PREFACE, THE following pages are presented to the public as a brief but connected and carefully prepared account of the exterior and interior of the Crystal Palace. It is believed that no important or interesting object in connexion with the Exhibition is without its record in this little volume; although, in so vast a collection of works of architecture, sculpture, and industrial manufacture, it is clearly impossible to compress within the limits of a General Handbook all the information which is necessary to satisfy the visitor desirous of precise and accurate knowledge of the numberless objects offered to his contemplation. A general and comprehensive view of the Crystal Palace will unquestionably be obtained by the perusal of the present manual. The Hand-books of the respective departments will supply all the detailed information necessary to fill in the broad and rapidly drawn outlines. In them, Literature will faithfully serve as the handmaiden to Art, and complete the great auxiliary work of education which it is the first aim of the Crystal Palace to effect. These Hand-books are published at prices varying from threepence to eighteen-pence, according to the size of the volume. lowest possible price has been affixed to one and all. It may be fearlessly asserted that books containing the same amount of entertainment, information, and instruction, it would be difficult to purchase at a more reasonable rate elsewhere. The The Crystal Palace-destined for permanent service-opens incomplete with respect to a part of its design. The public will not be the losers by the circumstance. With the exception of the great water displays-which are already far advanced, and will rapidly be brought to completion-the grand scheme originally projected by the Directors has been, in its chief features, thoroughly carried out by their officers. It would have been physically impossible to accomplish more than has been done. What has been achieved, within comparatively a few months, must elicit admiration and astonishment. Already the Crystal Palace stands unrivalled for the size and character of its structure, for the nature of its contents, and for the extent and advancing beauty of its pleasure-grounds. Day by day the people will have an opportunity of witnessing the growth of their Palace, and the extension of its means of good. An institution intended to last for ages, and to widen the scope, and to brighten the path, of education throughout the land, must have time to consolidate its own powers of action, and to complete its own system of instruction. Within a very few months, the promises held out from the first by the Directors will be fulfilled to the very letter; and the community may, in the meanwhile, watch the progress of the Crystal Palace towards the certain accomplishment of its unprecedented design. THE annexed map of the routes to the Crystal Palace will enable the visitor to ascertain the shortest and least troublesome way of reaching the Palace from the various parts of the great metropolis and its environs. For his further information full particulars are added respecting the times of starting, and the fares of the journey by the London and Brighton Railway, which will serve as the great main line for the conveyance of visitors by rail from London to the Palace doors. We will presume that the visitor has taken his railway ticket, which, for his convenience, includes admission within the Palace, and that his short ten minutes' journey has commenced. Before he alights, and whilst his mind is still unoccupied by the wonders that are to meet his eye, we take the opportunity to relate, as briefly as we can, the History of the Crystal Palace, from the day upon which the Royal Commissioners assembled within its transparent walls to declare their great and successful mission ended, until the 10th of June, 1854, when reconstructed, and renewed and beautified in all its proportions, it again opened its wide doors to continue and confirm the good it had already effected in the nation and beyond it. It will be remembered that the destination of the Great Exhibition building occupied much public attention towards the close of 1851, and that a universal regret prevailed at the threatened loss of a structure which had accomplished so much for the improvcment of the national taste, and which was evidently capable, under intelligent direction, of effecting so very much more. A special commission even had been appointed for the purpose of reporting on the different useful purposes to which the building could be applied, and upon the cost necessary to carry them out. Further discussion on the subject, however, was rendered unnecessary by the declaration of the Home Secretary, on the 25th of March, 1852, that Government had determined not to interfere in any way with the building, which accordingly remained, according to previous agreement, in the hands of Messrs. Fox and Henderson, the builders and contractors. Notwithstanding the announcement of the Home Secretary, a last public effort towards rescuing the Crystal Palace for its original site in Hyde Park, was made by Mr. Heywood in the House of Commons, on the 29th of April. But Government again declined the responsibility of purchasing the structure, and Mr. Heywood's motion was, by a large majority, lost. It was at this juncture that Mr. Leech,* a private gentleman, conceived the idea of rescuing the edifice from destruction, and of rebuilding it on some appropriate spot, by the organization of a private company. On communicating this view to his partner, Mr. Farquhar, he received from him a ready and cordial approval. They then submitted their project to Mr. Francis Fuller, who entering into their views, undertook and arranged, on their joint behalf, a conditional purchase from Messrs. Fox and Henderson, of the Palace as it stood. In the belief that a building, so destined, would, if erected on a metropolitan line of railway, greatly conduce to the interests of the line, and that communication by railway was essential for the conveyance thither of great masses from London, Mr. Farquhar next suggested to Mr. Leo Schuster, a Director of the Brighton Railway, that a site for the new Palace should be selected on the Brighton line. Mr. Schuster, highly approving of the conception, obtained the hearty concurrence of Mr. Laing, the Chairman of the Brighton Board, and of his brother Directors, for aiding as far as possible in the prosecution of * Of the firm of Johnston, Farquhar, and Leech, Solicitors. |