The Sun.
London, England, 1863-04-04 00:00:00

18'0.

CRYSTAL PALACE.

There are fewer places in Europe where a fine
public holiday is more keenly enjoyed than inion-
don, and yesterday was duly appreciated by some
million and a half of people, to whom a holiday in
the week is as rare as it is welcome. Where this
vast mass of pleasure-seekers went all the suburban
roads round the metropolis showed plainly enough.
Richmond, Hornsey, Hampstead, Highgate, Dul-
wich, Greenwich, Clapham, and Blackheath, each
took its quntum, but, as usual, the great centre
and really great holiday of all wes kept at Norwood
There was not the same overwhelming and rather
noisy gathering which makes Boxing-day, or the
Foresters' fete at the building, such a marvellous
sight, but there was, nevertheless, an audience of
some 40,000 people, nearly all of the upper working
classes—the elite of the operatives and small trades-
men making, on the whole, as pleasant, orderly, and
almost as well dressed an assemblage as the Crystal
Palace often draws together. The great influx of
visitors did not take place till after 1, but from that
hour almost every minute witnessed the arrival of
monster trains; while the pretty lanes and quiet by-
ways through Dulwich were covered with long ranks
of spring carts, some freighted to the very shafts
with the junior members of the family, and roomy,
comfortable vans, though, on this occasion, uncom-
fortably crowded. As is always the case on Good
Friday, the main and almost only attraction at the
building was made to consist of a concert of sacred
music ; to the E ffieiency of which, yesterday, Madame
Rudersdorff, Mr. Sites Reeves, Mr. Weiss, and the
chorus of the Italian Opera contributed. To hear this
all the places around the centre transept, the gal-
leries, and every seat in the Handel Orchestra,
even to the topmost tier, were thronged with a
dense assemblage, which listened with a most deco-
rous attention to every note of the music, and occa-
sionally asserted its right to an encore with a burst
of applause that almost shook the building. The
mere sight of this great audience, concentrated be-
ne'Ath and among the decorations which were
put up for the rec-nt bridal fetes at the palace,
was alone well worth the journey to Norwood. The
finest effect of all, however, was when the Evening
Hymn was sung by the Nisitors, with tolerable accu-
I racy as to time and tune; what it lacked in this
respect being redeemed by the solemnity and pathos
of the great volume of sound pealing through th-
builoing. It is, perhaps, only at the Crystal Palace,
03 these cccasions, that 30,000 or 40,000 people can
be heard singing one well-known hymn together,
and its effect is sufficiently near the sublime to be
quite beyond portrayal by mere verbal description.
The National Anthem, from the most loyal inde-
pendence with which everybody thought fit to join
in it at the wrong place, was far less effective. After
the concert there were performances on the great
organ, with the band of the Coldstream Guards, a
finale which gave every one time to promenade the
building, which is now looking almost at its best.
Whole banks of rhododendrons are in bloom of every
tint, and all the fine arts courts are being put in
order for the approaching season, which is expected
to be one of unusual brilliancy and profit. The
gardens, of which it is not too high praise to say
that no other public gardens surpass them either for
their own ornamental or landscape beauty, or the
prospect they command—are just now, of course,
in much the same condition as other out-door gar-
dens of the same kind. But the fountains, terrcees,
and statues—the beautiful combinations of ever-
' greens and rare groups of firs which dot the lawns
make these grounds seem always in bloom, and,
with the Londoners' true love of gardens and
flowers, they were thronged yesterday with all the
holiday folks, at the building directly the corcert
was over. Some few games were going forward here
and there, and the lake was covered with pleasure
boats, which were moved about by parties all more
or less unacquainted with the art of managing them
and who with the most perfect good humour tan
into each other and the bank, and otherwise made
believe to be rowing. The archery and cricket
grounds also were well attended, but, as a rule,
there were fewer games going on than is usual on
such holidays, and the great mass of visitors were
very quiet. It must have been late before the
building WEIS clear,