the high level branch

In the year 1851, when all that glittering roof was built, in order to exhibit the petty arts of our fashionable luxury carved bedsteads of Vienna, glued toys of Switzerland and gay jewellery from France - in that very year, I say, the greatest pictures of Venetian masters were rotting at Venice in the rain, for want of a roof to cover them, with holes made by cannon shot through their canvas.