The Sun.
London, England, 1862-04-19 00:00:00

THE CRYSTAL PALACE.

If 40,000 people are to be regarded as the repre-
sentatives of national taste for pure and wholesome
enjoyment, the gathering at the Crystal Palace
yesterday may fairly place it within the category
of popular institutions. It is not a very hazardous
assertion on the part of the directory that " the
Crystal Palace has now been for eight years the
resort and delight of the inhabitants of London, of
every resident in the country who comes up to pass
a portion of the season in the metropolis, and of
every foreigner who crosses the Channel." It is,
in fact, something more. It is the home of culti-
vated taste and good instruction, in which both the
edecated and the unlearned may each in their way
garner an intellectual harvest. The palace at
Sydenham, which for eight years of existence has
been without a compeer, now finds itself opposed to
a grand competitor for the public suffrage, and in
the struggle for pre-eminence which must ensue
between Kensington and Sydenham, the directors
of the latter have fully prepared themselves. It is
not for us to prejudge the issue. Our simple duty
is to state the means whereby the Crystal Palace is
to be rendered even more attractive than hitherto—
and certainly that is a feat which has called for a
considerable amount of ingenuity. At the present
hour, in its structure, situation, and contents, the
palace at Sydenham is unequalled. There, is a
magnificent collection of sculpture—there, the finest
master-pieces of every school of art—there, unri-
valled architectural reproductions, which give to
the eye the very measure of the past—and there,
within as it were a stone's throw from a heated and
suffocated city, is a garden productive of nearly all
the plants which even' clime produces. Let us take
as an instance those two splendid specimens of Aus-
tralian ferns which now greet the eye, so gracefully
drooping and unfolding their coming freshness. An-
other, in the busts of those great and good men, and
others horribly wicked indeed, whose very features
are preserved to the sight as their names are en-
graven in the memory. Look too at the gigantic
tomb, protected with its row of noble lions, and
read a lesson on mortality. Nor is the eye
alone pleased. The Crystal Palace addresses itself
to a taste for music. It is a rather vexed question
whether Englishmen do or do not possess such, but
to our minds the affirmative is given in the rapt
attention of the multitudes who listen even to the
ordinary performances at Sydenham. That the great
oratorios of Handel command an eager audience is
undeniable, but that one hundredth part of those
who went to hear the works of the great composer
on a scale never before conceived ever went away
perfectly satisfied is equally so. Great indeed was
the Handel Festival of 1857, and greater still that
of 1859 ; but we appeal not to reserved seats, but to
the popularly aura, whether it did not go away
with a somewhat confused notion of what it was all
about. If so, the marplot is easily traceable to its
proper source. The transept was very grand, but
the genius of Sir Joseph Paxton never for a moment
dreamt it was to be converted into a music hall.
How it came to be so is attributable to the necessi-
ties of the case. A great orchestra was reared, but
the greatest orchestra in the world has not, without
the aid of art, the power of remedying acoustical
defects. The transept was supposed to be incurable
for such a defect ; but Mr. Edwin Rose, the engi-
neer and clerk of works to the company, has taken
up the case. He has thrown a light arched ceiling
of sonorous wood over the entire orchestra, in pre-
paration for the forthcoming Handel Festival ; so
that the one drawback of the former will be no
more. Those who yesterday saw a most unsightly
object, hanging like a cloud of deal boards over an
immense amphitheatre, were probably little aware
that the Crystal Palace Company was expending
something like £2,000 in order that their patrons
might hear better. That it is unsightly no one
can deny ; but what it will be remains for future
decision. Both in design and execution it pro-
mises to be admirable. This upper roof willen-
tirely cover the orchestra. Its span is 216 ft., its
depth 150 ft., and in height 100 ft. from the floor
line. Such a roof necessitates a support which shall
be efficient without marring the general effect.
It has five main ribs with, we believe, 16 pillars,
some of which are a telescopic casing round the
ordinary pillars of the building, with separate foun-
dations so as not to interfere with the original
structure. So, if by any chance the main pillars
should sink in the foundation, the supporters would
be unimpaired. There cannot be a doubt but that
both for ingenuity of design and completeness of
construction Mr. Rose deserves the most ample
praise ; but the thought which naturally arises is,
where will the transept be found when the beauty
of the original design is sacrificed to acoustics ?
The great attraction of yesterday was the concert
of sacred music, and the masses which besieged
every available place within earshot afforded per-
haps the best guarantee of the wisdom of the expe-
riment on which the directors rely of rendering the
great transept " the largest and most perfect music-
hall to be found in the world." At twelve o'clock
there was an organ performance, by Mr. James
Coward, of the works of Mendelssohn, Spohr, Costa,
Mozart, and Handel. At a quarter-past one the
band of the Coldstream Guards, under Mr. Godfrey,
performed ; and at three o'clock the concert of sacred
music was given by Madame Rudersdorff, Mr. Sims
Reeves, and Mr. Weiss. The duet (Creation,
Haydn) announced in the programme to be sung by
Madame Rudersdorff and Mr. Weiss was omitted,
in consequence, we regret to say, of an accident
which rendered the lady unable to read the words.
In the fine arts department there are two subjects
worthy of note. The model of the Pantheon, exe-
cuted at Rome under the superintendence of the late
Dr, Braun, is said to bo the finest extant, and cer-
tainly it conveys the very best idea of that classical
edifice. It has been placed in the Roman Court by
Mr. Benjamin Wood, the superintendent of that
department. Who is there, in passing up the nave,
that has not admired those magnificent groups of
Monte's—those bronze fountains which kept so
on water plants and tiny fishes ?
'they are to be seen no more as they were. We
are almost ashamed to dispel a very pardonable
prehrpoyetually playing
general notion, but facts compel us. They were
gutta Pemba, and their component parts may,
some of these fine days, be discovered in
boot-soles, warranted to keep out the wet.
Happily the chef d'oeuvre of the great sculptor
has not been lost. His figures have been recast, and
there they sit, on a dried up bed, looking remark-
ably placid—and white.
The railway arrangements yesterday WOLe, as
usual on such great occasions, excellent; but no
steam-power in the world would have appeared suf-
ficient to meet the popular demands. Indeed, the
. annourcemeut made by the company, "In the