The Express.
London, England, 1857-07-08 00:00:00

ALTON TOWERS.

"The magnificent contents of Alton Towers, the
princely seat of the Earl of Shrewsbury which, by order of
&e., &e., gm., will be sold by auction ,y Mews. Chrintie
and Mangan." So (observes the Times) runs the grandilo-
quent advertisement which announces that one of the noblest
families in the English peerage is extinct, its effects for sale,
and the manor over which the premier earls of England have
held right and jurisdiction Moe the days of Henry 11. is
about to pass into the keeping of tanagers hands. Rustics,
holiday-seekers from the manufacturing districts, country
gentlemen and agents from London jostle and crowd about the
grand ealuonii and galleries. Some CZAlliirte the various lota,
note their 121/011.1., and speculate upon their prices; others
wonder in dumb admiration at the splendour around, or re-
gale furtively upon the contents of heavy baskets which they
lug about the palace, while Ruth and (like, who till then
never sat on anything softer than a dairy stool or live-barred
Fate, recline with easy luxury upon the embroidered couches
in tare music-ram. No place is shut against the curious or
(lewd to the depreciating eyes of would-be purchasers. The
late earl's bed-room, plain quiet, sad unostentatious amid
i the general magnificence, s still crowded aa forming an im-
pudent portion of the show. Even the noble chapel, with
tin high vaulted roof and stained-glass windows, which
seem to hush the very daylight into a mournful silence, re.
sound* with loud talking and the tread of feet as visitors
pour in and out each hour. High towers and chambers, the
Duria apartments, mid suite of Arragun saliams, conserve-
write, galleries, and corridors, all, trims roof to bailment,
are thrown open to the public and become as thorough-
fares, fur the ••tuagnificent contents of Alton Towers are
on view."

Foe some years peat the gardens, which have been de-
scribal by Loudon as the finest coral ination of garden
building with garden scenery anywhere existing in Europe,"
have ben comidered as public grounds to all the surround-
ing neighbourhood and thousands of visitors from the mann-
torturing diefficts daily availed themselves of the privilege
during the summer. Nu tickets were required, and every
roe went in or out as he liked. With an unusual amount of

oo•aidtxtie for the vi:itota, the ireleeesso."—r7f the late earl
allowed a house for the sale of refreshments to be built in •
a,,cluAled part of the grounds, where refreshments of all kinds
are sold at • moderate flied rate. Gradually the tosn.ion
itself was thrown open —rat first on tickets, and then freely
to all who came—and though hundreds daily wandered
through its beautiful saloons, • shilling's worth of loss or
damage was neer: suelauird.

The Duke of who at present bolds the property
in trust for his astound son, has determined to keep up the
gardens (though at a art of 2,0001. a year) for the benefit of
the public in the neighbourhood, who, from lung right of
nee, consider them almost as their own.
The sale commenced on Monday, and will continue for the
next five weeks, when Alton Tower. will be stripped and
desolate and closed for many years to came. lesterday,
• portrait of Philip IV. by %*elasquen was sold for 123
guineas, and a cattle piece by Cuyp for 565 guineas. When
the litigation which he about to ensue respeeting the real
ownership of the eetates will terminate is not, however,
quite ro certain. The lawyers, we (Times) imagine, will
prow the real heirs to the property, and po,hobly, eller it
has been involved for years in the meshes of Claim-cry, and
exhausted by the constant drain of retainer., refreshers, and
reminders, and all the lucrative devices employed to keep
counsel constant, the despairing litigants may compromise,
and sell the encumbered property to the eons of some lad who
is now weeping out his master's erarehouse in Cheapside, or
arranging epads in a cotton mill at Manchester. Thus,
then, may the hospitalities of Alton to revived hereafter,
under the auspices of • Viscount Cripplegate or a Baron
Stockport. But Alton Tower. just now is no place in
which to indulge in guilt refleetions. The visitor must
rouse, and make way for the bustling employs of Matsus.
Christie and Maron. Let them arrange the couches on
which royalty has reclined, in a manner likely to attract the
bidders, and ticket thebannero which have been borne by the
Earle of Shrewsbury in the hest of battle, or waved at the
coronation of our kings. Let them place in the best light
the mawive armour of the renowned John Talbot, the suit
in which he fought his way through France by the side of
stout John Fobtoffe, in which he encountered Joan of Arc,
and died full knightly under tho walls of Poictieta. It is a
mere suit of armour now, and the poetical associations of an
extinct line go for nought, fur the last heir mak of the
Shrewsbury. hes been laid at rest for ever, and the "mag-
nificent effects" of Alien Towers are for sale.

