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CHAPTER IV.

ROYAL PALACES, AND MANSIONS OF THE NOBILITY.

ARCHITECTURE, the queen of the fine arts, attended by her handmaids, Painting and Sculpture, presents herself, by a prescriptive right, to the consideration and regard of the SOVEREIGN. Monarchs can best appreciate the utility and importance of this noble art-an art which, in imperial and great works combined, displays the mighty and fascinating powers of Painting and Sculpture of Music and Poetry.--Sir John Soane.

BUCKINGHAM PALACE,

Pimlico, the town residence of her Majesty, was built in 1825, from the designs of Mr. Nash, and occupies the site of Buckingham House, built in 1703, by Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham, and settled about seventy years ago on the Queen-consort, in lieu of Somerset House. The principal, or garden front, is three hundred and forty-five feet in length, ornamented with statues of Prudence, Temperance, Fortitude, Faith, Hope, and Charity; and has a terrace of the same extent, bounded by two conservatories, in the form of Ionic pavilions. The building, which originally occupied three sides of a square, has recently been enlarged by the addition of a fourth, fronting the Mall, in St. James's Park, from the designs of Mr. Blore, of the same length as the garden front. One central and two side archways give entrance to the new building

and to the court. There are twenty-three windows in each of the two upper stories; the entresol is lighted by panels over the windows of the ground floor; and the top story by openings in the freize of the entablature. The whole is crowned by a balustrade; the dies which form it into panels being each surmounted by an urn. The state apartments, staircases, &c. are on the grandest scale: the floors are of inlaid wood, dispersed in curious devices; and the door frames of richly sculptured marble; whilst the hangings, furniture, and ornaments are gorgeously resplendent.

Pall Mall, directly facing St. James'-street, was erected on the site of a hospital, founded some time before the

Norman Conquest, and subsequently surrendered to Henry VIII., who built a considerable portion of the palace as it now stands.

It is an irregular brick built building, and has little external pretension to palatial grandeur; although its internal accommodations are said to be superior to that of almost any other European palace Here her Majesty holds her levees and drawing rooms; and upon birth-day fetes, and other great state occasions, is exhibited a display of magnificence and splendour such as is not elsewhere to be seen.

The chapel-royal, at which her Majesty attends when in town, has a choral service; admission to which may be obtained by a small douceur to the attendants.

KENSINGTON PALACE

Is a spacious brick building, in the style of the early part of the last century; and is situated on the west side of picturesque grounds of about two hundred and eighty acres. It originally belonged to Lord Chancellor Finch, afterwards Earl of Nottingham, from whom it was purchased by William III., who resided at it; as also Queen Anne, and George I. and II. More recently it was the residence of the Duke and Duchess of Kent; and here her present Majesty spent her minority.

MARLBOROUGH HOUSE,

Pall Mall, was erected for the great Duke of Marlborough, as a mark of the nation's gratitude for his eminent services in the reign of Queen Anne. It has two wings, adorned with rustic stone work. It is at present appropriated to the display of the Vernon collection of pictures, until suitable apartments can be had in the National Gallery.

WHITEHALL.

The vast and magnificent edifice called Whitehall was originally built by Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent, before the middle of the thirteenth century. It afterwards devolved to the Archbishop of York, whence it received the name of York-place, and continued to be the town residence of the archbishops till purchased by Henry VIII. of Cardinal Wolsey, in 1530. At this period it became the residence of the court, but in 1697 all was destroyed by accidental fire, excepting the Banquetting House, which had been added to the palace of White

hall by James I., according to the extensive and magnificent designs of Inigo Jones, in 1619. This is a noble of hewn stone, adorned with an upper and lower range of pillars of the Ionic and composite orders; the capitals and the opening between the columns of the windows are enriched with fruit and foliage. The roof is covered with lead, and surrounded with a balustrade. The building chiefly consists of one room, of an oblong form, forty feet high; converted by George I. into a Chapel Royal, in which service is performed every Sunday morning and afternoon. In front of this edifice, on the 30th of January, 1648-9, Charles I. was beheaded, on a scaffold erected for the occasion, having passed to the scene of death through one of the windows.