[Illustration: THE VICTORIA TOWER, HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT.]
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.]
The finest of all the public buildings of the British government in
London, the Houses of Parliament, are on the bank of the Thames in
Westminster, and are of modern construction. The old Parliament Houses
were burnt nearly fifty years ago, and Sir Charles Barry designed the
present magnificent palace, which covers nearly eight acres and cost
$20,000,000. The architecture is in the Tudor style, and the grand
facade stretches nine hundred and forty feet along a terrace fronting on
the Thames. It is richly decorated with statues of kings and queens and
heraldic devices, and has two pinnacled towers at each end and two in
the centre. At the northern end one of the finest bridges across the
Thames--the Westminster Bridge--is built, and here rises the Clock
Tower, forty feet square and three hundred and twenty feet high, copied
in great measure from a similar tower at Bruges. A splendid clock and
bells are in the tower, the largest bell, which strikes the hours,
weighing eight tons and the clock-dials being thirty feet in diameter.
The grandest feature of this palace, however, is the Victoria Tower, at
the south-western angle, eighty feet square and three hundred and forty
feet high. Here is the sovereign's entrance to the House of Peers,
through a magnificent archway sixty-five feet high and having inside the
porch statues of the patron saints of the three kingdoms--St. George,
St. Andrew, and St. Patrick--and one of Queen Victoria, between the
figures of Justice and Mercy. From the centre of the palace rises a
spire over the dome of the Central Hall three hundred feet high. In
constructing the palace the old Westminster Hall has been retained, so
that it forms a grand public entrance, leading through St. Stephen's
Porch to St. Stephen's Hall, which is ninety-five feet long and
fifty-six feet high, where statues have been placed of many of the great
statesmen and judges of England. From this a passage leads to the
Central Hall, an octagonal chamber seventy feet across and seventy-five
feet high, with a beautiful groined roof. Corridors adorned with
frescoes stretch north and south from this Central Hall to the House of
Commons and the House of Peers. The former is sixty-two feet long, and
constructed with especial attention to acoustics, but it only has seats
for a little over two-thirds of the membership of the House, and the
others must manage as they can. The Speaker's chair is at the north end,
and the ministers sit on his right hand and the opposition on the left.
Outside the House are the lobbies, where the members go on a division.
The interior of the House is plain, excepting the ceiling, which is
richly decorated. The House of Peers is most gorgeously ornamented,
having on either side six lofty stained-glass windows with portraits of
sovereigns, these windows being lighted at night from the outside. The
room is ninety-one feet long, and at each end has three frescoed
archways representing religious and allegorical subjects. Niches in the
walls contain statues of the barons who compelled King John to sign
Magna Charta. There are heraldic devices on the ceilings and walls, and
the throne stands at the southern end. The "Woolsack," where sits the
lord chancellor, who presides over the House, is a seat near the middle
of the room, covered with crimson cloth. When the sovereign comes to the
palace and enters the gateway at the Victoria Tower, she is ushered into
the Norman Porch, containing statues and frescoes representing the
Norman sovereigns, and then enters the Robing Room, splendidly decorated
and having frescoes representing the legends of King Arthur. When the
ceremony of robing is completed, she proceeds to the House of Peers
through the longest room in the palace, the Victoria Gallery, one
hundred and ten feet long and forty-five feet wide and high. Historical
frescoes adorn the walls and the ceiling is richly gilded. This gallery
leads to the Prince's Chamber, also splendidly decorated, and having two
doorways opening into the House of Peers, one on each side of the
throne. In this palace for six months in every year the British
Parliament meets.