The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-05-01 00:00:00

THE GREAT BALL ROOM.

This room, which adjoins the last at a right angle, occupies I
the whole'length of the north front of the building. It is 89
feet long, 411 broad, and 40 feet in height. Round the walls,
and, as it were, supporting the cornice and roof, there are
twenty Corinthian pilasters, of imitation Carniola, beauti
fully polished, richly variegated, and topped by capitals of
the most flowery and elaborate order. The roof is coved in
a gentle segment, and is laid out in ornamented square com-
partments, with bold and 'chastely gilded mouldings and de-
corations. The cornicing is also richly gilded. There are
three immense chandeliers, formed of an immense quantity
of crystal, and having a superb effect. The orchestra is on
the centre of the south side, and is recessed, with a light pro-
jecting balcony. The chimney-pieces are, with the exception
of the tops, of pure statuary marble, and..are beautifully cut.
The furniture comprises a number of elegant sofas, mounted
on platforms, a few inches from the ground, so as to afford
the ladies who recline in them a better opportunity to view
the dance. The area of the bll-room is so extensive, and
its height so great, that the visitor feels a sense of his own
comparatively diminutive figure, from the insignificant space
he occupies in so large an apartment. What, then, must be
his admiration when this room, and all others which com-
municate continuously with each other all round the build-
ing by folding doors, are filled with a moving throng of indi-
viduals, arrayed in the most splendid costumes of every clime,
and representing every character celebrated in history or in
song. Immediately adjoining there is a refection room, and
the visitor thence, passing a staircase, reaches

THE DINING ROOM.

Here the chief magistrate, from time to time, dispenses to
his guests the good things of this lite to his invited guests.
The room. is '5O feet in length, 30 in breadth, and 26 in.
height. The walls are relieved by twenty polished Corinthian
pilasters of imitation .Cornish marble, supporting an elegant
cornice, from which springs the roof in a segment of a circle,
divided into compartments, with richly guilded mouldings.
The furniture is extremely elegant and massy. In two re-
cesses on the west side are sideboards of antique Grecian
design : each of the legs is formed of a caduceus in brass ;
and the cornicing is studded with tigers' heads of the same
metal. The wine-coolers are of a sarcophagUS shape, with
flowered brass ornaments at each corner, terminating above
in the neck and head of an eagle. There are. here, in niches,

two elaborately chased and plated metal stoves, of a monu
mental sbape, and also two large ornamental marble vases

all supported on square pedestals, with, open brass-work
pannels.. The usual dining table is thirty feet in length, and
will accommodate- fifty guests. It is supported on eight
large pillar-and-claw feet, which for richness of design may
challenge comparison with the finest furniture of royalty
itself. The massy plate, candelabra, plateaux, wine coolers,
china, &c., here displayed on festive occasions, are all of the
'richest design and workmanship.
We have now gone the round of the rooms in the Town-
hall but as even these, large as they are, were considered
inadequate to the accommodation and comfort of 'so large a
concourse as were last night present, we must notice another
room, which was also brought into requisition on the oc-
casion :