Page:EB1911 - Volume 28.djvu/570

 is a line panelled hall, bearing on its walls the arms and names of many eminent alumni, it is entered by a gateway attributed to Inigo jones, also covered with names. Ashburnham House, now containing one of the school houses, the library and class-rooms, is named from the family for whom it was built, traditionally but not certainly, by Inigo Jones. The finest part remaining is the grand staircase. The number of scholars, called King’s Scholars, on the foundation is 60, of which 40, who are boarders, represent the original number. The great proportion of the boys are home boarders (Town Boys). In the College dormitory a Latin play is annually presented, in accordance with ancient custom. It is preceded by a prologue, and followed by a humorous epilogue, in Latin adapted to subjects of the moment. Other customs for which the school is noted are the acclamation of the sovereign at coronation in the Abbey, in accordance with a privilege jealously held by the boys, and the “Pancake Greaze,” a struggle in the Great Schoolroom on Shrove Tuesday to obtain possession of a pancake carrying with it a reward from the Dean. The number of boys is about 250. Valuable close scholarships and exhibitions at Christ Church, Oxford, and Trinity College, Cambridge, are awarded annually.

St Margaret’s.—On the north side of the Abbey, close beside it, is the parish church of St Margaret. It was founded in or soon after the time of the Confessor, but the present building is Perpendicular, of greater beauty within than without. St Margaret’s is officially the church of the House of Commons. It is frequently the scene of fashionable weddings, which are rarely held in the Abbey. On the south side of Dean’s Yard is the Church House, a memorial of Queen Victoria’s Jubilee (1887), consisting of a spacious hall of brick and stone, with offices for numerous Church societies.

Westminster Palace: Houses of Parliament.—A royal palace existed at Westminster at least as early as the reign of Canute, but the building spoken of by Fitzstephen as an “incomparable structure furnished with a breastwork and a bastion” is supposed to have been founded by Edward the Confessor and enlarged by William the Conqueror. The Hall, called Westminster Hall, was built by William Rufus and altered by Richard II. In 1512 the palace suffered greatly from fire, and thereafter ceased to be used as a royal residence. St Stephen’s chapel, originally built by King Stephen, was used from 1547 for the meetings of the House of Commons, which had been held previously in the chapter house of the Abbey. The Lords used another apartment of the palace, but on the 16th of October 1834 the whole of the buildings except the hall, was burnt down. In 1840 the building of the New Palace, or Houses of Parliament, began, and it was completed in 1867, at a cost of about three millions sterling. (For plan, &c., see : Modern). It covers an area of about 8 acres, and has a frontage of about 300 yds. to the Thames. The architect was Sir Charles Barry, and the style is late Perpendicular.

Towards the river it presents a rich façade with a terrace rising directly from the water. At the south-west corner rises the vast Victoria tower, above the royal entrance, 340 ft. high, and 75 ft. square. At the north is the clock tower, 320 ft. high, bearing the great clock which chimes the quarters on four bells and strikes the hours on a bell weighing over 13 tons, named Big Ben after Sir Benjamin Hall, First Commissioner of Works at the time when the clock was erected. The building incorporates Westminster Hall, which measures 290 ft. in length, 68 in width, and 90 in height. It has a magnificent open roof of carved oak, and is used as the vestibule of the Houses of Parliament. Of the modern rooms, the House of Peers is a splendidly ornate chamber, 97 ft. in length; that of the Commons is 70 ft. long, and less lavishly adorned The sitting of parliament is signified by a flag on Victoria Tower in daytime and by a light at the summit of the clock tower at night.

Whitehall.—Northward from Parliament Square a broad, slightly curving thoroughfare leads to Trafalgar Square. This is Whitehall, which replaced the narrow King Street. Here, between the Thames and St James’s Park formerly stood York House, a residence of the archbishops of York from 1248. Wolsey beautified the mansion and kept high state there, but on his disgrace Henry VIII. acquired and reconstructed it, employed Holbein in its decoration, and made it his principal residence. Inigo Jones designed a magnificent new palace for James I., but only the banqueting hall was completed (1622), and this survived several fires, by one of which (1607) nearly the whole of the rest of the palace was destroyed. The hall, converted into a royal chapel by George I., and now housing the museum of the Royal United Service Institution, the buildings of which adjoin it, is a fine specimen of Palladian architecture, and its ceiling is adorned with allegorical paintings by Rubens, restored and rehung in 1907. The museum contains military and naval relics, models and other exhibits. Through this hall Charles I. passed on his way to execution beneath its windows, and the palace was the scene of the death of Henry VIII., Cromwell and Charles II.

Westminster Cathedral.—A short distance from Victoria Street, towards its western end, stands Westminster Cathedral (Roman Catholic). Its foundation was laid in 1896, and its consecration took place at the close of 1903. Its site is somewhat circumscribed, and this and its great bulk renders impossible any general appreciation of its complex outline, but its stately domed campanile, 283 ft. in height, forms a landmark from far over London. The style was described by the architect, J. F. Bentley as early Christian Byzantine, and the material is mainly red brick. The extreme length is 360 ft., the breadth 156 ft., the breadth of the nave 60 ft., and its height (domes within) 112 ft.

WESTMINSTER, STATUTES OF, two English statutes passed during the reign of Edward I. Parliament having met at Westminster on the 22nd of April 1275, its main work was the consideration of the statute of Westminster I. This was drawn up, not in Latin, but in Norman French, and was passed “par le assentement des erceveskes, eveskes, abbes, priurs, contes, barons, et la communaute de la tere ileokes somons” Its provisions can be best summarized in the words of Stubbs (Const. Hist cap. xiv.):—

This act is almost a code by itself it contains fifty-one clauses, and covers the whole ground of legislation. Its language now recalls that of Canute or Alfred now anticipates that of our own day, on the once hand common right is to be done to all, as well poor as rich without respect of persons, on the other, elections are to be free, and no manner by force, malice or menace, to disturb them the spirit of the Great Charter is not less discernible: excessive amercements, abuses of wardship, irregular demands for feudal aids, are forbidden in the same words or by amending enactments. The inquest system of Henry II., the law of wreck, and