A letter from Rome, in the Constitutionnel, says:
—" Primo Annibal Simonelli has pot an end to his ezintence
by throwing himself out of a window of his palace at
Ancona. Ac he was in poeseasion of a considerable fortune,
and surrounded by everything to render life agreeable, the
cause which kd him to commit the rash act at present re-
mains a mystery. Prince Simonetti had been called by Pius
IX to the ministry of finance during the conatitutional
regime. He was the first secular minister, and succeeded
the Prelate Morichini, who is now rurdinal. The prince, on
resigning his poet, was replaced by Count Itoini."

, . .
The Emperor and Empress of Russia arrived at
Frankfort on Monday, and, after hating breakfasted at the
Russian mammy, set off, at noon, by the Hanover railway,
for Kiamengen.

THE ATLANTIC SUBMARINE CABLE.—LIVERPOOT„
It 1.7 2.—The Aliment of the Niagara's portion of the greed
Traneatlantie Telegraph cable is proceeding eatisfaetsinly,
under the active superintendence of Mr. Bright. About 320
tone of the cable have been put on bawd, being at the rate of
50 tone per day since the work commenced. To-morrow
(Wednesday) it is intended to piece four vesicle on each side
of the Niagara, when 100 tone per day will be placed on board.
The Nieves is expected to be ready for sea by the 20th met.
With the cable and stores. on board she will draw about 2515.
of water. The United Stetee paddle steam-frigate Sun-
quehanne, which ticesmpeniee the !tangent, la expected in the
Mersey on Saturday morning next, (rem Cowes.
NEW (kering CHURCHES IN LONDON.—Of recent
Outbid churches in London, there ere only two which seem
to us to have a truly urban—we will not say metropolitan—
character. These are, :the new church in Margeret-etreet
and that in Gordon-equare. The latter is of cathedral di-
mennions there are cathedrals which are inferior to it in
I ',gra at nice; and, indent, in respect of general altitude,
which is the chief direction magnitude should boots
in orelesiestical edifice,, the church in Gordon-square is
moat liberally and nobly built, and makes Mr. Pug's
Roman catholic cathedral stunted and vulgar by comparison.
This thumb, however, is quite unfitted for our ordinary no-
tionel ritual, for which, indeed, it none nut intended. It is
internally end externally of the common cathedral type, end
its imposing effect M obtained by a magnitude considerably
beyond that which would be convenient fur any service in
which the sermon in the chief point. There no remarkable
originality in this church; it in merely remarkable as, upon
the whole, the beet reiteration of mediteval church-
amhitecture in the metropolis. The other church
we spoke of bee e' far higher merit. It le a truly original
work. Without execedine or even nearly reaching the
interim dimension* allowable in n modern protestant church,
and without any sacrifice of trim ecclesiastical effect, the
builder of this church has succeeded in giving it a truly
urban SUM and effect by a most Pietistical amalgamation of the
parsonage and school-heuee with the church itself, of which
the singular but beautiful spire rises to the altitude of 225
feet above the pavement. Nut only in adequate "ice thus
obtained, but the edifice is rendered an integral pert of the
street; for the parsonage and ',hoot-home come right up to
the pavement, end ore continuous with the houses on each
side, at the emeetinie Sint they form, ea it were, the project-
ing wings of the church proper in the centre. By thin ar-
rangement, the ordinary defect of magnitude In London
&ache. is still further avoided ; for isolation always makes
• building conepielions, sod calls for dimensions above those
required in a position of leas pretence, like that of the present
edifice. On entering the building, which is constructed for
a congregation of about 600 pereonn the beauty and costli-
ness of the materials and workmanship et once take oar
thoughts awny from considerations of size. The thefts
walls, and tracery are wholly of rem native marbles,—Der-
byehlre alabuters, Cornish 'serpentine, Purbeck and granite.
—with the exception of a email eurfseecovered with coloured
bricks and the epees. occupied by Mr. Dyees Reaves.
The great window, by Chown, none of the meat maitaxiScont
specimens of tandem coloured glees. Altogether, the inte-
rior, when completed aid be unrivalled by any thing of the
tad in England, with the one exesp•ion, perhaps, of the
little Lombard church at Wikon.—Natioesi Retina, law
number.