regicides, and what he states, simply and straightforwardly, is confirmed by an engraving of the execution, published at Amsterdam in the same year, and by the following memorandum made by Vertue, on the copy of Terasson's large engraving of the Banqueting-house, preserved in the library of the Society of Antiquaries:-"It is, according to the truest reports, said that out of this window K. Charles went upon the scaffold to be beheaded, the window-frame being taken out purposely to make the passage on to the scaffold, which is equal to the landing-place of the Hall within side." The window marked by Vertue belonged to a small building abutting from the north side of the present Banquetinghouse. From this window, then, the King stept upon the scaffold.

The ceiling of the Banqueting-house is lined with pictures on canvas, representing the apotheosis of James I., painted abroad by Rubens, in 1635. Kneller had heard that Rubens was assisted by Jordaens in the execution. The sum he received was 3000l. "What," says Walpole, "had the Banqueting-house been if completed! Van Dyck was to have painted the sides with the history and procession of the Order of the Garter." To be seen at all, they must be viewed from the south end of the apartment. Within, and over the principal entrance, is a bust, in bronze, of James I., by, it is said, Le Sour. The Banqueting-house was converted into a chapel in the reign of George I., and realtered as we now see it, between 1829 and 1837, by Sir Robert Smirke. It has never been consecrated. Here, on every Maunday Thursday, (the day before Good Friday,) the Queen's eleemosynary bounty (a very old custom) is distributed to poor and aged men and women.

The statue of James II., behind the Banqueting-house, was the work of Grinling Gibbons, and was set up while the King was reigning, at the charge of an old servant of the crown called Tobias Rustat. The King, it is said, is pointing to the spot where his father was executed; and this vulgar error, though exposed long ago, is still repeated. Nothing can illustrate better the mild character of the Revolution of 1688, than the fact that the statue of the abdicated and exiled King was allowed to stand, and still stands, in the innermost court-yard of what was once his own Palace.

4. KENSINGTON PALACE is a large and irregular edifice, originally the seat of Heneage Finch, Earl of Nottingham and Lord Chancellor of England; whose son, the second earl, sold it to King William III., soon after his accession to

the throne. The lower portion of the building was part of Lord Nottingham's house; the higher story was added by William III., from the designs of Wren, and the N.W. angle by George II., as a Nursery for his children. William III. and Queen Mary, Queen Anne, her husband Prince George of Denmark, and King George II., all died in this Palace. Her present Majesty was born in it, (1819,) and here (1837) she held her first Council. The Duke of Sussex, son of George III., lived, died, and had his fine library in this Palace. The Orangery, a very fine detached room, was built by Wren. The last memorable interview between Queen Anne and the Duchess of Marlborough took place in this palace. The collection of pictures (long famous and still known as the Kensington Collection to the readers of Walpole), has been removed to other palaces; and the kitchen-garden has recently been built over with two rows of detached mansions, called "Palace-gardens." The chief attraction inside is a collection of early German art, formed, with taste and knowledge, by his Royal Highness Prince Albert, to which admission may be obtained by writing to L. Grüner, Esq., 13, Fitzroy-square.

HOUSES OF THE PRINCIPAL NOBILITY AND
GENTRY.

LAMBETH PALACE, or LAMBETH HOUSE, on the S. side of the Thames over-against the Palace at Westminster, has been the palace of the Archbishops of Canterbury from at least the 13th century, and contains various gradations in its architecture, from Early English to late Perpendicular. The Chapel, the oldest part, was built by Boniface, Archbishop of Canterbury, (1244-70). It is Early English, with lancet windows and a crypt. The roof is new. There is an oak screen with the arms of Archbishop Laud, by whom it was erected. Before the altar is the grave of Archbishop Parker, (d. 1575). In this chapel all the archbishops have been consecrated since the time of Boniface. The stained glass windows were destroyed in the Civil Wars, and are feelingly lamented by Laud in the History of his Troubles. The glass now in the windows was placed at the expense of the last Archbishop (Howley). The Lollards' Tower at the W. end of the chapel was built by Archbishop Chicheley, in the years 1434-45, and so called from the Lollards, who are said (incorrectly, it is now ascertained) to have been imprisoned in it. On the front facing the river is a niche, in which was placed the image of St. Thomas; and at the top is a small room (13

