There are three principal coffee rooms running flush with the House, and overlooking the terrace and the river. The centre apartment is free to strangers. A member may thereat feast his personal friends, who may, by the way, be his political foes; and here I may remark that from a club point of view the House, like the Wyndham, the Marlborough, and the Bachelors', is non-political. Of course it has its sets. For instance, there are the Unionists and the Gladstonians, the soldiers and the lawyers, the railway men and supporters of beer, but these sets only recognize their professional companionship in the House itself. At the western saloon is reserved for the heads of the Government and the Opposition. The Ministerial room has four long tables; two of them are reserved for members who have reached Cabinet rank; a couple more for the Whips and Under Secretaries on either side. Of late there has sprung into existence a fifth table, which used to be visited by such celebrities as Mr. Chamberlain and Lord James of Hereford, who used to meet thereat the Marquis of Hartington, before he became the Duke of Devonshire, and Mr. Goschen, before he accepted, with the others mentioned, positions in the Cabinet. On the west of the strangers' saloon

Besides these apartments, there is a large vaultlike chamber level with the terrace, to which ladies are admitted. A member, by giving notice, can hire this banqueting hall (which to anyone with a lively imagination is not unsuggestive of the mythical ), and feast his guests to his heart's, more or less, content. Recently, hon. gentlemen desirous of keeping a House for some pet measure, have entertained their political friends in it. And also on this level are a tea-room, to which the fair sex can be admitted, and a smoking room for strangers. But I must confess that all the apartments flush with the terrace appear to be distinctly gloomy and better suited to coals than conversation. The advantage of the site of these rooms is the close proximity of the terrace. In the summer it is pleasant enough to sit beside the river, when the tide is high. On rare occasions, at other times, the fumes thrown off by mud baking in the sun constitute a bar to perfect enjoyment.