Old and New London, A Narrative of its History, its People and its Places. Illustrated with Numerous Engravings from the Most Authentic Sources. vol 3
Thornbury, Walter
1872-78
Chapter XLV: Whitehall.-The Buildings Described.
Chapter XLV: Whitehall.-The Buildings Described.
| |
Although the present remains of are comparatively modern, not reaching farther back than the time of the Tudors, yet we know from history that there was a palace standing on this spot as early as the reign of Henry III., when the Chief Justice of England, Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent, resided in it. At his death he left it to the Friars of , who sold it to the | |
p.362 | Archbishop of York; and his successors in that metropolitan see made it their town residence for nearly centuries. The last of the archbishops who tenanted it was Cardinal Wolsey, under whom it became of the most sumptuous palaces in England. |
The ancient palace of , if we include its precincts, was of great extent, stretching from close to where now stands nearly up to . It comprised a hall, chapel, banqueting-house, and other apartments, as the the the the the (so named from the picture by Mabuse), and the Some idea of the extent of the palace early in the century may be formed from the following description of it which occurs in the Act of Parliament by which it was given to the royal tyrant. Here it is styled And speaking of Cardinal Wolsey, it adds that And it must be owned that if the prints of the period are to be trusted, this description is not overdrawn. By the same Act of Parliament it was directed to be called for ever. Its limits were defined on the side by the and on the other by At this time it consisted of Henry VIII., as we have shown in a preceding chapter, added very considerably to the buildings; and he likewise ordered a tenniscourt, a cock-pit, and bowling-greens to be formed, Here Holbein painted the portraits of Henry VII. and Henry VIII., with their queens, and also the Here, too-or, rather, across the roadway in front, leading from to Westminster-he built his famous gateway. | |
Holbein had been induced to come over to England through the reputation of the taste and generosity of Henry VIII. He was introduced to the king by the instrumentality of Sir Thomas More, at his house at , where a number of the painter's works had been recently ranged round the walls. Taken immediately into the king's service, Holbein had apartments assigned to him in the old palace at , for which he designed, at the king's request, in , the [extra_illustrations.3.362.1] above alluded to. It stood in front of the palace, opposite the Tilt-yard, and was flanked on either side by a low brick building of a single storey in height. Its position was a little nearer to than the north-west corner of York House. The edifice was constructed of small square stones and flint boulders, of distinct colours, On each front there were busts or medallions, which are stated to have resisted all influences of the weather. They were of terra-cotta, as large as life, or even a little larger, and represented some of the chief characters of the age. Among them were Henry VII., Henry VIII., and Bishop Fisher. These busts were believed by some persons to have been the work of an Italian artist named Torregiano; but Mr. Cunningham, in an article on the subject in the for , inclines to the opinion that they were executed by John de Maiano, the sculptor of the medallions on Gateway. On either side of the archway were lofty embattled octagonal turrets, the faces of which, between the windows, were likewise ornamented with busts, &c. The rooms above the archway were long used as the State Paper Office. | |
The Holbein Gateway, as it was generally called, was removed in -, in order to widen the street and approaches to . After its demolition most of the glazed bricks and stone dressings of this historical building, rich in centuries of associations with our kings, from Henry VIII. to William III.,
| |
Mr. J. T. Smith, in his , in alluding to this gateway, says:
| |
This building, it appears, the king connected with the palace on the opposite side by gateways across the street; of them at about the middle of , which was demolished in ; the other, nearer to , adjoining the north-east corner of the gallery abovementioned, was the gateway designed by Hans Holbein. This latter gate, it is stated in the (), was termed and it is said to have been The writer thus describes it: We have given views of both these gates, copied from old prints published while they were standing. The Holbein Gateway is shown on page , and the Gateway on page . | |
