LON 
year tjoo. In the year 1531, it was furrendered to Hen¬ 
ry VIII. who took down the whole edifice, except the 
chapel, and ereCted the prefent palace in its Head, which, 
from the faint to whom the hofpital was dedicated, was 
called St. James’s Palace. In this edifice our kings have 
kept their court ever f nee the palace at Whitehall was 
confumed by fire, in 1697. It is an irregular brick build¬ 
ing, without the lead: ornament. In the front, next St. 
James’s freet, is a gothic arched gateway, that leads into 
a finall fquare court, with a piazza on the weft fide : on 
the fouth fide of this court is the guard-room, the entrance 
to which is by the grand fair-cafe, fituated at the fouth- 
sveft corner of the piazza. The buildings are low and 
plain ; and there are two other courts beyond, that have 
very little the appearance of a palace. The windows, 
however, look into a large garden, and command a very 
pleafant view of St. James’s Park. On the weft lide of 
the fquare is the chapel, which is the fame as belonged to 
the ancient hofpital ; and, ever fince that building was 
demolished, has been converted to the life of the royal fa¬ 
mily. It is a royal peculiar, and exempt from all epif- 
copal jurifdiftion. The fervice is performed in this cha¬ 
pel in the fame manner as at cathedrals; and there be¬ 
long to it a dean, a lord-almoner, a fub-dean, ten finging- 
boys, and forty-eight chaplains, who preach in turn before 
the royal family. 
The external appearance of this palace is inconfiderable, 
yet certainly not mean. That part in which the rooms of 
fate are, being only one f ory, gives it a regular appearance 
on the outfide. Although there is nothing very fuperb 
or grand in the decorations or furniture of the fate-apart¬ 
ments, they are commodious and handfome. The en¬ 
trance to thefe rooms is by a fair-cafe that opens into the 
principal court, next to Pall Mall. At the top of the 
fair-cafe are two guard-rooms ; one to the left, called the 
Queen’s, and the other the King’s, guard-room, leading 
to the fate-apartments. Immediately beyond the king’s 
guard-room is the Prefence-chamber, which contains a 
canopy, and is hung with tapeftry; it is now ufed as a 
palfage to the principal rooms. There is a fuite of five 
of thefe, opening into each other fucceflively, and front¬ 
ing the park. The prefence-chamber opens into the cen¬ 
tre room, called the Privy-chamber, where is a canopy of 
flowered crimfon velvet, under which the king receives 
the quakers. On the right are two drawing-rooms, one 
within the other. At the upper end of the farther one is 
a throne with its canopy, on which the king receives cer¬ 
tain formal addreffes. This apartment is the grand draw¬ 
ing-room, in which the king and queen are prefent on cer¬ 
tain days, the nearer room being a kind of anti-chamber, 
in which the nobility are permitted to fit down while their 
majef ies are prefent in the farther room, there being fools 
and fofas for the purpofe. On the left, on entering the 
privy-chamber from the king’s guard-room and prefence- 
chamber, there are two levee-rooms, the nearer ferving as 
an anti-chamber to the other. All thefe rooms were for¬ 
merly very mean in their furniture: on the marriage of 
the prince of Wales, they were fitted up in their prefent 
fate. The walls are covered with tapefry, very beauti¬ 
ful, and quite frefli in the colours ; for, though made for 
Charles II. it had never been put up, having by fotne ac¬ 
cident lain in a chef, till diicovered a little before the 
marriage of the prince. The canopy of the throne was 
made for the queen’s birth-day, the firf which happened 
after the union of the kingdoms of Great Britain and 
Ireland. It is of crimfon velvet, with broad gold lace, 
having embroidered crowns, fet with real and fine pearls : 
the fliamrock, the badge of the Irilh nation, forms one 
of the decorations of the crown, and is accurately exe¬ 
cuted. In the grand drawing-room is a large magnificent 
chandelier of gilt filver ; and in the grand levee-room is a 
very noble bed, the furniture of which is of crimfon vel¬ 
vet, manufactured in Spitalfields. This bed was put up, 
with the tapefry, on the marriage of the prince of Wales, 
Vol. XIII. No. 928. 
