered with crimson
cloth and decorated with flags and evergreens. The
Hackney-road, through which the procession was to
pass on its return journey, presented at some points
a very gay appearance, and some of the decora-
tions displayed considerable taste. The mottoes on
some of the houses in Bethnal-green were rather
curious. Pious wishes for the Queen and for the
Princess were very common, One being—" May their
end be peace." One shopkeeper had ornamented his
house with two or three verses of popular hymns, while
another gave what he probably intended to be a
sarcastic comment on the proceedings of the day in
these words "The curiosities of Bethnal-green are
'outside' the museum." "Welcome to the Rost" was
a very frequent device, and this was supplemented
iu one case by the words "Long wished for come at
last."

Within the Museum a large and brilliant assembly
began to gather as early as ten o'clock, and by half-
past eleven there were few seats unoccupied. At a
quarter to twelve the entra,ce of the Burmese am-
bassadors, clad in their bright and picturesque costume,
caused a general movement of attention. They were
followed at brief intervals by the Rake f Marl-
borough, the Marquis of Ripon, Sir Stafford North-
cote, Mr. Forster, the Bishop of London, Sir John
Bennett, Lord Henry Lennox, and Mr. Cole.
At twenty minutes past twelve, more than half an
hour after the time announced, the Royal procession
reached the Museum, the Prince and Princess receiv-
ing an enthusiastic greeting from the favoured crowd
which had been permitted to cluster round the entrance
gates, aml to fill the seats on the grand stands erected
on either side of the gramplot. The procession was
composed of five State carriages, accompanied by a
captain's escort of the lot Regiment of Life Guards.
The Prince and Princess sat in the last carriage,
which was shared with them by the Lord Chamber-
lain, Viscount Sydney. Their Royal Highnesses were
received at ths west, or prinripal entrance, by the
Marquis of Ripon, Lord President of the Council, and
Mr. Forster, vice-president.
_._ _ •

At 12.25 the procession entered the Museum, and
slowly advanced towards the dais, preceded by eight
gorgeously clad true, peters, who marched four abreast,
playing a flourish on their trumpets, to which the
audience, who had risen upon the signal being given by
the playing of " God Save the Queen" by the band out-
side, furnished an accompaniment by the loud clapping
of their hands. When the trumpeters ceased the band of
the Hon. At tillers Company stationed in the gallery
above the dais began to play the National Anthem, to
the strains of which the Prince and Princess were mar-
shalled to the seats. The Princess was met apon the
dais by Mrs. Gladstone, wife to the Premier, who led
up to her Royal Highness a little girl carrying a bou-
quet, which was gracefully presented and graciously re-
ceived.

A prayer having been offered up by the Bishop of
London, the Marquis of Ripon advanced and read the
Address to His Royal Highness.
. .

_
Hi: Royal Highness then read in a :dear, manly voice
a reply expressive of the great pleasure it afforded him
to t eke part in the opening of a museum deigned to
diffuse a knowledge of science and art among the poorer
classes, and of the deep interest which her Majesty the
Queen felt in the work in which they were engaged.
He passed a high eulogium on the public spirit and
liberality of Sir Richard Wallace in adding his trea-
sures of art to the other objects of interest in the
museum, and his remarks were received with great
enthusiasm. During the reading of the address and
reply, there were frequent bursts of applause, and,
needless to say, the Pi ince " brought down the house"
as he ended. Then the gilded trumpeters blew one of
their loudest blasts, and, advancing to the front of the
dais, his Royal Highness then declared the Museum
opened, and the choir, amidst great applause, struck
up "God Save the Queen."
The Prince having cordially shaken hands with
several of those around him their Royal Highnesses
then left the dais. Sir Richard Wallace received the
Royal party at the foot of one of the staircases leading
to the galleries containing his munificent loan, and
with Lady Wallace and Captain Wallace had the
honour of conducting their Royal Highnesses round
the galleries and of pointing out to them the gems of
a collection of gems. It may be mentioned that Sir
Richard had fitted up two retiring rooms for the Prince
and Princess, furnishing them with some of the trea-
sures of his art furniture, every piece of which is his-
torical and an heirloom, and hanging the walls of the
Prince's room with some of the most exquisite of
Fragonard's pictures.
On their return to the dais the procession was re.
formed, a flourish of trumpets was given, and the
Roy al pasty left by the west entrance, amidst
vociferous applause, mingled with the strains of "God
bless the Prince of Wales."

The Princess was very simply dresged in pink, and
her amiable smiling face elicited a deal of affectionate
admiration.

