The Sun.
London, England, 1856-06-09 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Guide to the Crystal Palace and Park. By Samuel
Phillips. Second Edition. Bradbury and
Evans.
A beautiful and valuable souvenir of Samuel
Phillips, is this charming little pocket Guide-book
to the rystal Palace and Park at Sydenham. It
was a " labour of love," but very recently com-
pleted, before the gifted man-of-letters, who had
undertaken the task of its compilation, closed his
life so prematurely. As all those will very well
remember who took the smallest interest, at the
time, in the unexpected announcement of the
sudden demise of the eloquent, learned, daring,
vigorous author of "Caleb Stukely," more eloquent,
more learned, more daring, more vigorous in every
respect, it seemed, in his later capacity as The
Times Reviewer ! It was something like setting
Scaliger to carve the Iliad upon a cherry-stone,
or to write it out microscopically for enclosure
in that famous nutshell familiar to Boz's
old-youmg-enemy the Schoolboy of General
Conversatiou—this entrusting of the duty of writ-
ing a "Guide to the Crystal Palace and Park" to
the novelist of Blackwood's Magazine and the
critic of the Times newspaper. Samuel Phillips,
however, had no cause, in truth, to disdain an
undertaking in which he was aided by the co-opera-
tion of so many distinguished associates. As every
one may appreciate on the instant when reminded
that Austin Layard wrote the hand book of the
Nineveh Court, Owen Jones that of the Alhambra,
Edward Forbes that of the Zoological Department,
and Richard Owen that of the Extinct Animals
and Geological Illustrations. It was investing
him with a prerogative therefore rather than luring
him to an act of literary condescension, entrusting
to Samuel Phillips the editorship of the various
guides and handbooks of the great popular enter-
prise of the people's Palace and Park at Sydenham.
As such, namely, as a prerogative, he really appears
to have regarded it—judging of his views upon the
subject, through the extraordinary interest he
always evidenced in the entire undertaking, but
more particularly through that conspicuously dis-
played in his handbook to the Portrait Gallery,
and in this comprehensive Guide-book of his to the
Park and Palace, with all their multifarious and
manifold attractions. Extending to scarcely two
hundred pages, the little volume under notice is of
itself a complete repertory of general information.
A sort of a microcosm, or world-in-miniature, in
its way—carrying us hither and thither in eccentric
eights over the whole surface of this sphere of ours
rolling' through space, this "orb terrene," as it is
called, or " globe terraqueous." Carrying us not
only over almost all the known regions of the earth
we inhabit, but conducting us, century after cen-
tury, through most of the recorded epochs of the
world's history, before the days when "Adam delved
and Eve span," (meaning the epoch when the land
had its labyrinthodon, and the sea its ichthyosaurus,
and the air its ptcrodactyles) down to the present
period, nearly two thousand years since the
Redemption, the age of steam-engines and electric
telegraphs ! In the midst of such vast variety,
however, all is order, everything is in sym-
metrical arrangement. The Guide on setting
forth with his companion descants first of
all, of course, upon the site of the curious
edifice he has undertaken to elucidate, reminding
him, or let us say at once for the sake of simpli-
city, reminding us that Sydenham has an especial
interest of association, calculated with every in-
telligent mind to enhance the charm of the natural
beauty of the landscape, by reason of its having
been at one time the residence of Thomas Camp-
bell, the author of the " Pleasures of Hope "—the
very spot indeed in which that graceful poet penned
the whole of his lovely " Gertrude of Wyoming."
