"The cloud-capt towers, the gorgeous palaces, And, like the baseless fabric of a vision, Monument to Michael Drayton, a poet in Queen Elizabeth's reign, also erected by the same Anne Pembroke, Dorset and Montgomery, the epitaph in verse by Ben Jonson, and very fine. Tablet to Ben Jonson, erected in the reign of George II., a century after the poet's death. Honorary bust of Milton, erected in 1737, at the expense of Auditor Benson: "In the inscription," says Dr. Johnson, “Mr. Benson has bestowed more words upon himself than upon Milton;" a circumstance that Pope has called attention to in the Dunciad: "On Poets' tombs see Benson's titles writ." Honorary monument to Butler, author of Hudibras, erected in 1721, by John Barber, a printer and Lord Mayor of London. Grave of Sir William Davenant, with the short inscription, "O rare Sir William Davenant." Monument to Cowley, erected at the expense of the second and last Villiers, Duke of Buckingham; the epitaph by Sprat. Bust of Dryden, by Scheemacker, erected at the expense of Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham, the lines by Pope. Honorary monument to Shadwell, the antagonist of Dryden, erected by his son, Sir John Shadwell. Honorary monument to John Phillips, author of The Splendid Shilling, Cyder, &c., (d. 1708.) The bust of the author is here presented in relief, as in an arbour interwoven with apple, laurel, and vine branches. Monument of Matthew Prior, erected by himself as the last piece of human vanity. Prior, poet, statesman, &c., left £500 for the erection of this monument, the design of which was furnished by his friend Gibbs, architect of the portico of St. Martin's Church. On one side of the pedestal of the monument stands Thalia, with a flute; on the other, Clio with her book closed. Between them is a bust of the deceased, on a raised altar. The figures of Thalia and Clio were executed by Rysbrach; and the bust by Coysevox, was a present to the bard from Louis XIV. The epitaph was written by Dr. Friend. Monument to Nicholas Rowe, author of the Tragedy of Jane Shore, erected by his widow; epitaph by Pope. Monument to John Gay, author of the Beggar's Opera; the short and irreverent epitaph in front is his own composition : "Life is a jest, and all things show it; I thought so once; but now I know it !" the verses beneath it, are by Pope. Statue of Addison, by Sir Richard Westmacott, erected 1809. Honorary monument by Spang to Thomson, author of the Seasons, erected 1762, from the proceeds of a subscription edition of his works. The Seasons are carved upon the pedestal in basso relievo, to which a boy points, offering him a crown of laurel. At the feet of the figure of the poet, are the ancient harp and tragic mask. Honorary tablet to Oliver Goldsmith, by Nollekens; the Latin inscription by Dr. Johnson, who, in reply to a request that he would celebrate the fame of an author in the language in which he wrote, observed, that he never would consent to disgrace the walls of Westminster Abbey with an English inscription. Honorary monument to Gray, author of an Elegy in a Country Churchyard; the verse by Mason, the monument by Bacon, R.A. Honorary monument to Mason, the poet, and biographer of Gray; the inscription by Bishop Hurd. Honorary monument to Anstey, author. of the Bath Guide. Inscribed gravestone over Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Honorary bust of Robert Southey, by II. Weekes. Inscribed gravestone over Thomas Campbell, author of the Pleasures of Hope, and statue by W. C. Marshall, A.R.A. In that part of the South Transept not included in the Poets' Corner several monuments remain to be noticed. Monument to Isaac Casaubon, (d. 1614) the editor of Persius and Polybius. Monument to Camden, the great English antiquary, (d. 1623); the bust received the injury, which it still exhibits, when the hearse and effigy of Essex, the Parliamentary general, were destroyed in 1646, by some of the Cavalier party, who lurked at night in the Abbey to be revenged on the dead. White gravestone, in the centre of the transept, over the body of Old Parr, who died in 1635, at the great age of one hundred and fifty two, having lived in the reigns of ten princes, viz., Edward IV., Edward V., Richard III., Henry VII., Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary, Elizabeth, James I., and Charles I. Gravestone over the body of Thomas Chiffinch, closet-keeper to Charles II., (d. 1666). Monument to M. St. Evremont, a French epicurean wit, who fled to England to escape a government arrest in his own country, (d. 1703). Bust of Dr. Barrow, the great divine, (d. 1677). Gravestone over the body of the second wife of Sir Richard Steele, the "Prue" of his correspondence. Monument by Roubiliac, to John, Duke of Argyll & Greenwich, (d. 1743): the figure of Eloquence, with her supplicating hand and earnest brow is very masterly; Canova was struck with its beauty: he stood before it for some time, muttered his surprise in his native language, passed on, and