Wolsey. It was originally erected by that powerful nobleman, Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent and Lord High Justiciary of England, in the troublous times of Henry the Third. It was bequeathed by him to the Black Friars of Holborn; and, after a short interval, sold by them to the Archbishop of York. It remained the residence of the prelates of that see, and bore their name, until the time of Wolsey; after whose fall it was seized by the all-grasping Henry, and made an appendage to the royal palace of Westminster, which extended, along the banks of the river, from hence to the Houses of Parliament.

In Elizabeth's time there were great doings here on several occasions, as the curious reader may see in the pages of Holinshed and Stowe. Fortresses and bowers were made for this "perfect beautie,” — a red-haired woman of forty-nine, which were vigorously attacked by knights representing Desire, typical of the great admiration her personal charms, more than the majesty of her station, excited. Tournaments were also instituted, together with maskings and revels, and various other mummeries.

In the time of her successor the old palace had become so ruinous that it was determined

to rebuild it. James the First intrusted the design to Inigo Jones, who built the edifice now known by the name of the Banqueting House, a representation of which is given below, and which was only intended as a part, and a very small one, of a more magnificent conception. The palace was to have consisted of four fronts, each with an entrance between two square towers. towers. Within were to have been one large central court and five smaller ones, and between two of the latter was to have been a handsome circus, with an arcade below. whole length of the palace was to have been 1152 feet, and its depth 874 feet. The times which succeeded those of James

vourable for such designs and

The

were not fa

expenses as

52

CHAPTER III.

Westminster Bridge.-The Houses of Parliament.-Anecdote of James the First.-Westminster Abbey.-Lambeth Palace.-Flight of Queen Mary D'Este.-Palaces and Hovels. Vauxhall Gardens. - Sports at Battersea. Evans the Astrologer. - Chelsea Hospital.- Reminiscences of Chelsea.-Battersea. A Song.-The River Wandle. The Mayor of Garratt.-Putney.-Anecdote of Cardinal Wolsey and his Fool.

STILL sailing up the stream, we

next pass under the arches of Westminster Bridge. This edi

fice was commenced in 1738, and

finished in 1750. The Corporation of London had a notion that it would injure the trade of the city; and while the bill relating to it underwent discussion in the legislature, they opposed it by every means in their power. For many years afterwards, London aldermen thought it pollution to go over it, and passed by it as saucily and with as much contempt as a dog would by a "stinking brock." So highly was the bridge esteemed by its projectors, that

they procured the admission of a clause into the act of Parliament, by which the punishment of death without benefit of clergy was declared against any one who should wilfully deface or injure it. Dogs also were kept off it with as much rigour as they are now excluded from Kensington Gardens. It does not appear, however, that dog or man was ever hanged either for defiling or defacing the precious

structure.

"O happy age! O good old times gone by!

Even dogs might howl, and pipe their sorrowing eye,
Were ye restored !"

And now we are clear of the bridge, the river opens out before us in a longer sweep, and we arrive in front of the open space opposite to Westminster Hall, known by the name of Palace Yard, so called from its having been the court of the old palace of Westminster. Of all the remarkable sites in England, this and its neighbourhood is doubtless the most remarkable; and no other place upon the Thames, not even the princely towers and purlieus of Windsor itself, can vie with these in the recollections they recall or the emotions which they excite. There stands yet -survivor amid calamity-the elegant Hall and the entrances to the Chief Courts of Jus

tice of this kingdom,-courts in which Gascoigne, More, Hale, Bacon, Camden, Holt, Coke, Mansfield, Eldon, Brougham, and a host of other eminent and learned men, have presided. There also are the ruins of the Houses of Lords and Commons, burnt down in the year 1834, where the liberties of England were gained, gradually but surely, through long centuries of doubt and darkness. There began the struggle for freedom, which never ceased till its object was won. There was heard the eloquent patriotism of all the patriots that have arisen in our land since the days of Pym, Holles, and Hampden ;-there was tyranny resisted by the tongue and the vote, stronger weapons in a right cause than the glaive or the gun; there was the right established-the wrong cast down-civilisation extended-and slavery abolished. There, in former days, were to be seen and heard a Cranmer, a Strafford, a Laud, and a Cromwell. Nearer our own age, a Marlborough, a Harley, a Walpole, a Bolingbroke, and a Chatham. Nearer still, a Pitt, a Fox, a Burke, a Grattan, and a Sheridan ; and (men of yesterday) a Canning, a Mackintosh, a Wilberforce, and a Romilly; with many others who have written their names for good or for evil on the page of his