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passionate, and low, gave evidence of that; even Melanie seemed to believe it.

"Very likely-I don't doubt it. You are a fine fellow. I always liked you, William ; but I couldn't wait for you-I couldn't indeed."

"Don't jest. I love your merry smiles; but speak earnestly this once, dear Melanie. You are not so much older than I. In three years I shall be of age -you will be only twenty-four. Give me till then -hold yourself free till then."

"Oh, Mary! What an obstinate lad it is! Why, I have had a dozen boys sighing and dying for me, and I never had the least trouble with them before. They were quenched at a word, poor fellows Really, William, you must have a little sense. This love-making is really inconvenient to me just now."

"Is it?" He flamed up. "May I ask why?" She began to titter and play with her handkerchief.

"Well, perhaps I had better tell you-you'll know it to-morrow. You see, William, I have a great liking for you. In fact, under some circumstances I might have had a nice harmless little flirtation with you; but I'm going to give up all that sort of thing."

"Melanie !"

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"She will always," said William in a low voice, as he put his arm round her and gave her a kiss on the forehead, tender, brotherly, but oh! not like the first.

He went away next morning. His life and mine sloped wide apart. We did not meet again for many, many years.

Melanie seemed annoyed at his coolness. "You of the old building-and a central one of the majestic are the stupidest, oddest boy! And there's Mary height of 194 feet and 120 feet span. The latter crying like a watering-pot. Well, go to her, she'll crosses the roof of the nave, rising high above it; comfort you." the north and south ones meet it only with low square towers at the intersections. Owing to the slope of the ground, the Palace has an additional or basement story on the park side, forming a curious sort of tunnel in its interior (occupied by the warming apparatus), and giving a most imposing elevation to the façade. From the north and south ends advance, on the park side, glass wings, terminated by oblong towers; the southern one communicating with the new station of the Brighton Railway within the grounds. On this side also, which is in fact the front, the arched ends of the transepts are recessed to the depth of twenty-four feet; leaving an open arcade, covered only overhead, under each, which has a most picturesque effect, throwing the glazed ends into deep shadow. Viewed therefore from the park, the Crystal Palace forms three sides of a parallelogram, the longest of which only is visible from the road at the rear.

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My cousin William is a middle-aged man now, a prosperous man too, a husband and father of a large family. He comes now and then to see my sisters and me, in our quiet cottage; we are very happy in his coming, and rather proud of speaking to the neighbours about "our cousin William."

We never spent another summer at the Ivies, and never shall again. I told him one day lately that the yew-hedge had been cut down. "What! your hedge ?" he said; and with difficulty remembered it. But I saw it, and see it still sometimes very clear, like a picture in a dream, all in the soft dusk of that midsummer night, with Orion shining through the trees. And however foolish it was, and however

It need hardly be said that the grandeur of the building is immensely enhanced by these alterations. It is more symmetrical, more compact, more impressive, and has a stupendous sort of beauty in it not attained by its predecessor.

Stop. No need to look so glad. I'm going to much better things are as they are than as they he married." might have been, I feel glad that I was William's In the interior, the advantage is no less striking. first youthful fancy, that I had his first shy, inno-The long vista of slender columns and springing cent, boyish kiss, and that he had mine.

William stood, quiet as a stone.

"Yet," I said, "you told us all you were not engaged. It was just like you. Who is the fortu

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arches which form the vaulted roof give to the coupd'ail of the nave an immense accession of elegance and lightness. At intervals of seventy-two feet, double arched girders have been added, whose out

pretty girl that would take up with such a round CRYSTAL PALACE AND PARK, line falling below the rest, and connected with them dumpling of an old parson. But love's all stuff and

folly. Since he wants me, why I'll have him.

AT SYDENHAM, NEAR LONDON.

by lattice-work of tie-bars, seems to impart increased lightness to the structure. The pairs of shafts also

I hate teaching, and I shall make a very comfortable, ONE of the most remarkable achievements of art which support them advance several feet from the

dashing, Mrs. Miles."

