THE PALACE OF WESTMINSTER.

’ 11

CHAPTER II.

ADDITIONS TO THE PALACE BY SUCCESSIVE MONARCHS—DESTROYED BY FIRE SEVERAL TIMES AND

REBUILT-HENRY VIII . THE LAST MONARCH WHO RESIDED THERE-THE PAINTED CHAMBER-

HOUSE OF LORDS —HOUSE OF COMMONS , etc. etc.

Having thus established the facts that the Palace of 'Westminster was originally built by Edward the Confessor , who occupied it and died there, and was used as his palatial residence by William the Conqueror , our space will now only allow us to take a very cursory view of the Palace as it is connectedwith the principal incidents of English History.

Many additions were made to the building from the time of the Confessor to the reign of Richard II. ;and it continued to he a royal residence until the reign of Henry YIII., the limits of the Palace beingby degrees much extended. Messrs. Britton and Brayley, who have very carefully investigated everydetail, state, that the boundaries of the Palace in its fullest extent were the River Thames on the east,and Bridge-street on the north; the west being limited to the precincts of St. Margaret’s Church andWestminster Abbey , behind Abingdon-street, and the south extending to College-street, where, in formertimes, ran a small stream, called the Great Ditch (now a sewer), on the outer side of the exterior wall ofthe Palace Garden. What appears to have been the private or lesser Palace , stood on the western sideof the enclosed demesne; and it was probably the destruction of the lesser Palace of Westminster by firein 1535-6, that occasioned Henry YIII. to remove to York Place , Whitehall , and to St. James’.

William Rufus made important additions to the Palace , and built the stupendous Hall, 270 feetlong and 74 broad, and of which he is reported to have expressed his disapprobation that it had notbeen made longer, observing, “ This Hall is not big enough by one half, and but a bed-chamber in“ comparison of what I mean to make.” His sudden death, however, put a stop to his intentions.

In the time of Henry III. a portion being destroyed by fire, was restored by that monarch. Itwas again burnt in the reign of Edward I. , together with St, Stephen’s Chapel and the adjacent AbbeyChurch of St. Peter materially damaged; and restored in 1294. Again injured by fire in 1298, itsrestoration commenced in May 1330 (4 Edward III .), and the rolls containing the details of wagespaid to the workmen are still preserved.

The works were not, however, completed for some years; but on the 6th of August, 1348, in thetwenty-second year of the feign of Edward III. , that King, by Royal Charter, recited, “ That a spacious“ Chapel stood within the Palace of Westminster , in honour of St. Stephen, the proto-martyr, had been nobly“ begun by his progenitors, and completed at his own expense, which, to the honour of Almighty God, and“ especially of the Blessed Mary his Mother , and of the said Martyr, he ordained, constituted, and“ appointed to be collegiate, and that there should he established therein a Dean, twelve Secular Canons ,