On the taking down of this latter gate it was begged and obtained by William, Duke of Cumberland, son of George II., and then Ranger of Windsor Park and Forest, with the view of reerecting it at the end of the , in the Great Park at Windsor. The stones were accordingly removed, but the re-building of it at Windsor appears to have been abandoned. Some of the material, however, we are told, was, by the Duke's direction, worked up in several different buildings erected by the Duke in the Great Park. adds Mr. J. T. Smith, The busts were, in number, on each side; they had ornamented mouldings round them, and were of baked clay, in proper colours, and glazed in the manner of Delft ware, which had preserved them entire. Mr. Smith, in the , says that after the gate was taken down of the busts fell into the hands of a man who kept an old iron shop in , , to whom, it is supposed, they had been sold after having been stolen when the gate was taken down. This man had them in his possession some or years, when they were bought, about the year , by a Mr. Wright, who employed Flaxman, the sculptor, then a boy, to repair them. They were in terra cotta, coloured and gilt. The dress of of the busts was painted dark red, and the ornaments gilt, among which were alternately the Rose and H, and the Crown and R, in gold. Mr. Wright resided at Hatfield Priory, near Witham, in Essex, and the above-mentioned busts are in the possession of his great-grandson, Mr. John Wright, the owner of that estate, who, in a letter to says,
| |
Maitland, in his (), speaks of Holbein's gateway as still standing. He calls it He adds, that soon after becoming possessed of , he adds,
| |
The other gateway is described in the work above referred to as and is often styled | |
p.364 | the writer adds that It was lower than the Holbein Gateway, and not anything like so handsome; its towers were semi-circular projections, pierced with semi-circular lights, and on the top of the towers were semi-circular domelets. Altogether, if we may judge from the prints of the gate published by Kip, and also in the by the Society of Antiquaries, it was of the ugliest structures in the metropolis. This was removed in , as it blocked up the road which was then the sole access to the Houses of Parliament and the Courts of Law. |
In this gateway were the lodgings of the beautiful and intriguing Countess of Buckingham, the mother of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. She died here in , and her body was conveyed hence along to the Abbey to be laid beside that of her murdered son. King's Gate was converted by Henry into a passage connecting with the park, the tennis-court, bowlinggreen, and tilting-yard. | |
[extra_illustrations.3.346.1] stood a little to the south of adjoining the north gate of ; having a gate into the park, close to which was an old staircase, used, no doubt, by Elizabeth and her courtiers on State occasions, and leading to the Royal gallery. In Sydney's there is to be found an amusing account of the diversions of Queen Bess, which shows that even when not far short of her seventieth year, she could pursue the pleasures of out-door sports among her courtiers with the energy of youth or of middle age.
| |
The chief heroes of the Tilt-yard were Sir Henry Lee, of Ditchley, Knight of the Garter, and and George, Earl of Cumberland. The former had made a vow to present himself at the Tilt-yard annually on the , till disabled by age, and so gave rise to a school of knights of the Tilt-yard, embracing about twentyfive of the most celebrated members of the Court, including Sir Christopher Hatton, and Robert, Earl of Leicester. In due course of time Sir Henry resigned his post in favour of the Earl of Cumberland. In , it is on record that as Walpole tells us in his Sir Henry died at the age of , and was buried at Quarendon, near Aylesbury, where the inscription on his tomb recorded the fact that-
| |
In the reign of James I., the old Palace of had become so ruinous, the greater part having been destroyed by fire in , that it was determined to rebuild it. Dr. Mackay, in his says that the King The original drawings, bold in their conception, are preserved at Worcester College, Oxford; and the building, as designed by Inigo Jones, has been frequently engraved. The building was actually commenced, but in consequence of the civil wars, the Banqueting House was the only portion of the design completed. This splendid fragment, which exists before our eyes, has often excited lamentations that the design of Inigo Jones was never completed; yet Horace Walpole, an incomparable critic on all writings, characters, and buildings but his own, throws strong doubts on its probable excellence. he writes, It is true that he equally doubts the published design to be the final ; for he continues :-- On this passage Dr. Croly remarks in a note on Pope's --
| |
says Pennant,
| |
Directly behind the Banqueting House, very near the river, was a chapel belonging to the Palace, but no engravings of it are known to exist; and all trace of its site has disappeared. It must have stood as nearly as possible on the site of Fife House. The screen of the Queen's Chapel here, we are told, was removed by Sir William Chambers to his residence at Whitton, near Hounslow, where he set it up as a summer-house in his garden. | |
The Stone Gallery ran along the east, between the Privy Garden and the river, following as nearly as possible the line of the terrace which now forms The faced the river, close to the Those of the Duke of York adjoined them on the south, commanding also a view of the river. Those of Prince Rupert, the Duke of Monmouth, the ladies of the Court, of the maids of honour, the and the were situated between the river-side and the Stone Gallery. Nell Gwynne, not having the honour of belonging to the establishment of Catherine of Braganza, was obliged to keep to her apartments in . | |
