her dependencies were arranged in the western rewards would be assigned. Her Majesty's reply portion of the building, and those of foreign to the address was followed by a prayer, offered countries in the eastern. The Exhibition was up by the Archbishop of Canterbury; and that divided into four great classes, viz. -1. Raw finished, the majestic "Hallelujah Chorus" burst Materials; 2. Machinery; 3. Manufactures; 4. forth, its strains reverberating through the arched Sculpture and the Fine Arts. With regard to the transept and "long-drawn aisles" of the building.

of the products of industry, was exceedingly with its 4,700 pipes, commenced playing the impressive; and the ovation of industry far outshone all the splendours of old Rome, with no fettered captives in the rear, or wailing widows and orphans at home to dim its lustre. The Duke of Wellington and the Marquis of Anglesey (who joined the procession as Commander-in-Chief and

National Anthem, which was heard to the remotest end of the building. The procession returned by the south side to the transept, round the southern part of which it passed, amidst the cheers of the people, the peals of two organs, and the voices of 700 choristers, to the eastern or

were defrayed, a balance of £213,300 was left over, to be applied to the promotion of industrial

foreign division of the nave, where the French
organ took up the strain, and the delicate lady,
whose tempered sway is owned by a hundred | art.
millions of men, pursued her course amongst the
contributions of all the civilised world. As she
passed the gigantic equestrian figure of Godfrey de
Bouillon, by the Belgian sculptor, Simonis, which
seems the very impersonation of physical strength,
we could not but be struck by the contrast, and by
the reflection how far the prowess of the crusader
is transcended by the power of well-defined liberty
and constitutional law. The brilliant train having
at length made the complete circuit of the building,
Her Majesty again ascended the throne, and pro-
nounced the Exhibition opened. The announce
ment was repeated by the Marquis of Breadalbane
as Lord Steward, followed immediately by a burst
of acclamations, the bray of trumpets, and a royal
salute across the Serpentine. The royal party
then withdrew; the National Anthem was again
repeated; and the visitors dispersed themselves
through the building, to gratify their curiosity
without restraint."

It would be impossible, and indeed superfluous, within the space at our command, to attempt to give anything even like a résumé of the multifarious articles here brought together; suffice it to say, that the Exhibition comprised most of the best productions in the different branches of art, manufactures, &c., from all parts of the civilised globe, and that it became properly enough called the "World's Fair," for it attracted visitors from all parts of the world. We have already mentioned the glass fountain in the transept; that object, from its central position, was invariably fixed upon as the rendezvous, or meeting-place, by family groups or parties of visitors, in case of their losing sight of one another in the labyrinth of tables and articles which thronged the building. Another object, which we cannot well pass over, was the famous Koh-i-noor, or "Mountain of Light," which had been specially lent by Her Majesty. This royal gem—the value of which has been variously stated at from £1,500,000 to £3,000,000-appeared to be one of the greatest curiosities of the Exhibition, judging from the numbers congregated around it during the day. The Exhibition was open for 144 days, being closed on the 11th of October. The entire number of visitors was above 6,170,000, averaging 43,536 per day. The largest number of visitors in one day was 109,760, on the 8th of October; and at two o'clock on the previous day 93,000 persons were present at one time. The entire money drawn for tickets of admission amounted to £506,100; and after all expenses

At the time when the Exhibition was over, so firm a hold had the fairy-like palace obtained upon the good opinion of the public, that a general desire for its preservation sprang up. Application was made to Government that it should be purchased and become the property of the nation; but it was ruled otherwise. The building was, however, not doomed to disappear altogether, for a few enterprising gentlemen having stepped forward, it was rescued from destruction. It was decided that the building should be removed to some convenient place within an easy distance of London, and accordingly it was transferred to Sydenham, where a fine estate of three hundred acres had been purchased, on which the edifice was raised again in increased grandeur and beauty, and where, under the name of the Crystal Palace, it soon became one of the most popular places of recreation in or near the metropolis.

The whole building was removed from Hyde Park before the close of 1852; and in the following year it was proposed to place upon the site a memorial of the Exhibition, to include a statue of Prince Albert-the originator of this display of the industry of all nations. The spot ultimately chosen for the memorial, however, is somewhat to the west of the ground covered by the Exhibition building; in fact, it is almost close to the southeastern enclosure of Kensington Gardens, directly opposite the centre of the Horticultural Gardens, and looking upon the South Kensington establishments, in the promotion of which the Prince Consort always took so deep an interest. The memorial, which took upwards of twenty years before it was completed, and cost upwards of £130,000, was erected from the designs of Sir Gilbert Scott. It consists of a lofty and widespreading pyramid of three quadrangular ranges of steps, forming, as it were, the base of the monument, which may be described as a colossal statue of the Prince, placed beneath a vast and gorgeous Gothic canopy, about thirty feet square, supported at the angles by groups of columns of polished granite, and "surrounded by works of sculpture, illustrating those arts and sciences which he fostered, and the great undertakings which he originated." The memorial partakes somewhat, in the richness of its colours, decorations, and mosaics, of the Renaissance Gothic style; and its whole height from the roadway is 176 feet. first flight of granite steps, forming the basement, is 212 feet wide, with massive abutments of solid

The

Pimlico.]

