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1317, by Edward III. in the hall of this palace, at Whitsuntide, to his court and nobility, when a woman, in a fantastical dress, representing that of a comedian, entered the hall on horseback, where, with an uncommon assurance, after having ridden round the several tables below, ascended the steps to that of the king, and throwing down a letter, she immediately retired.

This letter Edward commanded to be opened and read; the contents were to the following effect: Our lord the king may take notice, that he has not kindly regarded those knights who faithfully served his father and himself with their lives and fortunes; but has too much enriched others, who never performed any thing considerable.'

The woman being pursued and apprehended, readily acknowledged that she was employed and paid by a certain knight for that service; who being thereupon arrested, boldly declared, that he had done it with no other view than that to the king's honour, which being taken into consideration, together with the contetns of the letter, which were incontestible facts, both the knight and the woman were soon discharged from custody.

Richard II. ordered the whole building to be pulled down, and, in the year 1397 the present edifice was erected. About two years afterwards this monarch kept his Christmas festival in the new hall, accompanied with all that splendour and magnificence for which his court was so conspicuous. It is said on this occasion twenty-eight oxen, three hundred sheep, and fowls without number were consumed. The number of guests on each day of the feast, amounted to ten thousand; and two thousand cooks employed.*

The same author says, the great hall was begunne to be repayred in the yeere 1397 by Richard the Second, who caused the wals, windowes and roofe to be taken downe and newe made, with a stately porch, and divers lodgings of a marvellous worke and with 'great costs.' He goes on to state that the charges of the building were obtained by pillaging refugees who had fled their conntry, and that this dishonest and unfeeling mode of taxation produced great summis of monney,' and also gives the name of the architect John Botterell, he adds this hall being finished in the yeere 1399, the same king kept a most royal Christmas there't. In the course of these repairs, a contract was entered into with Richard Washbourn and John Swalwe, masons, to raise the walls two feet higher than they were with Ryegate stone, and marble to strengthen it, the whole was to be done according to a model made by the advice of master Henry Zencley, and delivered to the said masons by Watkin Walden his warden; and for every foot of assize in length they were to have twelvepence.

The hall received but little attention froin government, except Smith's Westminster, p. 53.

Stow apud Maitland. ii. 1841.

Survey, p. 887.

VOL. IV.

M

the substitution of slates for lead on the roof, a profitable job for some favoured contractor, until the reign of his present majesty, when the whole exterior and the interior of the roof underwent a thorough repair, and the principal front was rebuilt with Bath stone under the direction of J. Gayfere.

The plan is parrallelogramatic, having two square towers and a porch at the north end. The principal front consists of a centre, between two wings or towers considerably in advance of it. The former is made in height into two stories, the towers into three, both towers are alike, the first story is a highly decorated basement entirely filled with beautiful niches, with semi-hexagonal canopies, and the wall behind is occupied with cinquefoil headed pannels; in the second story an arched window divided by a mullion and transom into two lights, between two canopied niches, and in the upper story a similar window only, the elevation finishes with a block cornice surmounted by an embattled parapet, at one of the angles of each tower, an octagon staircase turret. The central division consists of a porch with a bold and handsome pointed arch in the centre between niches similar to the towers, the whole surmounted by a gallery fronted by a parapet peirced with quarterfoils, the spandrils of the arch of the porch bear shields, charged with the arms of Edward the Confessor held by angels, below each the white hart, the well-known badge of Richard II; the side walls of the porch have traceried windows in blank; the ceiling is groined and ribbed; the inner entrance is by a small pointed arch filled with oak doors; the upper story of the main elevation is principally occupied by a magnificent window, made by perpendicular mullions into nine divisions, subdivided horizontally by a transom stone; every compartment thus formed has an arched head enclosing five sweeps; the head of the arch is filled with minute compartments, corresponding in form and dimensions with the larger ones; the weather cornice of this window rests on the white hart; the elevation finishes with a well proportioned gable, the cornice enriched with crockets raking up to a triangular niche in the centre, crowned with a pinnacle; the side walls are strengthened by buttresses, composed of a massive insulated pier, situated opposite to the piers between the windows, at about eighteen feet distance, from which flying arches spring and abut against the walls of the hall; but one of these but tresses can be seen, which is in the speaker's court yard; the others are hid and concealed in the new courts, and other adjacent excre. scencies, which hide the exterior view of the building, it being much to be lamented that there was not taste enough in the directors of the public works, to have ordered the complete insulation of the hall. The southern end has a similar window to the north, and on the point of the gable is an octagon turret, which ends in a modern cupola. The interiore surprizes every spectator by the grandeur and vastness of the whole; it is covered by the most splendid timber roof ever witnessed; there are in all thirteen ribs,

