The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-29 00:00:00

POLYGRAPHIC HALL ENTERTAINMENT.

Mr. Wot)din had his full share of visitors last evening.
His little hall was crowded to suffocation, and laughter and
applause greeted him throughout his entire performance.

GRACE EGERTON'S ENTERTAINMENT.
The " Drawing Room to Let" drew a large audience last
night, and all present seemed thoroughly gratified a the
exertions the accomplished Grace Egerton made to please
her many visitors.

ARTHUR SKETCHLEY'S ENTERTAINMENT.
Mr. Sketchley received his full share of Easter holiday
visitors, and we mistake very much if those who went
further afield for Easter amusement fared as well as those
who passed the evening at the attractive entertainment in
the Emptian Hall.

THE CRYSTAL PALACE.
Yesterday a large crowd assembled, as is usual on Easter
Monday, at the Crystal Palace. The day was cold and
gloomy, more than once threatening rain, so that the visitors
were less scattered over the grounds than is usual at this
season. But the attractions within doora are at present so
much greater than those without that the absence of sun-
shine was not neceesarY to explain the p, eference shown for
the interior of the building. It was de.iightful to leave the
frost-nipped lawns and leafless lantise apes for the perpetual
summer of the south nave and tralisflat, in which the vege-
tation is now particularly brilliant- In the southern nave,
before the band began to play, the
chief attraction seemed
to be the dazzling beds of tulips, hyacinths, dialetrias,
deutsias, and cinerarias which have be en formed round the
crystal fountains. In the north transept, those who had not
been at the Palace for some time notice d the increased size
of the tree ferns and palm trees, many o f which now exceed
30 feet in height. The .orchideons plan ts, with their bright
pink purple tipped flowers, at present give an additional

Li7'4

11,E
charm to the Alhambra, Ep,Tptian, and Assyrian Courtl,
and here it was that the crowd chiefly gathered in the fore-
noon.

A./

LOiAIL.

The amusements in the transept, under the direction of
Mr. Nelson Lee, opened at 1 o'clock with the performances
by Orville Parker, the " negro vocalist." They were fol-
lowed by a comic entertainment, or pantomime, in which
harlequin, harlequin junior, and a third performer, repre-

senting a tortoiseshell cat, performed a number of sur-
prising summersaults with stilts on. A dance by the
D'Aubans was much applauded, but a more startling enter-
tainment succeeded—that of " les Quatres Pierrots"— four
French clowns, each with a fiddle, who went through all
the evolutions of acrobats without ceasing to play and keep
time, although in attitudes which seemed to render such
operations absolutely impossible. The performance was
well worthy of the favourable reception it met. Various
other entertainments followed, among which the most re-
markable was perhaps that of the infant PcUndies, specially
intended for the young, but amusing to every one. One of
the most interesting objects exhibited yesterday in the
Palace was a model of the house at Stratford-on-Aron in
which Shakspere was born. Occupying a conspicuous place
in the great transept it was during the day constantly sur-
rounded by a group of visitors. It appears that Mr E. T.
Parrie has been engaged for some months in constructing,
in wood, plaster, and canvas, a copy of the house of the
exact size of the original. On the 23d Of next month, the
day of the great fete, it will be placed in that part of the
great transept yesterday occupied by the small model.
Several parts of the large copy were to be seen yesterday
on the basement. These gave ample evidence of the care
and fidelity with which the monument will be represented.
Very judiciously Mr. Parris has imitated, without the
slightest deviation, the house as it now appears. The
building has been restored or rebuilt without any attempt
being made to give the newer patchwork the tints of age,
and the appearance so produced has been faithfully repeated
in the great model. The cracks and furrows and blisters,
which the beams exhibit, have been carefully imitated with
the chisel and paint-brush. The small size of the building
will surprise many of those who are familiar with the wood-
cuts representing it, It is 63ft, long, but the whole height
is 25ft. from the ground to the roof of the red brick roof,
and it will form but a small object when placed under the
lofty roof of the transept. The more interesting part of the
interior of the house, including the room in which it is said
the poet was born, has also been reproduced, even the cracks
in the old-fashioned windowpanes, on which visitors have
scratched their names, having been carefully imitated, as
far as it is possible to do so by stucco moulds and photo-
graphs. The visitors to the Palace a few weeks hence will
thus have it in their power to form quite as correct an idea
of the appearance of Shakspere's house as they would have
after ajourney into Warwickshire. As a guarantee of the
correctness of the reproduction, a photograph of the house by
Negretti and Zambra is to be presented to each visitoron 23d
proximo. In the grounds yesterday there was little doing.
This year, however, the booths of Edmonds' (late Womb-
well's) menagerie have been erected in the grand walk of
the Palace gardens, and yesterday they were visited by
immense crowds. It was amusing to see how
gently the elephants punted their way through
the closely packed crowd, and how familiarly they were
stroked and patted by the ladies and children, who
would have rushed in terror from a drove of bullocks cross-
ing Blackfriars-bridge. The performance of an African, who
enters the cage of full grown lions and leopards, and makes
them perform tricks which would be surprising in dogs,
were repeated yesterday every hour, and seemed to excite
more interest and wonder than any other part of the day's
entertainment.

ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY'S GARDENS, REGENT'S-

PARK.

In spite of the gloomy aspect of the weather, which did
not promise much enjoyment for those engaged in outdoor
amusements, a large concourse of holyday makers resorted
to these gardens yesterday morning, and continued to do so
during the greater part of the day. The entrances up to
tha time of the closing of the gates amounted to 15,250, a
large number, but less than those that have visited the
gardens on several previous Easter Mondays, when that
national holyday has fallen later in the year, and the
weather has turned out more genial. It is satisfactory to
be able to add that the behaviour of the pleasure-seekers, a
large proportion of whom were young people, was most ex-
emplary, and that no injury was done to the society's valu-
able collection of living animals.

THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY, GREAT

GEORGE-STREET.

This exhibition, which is not yet so generally known as it
deserves to be, attracted 1,184 people in the course of the
day ; last year there were 942: in 1862, 670 ; in 1861, 279;
and in 1860, 771. It is the property of the nation, as its
name imports, and is exclusively devoted to the portraiture
of eminent British worthies of all classes, by the first
masters. It was opened a few years ago with about a score
of rare portraits and busts, presented by private indi-
viduals as a beginning, which have now increased to
182. The collection is vested in a body of trustees com-
posed of noblemen and gentlemen, and is free to the
public ordinarily on two days in the week, and on Easter
Mondays and Tuesdays. Among the latter additions to the
gallery are portraits of Lord Mansfield, William Woodfall,
the first Parliamentary reporter, Archbishop Laud, Lord
Heathfield, and a bust of Dr Arnold. The whole collection
is made up of contributions by about 40 donors, at the head
of whom is the King of the Belgians.