Part 4 (1/2)
”At the north and south ends of the house, above the gallery, are three compartments, corresponding in size and shape to the windows, and containing fresco paintings. Those at the north end are 'the Spirit of Religion,' by J.C. Horsley; 'the Spirit of Chivalry' and 'the Spirit of Justice,' by D. Maclise, R.A. Those at the south end, over the throne, are 'the Baptism of Ethelbert,' by Dyce; 'Edward III. conferring the Order of the Garter on the Black Prince,' and 'the Committal of Prince Henry by Judge Gascoigne,' by C.W. Cope, R.A. Between the windows are richly-decorated niches and canopies, which are to have bronze statues in them. In casting the eye round the whole room, it is almost impossible to detect scarcely a square inch which is not either carved or gilded. The ceiling, with its ma.s.sive gilded and decorated panels, presents a most imposing and gorgeous effect, and one of truly royal splendor. The St. Stephen's Hall is ninety-five feet long, thirty feet wide, and sixty feet high; the roof is stone-groined, springing from cl.u.s.tered columns running up the side of the hall. The bosses, at the intersections of the main ribs, are carved in high relief, with incidents descriptive of the life of Stephen.
”This hall leads through a lofty archway into the central hall, which is octagon in plan, having columns at the angles, from which spring ribs forming a grand stone groin finis.h.i.+ng in the centre, with an octagon lantern, the bosses at the intersections of all the ribs elaborately carved. The size of this hall is sixty-eight feet in diameter, and it is sixty feet to the crown of the groin.”
The House of Commons, which is now in the course of completion, is quite a contrast to the splendor of the House of Lords. Its length is eighty-four feet; width, forty-five feet; and height, forty-three feet.
An oak gallery runs all round the house, supported by posts at intervals, having carved heads, and spandrills supporting the main ribs.
The strangers' gallery is at the south end, in front of which is the speaker's order gallery. At the north end is the reporters' gallery, over which is the ladies' gallery--being behind a stone screen. The libraries are fine rooms, looking out on the river. I have no time to tell you of the beautiful refreshment rooms, excepting to say that the one for the peers is one hundred feet long. I must not forget to say that in the tower is to be a wondrous clock, the dial of which is to be thirty feet in diameter! We went to see these buildings by an order from the lord chamberlain. The total cost is estimated at between eight and ten millions of dollars. It certainly is very rich, and looks finely from the river; but it is unfortunately too near to the abbey, and wants force. After leaving the Houses of Parliament, we went to Westminster Hall, which has some of the finest historical recollections connected with any public building in England. Really, I felt more awe in entering this hall than I ever remember to have experienced. I cannot tell you the size of it, but it is the largest room in Europe without a support, and the span of the roof is the widest known. The roof, of chestnut, is exceedingly fine. Only think, my dear fellow, what events have transpired on this spot. The following trials took place here: Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, for high treason, 1521; Sir Thomas More, 1535; Duke of Somerset, for treason, 1552; Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, for his attachment to Mary, Queen of Scots; Robert Devereux, Earl of Ess.e.x, 1601, and Earl of Southampton; Guy Fawkes and the Gun-powder Plot conspirators; Robert Carr, Earl of Southampton, and his countess, for murder of Sir Thomas Overbury, 1616; Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, 1641; Archbishop Laud; Charles I., for his attacks upon the liberties of his country, 1649; the seven bishops, in the reign of James II.; Dr.
Sacheverel, 1710; in 1716, the Earls Derwent.w.a.ter, Nithisdale, and Carnwath, and the Lords Widdington, Kenmure, and Nairn, for the rebellion of 1715; Harley, Earl of Oxford, 1717; the Earls Cromartie and Kilmarnock, and Lord Balmerino, 1746, for the rebellion of 1745; Lord Lovat, 1747; William Lord Byron, for the death of William Chaworth in a b.l.o.o.d.y duel, 1765; Lord Ferrers, for the murder of his steward; the infamous d.u.c.h.ess of Kingston, for bigamy, 1776; and Warren Hastings, for cruelty in his office as Governor of India, 1788.
And besides all this, here have been the coronation feasts of all England's monarchs, from William Rufus, who built it in 1099, down to George IV., 1820. Sad times and merry ones have been here. We stepped from the hall into the courts of law, which have entrances from this apartment, and we saw the lord chancellor on the bench in one, and the judges sitting in another. The courts were small, and not very imposing in their appearance.
Yours truly,
JAMES.
Letter 13.
LONDON.
