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being an eloquent orator, with great command of language, he spoke to them in a well devised harangue,which is noticed by Mathew Paris , and which had the desired effect upon his auditors, who assured theking of their readiness to sacrifice their lives and fortunes in his defence.
Where this Council was held is not previously set down, but it was in all probability at Westminster;as although London was the metropolitan city , yet Westminster was the metropolitan seat of Govern-ment, the principal palace of the king, and the Court of Judicature of the kingdom.
The vault under the Court , and which abutted on Cotton Garden, called ‘ Guy Vaux’s cellar,’ fromthe gunpowder and combustibles placed there by him and his confederates in 1604-5, is said to have beenthe original kitchen of Edward the Confessor’s Palace.
To the time of Edward IV. , the Parliaments were holden sometimes at one place and sometimes atanother; but in that reign, and thence to the present time, they appear to have been holden regularlyat Westminster; and Edward VI . appropriated the Chapel of St. Stephen’s to the parliamentarypurposes of the Commons, who had previously always assembled in the Chapter House of the Abbey ofWestminster.
The late House of Lords where the Peers carried on the business of the Parliament , was not the wholeof the Old Court of Requests, for part of the north end was formed into a lobby, by which the Commonspassed from their own House into this chamber. The throne was new on the accession of His Majesty George IV . The room was handsome, but not so spacious as the House of Commons . In the fronttowards Abingdon-street it was decorated with pinnacles of very modern erection: the internal part washung with some old tapestry, the gift of the States of Holland, much admired, and celebrated asrepresenting the defeat of the Spanish Armada in the time of Queen Elizabeth. It was divided intocompartments by frames of brown stained wood, each compartment containing a portion of this famousstory. The heads which composed the border of these compartments, were portraits of the several gallantofficers who commanded in the English fleet on that memorable occasion. All this, except the exteriorwalls, was destroyed by the fire of 1834. The Prince’s Chamber, or Robing Room (also consumedin 1834), adjoined the south side of the old House of Lords . Its foundation appeared to have been ofthe Confessor ’s time; but the superstructure, from the style of its lancet windows, etc., was generallyassigned to the reign of Henry III . It was from the vaults under this apartment, by those beneath theold House of Lords , that the Gunpowder Conspirators of 1604 obtained easy access to the cellars underthe House of Lords , where they stored their combustibles.
We have already given the history of St. Stephen’s Chapel, of which the ancient crypt aloneremains, and forms a portion of the foundation of the New Palace. It was very substantially and beautifullyconstructed, being finally completed as far back as 1364. Prior to the suppression of this, with theother free chapels, by a statute of 1st Edward VI. (1547), the cloisters were rebuilt by Dr. JohnChambers, physician to Henry VIII. , who had been promoted to the Deanery in 1526, and was the lastDean who held that office. Stow relates, that these cloisters of “ curious workmanship ” were erected atthe charge of 11,000 marks. The cloisters, first built about 1356, were on the south side of the Chapel,