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"build a conservatory"
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Do You Want a Conservatory or a Liberal Arts Program? If you're a high school student who has his or her heart set on working in the theatre, you have an important choice to make--one that can complicate even further the frenzy of picking a college. And it's a decision in which you may find yourself on the opposite side of the fence from your parents: will it be four years in an intensive, preprofessional conservatory situation, or four years in a liberal arts school with a strong drama program? One of the most famous of the Regency-era conservatories was built at Carlton House, the Prince of Wales' London residence, demolished in 1826-27, which had been redesigned for him by Henry Holland (1745-1806) in 1787. Over the years, the Prince worked hard, decorating and redecorating, to make it the most magnificent residence in Europe, and by some standards he succeeded, only to have it demolished when its position was judged obstructive to the grand design he and architect John Nash worked out to redesign large sections of London, which later were named Regent Street and Regent Park. The famous conservatory was added in 1807 of the newest construction techniques in cast iron columns and a fan vaulted ceiling supporting large glass spaces. The architect was Thomas Hopper (1776-1856) whose work was considered a tour de force. The conservatory opened into the gardens at one end. If one looked in the opposite direction, there was a clear view of the entire lower ground-floor range of rooms, at the mall level, opening into one another in this sequence from west to east: conservatory, ionic dining room, gothic dining room. As an aside, architect Hopper's subsequent commissions included the main dwellings at Gosford Castle, Northern Ireland, and Penrhyn Castle, Wales, among many others. He was particularly admired for his Normal Revival style. The Carlton House conservatory was intentionally theatrical, as some writers observed, over the top and bringing the term "elaborate" to a new level. The Prince Regency planned a great fete for 2,000 people on June 19, 1811,to celebrate his Regency. The supper table was 200 feet long, the entire length of the Ionic Dining Room and the Gothic conservatory. Men were dressed, according to J. B. Priestly in his The Prince of Pleasure and His Regency (1969), in their court dress or uniforms. Down the middle of the entire length of the table ran a curving stream of water from a silver fountain in front of the Prince. Its path was lined with flowers, mossy banks and crossed by miniature bridges. Goldfish swam up and down this tiny stream. Here is the account by John Ashton in Social England Under the Regency (1895) of the Prince Regent's conservatory and the party: "...the architecture of it is of the most delicate Gothic. The upper end was a kind of circular buffet surmounted by a Medallion, with the initials G.P.R. lined by festoons and antique draperies of pink and silver, and partly filled by mirrors, before which, on ornamented shelves, stood a variety of vases, candlesticks, &c. of the most gorgeous gold plate...In the front of the Regent's seat there was a circular basin of water, with an enriched Temple in the centre of it, from whence there was a meandering stream to the bottom of the table, bordered with green banks. Three or four fantastic bridges were thrown over it, one of them with a small tower upon it, which gave the little stream a picturesque appearance. It contained also a number of gold and silver fish. The excellence of design, and exquisiteness of workmanship could not be exceeded; it exhibited a grandeur beyond description; while the many and various purposes for which gold and silver materials were used were equally beautiful and superb in all their minute detail. Batey attributes to Sir Humphrey Repton (1752-1818) the "modern improvement, borrowed from the French, of folding glass doors opening into a garden, by which the effect in a room is like that of a tent or marquee, and in summer delightful." We have no idea when some farmer got the idea of choosing a site protected from the wind, with an exposure to the longest hours of sunlight, or who first carried water to nourish that plant. Today we take for granted the cultivation of fruits, vegetables, herbs and flowers in computer-monitored locations that bring us year-round production. Obviously this is the result of centuries, perhaps eons, of experimentation and invention. Two hundreds years ago, our ancestors had a very good idea of what was needed for maximum production, and they were quickly developing the technological requirements for success. The regency era, whether one confines the definition strictly to 1811-1820 or, more broadly, to the French Revolution to Victoria period 1789-1837, was truly a time of transition in enhanced plant cultivation indoors. When it began, traditional orangeries were popular and when it ended, rooms built of delicate iron ribs holding curvilinear walls and roofs of glass had captured the fancy of all society. In her book Regency Gardens, Mavis Batey writes, "There was a new connection between house and garden through conservatories and flower corridors; interior decoration and trellised verandahs complemented each other; fluted curtains, flowerstands and flouncing shrubberies matching the elegance of Regency costume." (p.5) The French botanist Jules Charles is attributed by many with the construction of the first really practical greenhouse in 1599 in Holland. The building was used to grow tropical plants for medicinal purposes, such as the Tamarind, used for curative potions. By the seventeenth century, various techniques for extending growing cycle and preserving plants from frost were invented in Germany and the low countries. In Heidelberg, individual shutters were set up around 340 orange trees in September and removed at Easter. This procedure was copied to protect England's first orange trees at Beddington. Diarist John Evelyn wrote in 1658 of the orange trees protected there by "a wooden tabernacle and stoves."
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