Formerly the parliaments of England were held in Westminster Hall; but King Richard II. having occasion to call one in the year 1397, when that building was in a very ruinous condition, erected an house on purpose in the middle of the palace court, at a small distance from the gate of the old Hall. This was a plain and mean structure, open to the common people, that all might hear what passed; while the King’s person, and those assembled there for the service of the nation, were secured by a guard of archers maintained at the public expence. Two years after, Westminster Hall being rebuilt and sufficiently accommodated for the meeting of this great assembly, they met there again; till at length a taste for regularity and magnificence increasing with our improvements in arts, this noble room was taken for the great assembly of the national senate. This room is spacious, lofty, and every thing within it is disposed with great regularity. It is hung with tapestry, representing the defeat of the Spanish armada, which is shewn in various designs; as, the first appearance of the Spanish fleet; the several forms in which it lay at different times on our coasts, and before the comparatively handful of English which pursued it; the place and disposition of the fleets when engaged; and, in fine, its departure. These are the great subjects. The whole is excellently performed, and as the materials in that original state are perishable, the late Mr. Pine has perpetuated them in very fine engravings. _English Architecture._ These designs are certainly well adapted to the place, as they perpetually present to view the importance of our navy, on which our principal strength depends. At the upper end of the room is the throne, upon which the King is seated on solemn occasions, in his robes, with the crown on his head, and adorned with all the ensigns of majesty. On the right hand of the throne is a seat for the Prince of Wales, and on the left, for the next person of the Royal Family. Behind the throne are places for the young Peers who have no votes in the house. At a small distance below the throne, on the King’s right hand, are the seats of the two Archbishops, and a little below them the bench of Bishops. On the opposite side of the house, sit those Peers who rank above Barons; the President of the King’s Council, and the Lord Privy Seal, if they are Barons, here sit above all Dukes, Marquises, and Earls; and the Marshal, Lord Steward, and Lord Chamberlain, sit above all others of the same degree of nobility with themselves.