The northern extremity of the gallery is occupied with the last division of the Museum—the Animal. Here will be found Furs of all kinds. Wools of British and imported varieties, Woollen and Worsted manufactures, Silk, illustrations of the preparation of different kinds of Leather, Feathers, Horn, Bone, and Tortoiseshell manufactures, &c., &c. Specimens of most of the animals from which these articles are derived are arranged in the middle of the division.
The whole Museum has been arranged by Dr. David S. Price, who has care of this department. The collection is constantly increasing, and may be expected before long to assume one of the most important positions amongst the settled features of the Crystal Palace.
In the Main Gallery on the North Eastern side of the Mediæval Court are placed four hundred French and Italian photographs, illustrative of the architectural and sculptural arts of the periods represented by the several Fine Art Courts on this side of the Nave; the photographs being arranged in the order of the courts beneath, and as nearly as possible over those which they serve to illustrate. Here also will be found the main portion of the busts constituting the
PORTRAIT GALLERY,
One of the most ennobling and instructive as well as interesting of the collections in the Crystal Palace. These busts give us the speechless, yet how eloquent, countenances of the great ones who have moved the current of the world’s life, from early times till the present moment. Each one of these busts is inscribed with the name and dates of whomever it represents; but for a notice of the lives and general information as to the claims to renown of the several notabilities, we refer the visitor to the Handbook of the Portrait Gallery. A fine collection of small works of art, consisting of statuettes, mediæval pottery and wood-work, church vessels, old English seals, medals, and architectural ornaments, exemplifying the various styles from the Byzantine down to the Italian, is also arranged here.
In the North-east Galleries, on the garden side of the North Transept, is a Naval Museum, which is intended to illustrate the naval architecture of all countries. Here will be seen models of boats and ships, from the first rude canoe to the patent collapsing boats; and from the huge high-pooped ship of war of the time of Henry the Eighth, and Philip of Spain, to the long screw steamer of the present day; or the gigantic paddle and screw “Leviathan,” lately launched at Millwall, together with various inventions for marine purposes. In the first gallery, at the extreme north end of the Nave, a collection is exhibited of engineering and architectural models, including those of bridges, docks, viaducts, churches, and other structures.
Entering the gallery by the stairs from the garden end of the North Transept, one of the first models we meet is in illustration of Mr. Fergusson’s System of Fortification. The great principle of this system is the power of placing in position on a fortified place a greater number of guns than the enemy can bring to bear upon any point of it. For this purpose, Mr. Fergusson proposes to erect simple mounds of earth, bearing two or three tiers of guns, where the place is large and the curve flat, and four or even five tiers, where the space is confined. The model represents a small confined space surrounded by five tiers; ensuring in his opinion, a superiority of fire over anything that can be brought against it. Mr. Fergusson proposes to employ wet ditches wherever water is available; but on dry or uneven ground, a ditch of fifty or sixty feet, with a loop-holed wall at the bottom, not less than thirty feet high, thoroughly flanked in every part by musketry and artillery from the small bastions placed at intervals along its fronts. The model represents upon its different faces, suggestions for various methods of arming the ramparts and of flanking defences.
Amongst the various ingenious and beautiful objects in this part of the gallery will be remarked models of the Kieff Suspension Bridge, the original of which is nearly half-a-mile long, over the river Dneiper; the Britannia Tubular Bridge; the Wrought Iron Bridge over the Wye, at Chepstow; and one of a similar construction over the river Tamar, at Saltash. Most of these, as also the fine Viaducts, of which many are represented, are due to the giant enterprise which steam traffic raised in our country. There are two crystal models here of the Great Exhibition Palace in Hyde Park; one, the largest, by Mr. Dighton, of London, on the scale of half an inch to the foot, is especially beautiful and complete.
THE INDIAN COURT.
Passing on in this gallery, at the back of the Assyrian Court, we enter a department appropriated as an Indian Court. The first object which we notice is a stand covered on both sides with a fine collection of Indian arms and armour arranged with other objects of interest. On the wall near is ranged a collection of most interesting paintings, lent to the Crystal Palace by the Hon. East India Company. They are copies of some frescoes found on the walls of a series of caverns at Adjunta, in Western India, and were made at the instance of the Indian Government by Captain Gill, of the Madras army. The subjects are scenes in the life of Buddha and of Buddhist saints, and various historical events connected with the rise and progress of the Buddhist religion in India. The date of their execution extends from about the Christian era to the tenth or twelfth century; and in style they closely resemble the contemporary works of painters in Europe, possessing nearly the same amount of artistic merit, and displaying the like absence of chiar’-oscuro, and the same attempt to copy with literal exactness the object represented, excepting where certain conventionalities are apparent. The collection is valuable as affording the means of comparing the state of art in the East with that in the West during the same period.