feet by 12, and about 8 feet high) called the prison, wainscotted with oak above an inch thick, on which several names and broken sentences in old characters are cut, as 06 Chessam Doctor," "Petit Iouganham," "Ihs cyppe me out of all el compane, amen," ," "John Worth," "Nosce Teipsum," &c. The large iron rings in the wall (eight in number) seem to sanction the supposed appropriation of the room. The Post-room in this tower contains an ornamented flat ceiling, of uncommon occurrence. The Gate-house, of red brick, with stone dressings, is said to have been built by Archbishop Morton, Cardinal and Lord Chancellor, (d. 1500). The Hall, 93 feet by 38, was built by Archbishop Juxon, the bishop who attended Charles I. to the scaffold. Over the door (inside) are the arms of Juxon, and the date 1663. The roof is of oak, with a louvre or lantern in the centre for the escape of smoke. The whole design is Gothic in spirit, but poor and debased in its details. The bay window in the Hall contains the arms of Philip II. of Spain (the husband of Queen Mary); of Archbishops Bancroft, Laud, and Juxon; and a portrait of Archbishop Chicheley. The Library, of about 25,000 volumes, and kept in the Hall, was founded by Archbishop Bancroft (d. 1610); enriched by Archbishop Abbot (d. 1633); and enlarged by Archbishops Tenison and Secker. One of its greatest curiosities is a MS. of Lord Rivers's translation of The Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers, containing an illumination of the earl introducing Caxton, the printer (it is said), to Edward IV., his Queen and Prince. The portrait of the Prince (afterwards Edward V.) is the only one known of him, and has been engraved by Vertue among the Heads of the Kings. Of the English books in the library printed before 1600, there is a brief but valuable catalogue by Dr. Maitland, many years librarian. The whole habitable Palace was erected by the last Archbishop (Howley) from the designs of Edward Blore, and contains a few good portraits, such as Archbishop Warham, by Holbein, (the picture really from his hand,) Archbishop Tillotson, by Mrs. Beale. The income of the Archbishop of Canterbury is 15,000l. a year. The church adjoining the red brick gateway of the Palace is the mother-church of Lambeth; here several Archbishops of Canterbury are buried; and here Tradescant and Ashmole are both interred-the former in the churchyard, with altartomb, the latter in the church with grave-stone.

LONDON HOUSE, No. 22, ST. JAMES'S SQUARE, the residence of the Bishop of London. It has no architectural pretensions. The income of the Bishop is above 15,000.

a year, but the bishop's successor will be fixed at 10,000%. The house belongs to the See.

APSLEY HOUSE, HYDE PARK CORNER. The London residence, 1820-1852, of Field Marshal the Duke of Wellington, built by Henry Bathurst, Baron Apsley, Earl Bathurst, and Lord High Chancellor, (d. 1794,) the son of Pope's friend. The house, originally of red brick, was faced with Bath stone in 1828, when the front portico and the W. wing, containing on the upper stories a gallery 90 feet long, (to the W.,) were added for the great Duke by Messrs. S. & B. Wyatt; but the old house is intact. The iron blinds-bullet-proof it is said -were put up by the Duke during the ferment of the Reform Bill, when his windows were broken by a London mob. They were the first of the kind, and have since been generally copied.

