166 ENGLAND. 



The roads leading to this great metropolis are not only lighted by 

 lamps regularly placed on each side at short distances, but are ren- 

 dered more secure by watchmen stationed within call of each other. 

 Nothing can appear more brilliant than those lights, when viewed at 

 a distance, especially where the roads run across ; and even the prin- 

 cipal streets, such as Pali-Mall, New Bond-street, Oxford-street, &c. 

 convey an idea of elegance and magnificence. 



Foreigners are surprised that the monarch of the richest nation in 

 Europe, should be so indifferently lodged in his capital. The palace 

 of St. James is commodious, but has the air of a convent ; and that of 

 Kensington, which was purchased from the Finch family by king 

 William, is remarkable only for its gardens. Other houses, though 

 belonging to the king, are far from deserving the name of royal. 



Windsor-castle is the only fabric that merits the name of a royal 

 palace in England ; and that chiefly through its beautiful and com- 

 manding situation, which, with the form of its construction, rendered 

 it, before the introduction of artillery, impregnable. Hampton-court 

 was the favourite residence of king William. It is built in the Dutch 

 taste, and has some good apartments, and, like Windsor, is near the 

 Thames. Both these palaces have some good pictures ; but nothing 

 equal to the magnificent collection made by Charles I, and dissipated 

 in the time of the civil wars. The cartoons of Raphael, which for 

 design and expression, are reckoned the master-pieces of painting, 

 have by his present majesty been removed from the gallery built for 

 them at Hampton-court, to the Queen's palace, formerly Buckingham- 

 house, in St. James's Park. 



Next to the royal palaces, if not superior, in magnificence and ex- 

 pensive decorations, are many private seats in the neighbourhood of 

 London, and in every part of the kingdom, in which the amazing opu- 

 lence of the English nation shines forth in its fullest point of view. 

 In these also the princely fortunes of the nobility are made subservi- 

 ent to the finest classical taste ; witness the seats of the marquis of 

 Buckingham and earl Pembroke. At the seat of the latter, more re- 

 mains of antiquity are to be found than are in the possession of, per- 

 haps, any other subject. 



The houses of the English nobility and gentry are peculiarly dis- 

 tinguished by the appropriate adaptation of their parts, the richness and 

 elegance of their furniture, and the admirable preservation in which 

 the whole is kept ; as well as by their hortulane and rural decorations, 

 vistas, opening landscapes, temples ; all the result of that enchanting 

 art of imitating nature, and uniting beauty with magnificence. 



York is a city of great antiquity, pleasantly situated on the river 

 Ouse. It is surrounded with a good wall, through which are four 

 gates and five posterns. Here are seventeen parish churches, and a 

 very noble cathedral, or minster, it being one of the finest Gothic 

 buildings in England. It extends in length 525 feet, and in breadth 

 1 10 feet. The nave, which is larger than any in Christendom, except 

 that of St. Peter's church at Rome, is four feet and a half wider, and 

 eleven feet higher, than that of St. Paul's cathedral at London. At 

 the west end are two towers, connected and supported by an arch which 

 forms the west entrance, and is reckoned the largest Gothic arch in 

 Europe. The windows are finely painted, and the front of the choir 

 is adorned with statues of all the kings of England, from William the 

 Norman to Henry VI, and there are thirty-two stalls, all of fine mar- 

 ble, with pillars, each consisting of one piece of alabaster. Here is 



