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bishop, at tlie Palace, Bishopthorpe. York gave a right royal
greeting to their Eoyal Highnesses; the Ouse Bridge, most
artistically decorated, was, together with the rest of the city^
brilliantly illuminated in the evening. The illustrious visitors
attended the Yorkshire Agricultural Society's Show, then being
held on Knavesmire, and also a grand review of the whole of
the Volunteers of Yorkshire on the Race- ground, when, it is
said, more people came to York thaii was ever known to have
visited it before in one day. The exhibition was held in a
temporary building erected in Bootham Field, in front of the
County Asylum. It was opened by the Archbishop of York,
on the 24th July, and closed on the 2nd November, and
was attended by 380,590 persons. The value of the exhibits
was roughly calculated at £250,000. The total receipts were
£13,800 ;
and, after all expenses were paid, with some gratuities,
a surplus of £2000 was left as the nucleus of a
fund to be afterwards subscribed towards a permanent art
gallery.
On 25th September, 1873, a grand banquet was given in
the Guildhall, by joint subscription of the provincial mayors
and corporations of England, to the Lord Mayor of London,
who attended in state, accompanied by the Sheriffs of London,
en grande tenue, with coaches, trumpeters, and other paraphernalia;
the whole of the provincial mayors and townclerks,
two hundred and sixty in number, being dressed in
their robes and decorated with the gold chains and insignia
of office.
The corner-stone of the new Exhibition building was laid
by the Lord Mayor, on Easter Monday, 22nd April, 1878.
The Exhibition was formally opened by His Grace the
Archbishop of York, on the 7th of May, 1879, and continued
until November 8th. During this period it was visited by
550,000 persons, from whom the sum of £17,336 17s. 3d.
was received, in addition to £1791 12s. Id. from other
sources. It consisted of rare examples of old and modern
masters (including the whole of the celebrated Feversham
gallery), water-colours, statuary, articles of vertu, manufactures,
machinery, &c.
The building has now been establised as the Yorkshire Fine
Art and Industrial Institution, with the object of encouraging
art and industry.