WESTMINSTER. 



tied to feats on the union with Ireland, over and above the 

 unexampled augmentation of the peerage in the prefent reign, 

 their meetings were transferred to what was the court of re- 

 quefts ; fo called becaufe the mailers of the court, in ancient 

 times, received the requefts or petitions of the people, and 

 gave their opinions on the fubjetls. This room, confider- 

 ably larger than the former, is alfo within the old palace ; 

 and is now ornamented with the celebrated tapeftry, repre- 

 fenting the difcomfiture of the Spanirti Armada, or fleet 

 and army, deftined for the invafion of England in 1588. 

 At the upper end of the room is the throne, a highly en- 

 riched arm-chair ; and at the lower end is an open fpace, 

 termed the bar. The commons of England, when they 

 formed a feparate body from the peers, were, by an agree- 

 ment with the abbot of St. Peter's, allowed to meet in the 

 chapter-honfe already mentioned. Bnt when, at the Re- 

 formation, the eftablifhment of the collegiate chapel of St. 

 Stephen in the old palace was fupprefled, to that place their 

 meetings were transferred by Edward VI. This chapel, 

 originally conftrufted by king Stephen, was rebuilt by 

 Edward III. in 1347. The commons, before the union 

 with Ireland, were accommodated within the chapel ; but 

 their number being by that meafure augmented from 558 to 

 658 members, it became neceffary to enlarge the place of 

 aftembly. At the eaft, or upper end of the rooni, is the 

 fpeaker's chair ; before it is the table with the clerks, and at 

 the bottom is the bar. T!ie feats for the members rife one 

 behind another, as in a theatre. Thofe on the floor, on the 

 fpeaker's right-hand, are called the treafury-benches, and oc- 

 cupied by the members of adminiftration : the bench in front 

 is ufually occupied by the leading members of the oppofi- 

 tion. St. Stephen's chapel, highly adorned by Edward III., 

 fuffered greatly by its firft adaptation for the commons ; 

 but much more by the late alterations. By removing the 

 wainfcot, a great part of the ancient decorations was dif- 

 clofed, and a very important faft in the hiilory of the fine 

 arts was, for theiirll time, afcertained. On the i ithof Au- 

 guft, 1800, was difcovered a feries of fculpture and painting, 

 the latter exhibiting portraits, fcripture-fcenes, and other de- 

 corations, interefting in themfelves, and peculiarly fo as fpeci- 

 Ttiens of the ftate of the arts, as they exifted nearly five 

 hundred years ago. It has been ufual to afcribe to John Van 

 Eyck, of Bruges, in Flanders, the invention of painting in 

 oil-colours, in 1410. This opinion has, however, of late 

 years, been much invalidated ; by the difcovery in St. Ste- 

 phen's chapel it is completely overthrown. From original 

 records of the expences incurred in the conftruftion and de- 

 coration of tliat building, it now appears that the renovation 

 was begun in the fourth year of Edward III., or about 1329, 

 and not in 1347, as ftated by Stowe and others : that the 

 painters had not begun in 134;, but were at work in 1350, 

 and ceafed to be mentioned in 1364 : that thofe who painted 

 on glafs had begun in 1350, and finifhed in 1352 : that the 

 paintings were unqueftionably in oil : and that, of feventy- 

 fix painters employed in the chapel, the whole, with the 

 exception perhaps of two, and they not the matters, were 

 natives of England. From thefe authentic documents it is 

 therefore fully afcertained, that piaures, in the ufual fenfe of 

 the term (not houfd-paintiiig], m oil were executed in Weft- 

 rainfter palace in 1350, or fixty years before .Van Eyck's 

 fuppofed difcovery of the art. But the fame genuine re- 

 cords go ilill farther back : they prove oil to have been em- 

 ployed in painting pidures in the chapel before the rebuild- 

 ing by Edward III. ; that is, in the 20th year of Edward I., 

 or m 1272, which was one hundred and eighteen years prior 

 to Van Eyck. ( See Painting; ) Under the old houfe of 

 Vol. XXXVIII. 



lords are the cellars which were prepared for the famous 

 powder-plot, of the 5th of November, 1605. 