Having in this manner interested us in the very
locality, Mr. Phillips conducts us forthwith, and
without any further ado,into the Crystal Palace. At
the entrance to which, we tarry however, for a few
moments to muse over the origin of the building,
as well as over the method of its actual construc-
tion. Marvelling much even now, when the par-
ticulars
are becoming familiar to us, over such won-
drous facts as the following—viz., that the entire
length of the edifice, including the main building,
the wings, and the colonnade, extends to 3,416
feet, or nearly three-quarters of a mile, covered
over with a transparent roof of glass ; that the
area so covered amounts to 843,656 superficial feet
altogether, 245,260 in the galleries, and 598,396
on the ground floor ; that the fabric attains
an extreme height of 208 feet, being six feet higher
than the monument ; that the total weight of iron
used in its erection amounts to 9,641. tons 17 cwts.
and 1 quarter ; that the superficial quantity of
glass is 25 acres ; that if the panes were laid side
by side they would extend to a distance of 48 miles,
and if laid end to end, to the almost incredible
length of 242 miles ; the bolts and rivets employed
weighing more than 175 tons, and the mere nails
upwards of 103 tons additional ! Properly
astonished by these astounding statistics, wo
next learn, without as much emotion as
might otherwise have been expected, that
the Palace is kept at one agreeable temperature by
hot-water pipes stretching to a distance of 50 miles,
and that an Artesian well, sunk upon the property,
to the depth of 250 feet enables the magnificent
fountains to throw up numerous jets of water to
heights varying from 70 to 250 feet—the well
aforesaid keeping up an adequate supply in the
gigantic reservoirs constructed at a proper eleva-
tion for its reception. Glancing along the naves
and the transept, and feasting our eyes, as we glance,
upon the exquisite perspective, we turn soon after-
wards successively into the various courts lying to
the right hand and to the left. Here, for example,
passing up the Avenue of Lions, is the Egyptian
Court, with an inscription in hieroglyphics upon
the frieze, informing any traveller that may
come hereafter from the farthest ends of the
earth that "in the seventeenth year of the
reign of Tictoria the ruler of the waves, this pa-
lace was erected and furnished with a thousand
statues, a thousand plants, 47,0., like as a hook
for the use of the men of all countries !" Here
it is that we come upon the "Gigantic Figures of
Rameses the Great," upon the " Tomb of Ben
Hassan," upon a column from Karnak, and a colon-
nade from Philoe. The Greek Court brings us to
the "pick" of the Elgin Marbles, charms our senses
with a copy of the famous "Venus de Medici," re-
joices our gaze with a notion of the wondrous Par-
thenon ! To the Roman Court we enter under
the span of what Roman genius gave the world,
—the Arch—that new and very notable addition
to the elements of architecture. There we muse
before such examples of antique art as the statue
of Hadrian, as the Bacchus of the Louvre, as the
Apollo Belvidere. As for the Alhambra Court what
can be said of it adequately but that it is a speci-
men of Moresquo or Saracenic magnificence, from
the minutest portion of the arabesque ornaments to
the aggregated splendour of the Hall of the Aben-
cerrages ! Advancing into the Assyrian Court,
between the huge Winged Bulls that guard the
entrance to it, we linger there amid that wilder-
ness of wonders, more astonished than ever at the
marvels brought to light so abundantly by the in-
dustry and genius of such men as Layard. and
Rawlinson—men who found more than " sermons
in stones "—corroboration of the awful records of
Holy Writ, buried under shapeless mounds of
earth, and latent in arrow-headed inscriptions
carved upon the solid rock in a language of which
iata.nkincl had altogether lost the key. Passing on
from the Nineveh, we come in duo course to the
Byzantine and Romanesque Court, a court enabling
the spectator, almost at a glance, "to recognise
and distinguish the several styles that existed
and succeeded each other" from the 6th to the
16th century ! Then follows the German Mediceval
Court, with examples culled from Munich and from
Nuremberg. And after that the English Mediceval
Court, with specimens of the successive styles ; the
" Norman," with its horse-shoe arches and its zig-
zag mouldings ; the " Early English," with arches
lancet-shaped, and pillars consisting of slender
shafts clustering about a central pier, and capitals
devoid of any ornament beyond the plainest mould-
ing ; the "Decorated" style, with its marvellous
