This Statue Is Erected On A Stone
Pedestal Seventeen Feet High, Enriched With His Majesty's Arms,
Trophy-Work, Palm-Branches, &C., Enclosed With An Iron Palisade, And
Was Erected By King Charles II.
After his restoration.
The brick
buildings south-east of Charing Cross are mostly beautiful and
uniform, and the King's stables in the Mews, which lie north of it,
and are now magnificently rebuilding of hewn stone, will probably
make Charing Cross as fine a place as any we have in town;
especially as it stands upon an eminence overlooking Whitehall.
The Banqueting-house stands on the east side of the street adjoining
to the great gate of Whitehall on the south. This edifice is built
of hewn stone, and consists of one stately room, of an oblong form,
upwards of forty feet in height, the length and breadth
proportionable, having galleries round it on the inside, the ceiling
beautifully painted by that celebrated history-painter, Sir Peter
Paul Rubens: it is adorned on the outside with a lower and upper
range of columns of the Ionic and Composite orders, their capitals
enriched with fruit, foliage, &c., the intercolumns of the upper and
lower range being handsome sashed windows. It is surrounded on the
top with stone rails or banisters, and covered with lead.
St. James's Palace, where the Royal Family now resides in the winter
season, stands pleasantly upon the north side of the Park, and has
several noble rooms in it, but is an irregular building, by no means
suitable to the grandeur of the British monarch its master. In the
front next St. James's Street there appears little more than an old
gate-house, by which we enter a little square court, with a piazza
on the west side of it leading to the grand staircase; and there are
two other courts beyond, which have not much the air of a prince's
palace. This palace was a hospital, suppressed by Henry VIII., who
built this edifice in the room of it.
But the house most admired for its situation is that of the Duke of
Buckingham at the west end of the Park; in the front of which,
towards the Mall and the grand canal, is a spacious court, the
offices on each side having a communication with the house by two
little bending piazzas and galleries that form the wings. This
front is adorned with two ranges of pilasters of the Corinthian and
Tuscan orders, and over them is an acroteria of figures,
representing Mercury, Secrecy, Equity, and Liberty, and under them
this inscription in large golden characters, viz., SIC SITI
LAETANTVR LARES (Thus situated, may the household gods rejoice).
Behind the house is a fine garden and terrace, from whence there is
prospect adjacent on the house on that side, viz., RVS IN VRBE,
intimating that it has the advantages both of city and country;
above which are figures representing the four seasons: The hall is
paved with marble, and adorned with pilasters, the intercolumns
exquisite paintings in great variety; and on a pedestal, near the
foot of the grand staircase, is a marble figure of Cain killing his
brother Abel; the whole structure exceeding magnificent, rich, and
beautiful, but especially in the finishing and furniture.
Grosvenor or Gravenor Square is bounded on the north by Oxford Road,
on the east by Hanover Square, by Mayfair on the south, and by Hyde
Park on the west; the area whereof contains about five acres of
ground, in which is a large garden laid out into walks, and adorned
with an equestrian statue of King George I. gilded with gold, and
standing on a pedestal, in the centre of the garden, the whole
surrounded with palisades placed upon a dwarf wall. The buildings
generally are the most magnificent we meet with in this great town;
though the fronts of the houses are not all alike, for some of them
are entirely of stone, others of brick and stone, and others of
rubbed brick, with only their quoins, fascias, windows, and door-
cases of stone; some of them are adorned with stone columns of the
several orders, while others have only plain fronts; but they are so
far uniform as to be all sashed, and of pretty near an equal height.
To the kitchens and offices, which have little paved yards with
vaults before them, they descend by twelve or fifteen steps, and
these yards are defended by a high palisade of iron. Every house
has a garden behind it, and many of them coach-houses and stables
adjoining; and others have stables near the square, in a place that
has obtained the name of Grosvenor Mews. The finishing of the
houses within is equal to the figure they make without; the
staircases of some of them I saw were inlaid, and perfect cabinet-
work, and the paintings on the roof and sides by the best hands.
The apartments usually consist of a long range of fine rooms,
equally commodious and beautiful; none of the houses are without two
or three staircases for the convenience of the family. The grand
staircase is generally in the hall or saloon at the entrance. In
short, this square may well be looked upon as the beauty of the
town, and those who have not seen it cannot have an adequate idea of
the place.
The city of Westminster at this day consists of the parishes of St.
Margaret and St. John the Evangelist, and the liberties of
Westminster, viz., St. Martin's-in-the-Fields; St. Mary le Savoy;
St. Mary le Strand; St. Clement's Danes; St. Paul's, Covent Garden;
St. James's, Westminster; St. George's, Hanover Square; and St.
Anne's, Westminster; all under the government of the dean and
chapter of Westminster, and their subordinate officers; or rather,
of a high steward, and such other officers as are appointed by them;
for since the Reformation, the dean and chapter seem to have
delegated their civil power to such officers as they elect for life,
who are not accountable to, or liable to be displaced by them, nor
are they liable to forfeit their offices, but for such offences as a
private man may lose his estate, namely, for high treason, felony,
&c., as happened in the case of their high steward, the Duke of
Ormond, upon whose attainder the dean and chapter proceeded to a new
election.
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