returning in a few minutes, said, "That is one of the noblest statues I have seen in England." Monument by Roubiliac (his last work) to George Frederick Handel, the great musician, a native of Halle, in Lower Saxony, and long a resident in England (d. 1759). Honorary monument to Barton Booth, the original Cato in Addison's play. Honorary monument to Mrs. Pritchard, the actress, famous in Lady Macbeth, Zara, and Mrs. Oakley (d. 1768). Inscribed gravestones over the bodies of David Garrick and Samuel Johnson. Monument to David Garrick, by H. Webber, erected at the expense of Albany Wallis, the executor of Garrick. "The tribute of a friend," to the memory of David Garrick, the Roscius of the English stage. Garrick's throwing aside the curtain, which discovers a medallion of Shakespeare, is understood to indicate his unrivalled power in unveiling the beauties of his greatness. Inscribed gravestones over the remains of James Macpherson, the translator of Ossian; and of William Gifford, the editor of Ben Jonson and the Quarterly Review. The painted glass in the Abbey will be found to deserve a cursory inspection; the rich rose-window in the North Transept is old; the rose-window in the South Transept is the work of Messrs. Thomas Ward and J. H. Nixon, (1847). The figures are nearly three feet high, and the whole effect, for a modern window, most excellent. The wax-work exhibition, or the Play of the Dead Volks, as the common people called it, was discontinued in 1839. The exhibition originated in the old custom of making a life-like effigy in wax of the deceased—a part of the funeral procession of every great person, and of leaving the effigy over the grave as a kind of temporary monument. Some of these effigies were executed at great cost and with considerable skill. The effigy of La Belle Stuart, one of the last that was set up, was the work of a Mrs. Goldsmith. This kind of exhibition was found to be so profitable to the Dean and Chapter, that they manufactured effigies to add to the popularity of their series. The Abbey is open to public inspection between the hours of eleven and three generally; and also in the summer months between four and six in the afternoon. The public are not admitted to view the monuments on Good Friday, Christmas Day, or Fast Days, or during the hours of Divine Service. The Nave, Transept, and Cloisters are free. The charge for admission to the rest of the Abbey (through which you are accompanied by a guide) is sixpence each person. The entrance is at the south transept, better known as Poets' Corner. WESTMINSTER SCHOOL, Dean's yard, close to the Abbey, is a royal foundation of great antiquity, and was formerly called St. Peter's College, where forty boys, called Queen's scholars, and an unlimited number of other boys are educated and prepared for the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. In addition to a first-rate classical education, the school has the advantage of four studentships to Christchurch, Oxford; and three or four scholarships to Trinity College, Cambridge, every year; the emoluments arising from which, the students retain as long as they continue unmarried. The candidates for Queen's Scholars (who alone are eligible for the presentations to the universities) are elected from amongst the boys in the school, no patronage, except ability and good conduct, being necessary. Here, in conformity with an old custom, just before the Christmas holidays, the Queen's Scholars perform a play of Terence, with a Latin prologue and epilogue, new on each occasion, for the amusement of their friends, who are invited; a contribution being afterwards made for the Captain, or head boy, to promote his progress through one of the universities. A school oration on Dr. South was pirated in 1716 by the notorious Edmund Curll, and printed with false Latin. The boys accordingly invited him to Westminster to get a corrected copy, and first whipped him, and then tossed him in a blanket. There is a curious poem on the subject, with three representations, of the blanket, the scourge, and Curll upon his knees. After the Reformation, this school was refounded by Queen Elizabeth, and has produced men in each succeeding age, who by their talents have shed lustre upon their country, and done honour to the foundation from which their education was derived. Ben Jonson, George Herbert, Giles Fletcher, Jasper Mayne, William Cartwright, Cowley, Dryden, Nat Lee, Rowe, Prior, Churchill; Dyer, author of Grongar Hill, Cowper, Southey, Sir Harry Vane the younger; Hakluyt, the collector of the Voyages which bear his name; Sir Christopher Wren, Locke, South, Atterbury, Warren Hastings, Gibbon the Historian, Cumberland and the elder Colman were all scholars at Westminster. The Westminster Improvements have introduced a picturesque pile of houses in the Broad Sanctuary, contiguous to the Abbey and fronting the Hospital. These houses have been erected in pursuance of certain Acts for the improvement of Westminster, and in