We have been to the queen's country-home at Windsor, and will now visit
her town-house, Buckingham Palace, which is also in St. James Park. Here
stood a plain brick mansion, built in 1703 by the Duke of Buckingham,
and in which was gathered the famous library of George III., which is
now in the British Museum. The house was described as "dull, dowdy, and
decent," but in 1825 it was greatly enlarged and improved, and Queen
Victoria took possession of the new palace in 1837, and has lived there
ever since. Her increasing family necessitated the construction of a
large addition in 1846, and a few years afterwards the Marble Arch,
which till then formed the entrance, was moved from Buckingham Palace to
Hyde Park, and a fine ball-room constructed instead. This palace
contains a gorgeously-decorated throne-room and a fine picture-gallery,
the grand staircase leading up to the state-apartments being of marble.
The gardens of Buckingham Palace cover about forty acres: in them are a
pavilion and an attractive chapel, the latter having been formerly a
conservatory. At the rear of the palace, concealed from view by a high
mound, are the queen's stables or mews, so called because the royal
stables were formerly built in a place used for keeping falcons. In
these stables is the gaudily-decorated state coach, built in 1762 at a
cost of $38,000. Marlborough House, the town-residence of the Prince of
Wales, adjoins St. James Palace, but is not very attractive. It was
originally built for the first Duke of Marlborough, who died in it, and
is said to have been designed by Wren, having afterwards been enlarged
when it became a royal residence.
[Illustration: BUCKINGHAM PALACE, GARDEN FRONT.]