MR. PAXTON, THE ARCHITECT OF THE GREAT EXHIBITION BUILDING. (From the "Illustrated London News," May 3.)

New Zealander, Volume 7, Issue 565, 13 September 1851, Page 3

MR. PAXTON, THE ARCHITECT OF THE GREAT EXHIBITION BUILDING. (From the " Illustrated London News," May 3.)

Mr. Paxton, who, as all his friends know, and as all the admirers of his chaiacter and genius will begbd to learn, is in the very prime and vigour of his age, and bids fair to enrich not only science but literature, with many contributions worthy of his now great name, has acquired a reputation as wide as the civilized world, by the conception of the great idea of the " Crystal Palace," a building to which history offers no parallel, either in the past or the present. Whether we consider the noble and humanizing purposes to which that building is consecrated, the appropriateness, the elegance, the vastness, and the beauty of the design, or its simple, but most admirable novelty, we must acknowledge Mr. Paxton's high claims to the grateful appreciation of his contemporaries, and to that enduring place in the national annals which ia the best reward of all true greatness in any and every department of public usefulness. Mr. Paxton, like most other men of note, is '* selfmade." He owes his high position to hia own intellect and industry; and can say of his own right hand, and of his own courage and peiseveiance, and of the assiduous cultivation of his mind and heart, that they alone raised him from the humblest rank of the honest work-ing-man of hia country, to the enviable position in which be now stands. Mr, Paxton, whose original profession, as is well known, was, as it still is, that of a landscape gardener, was first employed in a responsible capacity by his Grace the Duke of Someiset, at Wimbledon. From that situation he passed, about twelve or thirteen years ago, as we are informed, into the service of the Duke ol Devonshire, at Chatsworth ; but that nobleman was not slow to perceive that Mr, Paxton possessed administrative faculties, and a knowledge of and skill in financial arrangement of a high order, in which capacities, we believe, he has been of essential service in the management of the Duke's estates, both in England and Ireland. There are indeed few instances of scientific application which present so many points of inteiest as the chcumstances by which this gentleman has earned his present fame as the architect of the Great Exhibition \ Building. With the name of Mr. Paxton have long been associated the glories of Chatswoith, and the sole contrivance of the vast conservatoiy, which the King of Saxony graphically compared to " a tropical scene with a glass sky." The house built from Mr. Paxton's design for the flowering of the Victoria regki, was bowever, the immediate parent of the Great Exhibition Building. A design for the latter structure had already been piepaied, but had failed to impress the public with its fitness for the purpose j and Mr. Paxton, appiehensive that an irreparable blunder would.be committed in the intended Building, proposed to the Executive Committee another design. Certain difficulties lay in the way, but Mr. Paxton was not to be deterred •, his mind was made up ; •' and," said the Duke of Devonshire at a public meeting held at Bakewell, " I never knew Mr. Paxton resolve to undertake what he did not fully accomplish." On the morning of the 18th of June, whilst presiding at a railway committee, he sketched upon a sheet of blotting paper Ins idea for the great Industrial Building. lie sat up all that night, until he had worked out the design to his satisfaction ; and the elevations, sections, working details, and specifications were completed in ten days. Next morning, Mr. Paxton started from Derby by railway fur the metropolis; and in the same train and carnage was Mr. Robert Stephenson, the engineer— a member, moreover, of the Royal Commission, and who, at Mr. Paxton's request examined the plans. "Womleihil! (exclaimed (he engineei)— woi thy of the magnificence ot ChatbuoUli '—a thousand tunes better than anything I Dial h,is been biought bcfoie Ub 1 What a pity they -nine not | piepaied eaihei '" " Will jou lay them down ucfoie the Royal Commission ? " "1 will," was the leply. Next day the Royal Commisbion met ; but Mr. Stephenson had not an oppoituniry of submitting Mi« Paxton's plans to his colleagues and Prince Albert S the office way, however, delegated to an able hand, Mj.

Scott Russell, one of the secretaii^s, of the Commission. Mr. Paxton next watted upon Prince Albert at Buckingham Palace, to explain (ho details. The scheme was referred to the Building Committee, who could not entertain it, as they had devised a plan. However, Mr. Paxton appealed to the public judgment in the Illustrations and pages of this Journal, and the practicability, simplicity, and beauty of the scheme instantly became popular. Thus encoui aged, Mr. Paxton next piocurcd a tender to be sent m to the Building Committee for his design. This was prepared by Messrs. Pox and Hendeison; and at length Mr. Paxton's plan was tendeied by them as an <% improvement" on the Committee's design, and their offer proved to be the lowest. It will be recollected what followed : the Crystal Palace was eventually chosen unanimously, not only by the Building Committee but by the Royal Commission ; and the many thousands who assembled within the faiily-hko structure at its inauguration, on Thursday last, must have been impressed with the soundness of this decision. Such is the brief r6hwmt of the circumstances which led to this foitunato adoption of Mr. Paxton's design: a more fitting temple for the world's industrial treasures could not be devised ; and it was but a just recognition of it 3 author's great share in contributing to the success of the Exhibition, that he led the inauguration pageant on Thursday. Mr. Paxton is a distinguished Fellow of the Linnasan. and Ilorticulunal Societies, and has produced a Botanical Dictionary of accredited worth, besides editing the ''Flower Gaiden" and other botanical and horticultural works. Tbe gardens at Chatsworth form an excellent finishing school for young men; and many foreigners having icceived here instructions in horticulture, lias invested Mr. Paxton's taste and skill with European celebrity.