The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1871-06-24

Bronze and Marble-Irvina. Shakespeare,
Walter Scott and General Daniel Della
van.
In Prospect Park, Brooklyn, will be
unveiled this day, with ceremonies appro-
pirate to the occasion, a colossal bust, in
bronze, of Washington Irving, the work of the
sculptor Mcdonald and present to the
Park from Mr.. Demas Barnes. OF course,
among the ceremonies of this Inauguration or
dedication or conservation or celebration, as
it may be called. will be an address from
Brooklyn's popular orator, the Rev. Henry
Ward Beecher, on the delightful theme of the
charming genius of Sunnyside. Sunny it is,
while at the same time the very name of
Irving invests with the charms of romance the
great achievements Of our ancient Knicker-
bockers, and gives the witchery of moonlight
in Fairyland to Sleepy Hollow and all the
woods and glens and mountains round about.
The Lincoln statue and this bust of Irving
are good beginning for our neighbors of
Brooklyn in the ornamentaton of their beauti-
full park. In this work in this park they
have field for recreation and wholesome
instruction, especially of the rising generation,
far beyond all present conceptions of philan-
thropists and reformers. Let this idea, then,
be followed up of illustrating in our public
pleasure grounds the good works, the virtues
and the qualities which adorn society by
tasteful monuments in honor of the dead
whose names are recorded among the bene-
factors of mankind.
A week hence we are to have in our
Central Park the unwilling of statue of
Shakespeare, whose glory belongs to us and
to all the world; and next a bronze bust
Of Sir Walter Scott, who may be ranked in
the same general class Of cosmopolitans as
Shakespeare and Humboldt. One of these
days we hope there will be in our Central
Park temple of exquisite taste and beauty,
adorned outside with sculptures and inside
with paintings connected with the history of
New York, city and State, pioneers, soldiers,
statesmen, jurists, men Of letters, &C., from
Hendrick Hudson down. Indeed, we think
old Hendrick, in colossal proportions, ought
to be placed on the top of lofty column near
the lower end of Staten Island, al the Mar
rows, with one hand pointing up the beauti-
full river which bears his name, and the other
reckoning in the coming ships from all quar-
tiers of the globe. Can't the Staten Islanders
contrive to get him up on the top of q light
house, the grandest in the United States?
On Wednesday next, at the Sleepy Hollow
Cemetery, of Tarrytown, they are to have the
unwilling of monument to the memory Of
General Daniel Delavan, one of New York's
distinguished soldiers, and one of nine
brothers who served in the war of that great
Revolution (which made us nation" This
monument, the work of Casoni and other
sculptors, from oil that we hear of it, is ex-
ceedingly rich and imposing. It consists,
first, of an deliberately ornamented pedes-
tai, surrounded by historical and allegorical
figures, and next, of lofty central column,
crowned with the statue of the General to
whose memory it is raised. In short, in
this work the Delavan family have erected
monument worthy Of their deceased an
cestors and Of themselves, and of the State
and the country. This is the right spirit, and
we are glad to see it charging in all the land.
Surely the forty millions Of our people, with
their great and glorious country, may aspire
to make it not only the richest and most
powerful in the world but also first in litera-
ture, science and the fine arts. We have a
great career Of peace opening before us, and
works Of taste, art and beauty are among the
triumphs of peace