gothic tracery, and its octangular pillars, and its ca-
pitals carved into foliage, and its buttresses crowned
with ornate pinnacles, and its geometric forms and
flowing lines, and pointed arches, seeming (wrote
Samuel Phillips in his Guide, p. 88), " to lift the
solid stone work up as though it were aspiring
heavenward !" Finally, the "Perpendicular "
style, where the. Gothic began in the midst of all
its glory to betray the first signs of deteriora-
tion. Subsequently we come to the French and
Italian Mediaeval Court, a sort of a twin court, re-
plete with admirable characteristics. Then the
Renaissance Court makes us acquainted with the
new style of "revived art" introduced about the
middle of the fifteenth century, and of which a
brilliant example is afforded at Rouen in the Arcade
cf the Hotel Bourgtheroulde. The Elizabethan
Court proves upon examination to be particularly
interesting to the Londoner, its architectural de-
tails being taken from Holland House at Kensing-
ton. The Italian Court is invested, of course, with
a less local claim upon the general sympathies,
being " glorified" with examples selected from
among the " Stones of Venice" (not Mr Ruskin's,
but the original), and with estimable copies from
inestimable masterpieces by Raffaelle and Michel-
angelo. The Pompeian Court—not much further
on--is a curiosity of a very extraordinary kind,
being the exact counterpart of a house preserved
for us through eighteen centuries uninjured under
the encrusted lava poured from the flaming en-
trails of Vesuvius. There is the entrance with the
cave canem, " beware of the dog," upon the pave-
tnent. There is the " outer hall of atrium
common to all visitors. Above it the opening in I

Y.

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the roof called the .compluvium, beneath which
stands the marble basin (to catch the rain from the
clouds) called the impluvium. Over each porch,
lo ! there is the salve " Welcome." Yonder are
the cubiettla or " bedchambers." Yonder-you may
see the recesses called aim or " wings" devoted to
the transaction of business with strangers: Here
is the tablinuin, a room analogous to the modern
drawing-room, where were kept the objects of art,
the pictures, and the family archives. Beyond is
the Peristyle or open quadrangle, surrounded by
pillars and having in the centre ofit a flower garden.
There are tho two "dining-rooms," the winter trieti-
'aunt, and the summer tric'inium. There the (eetts or
" banquet chamber "—then the culina, or " kit.
chen"—then the balnettin or " bath room "—then
the porta postica, or " back door"—then the faeces,
I or " passages." It is a classic interior very astonish-
ing to traverse, carrying our imagination back to
the toga'd and sandall'd times of Cicero, and Vir-
gil, and Horace. Guided by the entertaining
little volume penned by the late Samuel Phillips
—the wade mecum of every visitor to the Crystal
Palace at Sydenham---we traverse, moreover, ex-
ceedingly different regions from those classic loca-
lities of the ancient Roman, Grecian, Arabian, or
Egyptain. We examine the " Raw Produce and
Agricultural Collection." We visit the " Station..
art Court," and the " Birmingham Court," and the
" Sheffield Court." We scrutinise, both under the
head of the New World, and under that of the Old
World, the wonders of the " Natural History De-
partment." The " Printed Fabrics Court" makes
us acquainted with everything in cotton and wool-
len ; the " Mixed Fabrics Court " displays to urA
silks and shawls from India and China, and various
other fabrics at once costly and delicate. There
are unrolled before us the miscellaneous contents
of the " Foreign Industrial Court," and the
Court devoted to " Musical Instruments,"
offering in piano, and harp, and drum, and
bugle, and flute, and violin, and cymbals, and
guitar, and serpent, and oboe, and trumpet, add
tambourine, a concord of inaudible harmonies to
our imagination ! Peeping into it, one hums to
oneself, almost inaudibly, the refrain to Beranger's
" Lc Soir des Noce's :"
Zon flate et basse
Zon! violin!
Zon flate et basse 1
Et violin, zon, won /
But the Guide has no leisure for this—we must still
bestir ourselves and onwards ! Taking "A walk
through the nave : " examining all the rest of the
marvels of this grand permanent Exhibition : saun-
tering out into the park and gardens, and enjoying
to the very limits of the horizon the wide sweep of
beautiful landscape stretching: away from the green
heights of Sydenham. The Hand-book before us,
in short, will be found by anybody who pleases an
eloquent and instructive companion to another of
the now rather numerous wonders of the world—
and not by any means the least of them—the Fairy
Palace of Britannia.