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| THE ALBERT MEMORIAL - In London, on the south
side of the Kensington Gardens, at the west end of the city, stands
the colossal monument erected by Her Majesty, Queen Victoria, and a
grateful people, in memory of Prince Albert, her husband. In order
to properly understand the engraving on this page, the reader is to
know that an iron fence surrounds the monument, and two stages of
marble steps ascend pyramidally to the gothic canopy. The canopy
rises on four columns with many finials to a total height of perhaps
one hundred feet and the final spire ends in a cross one hundrd and
seventy-five feet above the ground. At each pillar of the canopy is
a large group of statuary, and on the ground below, at each corner of
the iron enclosure, stands a block of stone surmounted by a group
typifying one of the four quarters of the earth - "Europe," "Asia,"
"Africa" and "America." In front of Victoria House, the British
Building, at Chicago, was the reproduction of "America" portrayed in
the engraving. It was fittingly conceived as at once a generous gift
to Chicago and a memorial of Prince Albert, who, among modern rulers
and consorts, occupies a station that philosophers might envy. The
sculptor represent Liberty or Civilization, her breast emblazoned
with the stars of our States, extending her empire over the Indian
and the wild buffalo. This group was cast by the Doultons, and
offered to visitors at the Fair an opportunity to study at least one
of four continental ideas in sculpture that have captivated the
imagination of the world. |
