THE ALEXANDRA PALACE AT MUSWELL HILL.
METE "merry, merry men" who were " uproused " for the 1 "opening day" of the Alexandra Palace on Muswell Hill, on last Saturday, had at least one source of merriment which this season has rarely supplied to the children or the guests of Albion. The weather was fine, and the sun shone brilliantly, so that tempers and toilettes alike arrived in good order on the se( ne of action. There was some discontent to be surmounted in the first instance by those who had been beguiled into going down early by the announcement that "the Park" would be opened to the public at ten o'clock, and who found that the beauties of the Park —as yet in the dawn of existence, and impaired by an encampment of vans, "shays," and gigs—were exhaustible except for the beautiful view, by the most ardent spectator in about ten minutes. Not until twelve might these malcontents pass the policeman - guarded portals, around which they hummed and buzzed, struggling for peeps, which revealed a few yards of wet flooring, several stout rough deal posts, and some straggling employes in a state bordering on distraction. A whisper got out about a private view on the previous day, and also that the "lady judges" of the competing flowers had "been round," and this gave rise to some indignation among a group collected at the top of the steps, a lady member of which declared with emphasis that they did not like privileges on their side of town (the N. district, no doubt), and that she regarded the" edge" as having been quite taken off the opening festival. If the " edge " meant noise, it certainly remained on, for at noon exactly there came trooping into the Palace an immense crowd, which in a short time swarmed all over the building, receiving liberal augmentations up to the commencement of the concert, the chief feature of the day, by which time the assemblage had attained enormous dimensions. Seen from a point of the gallery near the great organ, the sudden tumultuous filling of the spacious building by a gaily- dressed multitude—the women seemed to be in a vast majority— was an impressive and pleasant spectacle, but the simplicity of the affair was in marked contrast .to the " inaugurations " which have abounded of late years ; and indeed the contrast was pleasant, for we do not do things of the kind well in England. Fulsome common- place must have quite exhausted itself, and nearly exhausted its recipients, since the great "idea" of 1851 has been cropping up in new editions everywhere. Some guns were fired, but they were inaudible inside the building ; there was no procession, no speech- making, not so much as a tenth-cousin-german of the Roial Family was present, so there was no backing and no bad grammar, circulation was unimpeded, everybody was at liberty to pick out royal princesand princesses among the hats and bonnets which made brief appearances in places supposed to be privileged, and to point I them out with unhesitating accuracy to their neighbours, and the only interruption to the general felicity seemed to be the difficulty, experi- enced at a surprisingly early period of the proceedings, of getting anything to eat. A few wary parties (in theplural) made straight, on .their entrance, for the little tables placed along the very blank walls under the staircase north of the transept, and regardless of the contemptuous glances of passers-by of more refinement but less experience, fortified themselves with sandwiches, buns, malt liquor, and " Lorne " pies,—' Lorne' is, in the Palace parlance, polite for 'pork.' One does not usually see anything serious in that line done before one p.m., but the wisdom of the manoeuvre made itself evident at about half-past two, by which time the luncheon and dining-rooms were densely crowded with a mad- dened multitude, desperate between want of food and fear of being shut out from the concert ; the waiters were diving into unknown depths of the building, and emerging with wretched faces and the admission that there was nothing more to be had, or, as they put it, no "stock" had "come in." And the people who had anticipated the orthodox luncheon-hour, literally replete with satisfaction and sandwiches, smiled blandly on their starving fellow-creatures. A highly comic incident was the interviewing of a certain plump head-waiter, well known to those who much resort to the Crystal Palace, by two indignant Britons, who are no doubt accustomed to lunch with as much punctuality as Mr. Edmond About's British matron in "Le Roi des Montagnes," and who accosted him as that lady did Hadji Stavros. "This is a nice state of things," said one of the sufferers—the possessor of a reserved seat, and it wanted only a quarter to three o'clock !— "I've been trying to get some lunch for the last hour, and it seems there's nothing to eat. Now, I'm not used to it." "No more ain't I," replied the waiter, with admirable dignity ; " Pve been a many times to inquire, and I can't get satisfaction. It is a hopenin' day, gentlemen, to be sure,"—he shook his head and smiled appeasement,—" but this scarcity didn't ought to be, for this crowd ain't nothing to an 'Andel, nor yet to a Good Friday, and it ain't a patch on the Sultan,—though they ain't all come yet, for that matter ;—but if you'll secure your places, and look at the wine book, I'll go and have another try." The luncheonless ones sat down by the marble wilderness, unmarked save by glass rims, uncheered by even the driest and smallest bun, and plunged into deep study of the prices of wines for which they had no intention of calling ; the waiter vanished after the fashion of waiters, and did not come back. A few minutes more, and the music of the National Anthem was pealing through the building, the organ and the orchestra producing an almost overpowering effect, and the whole scene was one which even the hungry must have en- joyed. The bewildering costumes of the ladies, however their pro- fusion of details and outrageous colours may reader them individu- ally tasteless and even ridiculous, looked very well en masse in the great space of the centre transept, and lighted up by bright sun- shine, while the beautiful display of flowers in the nave gave all possible richness and delicacy to the general effect of colour.
