The interior of the Hall is nearly completed; "the
length, 200 feet, is too great for the width;"[2] the carved ceiling,
and the arms of the Knights of the Garter, from the first institution
of the order, are exquisitely emblazoned on shields or escutcheons.
Beautifully as they are executed, we scarcely like their whole effect,
which is undoubtedly marred by the proportions of the hall itself.
Perhaps they are too near a blaze of chivalric splendour for these
days of cold calculation. The ball-room, adjoining in St. George's
Hall, is nearly completed. The decorations are gold and white, in the
florid style of the time of Louis the Fourteenth, superb and showy;
four pieces of tapestry are let into the walls, which, observes the
_Athenaeum_, really look like some of Rubens's stupendous works now in
the Grosvenor collection. We have not seen these apartments since last
summer, when the decorations were in a forward state. We were
surprised at the coarseness of the gilding, when examined closely; we
saw, too, that where one of the entrances to the Ball-room had been
heightened, the original, door had been _pieced_, which was a work of
economy we did not look for in the repairs of a palace.
[1] See _Mirror_, vol. xi. p. 2.
[2] _Athenaeum_, No. 180--an opinion to which we beg to
subscribe.
It is gratifying to learn that the erection of a colossal statue of
George III.
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