THE INTERIOR.
Note.—The following Guide conducts the visitor up the Colonnade from the Railway Station, through the South Wing into the building. Passing through the nearest section of the Natural History Illustrations, he proceeds direct to the front of the Screen of the Kings and Queens of England, from whence he walks up the Nave to the Great Central Transept, and then commences the series of Fine Arts Courts with the Egyptian Court, continuing it with the Greek Court, the Roman Court, and, through the division for the Tropical End, the Alhambra Court, and the Assyrian Court. Then crossing this end of the building, he continues the series of Courts on the other side with the Byzantine Court, the German Mediæval Court, the English Mediæval Court, the French and Italian Mediæval Court, the Renaissance Court, the Elizabethan Court, the Italian Court, and the Italian Vestibule. The Court of Monuments of Art is next, from which the visitor crosses the Central Transept to the west, and explores the Stationery Court and the adjacent departments, then the Birmingham Court, the Sheffield Court, and the Pompeian House, from which he crosses the South Transept, and enters the Natural History Department, having inspected which, he returns up the building on the other side, through the Foreign Glass Manufactures Court, the British Porcelain Manufactures Court, the Ceramic Court, and the Court of Fancy Manufactures. Returning then to the Screen of the Kings and Queens of England, the visitor examines the collections of the Nave, the South Transept, the Great Central Transept, the North Transept, and the Tropical End of the Building. The Botany of the Palace is then described. The Main and Upper Galleries, in which will be found the Picture Gallery, the Naval Museum, the Engineering Models, the Indian Court, the Industrial Museum and Technological Collection, and the Industrial Exhibition (described in the Exhibitors’ Descriptive Catalogue, [page 175]), should be next visited; and, after them, the Agricultural Machinery, and the Machinery in Motion, which are exhibited in the basement story next the Gardens: the basement is reached by descending the stairs from either of the Transepts.
THE CRYSTAL PALACE.
THE ENTRANCE.
The Crystal Palace Railway from London Bridge, and the West End Railway from Pimlico, unite at the Station, in the grounds of the Crystal Palace. The Station is connected with the South Wing of the building by a glass-covered colonnade, along which is planted a brilliant array of flowering plants, whilst luxuriant creeping plants adorn the wall. The Fine Art Courts commence with the Egyptian Court, at the Central Transept, from whence the sequence is continued round the northern portion of the Nave. The Central Transept then will be the proper starting-point. When the weather is fine, the visitor may cross the gardens from the Railway Station direct to the central entrance on the upper terrace. We assume that he proceeds by the more usual way of the Colonnade, through the South Wing, until he attains the floor of the main building. He then passes through the Natural History illustrations which are nearest, and which he will examine hereafter; and, keeping to this, the south end of the Palace, proceeds towards the centre of the Nave, taking his stand opposite the Screen of the Kings and Queens of England, which bounds the long Nave at this end. From this point an unrivalled general view is obtained of the interior of the building. In the foreground is the Crystal Fountain, which adorned the Palace in Hyde Park, but here elevated in its proportions and improved. It is surrounded by a sheet of water, at each end of which float the gigantic leaves of the Victoria Regia, the intermediate space being occupied by various aquatic plants,—the Nymphæa Devoniensis, the Nymphæa cærulea, the Nymphæa dentata, and the Nelumbium speciosum, or sacred bean of the Pythagoreans, being conspicuous, with many others, beautiful, rare, or curious. The basin is also encircled with rich flowers. On either side of the Nave the plants of almost every clime wave their foliage, forming a mass of cool, pleasant colour, admirably harmonising with the surrounding tints, and also acting as a most effective background to relieve the white statues, which are picturesquely grouped along the Nave; at the back of these are the façades of the various Industrial and Fine Art Courts, whose bright colouring gives additional brilliancy to the interior, whilst the aërial blue tint of the arched roof above considerably increases the effect of the whole composition, having the effect of an opal vault. Towards evening the interior of the Palace appears like a vocal grove, the visitor hearing with delight the beautiful note of the nightingale, together with that of blackbirds, thrushes, wrens, and robin-redbreasts, which build and make a perpetual home of this magnificent covered garden.
VIEW OF PALACE FROM SECOND TERRACE.