5:60 LON 
capitals and fconces,m which Grangers are generally per¬ 
mitted to fit and hear the debates. The chair in which 
the fpeaker fits is at the upper end of the room; it is or¬ 
namented behind with Corinthian columns, and over it 
are the king’s arms carved, and placed on a pediment. 
Before the fpeaker is a table, at which the clerk and his 
affiftant fit near him.on each hand, juft: below the chair; 
and on either fide the room, as well below as in the gal¬ 
leries, the members are placed promifcuoufly. The 
fpeaker and clerks always wear gowns in the houl'e, as the 
profefiors of the law do in term-time; but no other of 
the members ever wear robes, except on the firft day of a 
r.ew parliament, when the four reprefentatives for the city 
of London are dreffed in fcarlet gowns, and fit all toge¬ 
ther on the right hand of the chair next to the fpeaker. 
The "welt front of this ancient building, with its beau¬ 
tiful gothic window, is ft.iil to be feen in afeending the 
flairs to the Court of Requefts; it confilts of the (harp- 
pointed fpecies of gothic. Between it and the lobby of 
the houfe is a final 1 veftibule of the fame fort of work, 
and of great elegance. At each end is a gothic door, 
and one in the middle, which is the paffage into the lob¬ 
by. On the fouth fide of the outer wall of rhe chapel, 
appear the marks of lome large gothic windows, with 
abutments between, and beneath, fome fmaller windows, 
once of ufe to light an under-chapel. The under-croft, 
or bafement-chapel, has been a molt beautiful building; 
a great part of which is (till preferved. It confilts of five 
divifions, made by clutters of columns fupporting the 
groins, in which are bolfes, with rich religious baffo- 
relievos, of finple and maffy forms, well calculated to fuf- 
tain, and give a pleafing introduction to, the light and 
refined elegance of the profufe enrichments in the chapel 
above. A part of it is the prefent paffage from Palace- 
yard to .Weftininlter-liall. One fide of the cloilter is en¬ 
tirely preferved, by being found convenient as a paffage ; 
the roof is gothic workinanfhip, fo elegant as to furpafs 
the beautiful roof of Henry VII’s chapel. A gallery runs 
over each fide of the cloifter, from one part of which is a 
flight of Hairs leading to a very ancient fquare tower of 
ftone, Handing alrnoll clofe to the fide of Weftminfter- 
hall, which probably was a belfry, to hold the bells that 
routed the members of the chapel to prayers. 
Adjoining to the Houfe of Lords is the Prince’s Cham¬ 
ber, where the king is robed, as we mentioned above, when 
he comes in Hate to the parliament. This apartment is 
hung all round with tapeHry. The fubjeCt of the com¬ 
partment on the weft fide is the birth of queen Elizabeth. 
AnneBoleyr. is in a grand bed, with hangings and appro¬ 
priate decorations, receiving cordials from her attendants, 
Home others of whom are employed in taking care of the 
royal infant. On the right is Henry VIII. in regal date, 
furrounded by his nobles and guards, giving his orders 
on this important occafion. The remainder of the com¬ 
partments, except one which contains a rural fubjefl, is 
made up with the different occurrences attendant on a 
battle, and total riifcomfiture of one party. 
On the other fide is the Painted Chamber, which is at 
prefent ufed for the occafional conferences between the 
twohoufesof parliament. It is a long lofty room, lighted 
by windows of the ancient lirnple gothic; and was for¬ 
merly hung with beautiful ancient tapeftry, in fix dif¬ 
ferent compartments, reprefenting fome of the principal 
events in tiie liege of Troy. From the circumftance of 
part of the hiftory of that celebrated fiege being wanting, 
it is prefumed that it did not then occupy its original 
fituation, which, from the height of the hangings agree¬ 
ing with that of the walls of the great hall, from the pave¬ 
ment to the bottom of the windows, is fuppofed to have 
been there ; and this conjecture is in l'ome degree corro¬ 
borated by an obferva'tion cf Stow, (Survey, p. 470. edit. 
