REPORT OF MR. NELSON L. DERBY.
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a glass roof, supported by an iron frame and provided with a monitor-top for ventilation. The newer hotels of Vienna and Paris, as for instance the Grand Hotel of the latter city, have such covered courts. Where two buildings have their courts adjacent, it is customary to carry the wall between them up to a height of only fifteen or twenty feet. The perspective view gained from the vestibule into the court is often made very pleasing by the presence of a statue or fountain in the latter. Frequently, too, the wall just referred to, is painted decoratively with architectural features which are sometimes so contrived as to give an appearance of increased depth. I remember once looking through the doorway of a modern Italian palace in the heart of the city of Brescia, and seeing to my astonishment beyond the court, an extensive range of meadow, beyond which lay a lake and villa with park. In the foreground was a fountain, and a row of arcades on each side terminating in a garden pavilion. On entering the vestibule I discovered that here was a remarkable combination of the real and unreal. The court was sown with grass, and several trees grew at irregular intervals at the sides. Upon a wall rising at the rear, the grass and trees were painted in diminishing perspective, while the arcades were only for a short extent real; their continuation and the garden pavilions being also painted as the remainder of the picture, with the exception of the fountain in the foreground. The main entrances of houses in Vienna, are, with few exceptions, eight to ten feet wide, and provided with a driveway, on each side of which is a narrow footway raised several inches above the former. The height of the buildings is fixed at four stories, m addition to which a half-story or mezzanine is allowed, separating the ground floor from the first story. Mansard roofs are almost unknown, from the fact that dwellings not being permitted in the attics, they could serve no purpose but that of ornamentation.
Thus far little has been said in this article in regard to the International Exhibition, since most of the buildings there fl re of a temporary nature, and, beyond their picturesque appearance, present little of interest. The central rotunda, however, is a remarkable structure, and, with the emperor’s pavilion and a few other buildings, will be spared on the
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