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needs no more fear a crowd of lawyers than a crowd of pickpockets.-Wycherley, The Plain Dealer, 4to, 1676.

Colonel Standard. What! a soldier stay here. To look like an old pair of Colours in Westminster Hall, ragged and rusty.—Farquhar, The Constant Couple, 4to, 1707.

I remember, when I was a boy, I saw the Hall hung full on one side with colours and standards taken from the Scots at Worcester fight, but upon King Charles the Second his coming to his just right, all taken down.-Strype, B. vi. p. 49.

The late Mr. Jekyll told me that soon after he was called to the bar a strange solicitor coming up to him in Westminster Hall, begged him to step into the Court of Chancery to make a motion of course, and gave him a fee. The young barrister, looking pleased but a little surprised, the solicitor said to him, “I thought you had a sort of right, Sir, to this motion, for the bill was drawn by Sir Joseph Jekyll, your great grand-uncle, in the reign of Queen Anne."-Lord Campbell's Lives of the Chancellors.

October 27, 1621.—A high tide swept through Westminster Hall, and did much harm. Cal. State Papers, 1619-1623, p. 303.

March 1625.-The highest tide ever known has done great harm along the Thames side. Westminster Hall was three feet in water.-Cal. State Papers, 16231625, p. 497.

The Thames Embankment has effectually got rid of that danger; but as late as October 21, 1812, Speaker Abbot records in his Diary that

About half-past 2, returning to Palace Yard, I saw the tide rushing in. It soon rose to the door of Westminster Hall; flowed into it; and three or four boats full of men went into the Hall. The tide still continued to rise for three-quarters of an hour. It filled my Court Yard, and the horses were up to their bellies in water in the stable.-vol. ii. p. 406.

Besides the Law Courts, a part of Westminster Hall was taken up with the stalls of booksellers, law stationers, sempstresses, and dealers in toys and smallwares, the rents' and profits of which belonged by right of office to the Warden of the Fleet.1 The Hall was found on fire, Sunday, February 20, 1630-1631, "by the burning," as Laud records in his Diary, "of the little shops or stalls kept therein." In the curious account of Master [afterwards Sir] Henry Blount's Voyage into the Levant, made in 1634 (published 1638), he says that he gave one of the boys (pages) attached to the Turkish commander in the Danube, "a pocket looking-glass in a little ivory case, with a comb; such as are sold at Westminster Hall for four or five shillings a piece." January 20, 1659-1660.—At Westminster Hall, where Mrs. Lane and the rest of the maids had their white scarfs, all having been at the burial of a young bookseller in the Hall.-Pepys.

In Hall of Westminster

Sleek sempstress vends amidst the Courts her ware.

Wycherley, Epilogue to the Plain Dealer.

We entered into a great Hall where my Indian was surprised to see in the same place, men on the one side with baubles and toys, and on the other taken up with the fear of judgment, on which depends their inevitable destiny. In this shop are to be sold ribbons and gloves, towers and commodes by word of mouth: in another shop lands and tenements are disposed of by decree. On your left hand you hear a nimble-tongued painted sempstress with her charming treble invite you to buy some

1 Laud's Diary, p. 45; Strype, B. iii. p. 280.

of her knick-knacks, and on your right a deep-mouthed cryer, commanding impossibilities, viz., silence to be kept among women and lawyers.-Tom Brown's Amusements, etc., 8vo, 1700.

The duodecimo volume of Sir Walter Raleigh's Remains was printed in 1675, for Henry Mortlock, at the Phoenix in St. Paul's Churchyard, and at the White Hart in Westminster Hall.1

Let the spectator picture to himself the appearance which this venerable hall has presented on many occasions. Here were hung the banners taken from Charles I. at the battle of Naseby; 2 from Charles II. at the battle of Worcester; at Preston and Dunbar; and, somewhat later, those taken at the battle of Blenheim.5 Here, at the upper end of the hall, Oliver Cromwell was inaugurated as Lord Protector, sitting in a robe of purple velvet lined with ermine, on a rich cloth of state, with the gold sceptre in one hand, the Bible richly gilt and bossed in the other, and his sword at his side; and here, four years later, at the top of the hall fronting Palace Yard, his head was set on a pole, with the skull of Ireton on one side of it and the skull of Bradshaw on the other. Here shameless ruffians sought employment as hired witnesses, or to act as bail, and walked openly in the hall with a straw in the shoe to denote their quality; and here the good, the great, the brave, the wise and the abandoned have been brought to trial. Here (in the Hall of Rufus) Sir William Wallace was tried and condemned. Here, in this very hall, Sir Thomas More and the Protector Somerset were doomed to the scaffold. Here, in Henry VIII.'s reign (1517), entered the City apprentices implicated in the murders on "Evil May Day" of the aliens settled in London, each with a halter round his neck, and crying "Mercy, gracious Lord, mercy," while Wolsey stood by, and the King, beneath his cloth of state, heard their defence and pronounced their pardon-the prisoners shouting with delight and casting up their halters to the hall roof, "so that the King," as the chroniclers observe, "might perceive they were none of the discreetest sort." 7 Here too, on "a scaffold" erected for the purpose, took place, in the same presence, the trial of Queen Anne Boleyn. Here the notorious Earl and Countess of Somerset were tried in the reign of James I. for the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury. Here the great Earl of Strafford was condemned :

