forming a magnificent gallery above, and connecting the various parts of the immense range of offices below. The principal floor of this corridor is superbly furnished with pictures and statues. The chief apartments of the king and queen are in the southeastern tower, and the eastern front. The dining, drawing, and music rooms are of extraordinary dimensions, forming that fine suite whose grand oriel windows look out upon the eastern terrace. They are connected, at the northeastern angle, with the state apartments, some of which, particularly St. George's Hall, are used on occasions of high festival.

The state apartments are exhibited daily to the public. Several of them have been completely remodelled, under the parliamentary commission for the repairs of the castle. The guard-room is now fitted up with great appropriateness: one of the most remarkable objects is a bust of Lord Nelson, having for its pedestal a portion of the mainmast of the Victory, his own ship, on the deck of which he gloriously fell. St. George's Hall, as we mentioned before, has been entirely purified from the productions of the false taste of the time of Charles II. An adjoining chapel has been added to the original hall; so that it is now an oblong room of vast length, with a range of tall pointed-arch windows looking upon the square. Its walls, panelled with dark oak, are hung with the portraits of successive sovereigns of the order of the Garter; and heraldic insignia of the ancient knights are borne on shields which surround the splendid room. Of the other new state apartments, the principal are the ball-room, glittering with burnished gold; and the Waterloo gallery, in which are hung the fine series of portraits painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence, of the princes, warriors, and statesmen, who were instrumental in forwarding that great victory.

The remaining state apartments are pretty much in the same condition as they exhibited during the reign of George III. They present an assemblage of such objects as are usually shown in palaces and noble mansions. Here are state beds, whose faded hangings have been carefully preserved from periods when silk and velvet were the exclusive possessions of the high-born; chairs of ebony, whose weight compelled the sitter to remain in the place of the seat, and tables of silver, fine to look upon, but worthless to use. Here are also the gaudy ceilings of Verrio, where Charles II. and his queen are humbly waited upon by Jupiter and Neptune; and the profligate who sold his country to Louis XIV. for a paltry bribe, and degraded the English court by every vice, is represented as the pacificator of Europe, and the restorer of religion. But there are better things to be seen than these in the state apartments. There are many pictures of great beauty, and several of transcendent excellence. Here is the celebrated "Misers" of Quentin Matsys, painted, as it is said, by a blacksmith of Antwerp, as a proof of his pretensions to aspire to marry the daughter of a painter of the same place. The blacksmith, however, was no mean artist in other lines; for he is said to have executed the iron tomb of Edward IV. in St. George's Chapel-a most remarkable specimen of elaborate ingenuity. Here is the "Titian and Aretin," one of the finest specimens of the great master of the Venetian school; the Death of Cleopatra," and the " Venus attired by the Graces," of Guido; the "Charles I. and the duke of Hamilton," and "the Family of Charles I.," of Vandyck; and "the Silence" of Annibal Caracci. These are paintings, with many others that we can not afford space to mention, which the best judges of art may come from the ends of the world to gaze upon. Those who are captivated by gaudy colors, applied to the representation of meretricious charms, may gaze upon the Beauties of the Court of Charles II."

The Round Tower is also exhibited to the public. There is nothing very remarkable in the apartments, except in the armory, where there are some curious specimens of the cum brous firearms that were carried by the infantry in the early days of gunpowder warfare, when matches held the place of flints, and the charge of powder was borne in little wooden boxes, hung about the shoulders. Here are two suits of mail, said to have belonged to John, king of France, and David, king of Scotland, who were prisoners in this tower. The legend is appropriate, but not trustworthy. The object at Windsor which is most deserving the lingering gaze of the stranger, and which loses none of its charms after the acquaintance of years, is St. George's Chapel. The exquisite proportions, and the rich yet solemn ornaments of the interior of this unrivalled edifice, leave an effect upon the mind which can not be described. The broad glare of day displays the admirable finishing of its various parts, as elaborate as the joinery work of a cabinet, and yet harmonizing in one massive and

simple whole. The calm twilight does not abate the splendor of this building, while it adds to its solemnity; for then

"The storied window, richly dight,"

catches the last rays of the setting sun: and as the cathedral chant steals over the senses, the genius of the place compels the coldest heart to be devout in a temple of such perfect beauty. The richly-decorated roof, supported on clustered columns, which spread on each side like the branches of a grove-the painted windows, representing in glowing colors some remarkable subjects of Christian history-the banners and escutcheons of the knights of the Garter, glittering in the choir above their carved stalls, within which are affixed the armorial bearings of each knight companion from the time of the founder, Edward III.; all these objects are full of interest, and powerfully seize upon the imagination. Though this building and its decorations are pre-eminently beautiful, it is perfectly of a devotional character; and if anything were wanting to carry the thoughts above the earth, the observer must feel the vanity of all greatness and all honor, save the true and imperishable glory of virtue, when he here treads upon the graves of Edward IV. and Henry VI., of Henry VIII. and Charles I., and remembers that, distinguished as these monarchs were for contrasts of good and evil fortune, the pride and the humility, the triumphs and the degradations, of the one and the other, are blended in the grave

"Together meet the oppressor and the oppressed"—

and they are now judged, as they wanted or exhibited those Christian excellences which the humblest among us may attain. We shall not attempt any description of the various parts of this chapel.

