JUNIOR UNITED SERVICE,

Corner of Charles Street, Regent Street, Westminster. Erected in 1828, from designs by Sir Robert Smirke. The front is adorned with a basso-relievo.

THE TRAVELLERS,

106, Pall-Mall. Erected in 1832, from designs by Mr. Barry. It is in the Italian style; in some respects similar to a Roman palace. The plan is a quadrangle, with open area in the middle. The principal feature on the exterior in Pall-Mall, is a bold and rich cornice, which finishes the wall of the front. The windows are decorated with Corinthian pilasters. The back front varies somewhat from the principal one; but the Italian taste is preserved throughout.

THE REFORM,

105, Pall-Mall. Erected in 1839, from designs by Charles Barry, Esq., and is the largest and most commodious of the numerous edifices erected of late years for similar purposes. It is in the style of the Italian palazzos, and has a chaste and noble appearance.

CARLTON,

103, Pall-Mall, South side. This handsome building was erected in 1847, from the designs of Mr. Sidney Smirke. Its general appearance is adapted from the Library of St. Mark, Venice. The fronts are of Caen stone: the shafts of all the pillars and pilasters are of polished Aberdeen granite, the red tint of which has a very striking effect. The front in Pall-Mall is one hundred and thirty-three feet in length, and seventy feet in height. Only a portion of the new building has as yet been erected.

NAVAL AND MILITARY,

Pall-Mall. A noble structure, erected in 1849, from designs by Messrs. Parnell and Smith. Although the design is based on that of the Cornaro palace, built by Sansovino, in 1532, on the great canal in Venice, it differs very materially from that structure. The architects, adopting the general arrangements of the ground-floor and first-floor elevation of that palace, have substituted coupled Corinthian columns for the Ionic of the latter; and have terminated the building with the entablature of the order, highly enriched with sculpture; and a balustrading as at the "Library," and other of Sansovino's buildings.

THE CONSERVATIVE,

St. James's Street. Erected in 1824, on the site of the Thatched-House Tavern, from designs by Mr. Sidney Smirke and Mr. George Basevi, jun. The front consists of two stories, or orders; the lower rusticated, and without columns, except at each wing. The upper story is Corinthian, and consists of entire but attached columns and pilasters, upon the usual prodium, and having the entablature surmounted by a balustrade. In the intercolumniations are windows, with enriched dressings and pediments. Over the windows, and ranging with the capitals of the columns, is a frieze of sculptured foliage, having the imperial crown, enriched by an oak-wreath occasionally introduced.

COUNTY SERVICE,

50, St. James's Street, late Crockford's. Erected in 1827, from designs by Messrs. B. and J. Wyatt. The grand drawing-room is a splendid apartment, having an entire frontage, in St. James's Street, of fifty feet long by forty feet wide, richly decorated in the style of Louis Quartorse.

UNIVERSITY,

Suffolk Street, Pall-Mall. Erected in 1824, from designs by Messrs. J. P. Gandy and W. Wilkins; and exhibits a tasteful combination of the Grecian, Doric, and Ionic orders as regards the latter, it is a copy of the triple temple of Minerva, Pelias, and Pandroseus, at Athens. Being a corner house, it has the advantage of two fronts, both of which are raised on a rusticated sur-basement, which is occupied by the ground-floor. The entrancefront, next Suffolk Street, has an enclosed portico, or porch, to the ground-story, and a series of antæ in correspondence with those which appertain to the columns in the principal front, in Pall-Mall East, which is distinguished from the one next Suffolk Street by a tetrastyle portico, of the Ionic order, selected from the splendid specimen, the Ery Erechtheium, at Athens.

Regent Street.

CLUB CHAMBERS,

This chastely-elegant building was erected in 1839, from designs by Mr. Decimus Burton. It is in the Italian style of architecture, and occupies a frontage of seventy-six feet; and containing seventyseven chambers, exclusive of rooms for gentlemen's servants.

Amongst the numerous other club-houses may be noticed:

The GUARDS, 70, Pall-Mall; the PARTHENON, Regent Street; the ORIENTAL, Hanover Square; the ALFRED, 23, Albemarle Street; the WYNDHAM, 11, St. James's Square; BOODLE'S, 29, St. James's Street; WHITE'S, 38, St. James's Street; BROOKS', 60, St. James's Street; ARTHUR'S, 69, St. James's Street; the GARRICK, King Street; OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE, Pall-Mall.

CHAPTER XIX.

THE GREAT NATIONAL EXHIBITION.

This truly magnificent structure, designed by Mr. Paxton, and erected by Messrs. Fox and Henderson, in little more than three months, is a long parellelogram, 1848 feet long, and 408 feet wide; with an addition on the north side, 936 feet long, and 48 feet wide. The height is 66 feet. Nearly midway, 900 feet to the centre on the west side, and 948 feet on the east, a transept is formed, with a semicircular roof, 108 feet high from the ground, to enclose a group of trees. This further serves to break the long line of the side elevation, and marks out the central entrance. There is another principal entrance at each end. The main parallelogram is formed into 11 divisions longitudinally, alternately 24 and 48 feet wide, with the exception of the great central walk, which is 72 feet broad. There are three large refreshment courts, enlosing three groves of trees. The area on the ground floor is 752,832 square feet, nearly 18 acres; the area of the galleries included in the contract, is 102,528 square feet, making a total of 855,360 feet, and the cubic contents 30,000,000 feet. The exhibition surface, including galleries, will be 21 acres. Other galleries may be introduced if needed, at an extra cost, affording an additional available area of 90,432 square feet. The frame-work is of

iron; the sides, ends, and roof, of glass. The architectural form of the building is very elegant. It is in three stories, one behind the other, so that the ends show as a pyramid of three steps, each story being formed by fluted pillars, and arches of iron, with walls of glass, and are surmounted by an ornamental and frieze architrave. The design of the endless range of arches is very tasteful. The roofs are nearly flat, but consist of ridges and vallies, eight feet wide, so formed as to easily carry off the rain.

The iron columns are from designs by Mr. Burry. They consist of four raised fillets upon a circular column, and although of great strength, have a remarkably elegant appearance. They are placed 24 feet apart, and in each space between these, externally, are two wooden columns of the same size. Of cast-iron girders, there are 2,244, for supporting galleries and roofs; 1,128 intermediate bearers: 358 wrought-iron trusses, for supporting roof; 3230 iron columns, of beautiful design; 44 miles of gutters, for carrying water to the columns, which are hollow, and serve as water-pipes; 202 miles of sash bars, and 900,000 superficial feet of glass, sufficiently strong to resist storm or violence, weighing upwards of 400 tons.

The spaces between the columns next the ground, and elsewhere, are fitted with immovable louvre-plates of iron, for ventilation.

We doubt not but that this palace of glass, the daring conception of Mr. Paxton, will itself form one of the most attractive, aud wonder-exciting features of the Exhibition; nay, that it will be almost as fascinating to men's imaginations, before they see it, and to their eyes when they do see it, as the boundless treasures of the Exhibition itself. It will form a most magnificent aud dazzling spectacle, and will give the utmost advantage of light to every article that may be exhibited