Whitehall Palace. — This royal manfion occupied a confi- 

 derable fpace on the bank of the Thames, including Privy- 

 Garden, and extending to Scotland Yard, ftretching out in 

 breadth from the river quite acrofs the ftreet dill called 

 Whitehall into St. James's-park. It was originally the 

 property of Hubert de Burgh, earl of Kent, and grand 

 jufticiary of England under Henry III. The fituation was 

 low and marfhy, owing to the concourfe of the branch on 

 the weft of Thorney ifiand with the main channel of the 

 Th.imes. In 1248 the palace belonged to the archbifhops 

 of York, who poflefled it until, on the fall of cardinal arch- 

 bifhop Wolfey, it was, in 1529, feized, with his charafter- 

 iftic love of juftice, by the infatiable Henry VIII. Pof- 

 feflion being obtained, many alterations were made in the 

 building, of which a portion, commonly called the Cock-pit, 

 adjoining to the Treafury, (till exifts. Falling into decay, 

 James I. refolved to rebuild Whitehall in a fuitable man- 

 ner ; and for fuch a defign the fpacious ground between the 

 Thames and the park, and commanding both, offered every 

 facility excepting that of elevation of ground , without a proper 

 degree of which dignity is hardly attainable in architetlure. 

 Of the magnificent, although in many parts faulty, pro- 

 jeft of Inigo Jones, prepared for the intended work, one 

 portion only was executed. This is the Banqueting-houfe, 

 fo called from its fucceeding, in deftination as in fcite, to a 

 part of the old palace appropriated to royal entertainments. 

 The prefent edifice, one of the few fpecimens of noble and 

 regular archite&ure in the metropolis, confifts of two ftories, 

 on a ruftic bafement, ornamented with Ionic and Corinthian 

 columns and pilafters. This edifice, containing feven win- 

 dows on a floor, was only one of the angular pavilions of 

 the intended grand ftrufture. It is fufficiently enriched, but 

 not overloaded with ornament ; and being conftrufted on a 

 fcale of very large dimenfions in the parts, had the whole, 

 even with all the defefts of the projeft, been carried into 

 effeft, no fovereign in Europe could have exhibited a place 

 of refidence to be compared with that of the king of Great 

 Britain. Magnitude of parts was in that projeft held to be 

 indifpenfable for grandeur of efFeft. The interior of the 

 Banqueting-houfe has long been converted into a royal, and 

 lately into a mihtary chapel ; adorned, as is ftill moft in- 

 Congruoufly imagined, with trophies of war. The ceiling 

 is peculiarly worthy of obfervation, being the produftion of 

 the fplendid pencil of Rubens ; exhibiting the allegorical hif- 

 tory of his patron, James I. This mafterly performance 

 ought to have diffuaded the advifers of George I. from con- 

 verting the room into a place of Chriftian worfhip ; for 

 " its contents are in no way akin to devotion ; and the work- 

 manfliip is fo very extraordinary, that, in beholding it, the 

 fpeflator muft either poflefs an uncommon meafure of zeal, 

 or be utterly deilitute of flcill and tafte, who can attend to 

 any thing befides." From a window of the Banqueting- 

 houfe the unfortunate Charles I., unfortunate in living in 

 times when the art of managing parhaments was either un- 

 known, or perhaps thought unworthy of a prince, pafled to 

 the fcafFold eredled in the public ftreet in the front of his 

 own palace. In a court behind the building ftands one of 

 the fmall number of public ftatues of the metropolis me- 

 riting examination. It is the work of Gubbins, and exhi- 

 bits James II., indicating, as he would do in his deftined 

 fituation, with an air and attitude full of expreffion, the 

 fpot where his father fuffered. At no great diftance, on 

 the former fcite of the crofs in the village of Charing, is 

 ereAed another fine equeftrian figure of Charles himfelf. 



Tt St. 



