t
have come to peep at our workshops, mayor after mayor having the
"honour" to toady to them and trot them round the back streets and slums
to where the men of the bench, the file, and the hammer have been
diligently working generation after generation, for the fame and the
name of our world-known town. As a mere money speculation such a
show-room must pay, and the first cost, though it might be heavy, would
soon be recouped by the influx of visitors, the increase of orders, and
the advancement of trade that would result. There _have_ been a few
exhibitions held here of one sort and another, but nothing on the plan
suggested above. The first on our file is that held at the Shakespeare
rooms early in 1839, when a few good pictures and sundry specimens of
manufactures were shown. This was followed by the comprehensive
Mechanics' Institute Exhibition opened in Newhall Street, December 19th,
same year, which was a success in every way, the collection of
mechanical models, machinery, chemical and scientific productions,
curiosities, &c., being extensive and valuable; it remained open
thirteen weeks. In the following year this exhibition was revived
(August 11, 1840), but so far as the Institute, for whose benefit it was
intended, was concerned, it had been better if never held, for it proved
a loss, and only helped towards the collapse of the Institute, which
closed in 1841. Railway carriages and tramcars propelled by electricity
are the latest wonders of 1883; but just three-and-forty years back, one
of our townsmen, Mr. Henry Shaw, had invented an "electro-galvanic
railway carriage and tender," which formed one of the attractions of
this Exhibition. It went very well until injured by (it is supposed)
some spiteful nincompoop who, not having the brain to invent anything
himself, tried to prevent others doing so. The next Exhibition, or, to
be more strictly correct, "Exposition of Art and Manufactures," was held
in the old residence of the Lloyd's family, known as Bingley House,
standing in its own grounds a little back from Broad Street, and on the
site of the present Bingley Hall. This was in 1849, and from the fact of
its being visited (Nov. 12) by Prince Albert, who is generally credited
with being the originator of International Exhibitions, it is believed
that here he obtained the first ideas which led to the great "World's
Fair" of 1851, in Hyde Park.--Following the opening of Aston Hall by Her
Majesty in 1858, many ge