says Horace Walpole, As it is, we can only regret that the same chance of leaving behind him a memorial worthy of his genius was not given to Inigo Jones that was given to Sir Christopher Wren. | |
It is not generally known that in the early part of the last century an ingenious speculator proposed to improve by carrying out the design of Inigo Jones for rebuilding . The expense he estimated at little over half a million, and he proposed, as a means of raising that sum, that the city of should be incorporated, to consist of a mayor, recorder, and aldermen; that the profits arising to the said corporation, after defraying its own necessary expenses, should, for years, be appropriated to carry on the intended new palace; that duties should be laid upon new improved rents within the city of that all officers who held or more offices above the annual value of , should pay a certain poundage, as should likewise all such as had any right or title to any house, office, or lodging within the said new projected Palace; and, lastly, that all improvements of any part of the ground of , and the benefit arising to Her Majesty from all new inventions or forfeitures should for a term of years be appropriated to the same purpose. This plan, which might ultimately have much benefited the locality, it is superfluous to add, was never carried into effect. | |
[extra_illustrations.3.365.2] , so called from having been placed on the side of the apartments so called erected by Elizabeth, was begun in , and finished in years. It is divided into storeys, of which the lowest or basement storey consists of a rustic wall, with small square windows. Above this springs a range of columns and pilasters of the Ionic order; between the columns are windows, with alternate arched and triangular pediments; over these is placed the proper entablature, on which is raised a series of the Corinthian order, consisting also of columns and pilasters, their capitals being connected with festoons of flowers, with masks and other ornaments in the centre. From the entablature of this series rises | |
p.366 | a balustrade, with attic pedestals in their places crowning the whole. The building consists chiefly of room, of an oblong form, a double cube of feet. The stone for building it was drawn from the quarries at Portland, under authority of the sign-manual of James I. |
Charles I. commissioned Rubens to paint the ceiling, and by the agency of this great artist the King was enabled to secure the noble cartoons of Raffaelle, which are preserved at the South Kensington Museum. Charles also collected a considerable number of paintings by the best masters, but these were seized by order of Parliament, who sold many of the paintings and statues, and ordered the to be burnt After Sir P. Lely's death, his noble collection of drawings and pictures was exhibited in the Royal Banqueting House, and in consequence realised, when subsequently put up for auction, the very large sum of . Rubens's painted ceiling is divided by a rich framework of gilded mouldings into compartments. the subjects being what are called allegorical, the centre representing the apotheosis of James I., or his supposed translation into the celestial regions. The king, supported by an eagle, is borne upwards, attended by figures as the representatives of Religion, Justice, &c. His Majesty appears seated on his throne, and turning with horror from War and other such-like deities, and resigning himself to Peace and her natural attendants, Commerce and the Fine Arts--a curious commentary | |
p.367 | on the Puritan age which followed so soon after the execution of the ceiling. On either side of this central compartment are oblong panels, on which the painter has endeavoured to express the peace and plenty, the harmony and happiness, which he presumed to have signalised the reign of James I. In other compartments Rubens' patron and employer, Charles, is introduced, in scenes intended to represent his birth, and as being crowned King of Scotland; while the oval compartments at the corners are intended, by allegorical figures, to show the triumph of the Virtues, such as Temperance, &c., over the Vices. Vandyke was to have painted the sides of the apartment with the history of the Order of the Garter. The execution of particular parts is to be admired for |
| its boldness and success. These paintings have been more than once re-touched, on occasion by no less an artist than Cipriani; and though there is an immense distance between this artist and Rubens, there is no apparent injury done to the work. The Banqueting House cost . Rubens received for his paintings upon the ceiling --about yards of work--the sum of , or nearly pounds a yard; while Sir James Thornhill, quarters of a century later, was paid only a yard for his decorations on the ceiling of Greenwich Hospital. Cipriani had for his re-touching. This noble building was turned into a chapel by George I., and in it divine service is performed every Sunday morning and afternoon. | |