Throughout the return course, by way of Cambridge-
road and the Hacknerroad the enthlkiasm was un-
bounded, and the decorations very profuse. Many of
the publicans mounted bands of music over their shop-
fronts, windows were taken out, and tiers of seats
erected, while a perfect forest of flags and buntin4
fluttered in all directions. Many of the inscriptions
were particularly noticeable on account of the grati-
tude they evinced for the royal visit. "Many thanks
for this visit ; " "God bless the Prince and Princess
for their kind visit," are specimens of °umbels of the
inscriptions.
In front of Shorelitch Church some elegantly de.
corated stands were erected, and the space between the
church and the railway station was extremely pictures-
que at the moment when the Royal procession
approached on its return to Bishopsgate. The 1-lurmese
nbassy preceded it at a short distance, and the Chief
Ambassador was so carried away by the popular enthu-
siasm that, sinking all his Oriental gravity, he waved
a white poekethandkerchief as his carriage passed
between the lines of people.

In a leader on the opening of the Museum, The
Times of Tuesday pays the following tribute to the
generosity and great-heartednese of Sir Richard
Wallace:—
Ii Bethnal Green in the Tower Hamlets or in Hackney ?
This sea question of political geography which may have
occurred to more than one of the visitors who had found
tin ir way, they scarcely knew how, to the East-end
Museum yesterday, and had leisure, while waiting for
the opening ceremony to reflect on the effect munifi-
cence like Sir Richard Wallace's might exercise on the
popular imagination of Shoreditch and Its neighbourhood.
It would be a cruel return for generosity so rare—a gene-
rosity we may, rerhaps, style matehless—to elect the owner
of the priceless treasures tlius thrown open to the world
M.P., whether for Hackney or the Hamlets, and we are
far front making any such suggestions for poisoning
Sir Richard Wallace's peace but if he were so
ill-advised as to court such an honour, his wealth,
his history, and his open-handed magnificence would
so fa-scinate the sympathies of East London that, whatever
might be his political creed, he would be a formidable rival
to any competitor. The men, and still more the women,
who live from day to day, in Spitalfields, lives destitute to
out ward seeming of all elements of colour, of grace, or of
joy have, doubtless, dreams of an existence different from
their own. Poor themselves, the dream of the posses-
sion of boundless wealth is an inspiration of poetry.
Sir Richard Wallace trust appear to persons of this tem-
perament to enjoy the realisation of all they had fancied. The
proof of his wealth is at their doors. tie has furnished
a Palace of Art out of his own abundance. And lie is not
merely a very rich roan ; he is not merely a man who has
made two capitate —the two capitals of the world, the capitals
of industry and pia:lsere—his debtors. The settle:ones of
his succersion to the wealth he lavishes, and the great gifts
of genies I e has put at the service of East London, have a
dramatic character which touches the imagination. It is
a tale around which myths naturally grow and have grown.
Two years ago Sir Richard Wallace was not known among
us. Treasures heaped upon treasures were reported to
be stowed. away in a dingy house inns decaying Square; but
few had ever seen anything of their splendour. An un-
inimished palace in Piccadilly was more or less confidently
asserted to be the receptacle of fresh and ever-increasing
accumulations of art: and every one who went to Paris
came back to tell the gossip of the Boulevards— how
Bagatelle was furnished with prizes for which an Emperor
had vainly contended after the agent of our own National
Gallery had been left far behind. All was at the absolute
dispoaal of one man, and smidenly it fell to Sir Richard
Wallace. How he had since fed the starving poor of Paris in
the hour of their need, with what more than Royal aim-
plicits he sent as a gift to Trafalgar Square the picture the
agent of the National Gallery had tried in other years tojsity
in vain, and how he has furnished the Museum openeßton
Monday with pictures, porcelain, and ',redone products of
all kinds, brought over frorn Paris and transferred horn
Manchestt r Square, are acts which make lip a story to excite
and occupy the imaginative faculties of the people. , .

Within the Museum, as the Prince himself observed in his
answer to the Address presented to him, Sir Richard Wallace
wan entitled to a share of attention. and he Old not fail to re-
ceive it. . . . There remains but little to which the dweller
in Spitalflelds can resort to relieve the sordid monotony of
his life. Sir Richard Wallace has fitted up a fairy palace at
his door. It is hot a step, and the depressing conditions
of everyday existence may be for4otten. The craving
desire to be lifted out of tim dreariness of toiling and moil-
ing, of dirt and disorder, is half the secret of the fascination
of the gin palaces which are ever open to tempt the workman
and the workman s wife; and the isezt reward for Sir Richard
Wallaoe's munificence will be in the thought that he may
save some of the rising generation from 3 Riding to the hires
of haunts like these by giving a noble and pure development
to their aspirations.
The Deily Telegraph writes :

