LONDON. 185 



in possession of its church, chapter-house, and cloister, has retained its ancient 

 institutions, and grown in wealth. Its Dean is a prince of the Church, who lives in 

 a Gothic mansion adjoining the Abbey, and enjoys an annual stipend of £2,000. 

 The Chapter has a revenue of £60,000, out of which 1,000 guineas are annually 

 expended upon the public school dependent upon it. In many respects this West- 

 minster School resembles a grammar school of the sixteenth century rather than a 

 modern place of instruction.* It was near it, in the old Almonry of Westminster, 

 that William Caxton, before the year 1477, set up the first printing-press in 

 England. 



Close to the ancient abbey, on the banks of the Thames, rises Westminster 

 Palace, reconstructed since the fire of 1834, to serve as a seat for the two Houses 

 of Parliament. This Gothic edifice is one of the vastest in the world, for it covers 

 8 acres, and contains more than a thousand rooms of all sizes, a chapel, and 2 

 miles of corridors. But, for all this, the building has not realised the expectations 

 of those who caused it to be constructed. If worthy of England bj»- the wealth of 

 its decorations and its size, it is hardly so as regards its beauty, and still less so 

 with respect to its internal arrangements. Famous Westminster Hall, a remnant 

 of the old palace, has been embodied in the modern structure. It is a superb room, 

 250 feet in length and 68 in width, spanned by a remarkable roof supported on 

 sculptured rafters of chestnut-wood. The parliamentary commission charged 

 with the selection of a plan is said to have vitiated the original design of 

 the architect. Sir Charles Earrj', It certainly failed in selecting a stone cajDable 

 of resisting the deleterious efiects of the London climate. The magnesian lime- 

 stone from Anston, in Yorkshire, is rapidly crumbling to pieces, and had to be 

 covered with silicates to stay its decay. But whatever art critics may say, there 

 are parts of the building deserving of our admiration, nor can we contemplate 

 without delight the long façade reflected in the Thames, the slender clock tower 

 with its gilded roof, or the more compacth' built Victoria Tower, rising to a height 

 of 336 feet, and commanding all surrounding buildings. 



The dome of St. Paul's Cathedral rises even higher than the towers of West- 

 minster, and stands out nobly above the houses of the City. Of all the monumental 

 buildings of London this one is the most superb of aspect, that which is visible 

 from the greatest distance, and which, owing to its commanding position, is best 

 entitled to be looked upon as the veritable centre of the metropolis. This edifice 

 is the masterpiece of Christopher Wren, who built many other churches, all in 

 different styles, as if it had been his aim to grapjjle with and solve all the problems 

 which present themselves to the architect. The edifice was raised between 1675 and 

 1710, on the site of a cathedral swept away by the great fire of 1666. Its principal 

 features are a double portico of coupled columns, forming the west front, and a 

 gigantic dome of most noble proportions, rising to a height of 360 feet, including 

 its lantern. Seen from the Thames, the grandeur of this dome, hung in a bluish 

 haze, is best brought home to us. But the interior of the building hardly corre- 

 sponds with the magnificence of its external features. The bare walls are of repellent 



* Demogeot et IMontucci, " De rEnseigncmcnt secondaire en Angleterre et en Ecosse." 

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