THE FIGHTING FIFTIES 113

smoke, Waterloo crackers and practical jokes, would turn it into
another Greenwich Fair with lousy and potentially murderous
foreigners; and, most ominous of all, with savage heathens
from the northern industrial towns. The beds would be
trampled on, the flowers picked and finally the great human
tide, leaving its scum behind in the devastated park, would
surge out by night to pillage Belgravia and Kensington.

The American press, even more alarmist than the English,
prophesied general massacre and insurrection. Every gloomy
prognostication was canvassed: one gentleman, possibly with his
tongue in his cheek, went so far as to write to The Times point-
ing out that, though glass possessed certain advantages over
other materials, it suffered the disability of being liable *to
fracture from the reverberations of sound. It appears that upon
the arrival of the Queen at the Crystal Palace a Royal Salute is
to be fired, and, if as is probable the muzzles of "the guns be
presented towards the glass wall of the building ... the result
will be that the officiating gunner will carry off the honours
of the day by creating a crash such as will render the loudest
tones of die organ utterly insignificant."1

But the Prince was not to be turned from his purpose.
Gradually, under the hands of two thousand workmen, the
great building, over six hundred yards long, containing nearly
a million square feet of glass and affording over eight miles of
table space for the exhibitors, rose like a dazzling Aladdin's
palace of crystal over the grass, the birds2 and the trees. The
old wooden railings were removed, and Anne Hicks and her
white cottage, apples and gingerbread were ruthlessly ejected
'to make way. All over London shopkeepers, anticipating the
great influx of foreigners, began to hang notices announcing
their ability to speak French, German, Italian and Spanish and
every other strange tongue.

On May Day, 1851, the Great Exhibition was formally opened
by the Queen. The capital was prudently filled with troops: the
Rifle Brigade was moved from Dover to Woolwich, the ist Royal
Dragoons from Nottingham and the 8th Hussars from Brighton
to billets in Hampstead and Highgate, and the 4th Light.Dragoons

i&mcs,wtk April, 1851. .

*Some of the fatter, dinging to their ancient haunts in the branches, were acci-
dentally enclosed. Their droppings marking the valuable exhibits, and the use of
shotguns being out of the question, the Queen sent for the Duke of Wellington.
The aged hero's advice was brief and to the point "Try sparrow hawks, ma'm.*