Without any oblivion of good service in the decorations of
the %Vest-end amt the City on the Thanksgiving Day, a critic of
out-of-door effects most have been constrained to admit that
the cheap, simple, rough-and-ready embellishments of
Bethnal-green were, in their degree, more striking than
the m at elaborate mid the most expensive adorn-
ments of mat February. There had evidently been no
tedious controversy as to the relative merits ot decorative
Styles. The loyalists of the East-end had not troubled their
heads about iliniue-cento or Itenaissance, Bysantine or
Me.Mere'. Catholicity. in its widest senee, had been the
comfortable rule adopted. Every body did what he liked,
but he did it with energy and regar.ileee of inmate, so far
art calico and coloured paper were concerned. If a home-
holder happened to possess a tea tray of unusually vivid
pattern—one of those tea-traps to which Dr. Marigold
Is always doing bus:rims—or a bearthrag of 'tota-
ling design and brilliant hue, representing. Bay, an eme-
rald peep hyena slaying an orangwooldunsd panther
ou a ORO crioutio, hi kaki', Wig dal An eV dr

. -
the rug beneath his flret-firor window ; and, with "Wel-
come England's Hope " in tinfoil letters pasted upod it, the
article looked quite beautiful. Humble shop signs too, u ore
plentifully utilised. The "Original Little bust-pan"
was festooned in rainbow hues the "Only Care for
Smoky Chimneys' wail surmounted by the Prince's platues
the "Golden toot" was wreathed like a maypole; the
'Silver Lion' carried the Union Jack in his mouth, and
wagged his tail amidst bunches Of flags; the "Old-eats-
birched Family Teapot" loomed tremendous as the gentle
of a grove of Chinem lanterns. Tue brewers' boards over
the public-houses did duty quite as effectually; " Welcome
to Albert Edward and Alexandra," "Welcome to the East,"
" Welcome, and come again," "Welcome Englaud's future
King and Queen." "God Mesa the Prince and his physichine,"
" Hearth may agree though heads may differ," and " God bless
them and their children," were blazoned without stint,
and with an iteration wholly commendable, on and
about those place, of entertainment. The sweetstuff
aimps, moreover, made a grand show; and the well. known
artistic canons regulating the decoration of candied bore-
h' sad, Bonaparte's rib and elecampane, had been oromptly
acted upon by the confineurs f Bethriabereen. In hundreds
of 'arta:ices windows had en taken lin ily not of the
frames, and, wreathed with artificial Hower., had been 0.111-
carted into private bones of the Thankigiving Day pattern.
.... Three guinea, two guinea, or one guinea seats were
not Li much request, we should say. We question
even whether, in the vast majority of instances. any-
thing was paid for a teat at all. As a role the %vied°, a
were crammed by jovial parties of tmilesfolk or wet king
pimple, plainly on the most friendly terms with the pro-
prietor of the establishment (UM if aujthing was paid
for window-room it must have been in most cases of the
nature of a peppercorn rent, or at least c. mmutanlo br
Soma gentleman standing a pot of beer and treating the
ladies all round.

The Times, in noticing the pne3iug of the Royal
party ea route to Betim9l-green, says :

. . -
A 9 they passed along this (Bethnal-green-road] tney were
in the very heart of lieilmal-green itself, with its teeming
population—a community perhaps the humblest and the
most hard-working in the metropolis. But, poor as they
are, they greeted the Prince and PriIICC3S in a way that let
nothing to be desired. In all their anxiety to tee the
Royal visitors, they were orderly and goodhumoured.
One might have expected to And " roughs " here.
Certainly, there was poverty enough, but not the slightest
display of ruffianism. A better-behaved multitude than that
which assembled to see and cheer the Prince anti Princets
has succor beeu gathered in ally portion of this metropolis
within nor memory. "Welcome to hetlmal.green " was
the first iuscription which met the eyes of their Royal
Ilighnevae as they entered the Lethual greenroad, and
that welcome was expressed by the operatives and
their wives anti children. ft was curious to ob-
serve the astonished gaze with which many of these
People looked at the Life Guards and at Royally. The
constant exclamation, "That's him ; I know bin, by the pic-
tdree !" t hi the listener that lhonsandi of the people of
the metropolis /IA uevtr seen the Prhices before ; and
from tneir exdamations of admiration in respect of
tile Household troops, " Aint them fine I" and " Mut
them beautiful ?" it was pretty clear that a field ofilceia
escort of Life fluards was a scene which Bethnal green
haft not witnessed within the nit awry of tile oldest in-
haffititut. For fully a mile, amid wudinuons acclamations
from tile pc-pie I.n the pavements, In the windows, and en
the hou.ctops, the Prinee and Prin.-BS proceeded till passing
under the railway arch, which was tastefully decorated, they
reached the Cambridge-road and the square in front of St.
Jellies Church, the bells of which united with the voices of
the immense crowds in giving them a hearty welcome.