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

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charm to the Alhambra, Egyptian; and Assyri Courk
and here it was that the crowd chiefly gathered i
noon.
The amusements in the transept, under the dlratOen,,?*
Mr. Nelson Lee, opened at 1 o'clock with -the per:0;4.4114Z
by Orville Parker, the " negro vocalist," They were- fl4l-
lowed by a comic entertainment, or pants mime, in whit'
harlequin, harlequin junior, and a third performer, repre-
senting a tortoiseshell cat, performed a neumber of sur-
prising summersaults with stilts on. A dance by the
D'Aubans was much applauded, but a more sta riling enter-
tainment succeeded—that of " les Qeatres Pieyrots"— 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 re.nder such
operations absolutely impossible. The performance was
well worthy of the favourable reception it met. Various
other entertainments followed, among which the mast re-
markable was perhaps that of the infant Polandus, 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 S tratford-on-ANon 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 B. T.
Perri,: 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 60ft. long, but the whole height
is 25ft. from the ground to the roof of the red brick roof,
and it will form btit 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 window panes, 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 visitor on 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 pushed 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
the 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
GEOR.3E-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 wore 912: in 1562, 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, end is free to the
public ordinarily on two days in the week, and on Easter
Mondays and Tucs,lays. Among the latter additions to the
gallery are portraits. of Lord Nlausfield,William Woodfall,
the first Parliamentary reporter, Archbishop Laud, Lord
Heathficld, 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.