COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION. 
May 1. 
67 
Palace, after being almost stunned with .joyous greetings 
along the whole route. 
The Empress is rather above the middle height, with 
a fine, open, pleasant countenance* regular, but not 
sharp features. You would call her handsome, without 
being a showy woman. She was not the best, nor the 
second best dressed lady there, but she evidently under¬ 
stands the art,—which seems the most difficult art to 
learn in this country,—the art of wearing or carrying her 
dress properly. After a great deal of fatigue, of riding 
and walking, of sittings down, and bowings to this side 
and that, acknowledging the greetings of the people, 
she sweeped round the Crystal Fountain, late in the 
afternoon, just as if she had that moment been turned 
out of a mould; the sun was then full in her face, and 
behind my head, which was not ten feet from her, and I 
could not compare the skirt of her dress to anything so 
like as to a florist’s Tulip turned upside down; it was 
full length, but the bottom of it did not sweep the 
carpet; it was of dark lilac silk, flounced up to the 
waist, all the flounces being of equal depth, and at the 
bottom of each flounce was a satin stripe, or flower of a 
lighter tint; over this she wore a shawl of black lace, 
the point reaching down to very near the bottom of the 
dress; the bonnet was small, and of white chip, with a 
simple l’oll of trimming to match the dress. It has 
been said that the Empress Eugenie was the inventor of 
the fashion of wearing the bonnet behind the head; if 
so, she has given up that fashion already, for the little 
chip was well forward this time. Her front hair, which 
is neither light brown nor jet black, she wore plain, just 
as Queen Victoria always does. Her parasol was white, 
with a small short fringe. The most noticeable articles 
of dress in the crowd were Mantillas, Cardinals, and 
Opera Cloaks. 
The Emperor Napoleon must be hard upon fifty years 
of age, and yet he looks much younger than Prince 
Albert. I never saw him before, and I never was so much 
deceived in a man in my life; his face and forehead sets 
every rule of phrenology at defiance. If I had seen him 
among a crowd of students going to a botanical lecture, 
I should say he was the most studious-like of the lot, 
and the last man on earth to quell a mob! There is 
not a single line in his face, nor a glance in the eye, from 
which you could infer decision of character. There is 
not a good portrait of him in a shop in London. He 
shaves his whiskers, and has a very small moustacho 
on the upper lip; his face looks mild to excess, is a 
little sallow, and of the true Italian caste; his hair 
is dark brown, as thick as when he left school, and he 
wears it, or at least wore it that day, in our fashion, the 
usual open channel up from the left brow, and the front 
combed to the right, the rest perfectly plain all round ; 
he is rather below the middle height. He and Prince 
Albert wore a black, or dark blue dress throughout. 
Perhaps I ought to make an apology for taking down 
such notes at all, but I am of a very different opinion 
from those who may blame me; thousands of my 
young readers will be more gratified with them than 
with all th e magnijioras and magnijicas in the catalogue; 
and it is wholesome to please as well as to instruct. 
Besides, through some oversight or another, the daily 
press have been on the wrong scent all that day, and 
while I was taking these notes I could do nothing else; 
but I spent three hours examining every part of the 
garden and grounds, and nearly two hours looking over 
the plants inside the Crystal Palace; and here is the 
result. 
I found all the vases on the upper terrace, opposite 
the middle transept, and along the flights of steps down 
from it, were most tastefully furnished with flowering- 
plants, arranged on one uniform plan, like all things in 
and about the Crystal Palace, as follows: the centre of 
each row was filled with a pale Rose Rhododendron in 
bloom ; low, bushy plants, trained like specimen Gera¬ 
niums ; then another ring of Tom Thumb Geraniums ; 
these were bordered with the little hardy Heath, called 
lierbacea; probably cut sprigs, as they stood upright, 
and an edging or wreath of Ivy, three inches high, round 
the outside of all. There were a score or so filled in 
that way, and as you receded from the centre of attraction, 
the vases were merely filled with plain Rhododendrons, 
of the same size and similarly trained, without any 
flowers ; the whole had an air of taste and comfort about 
it which paid for all the trouble and expence twice over. 
The whole of the terrace-gardens were fresh mowed, and 
as smooth as velvet; but the walks are harsh to travel 
on after the concrete walks, because, roll how they may, 
and as often as they choose, such a concourse of people 
are sure to kick them up into rough pebbles in a few 
hours; but there were heaps of better binding looking 
gravel in many parts of the lower grounds. It will be 
a thousand pities if they cannot keep a smooth surface 
to the gravel in such a garden. 
Almost all the flower beds on the terrace are planted 
with early dwarf Tulips, Hyacinths, and Crocuses, some 
in mixed colours, and some of one colour only, but 
generally with an edging of the same bulb in a different 
colour. White Hyacinths mixed with pale yellow ones, 
and the bed edged with blue Hyacinths, look extremely 
gay, and would look still better if all the so-called yellow 
ones were placed by themselves, between the whites in 
the centre and the dark blue edging. This is not a 
matter of taste, but of necessity, as these yellows are of 
smaller growth, they look low and overpowered by the 
stronger growth of the whites. The Tulips were not in 
bloom, but one here and there was just showing colour; 
when they are fully out the garden will look one blaze 
of them; the chain pattern in the sunk pannels on 
either side of the central walk, which was so gay last 
autumn with scarlet and yellow, is now full of Tulips 
all round, except a few Hyacinths in the centre of each 
of the circular links of the chain; and the connecting 
bars between the links or beds, which were plauted with 
Emma Verbenas last year, are now full of Crocuses going 
out of blossom, so that the effect of those parts in the 
chain will be lost this year—all the pattern ought to be 
in bloom at once; and thus it was since Adam lived, 
by aiming at too much we are apt to overshoot the 
mark, and in nothing under the sun so much as in 
flower-gardening; one wrong bed, or one wrong colour, 
will often spoil a whole composition, however good in 
itself. 
The four large corner beds, in each of the sunk end 
pannels, under the banks of Calceolarias, are now 
planted with two beds of Hyacinths, cross corner fashion, 
and two beds of Tulips. The two banks which were 
full of yellow Calceolarias last year are now empty, ex¬ 
cepting the edging of blue Oentianella, which had not 
then opened. Several good crimson hybrid Rhododendrons 
were coming into bloom in the different beds, and the 
only extra bed that I could see, was of Cherianthus 
Marshallii, which will not be in bloom for some time. 
There is a grand improvement in the middle of the 
terrace garden since last autumn. I allude to the 
massive stone pedestals which have been placed in the 
centre of the large flower-beds, between the Araucarias, 
along the half-moon walk, on either side of the grand 
centre walk. Last year these circular beds were about 
eighteen feet in diameter, and there were seven of them 
on each side, with seven Araucarias centreing between 
them, and placed about fifty feet apart, so that the 
centre of the large flower-beds, in which the new 
pedestals are placed, must have been just fifty feet opart 
likewise, to correspond with the distances between the 
Araucarias. The effect of placing the pedestals in the 
centre of the flower-beds is this: it reduces the actual 
space for flowers to one-half the diameter they occupied 
