DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1311#0124
96 THE GREAT EXHIBITION
interest to the scene, and to set you speculating on the distant homes and associations of
these people, and the community of pursuits and civilizing aims which had thus collected
a multitude of men from the extremest points of the world under one roof, and for one
express object. Little domestic under-plots, and quaint bits of pathos and fun, occasionally
enlivened the bustle, or threw a scrap of pantomimic comedy into the silent corners
of the Bazaar.
We remember an instance of this kind. It was just before the Exhibition opened,
whilst most of the foreign departments were in a state of indescribable confusion.
The Russian division was in the incipient stage of development; curious drums and trum-
pets, glittering ware and articles of northern vertu, had been delivered out of their boxes,
and lay heaped about till the rest of the consignment should have arrived. There was
a lull in the work; the men entrusted with the business were out, probably unpacking
in the park • and the Russian chamber, in that condition of rich disorder, was left to
the charge of a young girl. She was dressed town-fashion, and had none of the marks
of the peasant about her, except a bright glow on her cheeks. She was handsome
—that is to say, round-faced, with lively eyes, capable of a profound sentimental ex-
pression, (which seems, indeed, more or less common to all lively eyes,) and of a " comely
shape." You would have almost guessed her country from the cast of her features;
yet, notwithstanding the Russian snow she came of, she gave you to understand at the
first glance, that there was blood in her veins as warm as ever danced in Italy. If
one could make anything substantial out of such a fancy, we might have imagined that
she was a neighbour of that river, " whose icy current flows through banks of roses."
There she stood, keeping watch over the goods, and pretending to read a book. It was
a mere pretence. From behind a temporary curtain, suspended at the back, there
peeped every now and then an English youth of one or two-and-twentyj with a dash of
the juvenile rout in him, extremely well-looking, and fairly set out for conquest. He
appeared to be connected with some of the adjoining states, but it was evident that while
his business called him to one place, his love of adventure had fascinated him to
another. The coquetry that went on between them, would have had a telling effect
upon the stage. Young as they were, they understood how to flirt books and curtains
as skilfully as any senhorita of Seville or Madrid ever flirted a fan. Her look aside, to
show her consciousness, as it were unconsciously, was perfect; and the way the young
gentleman affected to be looking very seriously at something else, while he was all
the time directing an intense focal light upon her ringlets (which she felt as palpably
as if it had lifted them up), was a picture which, with the lady in the foreground,
might be recommended to the consideration of Mr. Frank Stone, who always hits off
these exquisite inchoate sensations with the most charming truthfulness. They did not
understand one word of each other's language, yet had already contrived, by the aid
of a third language, with which they were both familiar, to get up a tolerably intimate
acquaintance. We are sorry we cannot tell our readers how it ended; we hope happily
for both parties, and that the lady did not leave her own inclement climate to find a more
wintry region here ! When the Romances of the Exhibition—with the Crystal Fountain
for a frontispiece, as the trysting-place for lovers who wished to lose other people and
find themselves—come to be published, perhaps we shall have the sequel of this little
incident.
NOTABILIA.
Lord Brougham and the Great Exhibition,—This learned lord, who was opposed to the
erection of the Crystal Palace, became at length persuaded of its usefulness. In pre>-
senting Mr. Paxton's petition to the Lords, he said:—" He had the honour of presiding
interest to the scene, and to set you speculating on the distant homes and associations of
these people, and the community of pursuits and civilizing aims which had thus collected
a multitude of men from the extremest points of the world under one roof, and for one
express object. Little domestic under-plots, and quaint bits of pathos and fun, occasionally
enlivened the bustle, or threw a scrap of pantomimic comedy into the silent corners
of the Bazaar.
We remember an instance of this kind. It was just before the Exhibition opened,
whilst most of the foreign departments were in a state of indescribable confusion.
The Russian division was in the incipient stage of development; curious drums and trum-
pets, glittering ware and articles of northern vertu, had been delivered out of their boxes,
and lay heaped about till the rest of the consignment should have arrived. There was
a lull in the work; the men entrusted with the business were out, probably unpacking
in the park • and the Russian chamber, in that condition of rich disorder, was left to
the charge of a young girl. She was dressed town-fashion, and had none of the marks
of the peasant about her, except a bright glow on her cheeks. She was handsome
—that is to say, round-faced, with lively eyes, capable of a profound sentimental ex-
pression, (which seems, indeed, more or less common to all lively eyes,) and of a " comely
shape." You would have almost guessed her country from the cast of her features;
yet, notwithstanding the Russian snow she came of, she gave you to understand at the
first glance, that there was blood in her veins as warm as ever danced in Italy. If
one could make anything substantial out of such a fancy, we might have imagined that
she was a neighbour of that river, " whose icy current flows through banks of roses."
There she stood, keeping watch over the goods, and pretending to read a book. It was
a mere pretence. From behind a temporary curtain, suspended at the back, there
peeped every now and then an English youth of one or two-and-twentyj with a dash of
the juvenile rout in him, extremely well-looking, and fairly set out for conquest. He
appeared to be connected with some of the adjoining states, but it was evident that while
his business called him to one place, his love of adventure had fascinated him to
another. The coquetry that went on between them, would have had a telling effect
upon the stage. Young as they were, they understood how to flirt books and curtains
as skilfully as any senhorita of Seville or Madrid ever flirted a fan. Her look aside, to
show her consciousness, as it were unconsciously, was perfect; and the way the young
gentleman affected to be looking very seriously at something else, while he was all
the time directing an intense focal light upon her ringlets (which she felt as palpably
as if it had lifted them up), was a picture which, with the lady in the foreground,
might be recommended to the consideration of Mr. Frank Stone, who always hits off
these exquisite inchoate sensations with the most charming truthfulness. They did not
understand one word of each other's language, yet had already contrived, by the aid
of a third language, with which they were both familiar, to get up a tolerably intimate
acquaintance. We are sorry we cannot tell our readers how it ended; we hope happily
for both parties, and that the lady did not leave her own inclement climate to find a more
wintry region here ! When the Romances of the Exhibition—with the Crystal Fountain
for a frontispiece, as the trysting-place for lovers who wished to lose other people and
find themselves—come to be published, perhaps we shall have the sequel of this little
incident.
NOTABILIA.
Lord Brougham and the Great Exhibition,—This learned lord, who was opposed to the
erection of the Crystal Palace, became at length persuaded of its usefulness. In pre>-
senting Mr. Paxton's petition to the Lords, he said:—" He had the honour of presiding