DEAR CHARLEY:--
O, we have had a n.o.ble treat; and how I longed for your company, as we spent hour after hour in the British Museum. The building is very fine, but the inside--that is every thing. The entire front is, I think, about four hundred feet, and I reckoned forty-four columns forming a colonnade; these are forty-five feet high. The portico is now receiving magnificent sculpture in relief; and when the whole is finished, and the colossal statues surmount the pediment, and the fine iron palisadoes, now erecting, are completed, I think the edifice will be among the finest in the world. The entrance hall is most imposing, and the ceiling is richly painted in encaustic. The staircases are very grand, and their side walls are cased with red Aberdeen granite, brought to an exquisite polish. To describe the British Museum would be a vain attempt. In the hall are several fine statues. Especially did we admire the one of Shakspeare by Roubilliac, and given by Garrick. We soon found our way to the Nineveh Gallery, and were wide awake to look after the relics of Nineveh dug up by Layard on the banks of the Tigris. Here is a monstrous human head, having bull's horns and ears, many fragments of horses'
heads, bulls, &c., &c. The colossal figure of the king is very grand, and discovers great art. There is also a fine colossal priest, and the war sculptures are of the deepest interest. Then we went to the Lycian Room. The sculptures here were found at Xanthus, in Lycia. These ruins claim a date of five hundred years before Christ. Here are some exquisite fragments of frieze, describing processions, entertainments, sacrifices, and female figures of great beauty.
In the Grand Saloon are numerous Roman remains of sculpture. In the Phigalian Saloon are marbles found at a temple of Apollo, near Phigalia, in Arcadia, in 1814. The Elgin Saloon is devoted to the magnificent marbles taken in 1804, from temples at Athens, by the Earl of Elgin, and were purchased by Parliament for thirty-five thousand pounds. They are chiefly ornaments from the Parthenon, a Doric temple built in the time of Pericles, B.C. 450, by Phidias. No one can fail to be impressed with the great beauty of these conceptions. The famous Sigean inscription is written in the most ancient of Greek letters, boustrophedon-wise; that is, the lines follow each other as oxen turn from one furrow to another in ploughing.
There are five galleries devoted to natural history, and are named thus: the Botanical Museum, Mammalia Gallery, Eastern Zoological Gallery, Northern Zoological Gallery, and the Mineral Gallery. The specimens in all these are very fine. Nothing can be finer than the mammalia. The preservation has been perfect, and far surpa.s.ses what I have been accustomed to see in museums, where decay seems to be often rioting upon the remains of nature. The department of ornithology is wonderful, and I could have enjoyed a whole day in examining the birds of all climates.
In conchology the collection is very rich. I do not often get such a gratification as I had among the portraits which are hanging on the walls of these galleries. The very men I had heard so much of, and read about, were here lifelike, painted by the best artists of their day. I was much pleased with the picture of Mary, Queen of Scots, by Jansen; of Cromwell, by Walker; of Queen Elizabeth, by Zucchero; of Charles II., by Lely; of Sir Isaac Newton; of Lord Bacon; of Voltaire; of John Guttenburg; and of Archbishop Cranmer. As to the library and the MSS., what shall I say? The collection of books is the largest in the kingdom, and valuable beyond calculation. It amounts to seven hundred thousand.
We looked at illuminated gospels, Bibles, missals, till we were bewildered with the gold and purple splendor; and then we walked from one gla.s.s case to another, gazing upon autographs that made us heart-sick when we thought of our juvenile treasures in this line. If ever I did covet any thing, it was some old sc.r.a.ps of paper which had the handwriting of Milton, Cromwell, Luther, Melancthon, Erasmus, and a long _et caetera_ of such worthies. You know how much we love medals and coins; well, here we revelled to our heart's delight. Country after country has its history here, beautifully ill.u.s.trated. The museum has two s.p.a.cious rooms devoted to reading, and the access to these treasures is very liberal.
If I could stay in London one year, I should certainly propose to spend three or four months in study and research at the British Museum; nor do I imagine that it would be lost time. It seems to me that such a place must make scholars; but I know, by my own painful recollection, that opportunities for improvement are not always valued as they should be. I have been much struck lately with the thought that men of leisure are not the men who do much in literature. It never has been so. Here and there a rich man cultivates his mind; but it is your busy men who leave the mark upon the age.
While in the museum, we were shown Lord Chief Justice Campbell, the author of the Lives of the Chancellors, &c. He is a working-man, if there be one in England, and yet he finds time to elaborate volume upon volume. I feel ashamed when I think how little I have acquired, how very little I know that I might have understood, and what immensely larger acquisitions have been made by those who have never enjoyed half my advantages. There is a boy, only fifteen, who resorts to this museum, and is said to understand its contents better than most of its visitors; and a livery servant, some few years ago, used to spend all his hours of leisure here, and wrote some excellent papers upon historical subjects.
If I have gained any good by my journey yet, it is the conviction, I feel growing stronger every day, that I must work, and that every one must work, in order to excel. It seems to me that we are in a fair way to learn much in our present tour, for every day's excursion becomes a matter of regular study when we come to our journal, which is now kept posted up daily, as a thing of course. We are trying, at all events, to make ourselves so familiar with the great attractions of London, that in future life we may understand the affairs of the city when we hear of them.
Yours affectionately,
WELD.
Letter 14.
LONDON.
DEAR CHARLEY:--