Westminster (London, England) -- Description and travel
The plan of the Palace, as it was in the reign of Charles II., exists.
It is here reproduced from the Crace collection in the British Museum.
It will be seen that the place was much less in area and contained fewer
buildings than the Westminster Palace. The chief reason for these
diminished proportions was the separation for the first time in English
history of the High Courts of Justice from the King’s Court, and the
change from the army,--King Cnut’s huscarles,--which the kings had
always led about with them, to a small bodyguard. The place is rambling,
as we should expect from the manner in which it grew.
On the south side the Palace began with the Bowling Green; next to this
was the Privy Garden, a large
[Illustration: THE WATERSIDE ELEVATION OF INIGO JONES’ PALACE.]
piece of ground laid out formally. The front of the Palace consisted of
the Banqueting Hall, the present Whitehall, the Gate and Gate Tower,
neither stately nor in any way remarkable, and a row of low gabled
houses almost mean in appearance. The Gate opened upon a series of three
courts or quadrangles. The first and most important, called “The Court,”
had on its west side the Banqueting House; on the south there was a row
of offices or chambers; on the north a low covered way connected the
Banqueting Hall with the other chambers; on the east side was the Great
Hall or Presence Chamber, the Chapel, and the private rooms of the King
and Queen. This part of the Palace contained what was left of the old
York House. The second court, that into which the principal gate opened,
was called the “Courtyard.” By this court was the way to the Audience
and Council Chambers, the Chapel, the offices of the Palace, and the
Water Gate. The Art Collections and Library were placed in the “Stone
Gallery,” which ran along the east side of the Privy Garden. A third
court was called Scotland Yard; in this court was the Guard House. The
old custom of having everything made in the Palace that could be made,
and everything stored under responsible officers, was continued at
Whitehall as it had been at Westminster. Thus we find cellars, pastry
house, pantry, cyder house, spicery, bakehouse, charcoal house, scalding
house, chandlery, poulterers’ house, master glazier’s,
confectionery--and the rest, each office with its responsible officer,
and each officer with his own quarters in the Palace. One long building
on the right hand of the picture was the “Small Beer Buttery.” The
length shows its importance; its situation among the offices indicates
for whom it was erected. Remember that the common sort of Englishman has
never at any time used water as a beverage unless there was nothing else
to be had; that as yet he had no tea; that his habitual beverage was
small beer; and that in all great houses small beer was to be had for
the asking in the intervals of work.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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