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17, 1862.] building itself, thereby avoiding the not very odoriferous smells that sometimes pervaded the old building. If we admit that the structure is a more commodious packing-case, we must also admit that it is a thousand times less elegant than the crystal casket which shone like a diamond on the verdant sward of the park, and which now flashes in renewed splendour on the summit of the Surrey Hill side. When that casket was emptied of its contents it still remained a thing of beauty, which Englishmen would not willingly let die, and its translation to a nobler site was hailed with delight by all classes.

Captain Fowke’s packing-case, we trust, will be pulled down to the last girder. The contract with Messrs. Kelk and Lucas provides that they shall receive for its use a rent of 200,000l. to be increased to 300,000l. if the receipts exceed 400,000l.., [sic] the contractors agreeing to leave to the Society of Arts the Picture Gallery, running along the Cromwell Road. If the Commissioners of 1862 agree to take the building, they are to pay a further sum of 130,000l., making a total of 430,000l., which we should say would be the largest sum ever paid for an ungainly packing-case, and we should feel half inclined to hope that the receipts may not warrant the purchase of the building, were we not really anxious for the success of the Exhibition itself. At all events, the building in its present ugly integrity cannot be allowed to stand, as it would be a blot upon the very heart of the future fashionable quarter of the town. Strangely enough, the Commissioners make a boast of the cheapness of the erection; the ground has been covered at the cost of 12,000l. per acre, a rate, we are informed, considerably below that at which ordinary houses are built. This may be a very fair remark if the building were intended for a workhouse; but surely it is a very poor reason to urge in favour of a structure which, with malice aforethought, it is intended shall be a permanent high-art building.

We can compare the appearance of the interior of the Exhibition on Tuesday night to nothing better than a veiled statue. To the last moment of that day it seemed absolutely impossible that it could be ever decently prepared for the opening on Thursday. One day and night, however, was sufficient to drop the drapery, and to display the statue in all its beauty, as far as it is yet completed. Neither is this wonderful when we consider the infinite division of labour employed in the setting forth of the Exhibition. If the Commissioners had exerted themselves with half the sincere solicitude on behalf of the public invited to witness the opening ceremony, the day would have been a complete triumph; but we must confess, those who were not present on that occasion lost nothing, for a more ill-managed ceremony we have never witnessed. To invite between 30,000 and 40,000 season-ticket holders to witness a ceremony and to make no manner of preparation for their witnessing it, was no doubt a good practical joke, much enjoyed by those fortunate persons who by some back-door influence were secured the possession of the gallery seats, and every coign of vantage, but which, unfortunately the exhibitors had to pay for, as the public most ruthlessly made standing places of any elevation, whether glass cases or polished woodwork, which commanded a view of the proceedings. The Armstrong guns were loaded with ladies, and afforded that emblem of peace “Punch” pictured in his last number. The guns’ backs, however, were strong enough to bear the burthen; not so the delicate workmanship of cabinet furniture we saw so fearfully trampled upon.

If the Commissioners had erected a few raised seats on either side of the line of procession, all might have been avoided. The procession seemed heartily ashamed of itself; penned in as it was, the celebrities could only walk three abreast; and we must confess that these looked out of their element, and there was an evident attempt on their part to look about and admire the building in order to hide the miserable position in which they were placed.

Again, had the Commissioners learned anything by the experience afforded by the musical displays at the Crystal Palace, they would not have invited the greatest musical composer in Europe to write an overture for them which could not be heard by a twentieth portion of the persons present. We were not ourselves a hundred yards from the orchestra in the middle of the nave, and we can safely say, that not only the delicate shadings of the instrumentation were entirely lost, but whole bursts of music never reached the spot in which we, with thousands of others, stood. A sounding-board over the orchestra would have obviated all this; as it was, the light textile fabric suspended at a height of a hundred feet, only dulled the sound. We must make an exception, however, as far as the choral music is concerned. The Poet Laureate’s words, set to the majestic music of Bennett, told admirably, and the huge bank of singers—piled in the orchestra to a height of eighty feet, in the midst of which the ladies were happily ranged in the form of a cross, shining out with the sheen of an opal—gave forth a volume of sound which overcame the bad acoustic qualities of the building. In the same manner the Hallelujah Chorus, and the National Anthem were pealed forth through the great dome, and