12 
THIRD PERIOD—I862 TO PRESENT TIME. 
The Agricultural papers of the day gave great 
prominence to eulogistic descriptions of the New 
Agricultural Hall at Islington, and the first Show of the 
Smithfield Club held therein. Some exhibitors even 
described it as an escape from Pandemonium and the 
shades of night, and yet the premises at Baker Street had 
been a great advance upon the preceding ones in which the 
Show had been held. But the sight of the arched glass 
roof, with a span of 125 feet covering, at a height of 75 feet, 
a hall of about 80,000 square feet, or nearly two acres in 
extent, with galleries 36 feet wide all round it, and a second 
hall roo feet square, was calculated to evoke enthusiasm, 
and the Mark Lane Express of the day truly observed, 
‘* Whatever may come of it, however the public may take 
to the locality, there is no manner of question but that the 
Building Company has done its duty. Grand in its 
conception, ample in its proportions, and admirable in its 
arrangements, there are few places more perfectly adapted 
to its purpose than the Agricultural Hall.” 
Amid the general congratulations, however, it was a 
subject for regret that Mr. Jonas Webb had not lived to 
see the completion of the building in which he had taken 
so much interest, and many kindly references were made 
during the week to his memory and the great business 
qualities which had been so freely devoted to carrying out 
the erection of such a splendid building, and a fund was 
started to provide some memorial of him. 
What one paper described as the ‘‘ House-warming,”’ 
was worthy of the new building. Not only the Heir to 
the Throne, H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, but a striking 
assemblage of Royal personages visited the Show. These 
included H.R.H the Crown Prince of Prussia, H.R.H. 
the Duke of Brabant (now King of the Belgians), and 
H.R.H. the Prince Louis of Hesse (the late Grand Duke 
of Hesse), also H.R.H. the Duke of Cambridge, H.R.H. 
the Duchess of Cambridge, and H.R.H. the Princess Mary 
of Cambridge (the late Duchess of Teck). On_ being 
conducted round the Show by Lord Feversham, the 
President for the year, the Stewards, and Hon. Secretary, 
His Royal Highness expressed himself as being pleased 
with the building and the arrangements. * 
The general public also attended in such crowds that 
its success was at once assured—upwards of 132,000 
people visiting the Show. 
