white and gold, and has a burnished steel grate; while the third is painted blue and gold, and has a stove made on a new plan, for it is managed so that its own brightness shall help to throw out the heat of the fire in an equal and agreeable manner.  The fourth and last mantelpiece is painted black, and ornamented with ormolu; it contains a polished steel stove.  Three ormolu fenders, and five bright ones are placed together with the mantelpieces; and they certainly make a goodly show.  But we must now leave them, and go on to see some other wonders.

Here are several most beautiful loo-tables inlaid, and they seem to attract a good deal of attention from more than us.  You look a little puzzled at the word inlaid; I think I must explain it to you, by telling you that it means pieces of different material let into a piece of furniture to ornament it.

There are numerous models of various buildings in the Crystal Palace; those of York Cathedral, and Chance’s Lighthouse, are particularly well made.  There is also a model of the Britannia Tubular Bridge; and there are models of many of the fine public works of London.

Here is a pair of scissors made in Sheffield, and ornamented in the most beautiful way, with a crown for a handle; and yonder are a pair of cotton stockings from Ireland, spun so fine that they look exactly like silk, and indeed you would be likely to mistake them for silk, if you were not told they were merely cotton.

How brilliant this collection of gems looks; how the stones sparkle! they have been sent as specimens of the jewels which Ireland produces.  But here are some pretty English agates; and a huge mass of Irish rock crystal, which is very bright and clear.  In a compartment, at a little distance, we may see a book, bound according to a new method, by which the leaves are so firmly placed together, that they would not loosen in ten years’ time, no matter how the book was tossed about, unless they were purposely taken out.

We must now have a look at the machinery department.  Firstly, there is the great steam-engine that works all the other steam-engines in the Exhibition, though, of course, you cannot understand it by looking at it; neither can I, although I know so much more than you do.  Near it is a model of a new agricultural machine for cutting, turning up, and making into light mould, the clay of fields, so as to make it ready to receive the seeds to be set, without the farmers being obliged to plough the earth.  There is a machine for making bricks and tiles, so that people may, if they like, form those materials for building houses cheaper and better than in the usual way.  But here is a useful machine.  It is a measuring machine, by which you could measure to the smallest size, even to the hundred-thousandth part of an inch!

Here is a very pretty contribution; it is a model of the house of the great play-writer, Shakspeare,—­of whom, perhaps, you may have heard,—­and it is surrounded by figures representing different beautiful scenes from Shakspeare’s plays.  It was made by a workman in his leisure time:  and it certainly does him credit.  It is called the Shakspeare Jubilee.