TILE EXPOSITION'S RIVAL.
As the gallants of the French court tossed up the slipper of Ninon de rEnclos in a ragout, so Alexis Soyer has cooked up Lady Bles- sington's deserted house into a banqueting mansion "for all na- tions." His materials were infinitely the tougher and more intract- able, but he was inspired by a higher and a cosmopolitan ambition, and he has built a more enduring monument of culinary genius. For Gore House offered no promising subject. If its dingy exte- rior suggested some idea of spaciousness, the promise was broken within. Most of the rooms were not only small and inconvenient, but homely to the degree of being disagreeable ; they might have sufficed the plain desires of a Wilberforce, but assuredly the charms of Lady Blessington's mansion owed little to the landlord. To a Soyer., the worse the difficulty the more brilliant the triumph. Tlic poetry of the bill of fare has been applied to Gore House ; the .?pevolutionary imagination of France has been brought to bear upon the construction of a hotel suited to an [era in the history of nations, and worthy the attitude of France: the result is "the
S osium "
No other country could have supplied the idea that dominates in the vestibule. The gigantic hand of Jupiter Tonans has been casting abroad the black shadows and lurid fires of war ; but "In File de l'Orage"—videlicit, the Genius of the Exposition—"a cho- regraphic creation" of M. Soyer—has burst through the clouds, _Auld establishes the event. The rooms on the ground-floor, by similar transmutations, are converted into "the workshop of Mi- chelangelo," whose walls are adorned with the architectural won- ders of the world, from the St. Peter's of Bramante to the Tubular Bridge of Stephenson ; into "le Cabinet de Toilette I in Pompa- dour," " la Salle des Noces de Daiae,"—the walls adorned with trickling drops of gold ; and so forth. If a room is small, it is made a "Cabinet"; if dark, it is made a " Grotte," even the Grotto of Eternal Snows: with pendent icicles and Arctic effects of colour. The staircase is alive with grotesque portraits of ascending geniuses, from Brougham and Louis Napoleon, to the Wizard of the North, Mr. Cobden, and the Sea Serpent. Outside the house, the Rialto leads to "the Baronial Hall "—so called, we suppose, in honour of the baron of beef. This hereditary hall is capable of holding some 400 guests; whereof the first will be the Sanitary Association, with Lord Carlisle at its head. Beyond, in the "Pre d'Orsay," is "the Monster Pavilion of Amphytrion, or Encampment of all Nations," with tables for fifteen hundred, monster tablecloth, and a feast at the price of an ordinary dinner. Thus has Alexis Soyer proclaimed epicurism made wholesome, gourmandise made tasteful, luxury made easy. Great Britain has built a Palace of Industry, Soyer has created a Palace of Pleasure-has confectione, out of the de- serted Gore House, a practical poem adorned with all the graces of the ballet and inspired by the mens divinior of the cuisine. It is already perceived, however, that the enthusiasm of Alexis has supplied a practical want in the agremens of London—a kind of hotel, unquestionably respectable, and affording the readiest fa- cilities for small private dinner-parties in the best of taste, es- pecially such as can be joined by ladies. No doubt, it is possible to find places, not inaccessible from town, at which such par- ties can be given; but it is not easy to escape from questionable so- ciety—or, what is worse, more questionable cookery—except at an undue expense. It is well understood that the visitor at Soyer 's will be able to spend to his heart's content, but with luxurious usance in the return : on the other hand, it is understood that , luxury and good taste will be attainable to those modest house- holders who do not possess a batterie de cuisine, but without the addition of extortionate demands for some imaginary value. You recognize at once in this innovation a permanent institution of Kensington Gore, and an instrument for agreeably enlarging our social customs.
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