The Express.
London, England, 1861-04-22 00:00:00

CRYSTAL PALACE.

The Crystal Palace is a unique exhibition in this
respect, that it has its special attractions for every season.
It has its glass roof and artificial atmosphere for winter,
its charming grounds and flowers nod verdure for spring
and summer, and its concerts, oratorios, schools and pic.
tare galleries for all times. Never has • better 'Wines
wave of illDOClllei and elevating amusement been provided.
Us toe arts court' are each a perfect school in
thesasebe, U. Noonan, giving
Desk knowledge to the cultivated, and realising past
periods of the world's history in a way which
every one can enjoy and understand. What •
light, for instance, does not the Pompeiandionme hold
rip to the student of the annals of imperial Rome!
If his reading be of earlier Greece be meets mention
ad the Parthenon at every turn. Let him pay his shilling
sad go to Sydeoham, and there he has the best
model of the Parthenon that has yet been produced. He
has also splendid casts of the triumphs of Grecian art, the
figures of the Greek gods and goddesses, and the busts from
the best authorities of their greatest warriors and wisest
man. Naiades, and Beasts, Alcibiades and Solon are
there, Leading • perfect crowd of classic celebrities; and
what mu be more delightful occupation for the youthful
fancy than straying through this priceless gallery, and
Umiak the connexion betwen the facto of each biography,
and the appearance and lineaments of the individual
toe If the visitor belong to what Cowper rails
the "Medieval party," he can cross the nave and trace
the programa of his favourite school from its first birth in
the gloomy Byzantine down to its final dieappeorance
to male room for the fanciful frippery of the Renaissance.
What a pity that the committee to whom was entrusted the
deign of the group for the entrance of Westminster School
did not, in the first instance, go through a strict course of
observation and study at the Crystal Palace, as then we
might have been spared the agony of Mr. Conyngharn, and

the regretful remonstrance* of the Chief Commissioner of
Works, respecting that artistic honor, the perching of four
Plantagenet Kings, escorted by Bt. George and the Dragon,
on the top of a classic column. The only pity respecting
the extraordinary collection of schools and works of ancient
art at Sydenham is, that the public do not become more
familiar with them or visit them more frequently. The
beautiful grounds, the fine music, the attractive coup-cririt
of the whole interior, absorb the attention of the casual
visitor, and thousands go away without once having looked
at what is not only a most attractive feature of the Crystal
Palace, but an attractive which cannot be equalled any-
where else In the world.

Another of the attractions is the wonderful oonsemtory,
containing the angst and rarest specimens of tropical vege•
tatioo, which probably the people would take more interest
in if some means were taken to make them understand what
they were looking at. At present this beautiful section is
mainly useful to the invalids, who roll about in their Bath
chairs, and languidly enjoy the warm, sultry atmosphere.
But even this is a great good, and gives plasm» to many a
poor sickly visitor who otherwise might pia* and die out in
the lonely monotony of the sick room. These and a score more
are the permanent attractions of the building, and sa we are
likely to havo a fine summer, the present is not an
inopportune time for recalling public attention to them.
The West-end and Crystal Palace Railway has wonderfully
increased the facilities for metropolitan visitors.
On Saturday last the leading feature of the day's
programme was the concert, which was enriched by
tke vocal talents of Madame Lemmena Sherrington,
and the splendid violin playing of M. Vieuxtemps. The
perfection of ensemble to which Mr. Manna has brought his
now celebrated bead was °avaricious in the Beethoven sym-
phony with which the concert opened, and which was pro-
nounced to be played in a style worthy of the Philhannunis
Society. The majority of the sadism* ware quite prepared
to listen to and enjoy this work, but the continuity el
attention which it demen3sd wee ruthlessly disturbed by
successive invasions of supplementary visitors, who, with a
barbarism which was quite iacceseistent with their draw and
appearance, insisted upon reeking up and down in the
middle of the most esqideite images, and di.-
turbiog whole rows of decorous listeners, in order
that they might get to their seats. There were numbers
of foreigners present, who listened to the music with de-
light, but they held up their hands in amassment as they
saw mum of fashionably-dressed ladies and gentlemen
bolding animated discussions with the attendants about
mate and numbers, whilst Mr. Manna and his accomplished
artists were throwing their whole souls into the realisation
elf Beetbeme's sublime coorrotion. It was remarkable also
that all this ..seemly hubbub took place in the reserved
seats, the enter public, who had been able to pay only the
ordinary prime of ldmission, being patterns of attention and
decorum. We think that the directors of the Crystal Palace
ow* it to their public, whose Mate for the best music they
are so meeiteriously cultivating, to devise some regulation by
which order may be maintained in the reseed-room during
the perforemmeof a chej-crterrc. Nosed the separate pieces,
either vocal or instrumental, occupy a very long tine,
end ma reasonable person would, we are sore, object to a
request from the door-keeper to wait outside until the piece
which was then being performed had termineted.