She danced about the room in exuberant pleasure. Her end attained, there was no need to burthen herself with more virtuous disguises. The mask fell, and showed her to William as I had seen her, and prayed that he might see her, for many, many miserable days.

He sat down, leaning on his hands. It must have been a cruel moment-the moment that shattered for ever his boyish dream—a dream so intense, so unlike a boy's, that I doubt if any one would have broken it save she herself. But his nature was so intrinsically pure and noble-it so revolted from everything false, or foul, or mean, especially in a woman—that one glance into this girl's real heart, or rather into the thing which did duty for oneand the charm was snapped for ever. “William," I whispered, touching his hands. He caught mine, and clasped them hard.

in modern times has at length been successfully accomplished, and under circumstances of peculiar enthusiasm and patriotism as regards the conduct of its projectors.

This structure crowns the ridge of a lofty and picturesque hill running nearly north and south, its huge bulk, glittering in the sunshine, or looming heavily against a cloudy sky, is visible for miles in every direction, and forms a strange and sudden feature in the undulating landscape. On the west, or London side, a strip of table land allows the passage of a splendid road, one hundred feet wide, along its entire length. On the east, or country side, the terraced park slopes gently down towards the London and Brighton Railway, and melts away almost imperceptibly into the wooded plain of Kent. Views of great beauty and extent open on every side. London and its southern envoirns lying maplike to the north and west; the tall masts of the shipping, and the smoke from the steamers on the

"I know you are true, my cousin Mary." Then he rose and walked direct to Melanie, who bosom of the distant Thames, visible north-eastward stood pulling her curls out at the glass.

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trim line of the colonnade, and agreeably break its monotony. Of course there is much to remind one of the Exhibition of 1851, much to recall the departed glory of that Ichabod of Palaces. There is the same delicate frame of iron-work, the same transparent shell of glass above, the same expanse of deal boards below. The old familiar coloring is there too: the same quaint harmony of aërial blue and blending yellow melting away in the dim perspective; but the columns, as if ashamed of their former flimsy tint, are clothed in a sturdy, blazing red, emblematic of their more enduring office. At present this alteration jars upon the accustomed eye; but the effect will be far different when a background of deep green foliage throws up in vivid contrast each streak of red, whose nakedness will be further hidden by the creepers, which will twine their lithe stems and clustering leaves around the shafts even to the very girders of the roof.

Along either side of the nave are ranged the two series of courts-the Architectural on the east, and on a clear day; while to the south, beyond Croydon the Fine Art Courts on the west, occupying the and the Epsom downs, the far view is closed by the northern division of the building, the Industrial long, wavy range of the Surrey Hills. The change Courts the southern division. Entering the Palace of site from Hyde Park to the present location made from the road beneath the western front of the extensive alterations necessary. An arched roof central transept, the visitor has on his left hand, and was substituted for the flat one of the old building, on the same side of the nave, the Classical and Fine increasing the height by 44 feet, while the disproportionate length was reduced by 240 feet. Instead of a single transept there are now three-one at each end of the nave, of the same dimensions as that

Art Courts; on the opposite, the Architectural
Courts. Of the former comes first the Egyptian
Court, with its low-browed pyramidal doorways,
squat lotus-headed pillars, bright stripes of color,

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[Engraved expressly for this Journal.

[EXTERIOR VIEW OF THE CRYSTAL PALACE (NEAR LONDON) FROM THE TERRACE ]

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grounds on either side. To the right and left of it are a pair of water temples, and at their base magnificent At the extremity of the west side of the nave, cascades empty themselves into the basins of the stands the Pompeian Court, separated from its two principal fountains at the lower part of the classical brethren by many hundred feet of floor, grounds. These water-temples are of a rather novel and forming an incongruous link in the utilitarian character. series of modernisms we are now describing. A little palace it is in miniature; wondrously pretty with its bright walls and chequered pavement, wide cool halls, open roof, and bubbling fountain, suggestive of the whole odes of Horace, a very epitome of old Rome in her luxurious security, and also explanatory of her fall.

