Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 June 1886 — Westminster Palace. [ARTICLE]

Westminster Palace.

The old houses of Parliament were burned to the ground -in 1834. The new building was erected on the same site as the old, but on a much grander scale. Sir Charles Barry was the architect, and work was begun on the structure in 1840. The building is known as Westminster Palace, and is one of the most magnificent buildings in England. Its entire cost was about $8,000,000. It is 900 feet in length by .300 feet in width. It was built of limestone takeii' from the quarries of Yorkshire, and was very beautifully ornamented with many fine figures and carvings. Unfortunately, the stone used proved to be very easily injured by exposure to the atmosphere, and the fine effect of the Ornamental figures has already been much marred by their decay. The principal rooms of Westminster Palace are the House of Lords and the House of Commons, which occupy the center of the Iniilding, and run on the line of its greatest length. They are separated by an octagon hall with a diameter of 70 feet. From this hall one corridor runs north to the House of Commons, and another south to the House of Lords. The House of Lords is 100 feet long, 45 feet wide, and 45 feet high. This room is profusely gilded and ornamented with a series of frescoes. In niches between the windows are eighteen statues- of Barons who signed the Magua Charta. In this room is the gorgeously gilt and canopied throne on which the Queen sits when she opens Parliament. In the center is the woolsack of the Chancellor of England—a large, square bag of wool, covered with red cloth, used as a seat, though without back or arms. The House of Commons is the same height and width as the House of Lords, but not so long, and it is not so gaudily decorated, though of very handsome finish. At the north end is the Speaker’s chair, and there are galleries along the sides and ends of the room. Besides these two rooms there are a number of others in the building. The entrance to the octagon hall is by a passage known as St. Stephen’s Hall, which.communicates by flights of steps with an entrance* in the east front, and also with Westminster Hall, a much older building, on the? north. At the southwestern extremity,of the. building is the state entrance of the Queen, which communicates directly with what are known as the royal apartments, the Queen’s robing-room, the guard-room, etc. The libraries and committee-rooms are on the river front of the building. The palace is surmounted in the center, above the octagon hall, with a tower 300 feet high. There are also two other lofty towers on the building—at the southwest corner, the Victoria tower, 346 feet high; at the northwest, the clock tower, surmounted by a belfry spire 320 feet high. This clock has four faces, each 30 feet in diameter, and it strikes the hour on a bell weighing nine tons, called “Big Ben. ’’—lnter Ocean.