1780—85.] THE ROYAL SOCIETY.

127

Palace. To expedite the building, which was com-menced in March, 1546—7, he used the materials ofthe demolished houses, and it is stated that with thisview, he caused the chancel-house of St. Paul’s, andthe chapel over it, to be pulled down, as well as alarge cloister on the north of St. Paul’s, which con-tained a greater number of monuments than thechurch itself. Historians incline to the belief thatSomerset House was never inhabited by the Pro-tector, as his political life terminated at the close of1549, when he was thrown into the Tower, and be-headed in January, 1552. According to the scale ofa print in Strype’s Stow, the site occupied an area ofsix hundred feet from east to west, by five hundrednorth and south. The principal architect is believedto have been John of Padua, an Italian , who wasappointed ‘ Deviser of his Majesty’s buildings in 1544.’Old Somerset House was the first building of Italian architecture executed in this country. There are seve-ral engravings of it extant. On the death of the Dukeof Somerset his palace went to the crown, and KingEdward VI . appears to have assigned it to his sister,the Princess Elizabeth, for her use when she visitedthe Court . On her accession to the throne, she alwaysgave the preference to Whitehall and St. James’s, asresidences, though she occasionally visited SomersetHouse; and when she went to the Royal Exchangein 1570, she is stated to have come “from her houseat the Strand, called Somerset House.” In the reignof her successor, it became the residence of Anne ofDenmark, Queen of James I. Anne made severaladditions to the building, from designs by Inigo Jones ,and called it Denmark House, by which name it isfrequently mentioned by historians of this period.