There are not many monuments possessing merit as works of art in St. George's Chapel. The cenotaph of Princess Charlotte is a performance of some excellence in particular figures; but as a whole it is in vicious taste. Edward IV. is buried here, beneath the steel tomb of Quentin Matsys; his unhappy rival Henry VI. lies in the opposite aisle, under a plain marble stone. Henry VIII. and Charles I. are entombed under the choir, without any memorial. At the foot of the altar is a subterranean passage communicating with the tomb-house, in which is the cemetery of the present race of kings.

CHAPTER XV.

MANSIONS.

ENGLAND abounds in mansions of various kinds, the residences of her nobility and her moneyed aristocracy. Some of these reach a high degree of splendor, both in architecture and internal furnishings, not to speak of the delightful sylvan domains with which they are surrounded.

A certain class of English mansions may be described as engrafted on the priories and abbeys disused at the reformation. One of the finest of these is Alnwick castle, one of the seats of the duke of Northumberland.

Alnwick castle is interesting from its antiquity, the stirring events connected with its history, and its present state of complete restoration it now exhibits one of the best specimens of the old baronial structures of Great Britain. The castle is placed on an eminence, which rises from the south side of the river Alne, opposite to the town of Alnwick. It is stated by Grose, that immediately before the Norman conquest, the castle and barony of Alnwick belonged to a baron of the name of Gilbert Tyson, who was slain with Harold at the fatal battle which gave William the crown of England. The possession passed into the hands of the Norman lords De Vescy, where it remained until the reign of Edward I., when, in 1297, Lord William de Vescy dying without legitimate issue, he, by the king's license, bequeathed the castle and barony to the bishop of Durham, who, twelve years afterward, sold them to the

Lord Henry de Percy, from whom they have come down, in regular succession, to the present noble occupants.

At whatever time a castle was first erected here, it was a place of great strength from a very early period. In the reign of William Rufus, Malcolm III., of Scotland, surnamed Cean-mohr, or Great-head, laid siege to Alnwick castle, and both he and his son fell in a conflict with a party of Anglo-Norman troops, who came to the assistance of the besieged. A story has long been repeated in the common histories connected with this siege and the death of Malcolm. It is stated that the garrison of the castle, despairing of succor, were on the point of surrendering to the Scotch, when a soldier rode forth completely armed, and, presenting the keys of the castle to the incautious king on the point of a spear, he suddenly pierced his eye and killed him, and by the fleetness of his horse escaped across the river, which was then swollen with rain. To this the fable adds, that the author of the successful stratagem obtained the name of Percy from "pierce eye," and that he became the founder of the house of Northumberland.

Alnwick castle proved disastrous to another Scotch king, William, surnamed the Lion, from his having been the first to adopt the lion into the royal arms of Scotland. The celebrated Richard Cœur de Lion, while young, having rebelled against his father, Henry II., William needlessly interfered in the fray, and engaged to help the rebel son against his sovereign and parent. In pursuance of his engagement, he entered Northumberland with a tumultuary army, and laid siege to Alnwick. A party of about four hundred English horse had sallied from Newcastle one morning in quest of adventure: they were enveloped in a mist and lost their way; but on the mist suddenly clearing up, they found themselves in the neigborhood of Alnwick, and not far from William, who, with about sixty horse, was scouring the country, the rest of his army being scattered in search of plunder. William at first mistook the English horse for a part of his own troops; but, being informed of his mistake, he gallantly exclaimed, "Now shall we see who are good knights!" and charged. But he was unhorsed, taken prisoner, with a number of his attendants, and carried to Henry II., to whom he was presented with his legs tied beneath his horse's belly. Henry was doubtless exasperated at William's interference in the quarrel between himself and his son; nor was the Scottish monarch released from captivity until, by a special treaty, he bound himself as the liegeman of Henry, and engaged to do homage for Scotland. This occurred in the year 1174. After Henry's death, Richard, previous to his departure for the holy land, annulled the degrading treaty on being paid ten thousand marks.

About twenty years ago, the then duke of Northumberland re-edified Alnwick castle at an expense, as stated, of two hundred thousand pounds. So solicitous was he to have the castle rebuilt after the precise model of the old one, that he preserved a number of stone warriors which formerly graced the battlements, and replaced them in their old positions; and such as were too feeble, from age and injuries, to occupy their stations he dismissed, but got new statues cut to supply their place, that nothing might be wanting. The castle now is, therefore, quite a model of what Alnwick was in the days of the border chivalry. The entrance is through a large gate, between two high round towers; this opens into a spacious court, surrounded on all sides by walls with high battlements. The part of the castle which contains the family residence stands on an artificial elevation in the centre of the inner court. The apartments are fitted up in a very splendid manner. The library, which is a room of sixty-four feet in length, has a very good selection of books. The chapel is elaborately decorated. The ceiling is an imitation of the ceiling of the chapel of King's college, Cambridge; the paintings on the walls are borrowed from those of the cathedral of Milan; and the genealogical table of the house of Northumberland is interwoven with them. The chapel is fifty feet in length, twenty-two in height, and twenty-one in breadth. The apartments for the servants are in the towers. The keep or prison is partly above and partly under ground.