each composed of a trussed arch, comprehended within one large and magnificent pointed arch, stretching across the entire building; the trusses are carved with angels holding shields, charged with the arms of king Richard II., and from them spring king posts which bind the two arches together; the spandrils and all intervals are filled with uprights with trefoil heads; between the ninth and tenth beams a beautiful lantern springs from the roof, lately restored in iron; at the sides of the principal entrance are staircases; one is ancient and has a pillar charged with the arms of John Stafford, lord treasurer from 1422 to 1424, 1st. Henry VI. to 1426, and afterwards archbishop of Canterbury; and those of Ralph, lord Boteler of Sudley, treasurer of the exchequer, 21st. Henry VI. 1443. The motto round the top is ieu et mon Droit. Opposite is a modern pillar charged with the arms of George III. with the date of 1781. At the upper end of the hall is a large flight of steps leading to a door communicating with inner apartments; on each side of the window are three niches, in five of which still remain statues of the following monarchs, William Rufus, Henry I. Stephen, Henry II. Richard I. and John, beautifully coloured; the side walls are pierced with windows divided by one mullion, but which are generally stopped up by some adjacent building, and, in consequence, a row of dormer windows have been made in the roof. The repairs of the hall are still in an unfinished state, and the interior is filled up with temporary buildings for records until some permanent structure is found for them.

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Over the door leading into the receipt of the Exchequer, is a sculptured head covered with a hood: beneath is this inscription :

Ingrædiens Jdní rediture
Sis emulus Argi.

alluding to the vigilance and circumspection requisite in the affairs of the exchequer.

Of the old palace some few remains exist, though perhaps much altered, but before the present century, when the board of works with their surveyors and attached architects, were not so anxious to destroy or mutilate our ancient architecture, numerous ancient apartments existed, even within the memory of many inhabitants, which have been swept away, and mean, and nationally considered, " disgraceful brick erections formed in their place.

From the present appearance of some of the buildings, and the known age of others, it should seem, that originally the palace of Westminster formed two sides of a square, and was all comprehended in Old Palace Yard, of which it constituted the east and south sides. Its east side consisted of the Court of Requests, the Painted Chamber, and several other nameless old rooms adjoining them. Those on the south cannot now be ascertained, as none of them are at present existing, but it is certain that they were remaining in the time of Edward III., that they were parts of the private palace, and joined the old stone tower, now the parliament office*; and that in 1754, when the houses for the clerks of parliament were erected, a stone wall, of nine feet thick was discovered, undoubtedly part of the old palace. Originally also, and before the erection of Westminster hall, it is supposed that the court of Requests was the great hall of the palace. Of the buildings adjoining Westminster hall on the west, few, if any, were of much antiquity. Some were of the reign of the Edward's, but the major part not earlier than the reign of Henry VII. or thereabouts. Near this side of the hall was two messuages known as the Constabulary and Paradise, and certain subterraneous passages were called Hell and Purgatory. The former, however, in the reign of James I. appears to have been the sign of a low public house, frequented by lawyer's clerks, &c. There was also a house of entertainment called Heaven, noticed by Butler in Hudibras, as

False Heaven at the end of the Hall.'t

Collegiate Chapel of St. Stephen.

Adjoining the south-east angle of the hall, and at the north end of the old palace, was the chapel to St. Stephen the protomartyr, founded by king Stephen, but rebuilt by Edward III. in 1347, in a very magnificent manner; the latter monarch converted it into a collegiate church, and placed therein a dean, twelve secular canons, twelve vicars, four clerks, six choristers, a verger and chapel keeper.

The following year, Edward, by letters patent, endowed the same with his Hospitium, or great house in Lombard-street, certain lands See Fig. 2 in the annexed plate. + Part III. line 24. Dugdale Mon. Angl.

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Chapel

St Margarets

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RIVER

THAMES

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To E.1.Carlos Esqan ardent admirer of ancient English architecture,
this plate is dedicated by his sincere friend The Author.

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