Several plans were proposed for the most effective appearance of the water at the heads of the cascades; but the present one, suggested by Sir Joseph Paxton, was unanimously adopted, both on account of its elegance and moderate cost. The temples are of octagon shape, with dome roof; the columns and framework iron are similar to those of

the Palace, but what is glass in the latter is water here. Thin sheets of descending water occupy the spaces between the columns, and form the walls of each structure, while from the crown of the dome radiates the convex aqueous shell of its transparent roof. The columns are colored red, and festooned with creepers, whose leaves and blossoms, dripping with spray, and sparkling in the summer, seen through their watery envelope, add much to the singular effect of this novel order of architecture. The face or front of the terrace is of white stone,

and strange pictorial writings. Next the corniced from the Italian, in an uninterrupted vista, to the walls and pannelled ceilings of the Grecian Court, Norman period. graced with casts of her noblest sculptures, inscribed with the golden names of her heroes and philosophers. Then the vaulted vestibules and voluptuous decoration of the Roman Court; these also enshrining busts and statues of the gods and mortal great of the Eternal City. Finally, the crescent portals and gorgeous arabesques of the Alhambra Court. Color rich, profuse, and exquisitely harmonious, cover every inch of these fairy like walls, which need but the swarthy faces and bright robes of their Saracenic founders to carry us back to the days of Moorish splendor and chivalry. Beyond the series, and in The view down the long vaulted nave is a spectacle the western end of the north transept, are placed a of strange and imposing beauty. The luxuriant pair of colossal sitting figures, fac-similes of the twin vegetation fringing it on either side-blossoms of gigantic guardians of the Nubian temple of Abou- rare and vivid beauty starring the deep-green foliage saimbul, and perhaps the most striking feature in palms and tropical ferns towering majestically the Palace. Calm and solemn sit these majestic above the rest-huge creepers twined around the red witnesses to the vigor of ancient art, their hands columns, and swinging their trumpet-shaped flowers resting on their laps, their heads all but touching from girder to girder-wire baskets, pendent from the frail glass, placidity immovable on their massive the galleries, clustered thickly with the delicate features. Leading up to them from the opposite wreaths of hanging plants-white statuary seen end of the transept is an avenue of crouching through the leaves-glimpses of the painted walls of sphinxes, with eyes that seem gazing steadily on the Fine Art Courts the forms of wild animals, and hollowed into alcoves or niches, from each of which a lowering future, and lips closed in the inscrutable the plumage of bright birds—the varied costumes of a small cascade plays into the long basins, extendsneering smile which is stereotyped on the counte- the visitors-the silvery columns of the fountains ing below, and parallel with, the terrace between nances of these strange emblems of an extinct and rising high over all, and raining into the basins with the steps. From the projecting terrace the smooth mystical religion. a ceaseless murmur, heard even through the mel- turf slopes away right and left into the undulating lowed strain of the music, the hum of conversation, background, giving to the fresh-hewn balustrades, and the tread of ten thousand feet-all these, in an with their massive foundations, the aspect of fortiatmosphere misty with the steam of vegitative life fications rising from a natural glacis. Long sweepand the spray of the falling water, and laden with the ing swells of greensward stretch away on either exquisite perfume of exotic flowers, form a scene hand; firm gravelled walks wind in superb curves more like the fabled landscapes of fairyland, or the around them, between borders of azalias and rhodoglories of Aladdin's Palace, than anything hitherto dendrons, just bursting into bloom. The plantings, conceived in the dreams of romance. And it is which consist chiefly of evergreens, are massed about superior to the coup-d'ail of the old Palace in this, with great skill, affording at every fresh turn of the that nature rather than art is employed for the walks, and each succeeding dip of the ground, some highest effects. The relief with which the eye, new and picturesque glimpse of terrace and transdazzled and fatigued by the glare of scarlet cloth ept-arch through the vista foliage. On the southern and the glitter and profusion of the objects presented side of the park rises a natural conical mound, broad to it on all sides, turned always finally and grate-in base, and truncated in elevation. Upon its circufully to the sweet green foliage of the elms and the flowing water beneath the transept in Hyde Park, is here, everywhere, and constantly experienced.