Each seemed to act the part he came to see,

And none was more a looker-on than he.-Sir John Denham. the King being present, and the Commons, sitting bareheaded all the time. Here the High Court of Justice sat which condemned King Charles I., the upper part of the hall hung with scarlet cloth, and the

1 There is an old engraving of the hall by Gravelot, representing the bookstalls.

2 Ludlow, Vevay ed., vol. i. p. 156. 3 Strype, B. vi. p. 49.

5 Whitelocke, p. 471.

4 Ibid.

6 Charity took to husband an eminent gentleman, whose name I cannot learn, but who was

famous for so friendly a disposition that he was bail for above a hundred persons in one year. He had likewise the remarkable humour of walking in Westminster Hall with a straw in his shoe.-Jonathan Wild, chap. ii.

7 Hall's Chronicle, ed. 1548, fol. lxi.

8 Sir E. Walker, p. 219.

King sitting covered, with the Naseby banners above his head. Here Lily, the astrologer, who was present, saw the silver top fall from the King's staff, and others heard Lady Fairfax exclaim, when her husband's name was called over, "He has more wit than to be here." Here, in the reign of James II., the seven bishops were acquitted. Here Dr. Sacheverel was tried and pronounced guilty by a majority of seventeen. Here the rebel Lords of 1745-Kilmarnock, Balmerino and Lovat— were heard and condemned. Here Lord Byron was tried for killing Mr. Chaworth; Lord Ferrers for murdering his steward; and the Duchess of Kingston, 1776, for bigamy. Here Warren Hastings was tried, and Burke and Sheridan grew eloquent and impassioned, while senators by birth and election, and the beauty and rank of Great Britain, sat earnest spectators and listeners of the extraordinary scene. The last public trial in the hall itself was Lord Melville's in 1806; and the last coronation dinner in the hall was that of George IV., when for the last time, probably, according to the custom maintained for ages, the King's champion (young Dymocke) rode on horseback into the hall in full armour, and threw down the gauntlet on the floor, challenging the world in a King's behalf.

At the upper end of Westminster Hall is a long marble stone of twelve foot in length and three foot in breadth. And there is also a marble chair, where the Kings of England formerly sate at their Coronation Dinners; and at other solemn times the Lord Chancellor. But now not to be seen, being built over by the two Courts of Chancery and King's Bench.-Strype, B. vi. p. 49.

Access to St. Stephen's Crypt at the sonth-east corner is by a flight of steps.

This noble hall is 290 feet long by 68 feet broad. It is said to be the largest apartment in the world not supported by pillars save the Hall of Justice at Padua, and railway stations. The floor was renewed by Sir Charles Barry, R.A., to something like its original elevation in relation to the height of the building; and somewhat altered to make the hall serve as the vestibule to the new Palace of Westminster. Barry pulled down the south wall of the hall and formed the archway and steps into his St. Stephen's chamber. [See Heaven and Hell.] Sir John Soane's Law Courts were sold in January 1883 for about £2400. The clearing away of these left one side of Westminster Hall in a very bald, unfinished condition, and new so-called cloisters have been built after the designs of J. L. Pearson, R.A., architect.

Westminster Hospital, BROAD SANCTUARY, opposite WESTMINSTER ABBEY, an Elizabethan Gothic edifice, erected 1832, from the designs of Messrs. Inwood. The hospital was instituted 1719, and was the first in this kingdom established and supported by voluntary contributions. It was established in Petty France, April 1720; removed to Chapel Street, Westminster, in 1724; to James Street in 1734; and to Broad Sanctuary in 1834. The hospital has been lately enlarged and improved; and has now 205 beds. In 1888 the number of in-patients

was 2684, of out-patients 22,103, of lying-in cases 256. The total income, £12,537. The Medical School connected with the hospital was opened in Caxton Street in 1885, and enlarged in 1886 and 1887. The number of students is over 100.

Westminster Ophthalmic Hospital, KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND, founded 1816, by the eminent ophthalmic surgeon, G. J. Guthrie, F.R.S., for the relief of indigent persons afflicted with diseases of the eye, who are received on their own application without letters of recommendation. The income in 1887 was £1688; the number of in-patients, 363, and out-patients, 7852.

