From peristyle to plaisance, or, The White City picturesque : painted in water colors / by C. Graham ; together with a brief illustrated history of the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893

Excerpt

Norman Horse. To meet the requirements, Looking South in the Grand Canal.

As we traversed the great inland sea and the Exposition grounds and buildings, rising apparently from the dark waters of the lake, their white walls and gilded domes glittering in the sunshine across the sparkling waves, the parti-colored pennants floating from their staffs, the music of the horns chastened by distance, the scene reminded one of the fabled Islands of St. Brandiu, and one waited breathlessly for the spectral boats in Irving's quaint fancy of the Adelantado of the Seven lsles to shoot forth from the glorious gateway of the Peristyle.

Grouped about this great gateway with its portals turned toward the 'rising sun, there rose snowy palace after palace, and at their feet the'slow current, like a turquoise thread, emptied itself into the lagoon, and on its shining surface, sharply cut in shadow, there passed and repassed the dark, quaint outlines of the gondolas, with the gondolier swaying to and fro to the rhythm of the music.