At the extreme north end of the nave, and on the same side, is a restoration of the Palace of Nineveh. Human-headed bulls guard the entrance. Pillars of strange form, with capitals of double bulls'-heads, support the roof, which, from its height, and novel and extraordinary style of coloring, makes this most remarkable structure one of the chief attractions of the Palace. On the opposite, or eastern, side of the nave rise the gay façades of the Architectural Courts. First, or northernmost, the Byzantine, Romanesque, and Norman Courts, which are

rich in mosaic restorations.

Next in the series is the Medieval or Gothic Court, where England herself holds a worthy place. Pinnacled and fretted shrines of Kings and Cru

saders, recumbent Knights Templars, niches, arcades, and mouldings from her venerable cathedrals, are arrayed side by side with the works of the Teutonic builders, and specimens from Notre Dame The palaces of Venice are not forgotten, and the English, French, German, and Italian developments of the Gothic idea are illustrated by the finest examples of each school.

The grounds of the Crystal Palace comprise about two hundred acres, formerly the prettilywooded domain of Penge Park. From the foot of the Palace to the level of the Brighton Railway, there is a fall of about two hundred feet. It is difficult to convey an idea of the transformation the face of the land has received. Along the whole

lar table-like top is a rosery, which is one of the favorite resorts of the public, as it commands a fine view of the entire grounds.

The greater part of the timber has, of course, been cut down, but many fine trees have been left standing, to relieve the aspect of novelty which the youthful height and dimensions of the flowering shrubs unavoidably impart to the place. The beds are all of free, fantastic pattern, full of grace and ingenuity and are fringed all round with heather, or some

To this succeeds the Court of the Rénaissance, front of the building extends a spacious terrace. A hardy blossoming plant of that kind, which has a

which, in its perfection of details, has much to please.

Several bronzes are exhibited here.

bank of emerald turf slopes from the basement down to a broad gravel walk running parallel with Last and southernmost, we enter the Italian and the Palace, except where massive flights of stairs, revived Classical Court, in which the chefs-d'œuvres guarded by couching sphinzes, descend from beneath of Michael Angelo and Canova find their appropriate the transepts and the interior face of each wing. theatre. The walls, pilasters, and cornices of this The terrace is laid out in the Italian style, with trim chamber are clever imitations of various costly geometrical beds, fountains, urns, and statues. marbles. Festoons of fruit and flowers, on a ground of mazarine blue, enrich the entablatures and arcades, which reproduce, in their general design,

the Palazzo Farnese at Rome.

A series of cloisters here occupy the same relative position as the vestibules to the Fine Art Courts; so that the eye returns, by beautiful gradations,

Gravel walks advancing from each transept inter-
sect it at right angles, and lead to other flights of
steps communicating with the main gardens. Op-
posite the central transept a second gravelled ter-
race advances at right angles from the other, ending
in a circular fountain basin of great expanse.
Smaller stairways diverge from this again into the

remarkably pretty effect.

The basins of the principal fountains are in outline similar to those in the interior of the building, of immense capacity, and connected with one another by a sort of arcade. Their banks display those steep green slopes which. meet the eye so frequently in the grounds, and seem always to possess some new beauty. Below these again, winding about in serpentine, irregular fashion, extends the great lake, the further shore of which, thickly fledged with firs and evergreens, forms the boundary of the Palace gardens. Two large islands on its bosom are the scene of the geological restorations. Here is exhibited the successive features of the animal and vege

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in their climate.