1 603.) v. ho, (peaking of a royal feaft, given by Henry VII. 
on Twelfth day, in the ninth year of his reign, to the 
lord mayor, aldermen, and commoners, of London, fays, 
** And after dinner, dubbing the maior knight, caufed 
f> O N. 
him, with his brethren, to flay and behold the difguifings, 
and other difports, in the night following (hewed in the 
great hall, which was richly hanged with arras." Where 
this beautiful tapeftry, wdiich we have often feen, and as 
often admired, is gone, we have not been able to learn; 
but the writer was prefent when Mr. John Carter, the 
atchiteff, took (ketches of it, which, if we are not mif- 
taken, have been publifhed.—It was in this room that the 
warrant for the execution of Charles I. was figned; and 
here was held that celebrated conference between the 
lords and commons, which, though ineffectual at the 
time, was followed by the glorious revolution.— Befides 
its being a place of conference between the two houfes of 
parliament, as mentioned above, this chamber has from 
an early period been ufed as a chambrc ardente, (as the 
French call it,) where the remains of fovereigns, princes, 
and other great perfonages, have been depofited for public 
infpeftion previous to their interment; and here Mr. 
Pitt lay in ftate in January j8o6. —Befides thefe ufes, the 
Painted Chamber alfo fetvesas a place of meeting for the 
knights of the Bath previous to their proceeding for the 
inftallation in the chapel of Henry VII. 
We read in Stow’s Survey, that Edward III. “buiided 
to the ufe of St. Stephen’s chappell, (though out of the 
Palace-court,) fome diftance welt, in the Little Sanmiarie, 
a ftrong clochard of ftone and timber covered w ith lead, 
and placed therein three great bels, fince ufually rung at 
coronations, triumphs, funerals of princes, and their obits, 
(the aniveriary of their death.) Of thefe bels men fa- 
buled that their ringing Towered all the drinke in the 
towne.” This is one of the moft curious aflertions that 
can be found in the whole of this tr.oft eltimable Lon- 
dinographer; but we tnuft confefs that we are at a lofs to 
find out the meaning of it. We know that, by counter¬ 
acting the vibrations of the air through the fimultaneous 
and fhrill union of two difeordant founds, a wine-glafs 
may be forced to fnap and fly in pieces; but that the 
found of bells fhould agitate the air with fo much vio¬ 
lence as to aifcorr.pofe the internal combination of fer¬ 
mented liquids, is truly above our conception. It is an¬ 
other vulgar error to luppofe that thunder has a fimilar 
effefft. 
On the fouth fide of Weftminfter-abbey is Westmin¬ 
ster School, or College, founded by queen Elizabeth, 
in the year 1590, for the education of forty boys, who 
have been ever fince called the Queen’s or King’s fcho- 
lars, as the cafe happens to be. This fchool has been ren¬ 
dered one of the moft confiderable in the kingdom ; it 
having, for feveral years paft, been likevvife the place of 
education for many of the Tons of the nobility and gentry, 
for the accommodation of whom there are feveral board- 
ing-houfes in the neighbourhood. Out of the fcholars on 
the foundation, a certain number, when properly quali¬ 
fied, are fent to the univerfities, viz., to Trinity-college in 
Cambridge, and to Chrift-church in Oxford, where they 
have a competent maintenance from the foundation ; at 
the former till they are fit for the miniftry, at the latter 
for life. The fcholars have each a black gown every year ; 
and four of them are diftir.guiflied by the name of Lords 
Scholars, who wear purple gowns, and receive an annual 
liipend from the treafurer of the college, out of certain 
rents, fettled for that purpol’e by John Williams, D.D. 
lord-keeper of the great feal, and archbilhop of York. 
This prelate was alfo a great benefactor to the library of 
this college, which is well furnilhed with a good collec¬ 
tion of books, to which ftrangers can have accefs in term- 
time. 
There appears to have been a fchool here from the firft 
foundation of the abbey. Ingulphus, abbot of Crowland, 
(peaks of his having been educated at it ; and of the de¬ 
putations he had with the queen of the Confeffbr, and 
of the prefents flie made him, in money, in his boy i(h days. 
Every year, a few weeks before Chriltmas, the fcholars 
of Weftminfter-fchool perform a Latin play, generally one 
of Plautus’s or Terence’s. A temporary theatre is ereCted 
on 