DERIVATION OF "PIMLICO."

39

granite. At the four corners of the second flight of state, and attired in his regal-looking robes of steps are gigantic square masses of carved as a Knight of the Garter. This great work was granite, occupied with colossal groups of marble entrusted to Mr. Foley. The roof of the canopy statuary, emblematical of Europe, Asia, Africa, and is decorated with mosaics, representing the royal America, and executed respectively by Messrs. arms and those of the Prince on a ground of blue Macdowell, Foley, Theed, and Bell. Above the and gold. At the angles of the four arches above topmost flight of steps rises the memorial itself, the canopy are marble figures, life-size. The the podium or pedestal of which is carved with spandrils of the arches above the trefoil are filled nearly 200 figures, life-size, and all more or less in with rich and elaborate glass mosaics on a gilt in high relief. They are all portrait-statues of ground, portraying Poetry, Painting, Sculpture, celebrities in the different walks of art, literature, and Architecture. One of the main features of science, &c. At the four corners of this, again, the whole design is the beautiful spire, in which as on the base below, are allegorical groups of every portion of the metal surface is covered with statuary-one of Commerce, by Thornycroft; one ornament; the surface in many parts is coated of Manufactures, by Weekes; one of Agricul- with colours in enamel, with coloured marbles and ture, by Marshall; and one of Engineering, by imitation gem-work; and up to the very cross itself, Lawlor. The statue of the Prince-which was which surmounts the whole, there is the same not completed till early in the year 1876-is amount of extraordinary detail and finish, as if richly gilt, and rests upon a pedestal fifteen feet each part were meant for the most minute and high; it represents the Prince sitting on a chair close inspection.

CHAPTER IV.
PIMLICO.

"I'll have thee, Captain Gilthead, and march up
And take in Pimlico."-Old Play.

Etymology of Pimlico-The Locality Half a Century Ago-Warwick Square-Vauxhall Bridge Road-The Army Clothing Depôt-St. George's Square-The Church of St. James the Less-Victoria Railway Station-New Chelsea Bridge-The Western Pumping Station, and Metropolitan Main-Drainage Works-St. Barnabas Church-St. Barnabas Mission House and Orphanage-Bramah, the Engineer and Locksmith-Thomas Cubitt, the Builder-The "Monster" Tavern-The "Gun," the "Star and Garter," and the "Orange" Tea-Gardens"Jenny's Whim"-Tart Hall-Stafford Row-St. Peter's Chapel and Dr. Dodd-Richard Heber and his famous Library. THE name Pimlico is clearly of foreign deriva- | knight is represented as sending his daughter to tion, and it has not a little puzzled topographers. Pimlico "to fetch a draught of Derby ale." It is Gifford, in a note in his edition of Ben Jonson, antecedently probable, therefore, that the district tells us that "Pimlico is sometimes spoken of as a lying between Chelsea and St. James's Park should person, and may not improbably have been the have got the name from an accidental resemblance master of a house once famous for ale of a par- to its antipodes at Hoxton. And this supposition is ticular description;" and we know, from Dodsley's confirmed by Isaac Reed, who tells us, in Dodsley's "Old Plays," and from Ben Jonson's writings, that "Old Plays," how that "a place near Chelsey is still there was another Pimlico at Hoxton, or (as the called Pimlico, and was resorted to within these place was then termed) Hogsdon, where, indeed, few years on the same account as the former at to the present day there is a "Pimlico Walk." It Hogsdon." It may be added that Pimlico is still is evident, from a reference to The Alchemist of celebrated for its ales, and also that the district is Ben Jonson, that the place so named at "Hogsdon" not mentioned by the name of Pimlico in any was a place of resort of no very good repute, existing document prior to the year 1626. and constantly frequented by all sorts of people, from knights, ladies, and gentlewomen, down to oyster-wenches :—

"Gallants, men. and women,

And of all sorts, tag-rag, been seen to flock here,
In these ten weeks, as to a second Hogsdon,
In days of Pimlico."

