Oil picture. 47½ by 29½ in.
Portion of view shown in No. 87, but dating from near the end of
Charles II’s reign. It will presently be pointed out that No. 96
is a still earlier picture of almost the same subject, so to avoid
repetition this has not been reproduced. Here the Banqueting Hall
is prominent; other important buildings are as follows: To extreme
left in background a louvred structure is the Great Hall, Whitehall,
more clearly visible in Wijck’s view from the river, No. 91. Facing
park we see the old Guard House as in No. 87. The upper portions of
Holbein Gate-house and of a battlemented structure are also visible;
for description of the latter and of the great staircase see note
on No. 96. A large brick building some distance to right preceded
Kent’s Treasury, both occupying the site of Henry VIII’s Cockpit,
which still remained when No. 96 was painted. Little is known about
the brick building; it appears in views by Kip, 1710 and 1720, and
in an illustration for J. T. Smith’s “Antiquities of Westminster,”
from a picture resembling this. There are also slight sketches of
it in vol. ii of Lond. Top. Society’s Records, illustrating a paper
by the late Mr. Walter B. Spiers, Soane Curator, who made a special
study of Whitehall. In foreground of our view, among bewigged and
gaily-apparelled figures, a black woman and a black page are prominent.
_Lent by Mary, Countess of Ilchester._