Lambeth palace, which stands on the right bank of the Thames, within half a mile of Westminster bridge, has been for many centuries the principal residence of the archbishops of Canterbury. The manor belonged originally to the see of Rochester, to which it had been granted, before the Norman conquest, by a sister of Edward the Confessor; and it was obtained in exchange for some other lands by Baldwin, archbishop of Canterbury, in the year 1189. There is reason to believe, however, that the archbishops had a house here for at least a century before this time. The

ancient possession of Lambeth by the see of Rochester is still commemorated by the payment to the latter, in two half-yearly sums, of five marks of silver, in consideration of the lodging, firewood, forage, and other accommodations, which the bishops of Rochester had been accustomed to receive here whenever they visited London. When the archbishops of Canterbury first obtained possession of the place, the buildings on it appear to have been old and mean. With the exception of the chapel, the whole of the present structure has certainly been erected since the middle of the thirteenth century.

The palace, as it now appears, is an irregular, but very extensive pile, exhibiting specimens of almost every style of architecture that has prevailed during the last seven hundred years. The oldest part of it, as we have just said, is the chapel, which is supposed to have been built toward the close of the twelfth century. It consists of two apartments, divided by a richly-ornamented screen, and measuring together seventy-two feet in length by twenty-five in breadth. The height of the chapel is thirty feet. Under it is another apartment of smaller dimensions, formed by a series of arches, supported by pillars, and now used as a cellar, though in ancient times it may not improbably have served as a place of worship. Another of the most remarkable portions of the edifice, the great hall, was originally erected by Archbishop Chicheley, in the beginning of the reign of Henry VI.; but after the palace had been sold by the parliament, in the time of the commonwealth, this magnificent apartment was pulled down. It was rebuilt, however, on the old site, and in close imitation of the former hall, after the restoration, by Archbishop Juxon, at an expense of ten thousand five hundred pounds. It stands on the right of the principal court-yard, and is built of fine red brick, the walls being supported by stone buttresses, and also coped with stone, and surmounted by large balls or orbs. The length of this noble room is ninety-three feet, its breadth thirty-eight, and its height fifty. The roof, which is of oak and elaborately carved, is particularly splendid and imposing. The gatehouse, which forms the principal entry to the palace, was erected by Cardinal Morton, about the year 1490, and is a very beautiful and magnificent structure. It consists of two lofty towers, from the summits of which is one of the finest views in the neighborhood of the metropolis. In front of this gate the ancient archiepiscopal dole, or alms, is still distributed every Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday, to thirty poor parishioners of Lambeth. Ten are served each day, among whom are divided three stone of beef, ten pitchers of broth, thickened with oatmeal, five quartern loaves, and twenty pence in copper.

Among the other principal apartments are the library, containing a very extensive and valuable collection of books and manuscripts, founded by Archbishop Bancroft in 1610: and the long gallery, generally supposed to have been the work of Cardinal Pole, who possessed the see from the death of Archbishop Cranmer, in 1556, till 1558. This noble room contains many portraits, of which several are in the highest degree interesting as works of art, or on account of the individuals whom they represent.

Besides these apartments, the palace contains many others well deserving of notice, but which we can not here attempt to describe. We may merely mention the guardroom, an ancient and venerable chamber, fifty-six feet in length, and adorned by a splendid timber roof; the presence-chamber, also of considerable antiquity; the great dining-room, which contains a series of portraits of all the archbishops, from Laud to Cornwallis inclusive; the old and new drawing-rooms, the latter a fine room, measuring thirty-three feet by twenty-two, built by Archbishop Cornwallis; and the steward's parlor, probably built by Archbishop Cranmer.

One of the most interesting portions of Lambeth palace is the stone building called the Lollard's tower. It was erected by Archbishop Chichely, in the early part of the fifteenth century, as a place of confinement for the unhappy heretics from whom it derives its name. Under the tower is an apartment of somewhat singular appearance, called the postroom, from a large post in the middle of it by which its flat roof is partly supported. The prison in which the poor Lollards were confined is at the top of the tower, and is reached by a very narrow winding staircase. Its single doorway, which is so narrow as only to admit one person at a time, is strongly barricaded by both an outer and an inner door of oak, each three inches and a half thick, and thickly studded with iron. The dimensions of the apartment within are twelve feet in length, by nine in width, and eight in height; and it is lighted by two windows, which are only twenty-eight inches high, by fourteen inches wide on the inside, and about half as high and half as wide on the outside. Both the walls and roof of the