"At this time"-i.e. the reign of Charles I., writes Mr. Peter Cunningham-" Pimlico was quite uninhabited, nor is it introduced into the ratebooks of St. Martin's (to which it belonged) until the year 1680, when the Earl of Arlingtonpreviously rated as residing in the Mulberry Gardens is rated, though still living in the same

In another play of about the same period a worthy house, under the head of Pimlico. In 1687,

seven years later, four people are described as living in what was then called Pimlico-the Duke of Grafton, Lady Stafford, Thomas Wilkins, and Dr. Crispin. The Duke of Grafton, having married the only child of the Earl of Arlington, was residing in Arlington House; and Lady Stafford in what was then and long before known as Tart Hall." Arlington House, as we have seen,* was ultimately developed into Buckingham Palace.

Vauxhall Bridge, and so on to Kennington and
the southern suburbs of London. Of Vauxhall
Bridge, and of Trinity Church, in Bessborough
Gardens, close by, we have already spoken.‡

Not far from St. George's Square stands an extensive range of buildings, known as the Army Clothing Depôt-one of the largest institutions that have ever been established for the organisation and utilisation of women's work. "Previous to the year 1857," observes a writer in the Queen newspaper, "all the clothes for the British army were made by contractors, whose first thought seemed to be how to amass a fortune at the

The district of Pimlico may be regarded as embracing the whole of Belgravia, which we have already dealt with in a previous chapter, as well as the locality extending from Buckingham Palace Road to the Thames, and stretching away west-expense of the makers and the wearers of the ward to Chelsea. This latter portion includes the Grosvenor Road and the Eccleston sub-district of squares, terraces, and streets, nearly all of which have sprung up within the last half-century.

clothes primarily, and of the British public indirectly. But in that year the Army Clothing Depôt was established, somewhat experimentally, in Blomberg Terrace, Vauxhall Road; the experiIn the map appended to Coghlan's "Picture of ment answering so well, that an extension of the London," published in the year 1834, the whole of premises became imperative. In 1859 the present this division of Pimlico, between Vauxhall Bridge depôt was opened, although since then it has Road and Chelsea (now Buckingham Palace) largely increased, and has not yet, apparently, come Road, appears unbuilt upon, with the exception to the full stage of its development. The whole of of a few stray cottages here and there, and a few the premises occupy about seven acres, the long blocks of houses near the river; the rest of the block of buildings on the one side being used as space is marked out as gardens and waste land, the Government stores, while the corresponding intersected by the Grosvenor Canal, the head of block consists of the factory. The main feature which, forming an immense basin, is now entirely of the latter is a large glass-roofed central hall of covered by the Victoria Railway Station. Its three storeys, with spacious galleries all round on rustic character at the above date may be inferred each storey. The ventilation is ensured by louvres, from the fact that a considerable portion of the so that the whole atmosphere can be renewed in space between the two roads above mentioned the space of five minutes or so; the temperature is is described as "osier beds," whilst a straight kept at an average of 60° to 63o, and each operative thoroughfare connecting the two roads is called enjoys 1,200 cubic feet of air, so that we have at Willow Walk. These osier beds are now covered the outset the three requirements of light, air, and by Eccleston Square and a number of small streets warmth, in strongly-marked contrast to the crowded adjacent to it; whilst "Willow Walk" has been rooms of the contractor, or the more wretched transformed into shops and places of business, and chamber of the home-worker. Five hundred and is now known as Warwick Street. On the north twenty-seven women are at present working in the side of Warwick Street, covering part of the "old central hall, and five hundred in the side rooms, Neat House" Gardens, to which we have already which also accommodate about two hundred men. referred, t is Warwick Square, which is bounded on This forms the working staff of the factory, which the north-east by Belgrave Road, and on the comprises, therefore, what may be called the pick south-west by St. George's Road. In Warwick of the sewing-machine population in London. Square stands St. Gabriel's Church, a large build- may well be imagined that the prospect of so ing of Early English architecture, erected from the comfortable an abiding place would attract great designs of Mr. Thomas Cundy, who was also the numbers of workpeople; and, indeed, this has architect of St. Saviour's Church, in St. George's been so much the case that very rigorous rules Square, close by. Vauxhall Bridge Road, which have been obliged to be made to guard against dates from the erection of the bridge, about the unworthy admissions. The good of the public year 1816, is a broad and well-built thoroughfare, service' is the motto of the factory, and everything opening up a direct communication, by way of else must yield to that; so that, both for in-door Grosvenor Place, between Hyde Park Corner and and out-door hands, all candidates must first of

* See Vol. IV., P. 62.

↑ See Vol. IV., p. 3.

See Vol. IV., p. 9.

It