A line of railway communication from the west end of London has been completed; but, whether by rail or road, car or carriage, steam or horsepower, there the people are unquestionably found in muster commensurate with the grandeur and mag nificence of this undertaking for their recreation, amusement and instruction.

In future numbers we shall illustrate a few of the fine groups of statuary and other objects of interest within the Palace.

threshed and stored for the winter. The process
adopted is simple, and nearly such as it was in pa-
triarchal times. The children either drive horses
round and round over the heaps, or, standing upon
a sledge stuck full of large flints on the under part,
are drawn by oxen over the scattered sheaves. Such
were "the threshing-sledges armed with teeth,"
mentioned by Isaiah. In no instance are the ani-
mals muzzled-" Thou shalt not muzzle the ox
when he treadeth out the corn;" but they linger to
pick up a scanty mouthful as they are urged on by
the boys and young girls, to whom the duties of the
threshing-floor are chiefly assigned. The grain is
winnowed by the men and women, who throw the
corn and straw together into the air with a wooden
shovel, leaving the wind to carry the chaff, whilst
the seed falls to the ground. The wheat is then
raked into heaps, and left on the threshing-floor
until the tithe-gatherer has taken his portion."

How FRENCH LITERATURE THRIVES UNDER THE

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were told, a private entrance, descending a few steps into the darkness, where they were told to remain quietly until their conductors got round another way and opened the inner door of the room. The door shuts, the key turns, and the prisoners stand on a cold stone floor in tremulous anxiety. Five minutes pass, yea ten, and no appearance of the ladies. After some mystification, the gents discover, to their amazement, that they are in a bath-room! Immediately a sort of noise, something like the rustling of a bell-pull, is heard above, and they instantly rush frantically to the locked doors, when, oh! horror of horrors! a deluge of cold water descends! One united scream, loud and long, rises above the roar of the torrent, "Mercy, mercy!" is shouted, but the water rushes down until the “lady-killers" are up to the knees. As it stops, a sweet voice is heard, inquiring whether they are sufficiently schooled; the outer door then opens, and the miserable-looking wights rush out amid shouts of laughter and derision.

most effectual.

