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clay made a striking advance. But Art in Great Britain 

 owes most perhaps to Prince Albert. It has been the 

 fashion to decry him as only the imported husband of a 

 queen. But he brought to England a delicate and grace- 

 ful culture and a generous patronage of Art, which did 

 much to give a beautiful drapery to the rugged English 

 life, just as the ivy makes her old gray walls more pictu- 

 resque. We should not forget that he was the originator 

 of the Great Exhibition of 1851 in Hyde Park, where his 

 Memorial now stands ; and in consequence he may be 

 considered in close relation to all the International Expo- 

 sitions which have followed ; in some sense, indeed, the 

 cause and suggestion of ours in 1876. The original 

 Crystal Palace still remains, the attraction of holiday 

 visitors to Sydenham ; and in the London International 

 of 1874, more than four thousand pictures were on the 

 walls. And one result of this culture of Art has been 

 to make the English home more beautiful. The exhibits 

 of Mintou's tiles, Daniell's porcelains, Elkington's elec- 

 trotypes, Doulton & Watts' ceramics, showed us this ; 

 while the buildings of the English Commissioners, with 

 their simple but effective decorations, were a ^pleasure and 

 surprise to all who were fortunate enough to gain admit- 

 tance. Long before the close of the Exhibition, Doul- 

 ton & Watts' entire display of tire-place and wall orna- 

 ments was sold ; and each one will become a missionary 

 of Art in some corner of our land. No one could have 

 failed to see how the strong home instinct of the English 

 race entwined itself with new art in the production of 

 those charming fireplaces which were such attractive cen- 

 ters for admiration at our Exhibition. They were copied 

 many times in prints and photographs ; and many were 

 the remarks made about the beauty which a genuine New 

 England wood fire would have in them, a grace which in 



