traits of the same period. Two doorways lead from this room into the House of Peers.

The principal storey of the river front is occupied by the libraries of the Lords and Commons, their committee-rooms, and by a conference-room, where, in case of a difference between the two houses, deputations from each meet to discuss the matter. The Speaker's residence is at the clock-tower end of the palace; the Usher of the Black Rod and the Lords' Librarian have residences at the other end. To each chamber is attached a refreshment-room.

The number of statues in and about the building is between 400 and 500; those which are part of the architectural design have been executed by Mr. Thomas.

St. Stephen's Cloisters, built by Henry VIII., adjoin the east side of Westminster Hall, from which there is a door leading to them, but its use is limited to members of the House of Commons. They are only on a small scale, 63 feet by 49, but are beautifully ornamented with groining and tracery. They were restored by Sir C. Barry, and an upper storey added, to replace one that had been destroyed. A small chapel or oratory projects from the middle of the western arcade, between two of the buttresses of the hall, and terminates in an apsis. Although these cloisters are not symmetrical with the modern buildings, as will be perceived from the plan, their destruction could not be thought of for a moment, and the architect received instructions to incorporate them as best he could with the new structure. Another interesting relic which escaped the fire is St. Stephen's Crypt, under the modern St. Stephen's Hall. It was called St. Mary-in-the Vaults, or St. Mary-undercroft. The exact date of its erection does not seem to be known, but it appears that Henry III. here married his sister, Eleanor, to Simon de Montfort, his favourite. An old picture represents Caxton presenting his first printed book to Edward IV. in this place. The Commonwealth soldiers grossly ill-treated what had always been used up to that time as a chapel, destroying the altars and mutilating the crosses. It has lately undergone a complete restoration. Polished columns of Purbeck marble have replaced those which had been defaced, and the edifice is now used as a place of worship by the residents of the palace.

WESTMINSTER HALL was a part of the ancient royal palace of Westminster, and was originally built by William Rufus.

It

was rebuilt, some say only repaired, but raised two feet, by Richard II. between 1395 and 1399; but all the exterior as we now see it, saving the north porch and window, is modern work. The interior, or the greater part of it, is ancient. Little of the exterior can be seen, for one side is concealed by the modern courts of law; the other, the south end, by Barry's new Houses of Parliament. It is in the perpendicular style, and is striking for its size and its rich roof of oak (not of chestnut as usually stated). It is the largest room in Europe without pillars, with one exception, the great hall at Padua. The English hall measures internally 239 feet by 68 feet, the Italian hall 240 feet by 80. It is to be noticed that the upper half consists of timber, the walls being only about 21 feet high. Observe on the string course which passes round the hall below the windows, Richard the Second's device of the couchant hart, and the hammer beams of the roof carved with angels bearing shields. The dormer windows were added in 1820, previous to the coronation of George IV., at which time the roof was thoroughly repaired, and forty loads of oak from old ships were consumed on renewing parts that had decayed, and furnishing a portion of the north end, which had been left incomplete. The lead had been stripped from the roof in order to lighten the pressure, and slates substituted. The hall forms a grand entrance to the Houses of Parliament and the courts of law. The great south window was removed by Barry, and placed in an enlarged form in St. Stephen's porch, facing the steps at the south end of the hall.

This noble edifice has been the scene of many royal banquets and ceremonies. Richard II. gave a great feast on its completion, and not long afterwards he was here formally deposed, and sentenced to perpetual banishment. Cromwell, seated on the ancient coronation chair, "under a prince-like canopy of state,' was here inaugurated Lord Protector; a few years passed and then his head, along with those of Ireton and Bradshaw, was placed upon the south gable, and there Cromwell's remained twenty years. In the roof were hung banners and ensigns taken on the fields of Naseby, Worcester, Preston, Dunbar, and Blenheim. In the hall great trials have taken place. Wallace was tried in the old hall. In this Sir Thomas More, the Protector Somerset, Devereux, Earl of Essex, Guy Fawkes and his fellowconspirators, the infamous Earl and Countess of Somerset, and the Earl of Stafford, were tried and condemned. A grander

occasion was that when Charles I. faced his judges. At a later period, the seven bishops, Dr. Sacheverel, the Earl of Derwentwater, and the rebel lords of Scotland, Kilmarnock, Balmerino, and Lovat, were tried here. The rafters have rung with the wonderful eloquence of Burke, Fox, and Sheridan, before a crowd of noble and beautiful auditors, when the deeds of Warren Hastings in India were laid before the world. The last trial that took place was Lord Melville's, when he was impeached by the Commons in 1806. George IV. gave his coronation banquet here to 334 guests, when Dymock, the King's champion, clad in armour, rode into the hall, and throwing down his gauntlet, challenged the world to gainsay the King's title, a ceremony which a Dymock had gone through at the coronation of Richard II., claiming the privilege as successor of the Marmions in the ownership of the manor of Scrivelsby in Lincolnshire.