I

Outside all, and encompassing the park on its eastern and south-western sides, runs the embankment of the Crystal Palace Railway, which leaves the Croydon line at Sydenham, and terminates in a commodious station connected with the southern wing of the building. Visitors are thus received under cover; and whatever the weather may be without, they have accessible at least eighteen acres where they may promenade or take their ease in a serene and delicious atmosphere, surrounded by every- EMPIRE." Victor Hugo lives a broken exile in the The cure, it is scarcely necessary to add, has been thing that is beautiful in art and nature. It is not isle of Guernsey. Lamartine is almost forgotten. likely that the inhabitants of London and its envi- You sometimes meet in Paris a half-negro whose THE DUPLICITY OF NICHOLAS.- When I aprons will be slow to avail themselves of an advan-hair has lost its color and become white, and who proach the Emperor, and see his dignity and beauty, tage such as this; and the Palace will undoubtA man like him is rarely seen edly become the established resort of ennuyés Lon- stoops alarmingly in the shoulders-it is Alexander admire the marvel. Dumas. This popular author resides with his anywhere-but on the throne he is a phoenix. I doners on the rainy and inclement days so frequent daughter, at the Maison D'Or, on the Boulevard, but rejoice in living at a time when such a prodigy exhas lately taken a small "hotel" in the Rue d'Amster- ists—for I take as much pleasure in showing respect dam. I passed one evening on the Boulevard a as others do in offering insult. Nevertheless, I exgouty old man, bent almost double, who seemed amine with scrupulous care the objects of my respect: hardly able to drag himself along; he was returning from whence it results that when I closely examine from the Divan, a sort of estaminet, celebrated as a this personage, distinguished from all others upon place of the celebrated critic, Gustave Planche, but earth, I fancy that his head has two faces, like that he looks now like a critic of the past. Alfred de of Janus, and that the words violence, exile, oppresVigny, the reunion for men of letters, and was sion, or their full equivalent—Siberia-are engraved pointed out to me as the author of 'St. Mors," on the face which is not presented towards me. This is a tolerably constant attendant at the Academie idea haunts me unceasingly, even when I speak to Française, and still holds up his head comme un him. It is in vain that I strive only to think of Saint Sacrament, to use a French phrase; his locks what I say to him; my imagination, in spite of hang long, like those of the Franks described by myself, travels from Warsaw to Tobolsk, and that Thierry; but, alas! they are no longer black. single word-Warsaw--revives all my distrust. If Emille Deschamps has retired to Versailles, where I put myself in the place of the only man who has he cultivates his garden more than the muses. Sainte- here the right to live free, I tremble for him. To Beuve has thrown himself into the Moniteur have to play the part of Providence over sixty milUniversel," where he has turned a prophet of evil, lions of souls is a dreadful office. The Divinity has and appears in wearisome articles, which are read only the choice of two things: either to destroy his only in the Provinces. The bibliophile Jacob (Paul own power, by showing himself a man, or to lead Lacroix) must also be classed among the forgotten his votaries to the conquest of the world, in mainones, as well as his brother, who once enjoyed taining his character as a god. It is thus that in a reputation as a writer of romances and dramatic Russia the whole of life becomes nothing more than pieces, and who has married the sister-in-law of a school of ambition. What are the duties of the Balzac. Some of the writers of a higher class of Russian noblesse? To adore the Emperor, and to literature remain, such as Guizot, Villemain, Augustin render themselves accomplished in the abuse of Thierry, and Victor Cousin, but of these Guizot alone sovereign power, that they themselves may continue is active." to oppress the people. Is such the position that Providence has ordained them to occupy in the economy of this vast empire? They fill its posts of honor. What have they done to merit them? In the history of Russia, no one except the Emperor has performed his part. The nobles, the clergy, and all the other classes of society, have each failed in their own. An oppressed people have always deserved the ills under which they suffer. Tyranny is the work of the nation. Either the civilized world will, before another fifty years, pass anew under the yoke of barbarians, or Russia will undergo a revolution more terrible than the effects of which we are still feeling in Western Europe.-De Custine.

MISCELLANY.

THRESHING-FLOOR IN THE EAST.-Mr. Layard, in his "Nineveh and Babylon," says:-"We left the plain of Hinnis, by a pass through the mountain range of Zernak. In the valleys we found clusters of black tents belonging to the nomad Kurds, and the hill-sides were covered with their flocks. The summit of a high peak, overhanging the road, is occupid by the ruins of a castle, formerly held by the Kurdish chie's, who levied black-mail on travellers, and carried their depredations into the plains. On reaching the top of the pass, we had an uninterrupted view of the Sabhan Dhan. From the village of Karagol, where we halted for the night, it rose abruptly before us. This magnificent peak, with the rugged mountains of Kurdistan, the River Euphrates winding through the plain, the peasants driving the oxen over the corn on the threshing-floor, and the groups of Kurdish horsemen with their long spears and flowing garments, formed one of those scenes of eastern travel which leave an indellible impression on the imagination, and bring back in after years indescribable feelings of pleasure and repose. The threshing-floor, which added so much to the beauty and interest of the picture at Karagol, had been seen in all the villages we had passed during our day's journey. The abundant harvest had been gathered in, and the corn was now to be

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LOVE CURED BY HYDROPATHY.-The "Elgin
(Scotland) Courant" gives an amusing narrative of
the manner in which two young ladies, resident near
Elgin, rid themselves of the impertinent attentions
of a pair of young brainless wooers. These latter,
in spite of all repulses, persisted in annoying the
young ladies, and at last conceived the idea of show-
ing their devotion by serenading them in the eve-
ning. One night, to their great surprise, a window
was thrown up, at which the two objects of worship
appeared, and informed the professedly love-sick
swains that they would at once be secretly admitted
to the dwelling. Admitted they were, by, as they

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