Westminster Palace, the principal seat and palace of the Kings of England, from Edward the Confessor to Henry VIII. The bulk of the building was destroyed by fire in 1512, and Henry VIII., after Wolsey's disgrace, removed his palace to Whitehall; but still much of the rambling old palace remained until the burning of the Houses of Parliament. The only remaining portions are Westminster Hall and the crypt of St. Stephen's Chapel; the fire which destroyed the Houses of Parliament, October 16, 1834, having destroyed the Painted Chamber, the Star Chamber, St. Stephen's Chapel and cloisters, the cellar of Guy Fawkes, the Armada hangings, and the other less important vestiges of the original building. Other apartments in the old palace bore the names of Antioch Chamber, Cage Chamber, Chamber of the Holy Ghost, Great Exchequer Chamber, Jewry, etc. The name survives in the Palace Yards-Old Palace Yard, the court of the old palace; and new Palace Yard, the court of the new palace, projected by William Rufus. The ground plan, measured and drawn by William Capon, between 1793 and 1823, is engraved in volume v. of the Vetusta Monumenta. St. Stephen's Chapel was founded by Stephen, King of England, for a dean and canons. The chapel was rebuilt in the reign of Edward II., between 1320 and 1352, and till its destruction in 1834 was always looked upon as an excellent example of Decorated architecture of very fine and rich work. This was the House of Commons from the reign of Edward VI. to its destruction by fire in 1834; and was the scene of Cromwell's dismissal of the Parliament. The House of Lords, destroyed in 1834, was the old Court of Requests. [See Houses of Parliament.] The crypt of St. Stephen's Chapel was restored by the late E. M. Barry, R.A., in a rich and costly style, and fitted up as a chapel for the use of Members of Parliament.

Westminster School, or WESTMINSTER, "A publique Poetrie, and for the Latin and

ST. PETER'S COLLEGE, DEAN'S YARD, schoole for Grammar, Rethoricke, Greek languages," founded by Queen

1 The oldest view of the river-front of St. Stephen's Chapel is before the second volume of Nalson's Impartial Collection (fol. 1683), since reengraved by J. T. Smith. But the most splendid work on St. Stephen's Chapel is Mr. F. Mackenzie's account, large atlas folio, with its numer.

ous engravings from actual measurements made in 1844, by direction of the Woods and Forests. The engravings from Billings's drawings in Brayley and Britton's Westminster Palace are also good.

Elizabeth, 1560, on an older foundation,1 and attached to the collegiate church of St. Peter at Westminster. A school connected with the collegiate church was kept in the west cloister of the Abbey as early as the 14th century, and in some form or other was no doubt continued down to the dissolution of the Abbey. The College consists of a dean, twelve prebendaries, twelve almsmen, and forty scholars; with a master and an usher. This is the foundation, but the school consists of a larger number of masters and of a much larger number of boys. The forty are called Queen's scholars, and after an examination, which takes place on the first Tuesday after Rogation Sunday, four are elected to Trinity College, Cambridge, and four to Christ Church, Oxford; and "in the former years of my mastership" [of Trinity], Bentley writes to the Dean of Westminster, "the Westminster scholars got the major part of our fellowships. Of later years they have not so succeeded." A parent wishing to place a boy at this school will get every necessary information from the headmaster; boys are not placed on the foundation under twelve, or above thirteen years of age. Eminent Masters. - Alexander Nowell, headmaster, 1543; Nicholas Udall, author of Roister Doister, was appointed Master by Queen Mary about 1555, having been expelled from the same position at Eton in 1543; Camden, the antiquary-second master, 1575, headmaster, 1593; Dr. Busby, for over half a century (16401695); Vincent Bourne; Jordan (Cowley has a copy of verses on his death). Eminent Men educated at.- Poets: Ben Jonson; Bishop Corbet; George Herbert; Giles Fletcher; Jasper Mayne; William Cartwright; Cowley; Dryden; Nat Lee; Rowe; Prior; Churchill; Dyer, author of Grongar Hill; Cowper; Southey. Cowley published a volume of poems whilst a scholar at Westminster. Other great Men. -Sir Harry Vane, the younger; Hakluyt, the collector of the voyages which bear his name; Sir Christopher Wren; Charles Montague, Earl of Halifax; George Stepney; Locke; South; Atterbury; Warren Hastings; Gibbon, the historian; Cumberland; Horne Tooke, before going to Eton; Lord Mansfield; Marquis of Rockingham; Marquis of Anglesey; Lord Raglan; Lord Combermere; Lord Keppel; Earl Russell; the elder Colman.

Cumberland and I boarded together in the same house at Westminster.-COWPER. At Westminster, where little poets strive

To set a distitch upon six and five,

Where Discipline helps opening buds of sense,
And makes his pupils proud with silver pence,
I was a poet too.-Cowper, Table Talk.

He who cannot look forward with comfort, must find what comfort he can in looking backward. Upon this principle I the other day sent my imagination upon a trip thirty years behind me. She was very obedient, and very swift of foot, presently performed her journey, and at last set me down on the sixth form at Westminster. ... Accordingly I was a schoolboy in high favour with the master, received a

1 Appendix to Report of the Cathedral and Collegiate Church Comm., 1854.

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