2-996-057 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Prince of Wales at Montreal - The Ball-Pavilion, 1860. Hall specially built for a ball to welcome the future King Edward VII. 'The ball-room was one immense circle, with an orchestra in the centre, beneath the lofty-peaked roof, which gradually sloped down towards the outer walls, so as to resemble in the design a circular pavilion-tent - though, of course, of colossal dimensions, as the diameter of the ball-room was nearly 100 yards from side to side. In the midst the double orchestra was placed, reaching from the ground to the roof of the building. The design of this centre ornament, if it may be so called, was light and exceedingly beautiful, and its trellis of open columns was almost entirely concealed under garlands of flowers...The outside was almost as good in its way as the grand ball-room itself. Four handsome entrances were made into the building, flanked with battlemented towers with low walls and turrets connecting them, while the apex of the ball-pavilion was surrounded by a cupola and open lantern to secure the utmost ventilation. Many acres of ground around the building were set apart for bowers and promenades'. From "Illustrated London News", 1860.