Of Whitehall Palace all that now remains is the Banqueting Hall (now used to house the exhibits of the United Service Institution), built in the reign of James I. by the famous architect Inigo Jones; the rest perished by fire soon after the revolution of 1688. For some time afterwards St. James’s Palace was the only Royal residence in London, but the Sovereigns soon provided themselves with the famous Kensington and Buckingham Palaces. [Illustration: THE BANQUETING HALL, WHITEHALL PALACE.] CHAPTER TEN _Royal Westminster—The Abbey_ The story of Westminster is nearly as old as that of London itself. In our first chapter we spoke of the position of London being fixed to a large extent by the Kent road passing from Dover to the Midlands. That road, heading from Rochester, originally passed over—and still passes over—the Darent at Dartford, the Cray at Crayford, the Ravensbourne at Deptford; and then made its way, not to the crossing at Billingsgate, but to a still older ford or ferry which existed in very early days at the spot where Westminster now stands. If you look at the map of London, you will see that the Edgware Road, passing in a south-easterly direction from St. Albans, comes down, with but a slight curve, as if to meet this north-westerly Kent road. That they did so meet there is but little doubt, and this meeting gave us the Royal City of Westminster. [Illustration: THE RIVER AT THORNEY ISLAND.] In pre-Roman days Lambeth and Westminster, Belgravia and Chelsea, were simply reedy marshes. Out of them rose a number of gravelly islands of various sizes, and one of these, larger and more solid than the rest—Thorney or Bramble Island—became in due course the site of the city which for centuries was second only to London itself; for though the building of the Bridge and the rapid growth of the Port meant the diversion of the Kentish Watling Street to a new route through London, the Thorney Island settlement grew just as steadily as that of the bluff lower down the stream, till eventually it held England’s most celebrated Abbey and Royal Palace, and its Houses of Parliament. As so often happened in early days, the settlement developed round a religious house. Probably it originated in a British fortress. Certainly it comprised a considerable Roman station and market. But all that lies in the misty past. The legend remains that in the year 604 Sebert, King of the East Saxons, there founded a minster of the west (St. Peter’s) to rival the minster of the east (St. Paul’s) which was being erected within the City of London; and indeed we are still shown in the Abbey the tomb of this traditional founder.