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"Never dawned a brighter morn than on this ever-memorable "Mayday"; the sky clear and blue, the sun coming forth in undimmed splendour; the air crisp, cool yet genial, as a poets spring morn should be.(...) London, with her countless thousands, was early afoot; by six o'clock, the hour fixed for opening the park gates, streems of carriages, all filled with gaily-attired company, came pouring in from all parts of the metropolis and the surrounding distrticts, while whole masses of pedestrians marched in mighty phalanx towards the scene of action.

On entering the South transept a spectacle is afforded which fills the mind with wonder and produces an overwhelming effect upon the senses from the novelty, grandeur and beauty. The surpassing beauty is the great measure owing to the lights and shadows and colours with the objects presented to view, and which have rendered the building the most attractive in the world. The transept is the most brilliantly lightened in as much as noble arched roof is left open to the sky and not covered with a calico like the remainder of the building. Passing from the central spot the light becomes more subduced in every direction; and, as the eye wanders up the vistas, the three primitive colours of Sir D. Bewster, red, yellow and blue, strike the eye by the intensity of their brightness in the foreground. But by blending in the distance, by the effect of the parallax and diminished visual angle, the whole as in nature appears into a neutral gray. To appreciate the genius of Owen Jones, the visitor must take his stand at the extremity of the building – Looking up the nave, with endless rows of pillars, the scene vanished from extreme brightness to the hazy indistinctness which Turner alone can paint."

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