FOREIGN AND MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES. 



ing more, embellished with birds, and flow- 

 ers, and trees, and sculpture, displayed in 

 a climate temperate at all seasons. Hic ver 

 PERPETUM would be inscribed above his por- 

 tals, and the scene within them would be 

 that of a noble "park, decorated with the 

 beauties of nature and art, under a sky- 

 roof, having a climate, warmed and ventila- 

 ted for the purpose of health alone, furnish- 

 ing, close to their own firesides, a pi-omenade 

 unequalled in the world, and, for the six 

 winter months, a temperature analogous to 

 that of Southern Italy. Beautiful creeping 

 plants might be planted against the columns, 

 and trailed along the girders, so as to give 

 shade in summer, while the effect they would 

 produce by festooning in every diversity of 

 form over the building, would give the whole 

 a most enchanting and gorgeous finish." 



Are these visions capable of being realized? 

 That is the question which it really interests 

 us to answer. The funds and means out of 

 v.'hich a reality may arise are subordinate 

 considerations, especially since the building, 

 the main feature in any calculation of cost, 

 may be said to be already paid for. 



That all which Mr. Paxton proposes to 

 do may be easily done, no one acquainted 

 with gardening will doubt; that the climate 

 of Naples or Madeira may be secured to 

 Hyde Park by means of the Crystal Palace, 

 is as certain as the existence of those two 

 countries. AH we require in order to ac- 

 complish such an end is a heating power, 

 which will exclude frost in winter, and a 

 water power which will exclude drouth in 

 summer. The rest is simple. That the 

 great engineers who put together the vast 

 fabric can water it and heat it, nobody 

 doubts; that plants will thrive in it if heat- 

 ed and watered, we all of us know perfectly 

 well. 



But would such a winter garden be at- 

 tended by the advantages that are expected 

 from it to public health and convenience.' 

 That is to say, would it be agreeable to ride 

 and walk under shelter while rain or snow 

 is falling all around.'' Would it be comfort- 

 able to have a cool garden of 18 acres as a 

 place of resort in the dog-days? Have dust 

 or mud irresistible attractions to us English? 

 These are matters of taste which all men 

 can judge of for themselves. 



If we look at the matter as it affects the 

 value of contiguous property, then such 

 questions as the following arise. Would it 

 be advantageous to the neighborhood to be 

 within a few minutes walk of Naples or Ma- 

 deira? Would invalids find any comfort 

 therein? Would the aged and infirm? And 



if health and comfort should be increased 

 by turning the Crystal Palace into such a 

 place as Mr. Paxton contemplates, would 

 the value of houses and land at Knights- 

 bridge, Kensington, Brompton, and Bays- 

 water, rise or fall? The owners of proper- 

 ty there will probably express their opinion 

 as to those points. 



Should all these questions be answered in 

 the affirmative, (and who can doubt it;) if 

 the comfort, the health, the enjoyment, the 

 wealth of the metropolis would be thus 

 largely increased, by converting the Crystal 

 Palace into such a park as could only be na- 

 turally found in Portugal or Madeira, then 

 the last inquiry that we should make would 



be, WHO WILL RKCOMMEND ITS REMOVAL, 



when a short Act of Parliament shall be 

 introduced to enable it to remain where it 

 is? — Gard. Chron. 



What is to become of the Crystal Pa- 

 lace? — The time is approaching when the 

 World's Fair will terminate, and the vast 

 roof under which it is held, being no longer 

 required for that purpose, must, according to 

 the terms of agreement with the Commission- 

 ers of Woods and Forests, be removed; and, 

 by this time next year, the ground is to be 

 made as smooth, and the grass is to look as 

 green, as before the 25th of September 1850. 

 The exhibited articles will all be removed, 

 and many of them will be looked upon as 

 precious relics, connected with an event, the 

 greatest of our times, and they will be 

 cherished more and more as they become 

 separated further from the day of their great 

 triumph, whilst the building (I hope I may 

 say without vanity) — the great feature of 

 the Exhibition — must, if removed, be either 

 transported to another country, or be rent 

 asunder and dispersed in fragments to per- 

 form a variety of inferior offices. Now, if 

 I can show — as I believe I can — good rea- 

 sons why the structure should remain stand- 

 ing, I trust the Royal Commis.'^ioners will 

 do all in their power to further that object. 



Apart, then, from all thoughts of its pre- 

 sent use, and also fi-om all those considera- 

 tions which fairly entitle it to great atten- 

 tion — the building, I would suggest, should 

 be allowed to remain standing, on account 

 of its peculiar fitness to supply a great pub- 

 lic want, which London, with its two and a 

 half millions of inhabitants, stands most 

 essentially in need of — namely, a Winter 

 Park and Garden under glass. 



When I determined on sending in a design 

 for the Glass Palace, T had in view quite as 

 much the after nurpose for which the build- 