p.368 | The clerical establishment of the Chapel Royal (for such is its correct designation) consists of a Dean and Sub-Dean, a morning reader and permanent preachers and readers, or chaplains; there are also Select Preachers, chosen by the Bishop of London from the chief Universities alternately. In eagles and other standards, captured from the French in the Peninsula, were publicly deposited in this chapel; and in , the same ceremony was repeated in respect of the standards taken at the battle of Waterloo, on the preceding; but on the opening of the new military chapel in these trophies were removed thither. The front of the Banqueting House was largely repaired and beautified in . The basement comprises a series of vaulted chambers, which are partly used for Government stores. The royal closet is described in the reports as being within a few feet of the spot on which Charles I. was executed. This is hardly correct, for according to a memorandum of Vertue, on a print in the library of the Society of Antiquaries, The Banqueting House, although converted into a chapel in the reign of George I., has never been consecrated, which fact was mentioned in the several years ago, when it was proposed to use the hall as a picture-gallery. Here Prince George of Denmark was married on the , to the Princess Anne. |
Evelyn in his frequently mentions the service here, and on occasion (at Easter, ), when the King received the communion, he adds,
| |
We must not omit to mention here an interesting ceremony which has been performed in the Chapel Royal, , from a remote period, namely, the distribution of the or royal alms, to the poor. | |
The custom of distributing the royal alms on Thursday--as the day before Good Friday is styled--has come down from the old Roman Catholic ages. Some such ceremony was performed by personages of the highest rank, both temporal and spiritual, from the Pope down to nobles and lords in their castles, in commemoration of our Redeemer, who when He gave them that or whence the day has its name. Queen Elizabeth performed this ceremony at her palace at Greenwich; and the last of our sovereigns who went through it in person was James II. After him, under the Hanoverian line, it was performed by the Royal Almoner. The following cotemporary account of the ceremony in the reign of George II. may possibly raise a smile :--
| |
Gradual changes, however, have taken place in the manner of performing this ceremony. The ceremony is thus described towards the close of the reign of George III., namely, in :--
| |
The royal alms now are dispensed in money and clothing, the payment in kind of fish and flesh | |
p.369 | having been practically commuted. A few years ago it was thought that the ceremony would have been allowed to die out; but such has not been the case, and the gifts are distributed by the Lord High Almoner to so many men, and the like number of women, as may correspond with the number of years in the age of Her Majesty. |
Although the mandate, or Maunday, is now little more than an empty ceremony, yet it is which enshrines a lesson of true Christian charity. So far from censuring or despising such acts of condescension on the part of the royal and noble towards their poorer brethren and sisters, we ought rather to regret that so few opportunities occur in a year for bringing into contact and contrast the squalid poverty of with the wealth and luxury of and so leading the inmates of the latter region, in the words of the poet-
| |
We may, perhaps, be pardoned for reminding our readers here that the --as the Yeomen of the Royal Guard who do duty on these occasions are called--are really , that is, personal attendants of the sovereign, who, on high festivals; and on other state occasions, were ranged near the royal sideboard, or | |
In the open space in the rear, between the chapel and the houses in , stands [extra_illustrations.3.369.1] , which was set up in , just years before his abdication. It is of bronze, and represents the king as dressed in a Roman toga, and its elegant proportions have often been admired. It is the work of Grinling Gibbons. Indeed, it has been said to be nearly the only statue in the metropolis that will bear a rigid inspection as a work of art. It suffers, however, from the want of an open space around it sufficiently large to set it off to advantage. | |
As to the author of this statue, it is only fair to add that great doubts have prevailed. They would appear, however, to be negatived by the following passage in the published under the auspices of the Camden Society. writes Sir John, Horace Walpole, therefore, was correct in his surmise on the subject. It is strange that so little should have been known for certain as to its author, considering that when it was set up it was made the subject of numerous sets of verses and . writes John Timbs, Possibly, however, this fact, so unlike what would have happened in Paris under like circumstances, may be ascribed to the new king being the son-in-law of James. | |
Footnotes: [extra_illustrations.3.362.1] gateway [extra_illustrations.3.346.1] The Tilt-yard [] Lemon's Whitehall as it appeared before the fire of 1691 [extra_illustrations.3.365.2] The Banqueting House [] Duke of York's House [extra_illustrations.3.369.1] the celebrated statue of James II. |
