"Hoping the best—ready the worst to brook,
Yet seeking friendly hearts—go forth, my little book."
"As life is then so short, we should so live and labour that we may have pleasing remembrances to console and cheer us at its close; let us work earnestly and diligently, not only for our own good, but for that of our fellow creatures:—
"Oh! let us live so, that flower by flower,
Shutting in turn, may leave
A lingerer still, for the sunset hour,
A charm for the shaded eve!"
Hemans.
EXHIBITION OF
WAX FRUITS AND FLOWERS,
BY MRS. PEACHEY,
ARTISTE TO HER MAJESTY.
The following eloquent awards of the press are placed as nearly as possible in the order of their respective dates, but the dates are necessarily omitted.
Mrs. Peachey, artiste to her Majesty, has now on private view at her rooms, 35, Rathbone Place, a superb collection of works intended for the Great Exhibition. They consist principally of an enormous bouquet of flowers and a colossal vase of fruit, both of which have been executed upon a scale never previously attempted in this country. The flowers are so arranged, that they appear to stand in a basket suspended over the surface of a pool of limpid water, in which the Victoria Regia and other similar plants are already floating. Nothing can be more exquisite or artistic in effect than the manner in which the various flowers are grouped. The bouquet comprises specimens of almost every flower known to the botanist, from the simple honeysuckle of the cottage garden, to the rarest and most valuable exotics of the East.
Some idea of the dimensions of the two principal works may be gathered from the fact, that the shades are nearly six feet high, the largest ever blown in England, and the flowers occupied nearly a year in modelling. It was the intention of Mrs. Peachey to forward these beautiful specimens of her skill to the Great Exhibition, where a prominent place on the ground-floor was assigned to them; but it appears, that, owing to subsequent arrangements, another space, in one of the galleries, was allotted to her, and not at all adapted to such costly and fragile productions. The heat of the sun, in such an exposed situation, would have damaged the flowers irreparably; and even if this objection did not exist, it would be impossible to have the enormous shades, with their delicate contents, raised by any machinery at command into the desired position. The exhibition is one of so novel and beautiful a character, that it will well repay a visit.—Morning Post.