Under the high Victorian Gold Standard, the Bank of England was allowed to issue banknotes over and above the actual gold-backing held in its vaults.

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As you enter the National Gallery's East Garden Court, a sumptuous high-Victorian atmosphere envelops you: The Pre-Raphaelites have begun their reign here.

WSJ: Victorian Avant-Garde | Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Art and Design | National Gallery of Art | By Barrymore Laurence Scherer

Collins Street soon turns into an uptown tree-lined boulevard, peppered with high-end boutiques and several stand-out Victorian buildings.

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The pool area is designed in the style of Victorian swimming baths, with porcelain tiles and a high ceiling.

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However, these come with high maintenance fees and without many of the period details of the Victorian or Georgian conversions.

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Its textile mills, public buildings and workers' housing are built in a harmonious style of high architectural standards and the urban plan survives intact, giving a vivid impression of Victorian philanthropic paternalism.

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Yet Hunt's "Valentine Rescuing Sylvia From Proteus" (after Shakespeare's "Two Gentlemen of Verona") attains a high degree of Romantic beauty while offering a record of the painstaking historic realism that characterized Victorian Shakespeare productions by Charles Kean and Henry Irving.

WSJ: Victorian Avant-Garde | Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Art and Design | National Gallery of Art | By Barrymore Laurence Scherer