consequence of the clearing away of several small and mean streets, which till within the last few years encumbered the space westward of the Abbey. The erection is paid for out of the funds obtained for the compulsory sale of other property required for the improvements of Westminster. The architect is Mr. G. G. Scott, F.S.A. The mass of building consists of eight houses, one of which forms the Gate Tower to Dean's Yard. The houses are in every way suited to the convenience and requirements of modern residence and possess a very considerable amount of accommodation. The bold Gatehouse in the centre gives the whole at first sight somewhat of the appearance of a public building; but the architect has attempted to obviate this, by endeavouring to make the subdivision into individual houses as evident as possible, and by giving considerable variety of feature to the different parts. The corner oriel commanding a view down four streets, is a novelty in English street-architecture. New Victoria street, Westminster, leading from the Abbey to Shaftesbury Crescent, Pimlico, will be, when completed, one of the greatest improvements in the Metropolis. WESTMINSTER HOSPITAL, Broad Sanctuary, is an Elizabethan Gothic edifice, erected in 1832, from the designs of Mr. Inwood, The Hospital was instituted in 1719, and was the first in this Kingdom established and supported by voluntary contributions. It has accommodation for two hundred in-door patients. In 1844 there were 1546 in, and 7965 out-patients. Proceeding up Parliament street, and diverging a little to the right, in Cannon street we find the BOARD OF CONTROL, or Board of the Commissioners for superintending the political affairs of the East India Government, and having a discretionary authority correlative with, and in some cases beyond that of the East India Company. The building is composed of brick and stone, and was originally erected for the new Transport Office. The chairman of the Board of Control is always a member of the Cabinet. Returning to Parliament street and continuing our course in a northerly direction we arrive at THE TREASURY, situated on our left at the corner of Downing street and Whitehall. This large range of building, between the Horse Guards on one side and Downing street on the other, derived its name from being the office of the Lord High Treasurer; an office of great importance first put into commission in 1612, on Lord Salisbury's death, and so continued with few exceptions till the present time. The last Lord Treasurer was the Duke of Shrewsbury, in the reign of Queen Anne, but the last acting Lord Treasurer was the Duke's predecessor, Lord Harley, Earl of Oxford, the friend of Pope and Swift. This department is now under Lords Commissioners, the First Lord being the Premier or Prime Minister of the country for the time being. The Lord High Treasurer used formerly to carry a white staff, as the mark of his office. The royal throne still remains at the head of the Treasury table. The present façade, of handsome Italian architecture towards the street, was built, (1846-7) by Sir Charles Barry, R.A. to replace a heavy and somewhat incongruous front with two colonnades, the work of Sir John Soane." The offices of the Privy Council, of which the Board of Trade is a special department, are located in distinct portions of this building. Adjacent to the latter, and nearer to Charing Cross, is the office of the Secretary of State for the Home Department. The Foreign and Colonial Offices, respectively presided over by principal Secretaries of State, are in Downing street. THE HORSE GUARDS, in which all that relates to the organization and disposition of the army is conducted, under the General Commanding-in-Chief, is situated immediately facing the Banqueting House, Whitehall, its rear looking out upon St. James's Park. It consists of a guard-house and public building, where the Commander-in-Chief, the Adjutant-General, and Quarter-Master-General have their offices. It was built about 1753 by Vardy, after a design by Kent. Ludlow is the first who mentions the Horse Guards at Whitehall. Though a striking feature in its way, with a cupola-topped clock-tower, the style of its architecture is neither classical nor elegant. The archway under it forms a principal entrance to St. James's park from the East; but the entrée for carriages is permitted only to royal and other personages having leave. At each side of the entrance facing Whitehall two mounted cavalry soldiers do duty every day from ten until four, who are relieved every two hours, and form a guard of honour to the Commander-in-Chief. The sovereigns of this country had no standing army before the reign of Charles II., the band of Gentlemen-Pensioners forming the only body-guard of the sovereign before the Restoration. In 1676, King Charles II. had four regiments of foot, and four of horse. The "King's Regiment of Foot" consisted of twenty-four companies, commanded by Colonel Russell, (the Colonel Russell of De |