DECORATIOX, &C. OF NEW READIXG-ROOM. 13 



" The cost, about 150,000^., includes the fittings and 

 furniture and the necessary shelves for immediate use. 



Decobation, &c. of New Eeading-Room. 



** In the decoration of the interior dome, light colours and 

 the purest gilding have been preferred. The great room, 

 therefore, has an illuminated and elegant aspect. The de- 

 corative work may be shortly described : — The inner surface 

 of the dome is divided into twenty compartments by moulded 

 ribs, which are gilded with leaf prepared from unalloyed 

 gold, the sofl&tes being in ornamental patterns, and the edges 

 touching the adjoining margins fringed with a leaf-pattern 

 scolloped edge. Each compartment contains a circular-headed 

 window, 27 feet high and 12 feet wide, with three panels 

 above, the central one being medallion-shaped, the whole 

 bordered with gilt mouldings and lines, and the field of the 

 panels finished in encaustic azure blue, the surrounding 

 margins being of a warm cream-colour. The details of the 

 windows ai^e treated in like manner, — the spandril panels 

 blue ; the enriched column and pilaster caps, the central 

 flowers, the border moulding and lines being all gilded ; the 

 margins cream-colour throughout. The moulded rim of the 

 lantern light, which is painted and gilded to correspond, is 

 40 feet diameter. The sash is formed of gilt moulded ribs 

 radiating from a central medallion, in which the Royal mono- 

 gram is alternated with the Imperial Crown. 



" The cornice, from which the dome springs, is massive 

 and almost wholly gilded, the frieze being formed into panels 

 boimded by lines terminating at the ends with a gilt fret 

 ornament. Each compartment of the dome is marked by a 

 bold enriched gilt console, which forms at once the support 

 of the main rib and the base for a colossal marble statue, a 

 series of which it is proposed to place on the cornice. 



"Between the cornice and the floor the space is filled with 

 the bookcases and galleries of access, the cornice, standards, 

 and railings of which are wholly gilded, the panels of the sof- 

 fi.tes of the latter being blue, having gilded ornaments therein. 



