56

UNSEEMLY CONDUCT OF QUEEN MARY.

his residence, and, as it suited the views of his adversaries, his request was readily granted. To Rochester, then, on a stormy night, he was conveyed down the river attended by a Dutch guard, and here he remained till the 23rd of December, when, on another dark and stormy night, he proceeded with his natural son, the Duke of Berwick, and two other faithful followers, in a small boat down the river Medway till, about midnight, he reached a sailing vessel which was expecting him near the fort at Sheerness. After encountering much adverse and boisterous weather, the fugitives, on Christmas day, 1688, arrived safely at Ambleteuse, in Picardy.

It was not many days after the flight of James that his daughter, Queen Mary, installed herself, not without exhibiting some indecent feelings of exultation and joy, in the apartments which had so recently witnessed the downfall of her ill-fated father. The Duchess of Marlborough, speaking, in her "Account of Her Own Conduct," of the Queen's want of feeling, observes—“Of this she seemed to me to give an unquestionable proof the first day she came to Whitehall. She ran about it, looking into every closet and conveniency, and turning up the quilts upon the bed, as people do when they come to an inn, and with no sort of concern in her appearance; behaviour which, though at that time I was extremely caressed by her, I thought very strange and unbecoming; for whatever necessity there was of deposing King James, he was still her father, who had so lately been driven from that chamber and that bed; and if she felt no tenderness, I thought she should still have looked grave, or even pensively sad, at so melancholy a reverse of his fortune." So also Evelyn writes of the new Queen-" She came into Whitehall, laughing and jolly, as to a wedding, as to seem quite transported. She rose early the next morning, and,

WHITEHALL CONSUMED BY FIRE.

57

in her undress, as it was reported, before her women were up, went about from room to room to see the convenience of Whitehall; lay in the same bed and apartments where the late Queen lay, and within a night or two sat down to play at basset, as the Queen, her predecessor, used to do." Even her panegyrist, Bishop Burnet, admits that he could not witness the unseemly levity of the Queen's conduct without

censure.

Whitehall, convenient as was its situation, and magnificent as were its apartments, was never fancied by the King as a residence. It seems doubtful, indeed, whether he ever passed a night within its walls. Whitehall, in fact, may be said to have ceased to exist with the House of Stuart. 1697, nearly the whole of this magnificent structure, which contained upwards of a thousand apartments, was consumed by fire.

In

The Banqueting House, and a room or two said to have been occupied by Oliver Cromwell, lately forming part of the Exchequer Office, and now in the occupation of the Board of Trade, are all that remain to us of the ancient palace.

On the site of the present Council Office and Treasury was situated the ancient Cock-pit of the palace of Whitehall, where our sovereigns enjoyed the cruel sports which were the delight of their age. The Cock-pit subsequently became an integral part of the palace of Whitehall, and was inhabited from time to time by several celebrated persons. From one of its windows, overlooking St. James's Park, Philip Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery saw his unfortunate master, Charles the First, walk to his execution at Whitehall. Here the wife of Oliver Cromwell was living at the time her husband was absent on his Scottish campaign. Here at the time of the Restoration resided George Monk, Duke of Albemarle, and here, on the 3rd of January,

1670, he died. In 1673 it was occupied by the second and witty George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham.

Charles the Second, towards the close of his reign, conferred the apartments in the Cock-pit on his niece, the Princess Anne of Denmark, afterwards Queen Anne. Here she was residing at the time of the Revolution of 1688, and hence, on the approach of the Prince of Orange to London, she fled at midnight down the back stairs in "her nightgown and slippers," with only the celebrated Sarah Duchess of Marlborough for her companion. A few years afterwards, owing to the harsh conduct of King William, and of her sister, Queen Mary, she was again compelled to quit the Cock-pit. Lord Dartmouth, speaking of the compulsory removal of the Princess from Whitehall, observes-" She was carried in a sedan to Sion-being then with child, without any guard or decent attendance-where she miscarried, and all people forbid waiting; which was complied with by everybody but the Duke of Somerset, whose house she was in, and Lord Rochester, who was her uncle." The Princess subsequently removed to Berkeley House, Piccadilly, where she remained till the death of her sister, having become reconciled to King William.

It seems to have been very early in the last century that a part of the Cock-pit was converted into the Privy Council Office. Here, during the reign of Queen Anne, was the office of the celebrated Godolphin, and of the no less celebrated Harley Earl of Oxford. Here, in full council, Guiscard made his attempt on the life of Harley. Here the assassin himself fell pierced with many wounds, of which he afterwards died in Newgate; and, lastly, here it was that Bishop Atterbury underwent his memorable examination before the Privy Council previously to his committal to the Tower.

In the "New View of London," printed in 1708, the Cock

pit is described as extending "between the gate into King Street, Westminster, and the gate by the Banqueting House." The same year also we find the Treasury spoken of as being "kept at the Cock-pit near Whitehall." Till a late period in the last century the Treasury letters and minutes were headed "Cock-pit.”

THE THAMES AT LONDON.

THE THAMES IN ANCIENT TIMES.-OLD PALACE OF WHITEHALL.-NORTHUMBERLAND, YORK, DURHAM, SALISBURY, WORCESTER, AND SOMERSET HOUSES.TEMPLE GARDEN.-ALSATIA.- BRIDEWELL.—BAYNARD'S CASTLE.

QUEENHITHE.-BANKSIDE.-WATER PROCESSIONS.

PROC

ROCEEDING from Westminster down the river to the Tower, let us note, as we pass along, a few of the more remarkable places associated with the history of the past. Let us recall the time when the Thames was the great thoroughfare-the "silent highway," as it has been styled-between London and Westminster; when its banks were adorned with a succession of stately palaces and fair gardens; and when it was crowded with gilded barges covered with silken awning, and with a thousand wherries freighted with hooded churchmen, grave merchants, and laughing beauty.

"Heave and how, rumbelow".

was the ancient chorus of the London watermen in the days of the Plantagenets; from which time to as late as the reign of Charles the First, we find this peculiar race famous for keeping time to their oars with some characteristic song.

"Row the boat, Norman, row to thy leaman,"

was the first line of a song composed by the London water