The Alexandra Palace is a very handsome building, and, though one glances upwards mechanically, looking for the lofty glass roof which is not there, and feels in that moment that one has hardly "understood the beauty and grandeur of the Crystal Palace before, it grows upon one's liking. At first it seems heavy, and the perpetual encountering of transverse iron poles in many directions is annoying, but by degrees its proportions please ; and when one stands in the centre, looks up into the dome, at once grand and elegant, and takes in the great span of the roof and the long lines of the galleries, a strong sense of beauty comes of the inspection. The details are almost all good, the colouring of the walls of the dome and of the roof very delicate and effective ; but the dull brown of the orchestra benches—it wa,s afterwards happily hidden by their occupants—injures the lightsome, refined effect of the great organ, which is a beautiful object. The pipes of silver-grey, pale blue, and gold, lightly touched in a sober pattern at the base with vivid scarlet, confront and blend with the hues of the great window at the end, and those of the over-arching roof, most happily ; while the groups of tall tropical plants and gleaming white statuary, tastefully disposed at the sides, lend just the requisite shade and coolness. It is provoking, where so much care and study and taste are displayed, to observe such a discord in colour as that which offends the eye in the fitting up of the &vie at the respective corners of the galleries in front of the orchestra. The purple lining to the galleries, whose ornamentation is red and blue all along their line, is sufficiently trying, and the stiff, artificial garlands, as ungraceful as they are unreal, might be removed with advantage. But these are minor blemishes in
comparison with the hanging of heavy, dark purple curtains, the most lightless and absorbent of shades, against wall-paper of pale blue, above crimson draperies, and finishing the harsh contrast with coarse, flaring, yellow worsted fringe. Not all the ingenuity of man.millinerism could devise a toilette which would have a chance of looking well in contrast with such colouring, to say nothing of its inherent ugliness. There are some Japanese paper curtains, elegantly draped, in one of the very few—what are they to be called ?—shop fronts? —as yet arranged, from which the Palace upholsterers might have learned a useful lesson. Among the per- manent decorations there are several very pretty medallions in- serted above the cornices of the entrance-doors. They are white reliefs on blue, and look like Wedgwood-ware. It was hardly a day on which to observe the details of the Palace as a place of exhibition, especially as the great nave was occupied by the fairest and stateliest of visitors, azaleas, roses, wonderful tropical ferns, and by a superb display of palms and other plants from the Lands of the Sun. The standard of Flanders azalea, and a Barbadoes fern from Sir F. Goldsmid's houses, like a pyramid of delicate frilled fans suspended by the finest threads, attracted the attention of the multitude, even amid all the novelty of the scene. The music was admirably selected and superbly performed, but the result of the concert was a confirmation of the public verdict against great open spaces used as concert halls. Mademoiselle Titiens' magni- ficent voice did indeed triumph over space, and fill it, but such a tax on its powers is not fair, while it leaves no chance to others. A concert hall of large size and well-tested acoustic properties is to be the scene of the future concerts announced for this season, and great things are promised in the dramatic line. The theatre, in the north-east transept, is very pretty indeed, and all the arrangements, so bewildering to the lay mind, are apparently per- fect. Seen from a corner of the opposite gallery, the stage with a set landscape scene was so effective that an accidental carpenter who happened to cross it with a glue-pot, looked quite picturesque, and excited a momentary expectation that a play might be among the projected pleasures of the day. There are no fountains as yet, and the ethnological display is rather disproportionately conspicuous. The discreet reserve which surrounds the Crystal Palace savages with a screen of appropriate plants, thus preserving at once pro- priety and the local colour, is not, indeed, demanded for the Alexandra 'studies,' who are all clothed in all sorts of queer and gaudy costumes, but still the general effect is too staring, it requires breaking up. There is a bridal group in particular, Finnish perhaps, certainly Northern, blending sentiment with salt fish and silver buttons in an obtrusive manner which becomes quite haunting. The collection will look better when a fore- ground to it has been filled in with the customary combination of commerce and art which we know so well, and which though we used to laugh at it from the msthetic point of view, is the only means by which undertakings of this kind can be made to pay,— that is, to live.
The animation of the scene was extreme, even while the great mass of spectators were held motionless by the spell of the music, for there was perpetual stir, and the murmur of pleasure and interest on every side, and especial delight with the Picture Galleries, which are very well constructed, and display the valu- able Loan collection that makes so great a feature here to much advantage. The pictures are mostly old acquaintances, whose faces have looked down on us from the Academy walls in by- gone years; and it is well done of their owners thus to diffuse the pleasure of them. There is to be an Aquarium, and Natural His- tory, illustrated by Horse-shows, Dog-shows, Cat-shows, Bird- shows, Flower-shows, and Fruit-shows, is to be specially culti- vated at the Alexandra Palace. We wish it all prosperity,—a future as cloudless as its opening day.
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