D O N. £G5 
The foie ufe made latterly of St. James’s Palace, is for 
purpofes of fate. In 1809, the fouth eafern wing of 
the building was deflroyed by fire ; (feep. 213.) The fate- 
apartments were, however, uninjured ; and the court is fill 
held here. A private dwelling after fuch a fire would have 
been refored iif a few weeks or months ; but the nominal 
palace of the three laf kings of England, the feene of all 
their grandeur, prefents even to the contemporary gene¬ 
ration a monument of the infiability of every human 
work. The door at which Margaret Nicholfon made her 
attempt on the life of his prefent majefity, and at which 
the public were ufed to fee their fovereign enter and de¬ 
part for many years paf, is now a difmal chaos of ruins ; 
as is the entire fuite of rooms which led from it to thofe 
drawing-rooms in which the court of England ufed to af- 
femble, till within thefe fix years, on birth and gala days ! 
He would have been deemed a falfe and malignant pro¬ 
phet, who in 1808 might have foretold, that, “ during the 
next feven years, the public palace of England would re¬ 
main a heap of ruins, the undifurbed refort of noxious 
reptiles, and its chambers the habitation of the fowls of 
the air.” Yet fuch is literally the faff, in regard to the 
eafern apartments of the palace of St. James. 
The queen has a feparate palace at the weft end of the 
Park, fronting the Mall. The firf edifice on this fpot 
was originally known by the name of Arlington-houfe 5 
which being purchafed by the duke of Buckingham, who 
rebuilt it in 1703, it was called Buckingham-houfe till 
the year 1762, when his prefent majefy bought it; and it 
has obtained the name of the Queen’s Palace, from having 
been fettled on her majefy in 1775, in lieu of Somerfet- 
lioufe. This edifice is a mixture of brick and fione, in 
the front of which is a fpacious court-yard, enclofed by 
a feini-circular fweep of iron-rails. The principal door 
is placed between four tall Corinthian pilafiers, which are 
fluted, and reach to the top of the fecond flory. Within 
this compafs are two feries of very large and lofty win¬ 
dows, over which is the entablature. Above is an attic 
flory, with fquare windows and Tufcan pilafers; and the 
whole is crowned with a baluflrade, which conceals the 
roof. On each fide of the building are circular colonades 
of the Ionic order, alfo crowned with a baluflrade and 
vafes. Thefe colonades join the offices at the extremity 
of the wings to the main building; and on the top of 
each of thefe offices is a turret, fupporting a dome, from 
which rifes a weather-cock. The fituation of this palace 
is extremely pleafant; for it not only commands a pro- 
fpeft of St. James’s Park in front, but has alfo a fpacious 
park behind it, together with a large garden and terrace ; 
from the latter of which, as well as from the apartments, 
there is a beautiful profpeft of the adjacent country. Se¬ 
veral new buildings have been lately added to it, particu¬ 
larly a library and a riding-fchool. The library is fur- 
nifhed with the bef authors, in various languages; and 
in both that and the gallery are great numbers of curious 
prints and paintings, by the bef maflers. The collection 
of drawings is exceedingly precious, and ufed to be a 
great fource of entertainment for our venerable king pre¬ 
vious to his illnefs. We are told, by one of the keepers 
of this valuable colleftion, that the king, by the flrength 
of his uncommon memory, ufed to direct them to fuch a 
drawer, there to find, among feveral bundles or fets of 
drawings or prints, all marked with a peculiar number, 
the very piece he wanted to be carried or fent to him. 
The bef works of Canaletti are in the vefibule ; where 
we have remarked alfo a painted fair-cafe, reprefenting 
the arrival of iEneas before the Queen of Carthage. 
One nuifance difgraces the queen’s palace ; namely, a 
fmall barrack, or guard-houfe, lately erected to the fouth 
of it, on the other fide of Buckingham-gate. 
On the north-wef fide of the Queen’s Palace is the 
Green Park, which extends from St. James’s Park to Pic¬ 
cadilly ; from the latter of which it is feparated, in fome 
parts, by a wall, and by an iron railing in others. The 
7 ^ Banger's 
