1885 New Guide Hotel Bar Restaurant

THE NEW GUIDE FOR HOTELS, ETC.

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with their mummy like babies, Polar bears, arctic animals and birds of all kinds were congregated round these ice- bergs. The glass was the sea, where sugar whales, dolphins, seals, &c., were placed. A frozen-up English ship, sailors, and some huts were placed at one end. The next decorations I will mention were at a Ball Sup- per given by Lord X. There were two supper rooms, one — in all the splendour of oriental grandeur, with soft falling draperies of blue and gold, divans, settees, lounges, fountains of rose water, all ensconced in charming bowers of large palms, with brilliant flowering cacti ; azalaes and berried plants ; the lamps were all shaded with ruby glass, or crim- son shades, and strings of Japanese lanterns, reaching across the room, from the four corners to the principal chandelier. The other room represented ocean caves. It was a wooden building thrown out from the piazza, leading from the dining room windows, and taking the whole area of the three windows and the lawn. The caves were formed of cork, nailed to screen work, composed of wood and canvas ; large quantities of whitewash were made in which, whilst hot, glue- size was dissolved and mixed, brushed over the cork, and while it was still w^et it was dusted with ground glass dust. This is cheap enough at the glass works. When dry the screens were erected, and propped in their place by rock- work formed of gas coke, which had been previously coated with a light green wash. Pots of green grass were inter- spersed amongst these decorations, and gas jets with re- of glass mounted on discs with red, green, and white tinfoil at the back, were grouped so as to give quite a fairy-like beauty to the scene. The ball room was illumin- ated by electricity. flectors

for a Midnight Pic-nic at

Here are

the decorations

" The wild

Baden, by the Grandees in the neighbourhood.