Observe.-George IV., full-length, in a Highland costume (Wilkie).— William IV., full-length (Wilkie).-Sarah, the first Lady Lyndhurst (Wilkie). This picture was penetrated by a stone in the Reform Riot, but the injury has been skilfully repaired.-Emperor Alexander.-Kings of Prussia, France, and the Netherlands, full-lengths. Full lengths of Lord Lynedoch, Marquis of Anglesey, Marquis Wellesley, &c.-Head of Soult. Two full length portraits of Napoleon, one consulting a map. -Bust of Sir Walter Scott (Chantrey).-Bust of Pitt (Nollekens).-Bust of Duke (Nollekens). Small bronze of Blucher (Rauch).-Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon in the foreground (Sir W. Allan). The Duke bought this picture at the Exhibition; he is said to have called it "good, very good, not too much smoke."-Many portraits of Napoleon, one by David, extremely good.-Wilkie's Chelsea Pensioners reading the Gazette of the Battle of Waterloo, painted for the Duke.-Burnet's Greenwich Pensioners celebrating the Anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar, bought of Burnet by the Duke. Portraits of veterans in both pictures.-Van Amburgh and the Lions (Sir E. Landseer).-Highland Whiskey Still (Ditto).-Meet at Melton Mowbray (F. Grant).-Colossal marble statue of Napoleon, by Canova, with a figure of Victory on a globe in his hand, presented in 1817 to the Duke by the Prince Regent.-Bust of Pauline Buonaparte (Canova), a present from Canova to the Duke.-Christ on the Mount of Olives (Correggio,) the most celebrated picture of Correggio in this country; on panel, and captured in Spain, in the carriage of Joseph Buonaparte; restored by the captor to Ferdinand VII., but with others, under like circumstances, again presented to the Duke by that sovereign. An Annunciation, after M. Angelo, of which the original drawing is in the Uffizj at Florence.-The Adoration of the Shepherds (Sogliani).--The Water-seller (Velasquez).-Two fine portraits by Velasquez, (his own portrait, and portrait of Pope Innocent X.)A fine Spagnoletti.-Small sea-piece, by Claude.-A large and good Jan Steen (a Wedding Feast, dated 1667).-A Peasant's Wedding (Teniers).— Boors Drinking (A. Ostade).-The celebrated Terburg (the Signing the Peace of Westphalia), from the Talleyrand Collection. Singularly enough, this picture hung in the room in which the allied sovereigns signed the treaty of Paris, in 1814.-A fine Philip Wouvermans (the Return from the Chase). View of Veght, Vanderheyden.

The Crown's interest in the house was sold to the great Duke for the sum of 9530l.; the Crown reserving a right to forbid the erection of any other house or houses on the site.

Marshal Soult, when ambassador from France at the Queen's Coronation, was entertained by the Duke in this house. The room in which the Waterloo banquet was held every 18th of June is the great west room on the drawing-room floor, with its seven windows looking into Hyde Park.

NORTHUMBERLAND HOUSE, CHARING CROSS, the town-house of the Duke of Northumberland, (with rich central gateway, surmounted by the Lion crest of the Percies,) and so called after Algernon Percy, Earl of Northumberland, (d. 1668,) the subject of more than one of Van Dyck's finest portraits. It was built by Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, (son of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, the poet,) Bernard Jansen and Gerard Christmas being, it is said, his architects. The Earl of Northampton left it, in 1614, to his nephew, Thomas Howard, Earl of Suffolk, (father of the memorable Frances, Countess of Essex and Somerset,) when it received the name of Suffolk House, by which name it was known until the marriage, in 1642, of Elizabeth, daughter of Theophilus, second Earl of Suffolk, with Algernon Percy, tenth Earl of Northumberland, who bought the house of James, Earl of Suffolk, for 15,000l., and called it Northumberland House. Josceline Percy, eleventh Earl of Northumberland, (son of the before-mentioned Algernon Percy,) dying in 1670, without issue male, Northumberland House became the property of his only daughter, Elizabeth Percy, heiress of the Percy estates, afterwards married to Charles Seymour, commonly called the proud Duke of Somerset. The Duke and Duchess of Somerset lived in great state and magnificence in Northumberland House, for by this title it still continued to be called, as the name of Somerset was already attached to an older inn or London town-house in the Strand. The duchess died in 1722, and the duke, dying in 1748, was succeeded by his eldest son, Algernon, Earl of Hertford and seventh Duke of Somerset, created (1749) Earl of Northumberland, with remainder, failing issue male, to Sir Hugh Smithson, Bart., husband of his only daughter, which Sir Hugh was raised to the Dukedom of Northumberland in 1766. The present duke (1853) is the grandson of this Sir Hugh Smithson, Duke of N. The house originally formed three sides of a quadrangle, (a kind of main body with wings,) the fourth side remaining open to the gardens and river. The principal apartments were on the Strand side; but after the estate became the property of the Earl of Suffolk, the quadrangle was completed by a side towards the Thames. The date, 1749, on the façade, refers to the work of repara