The Sun.
London, England, 1834-10-18 00:00:00

THE COURTS OF LAN.

The furniture generally of these buildings has sustained
considerable damage.
The strictest inquiry is in progress as to the cause of this
calamity, but there is not the slightest reason to suppose
that it has arisen from any other than accidental causes.
Office of Woods, &c., 17th October, 1834.

Under present circumstances a brief history of a spot
where so much has occurred to raise an interest so imperish-
able may not be amiss.
The earliest traditions assert that a palace existed here
belonging to King Canute, which was burnt down in the
time of Edward the Confessor. In the year 1097 'William
Rufus rebuilt the palace and established his principal Court
here, holding the National Council and the great feasts of
Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide, as well as the various
Courts of Law. On one of these occasions an anecdote is
related by Matthew Paris. " When the King built the
Hall, hearing men saye that it was too great, he answered
and said, This Halle is not bigge enough by the one halfe,
and is but a bedchamber in comparison of that I mean to
make." A Royal vaunt fully in accordance with the spirit
of the Norman Monarch, but which was never fulfilled.
The successors of William continued to reside in the palace
of Westminster ; but during the wars of Stephen it pro-
bably became much dilapidated ; for in the year 1163 we
find that the celebrated Thomas h Becket effected many
and great repairs, and from henceforward it became the scat
of Regal splendour, until events occurred which gave it a
different character. King Henry 111. held many high
festivals and solemn feasts at Westminster. _

" On the day of the circumcision of our Lord," says Stow, _
"in the year 1236, the King's Treasurer was commanded
to cause 6,000 poor people to be fed at Westminster, for
the state of the King, the Queen and their children. The
weake and aged to be placed in the great Hall, and in the
lesser those who were more strong and in reasonable plight.
In the King's Chamber the children and in the Queen's ;
and when the King knew the charge, he gladly allowed it
in the accounts." In the same year the river overflowed its
banks, and flooded all Westminster ; " and in the Great
Palace men did row with wherries in the midst of the Hall,
being forced to ride to their Chambers." Westminster
Hall, in this reign, assumed a new interest, as connected
with the Parliament, which was first summoned towards the
latter end of Henry 111., and, although the Hall is not
precisely indicated as the place of meeting, it is most pro-
bable that some of its precincts were devoted to the delibe-
rations of the Representatives, as at a subsequent period we
find them actually convened there, as if according to esta-
blished custom.
The same scourge, which at this moment we deplore,
came again to visit the Palace in the year 1299, two cen-
turies after its restoration by William Rufus. "It was
burnt by a vehement fire, kindled in the lesser hall of the
King's house ; the same with many other houses adjoining,
and with the Queen's chamber, were all consumed ; the
flames thereof also (being drawn by the wind) fired the
monastary, which was, with all the palace, consumed, but
afterwards repayred#." In the same reign a few years later,
an event occurred which raised considerable scandal against
the clergy. " The treasury of Westminster was robbed,
for the which Walter, Abbott of Westminster, with forty-
nine of his brethren and thirty-two others, were thrown into
the Tower of London, and indicted of the robbery of
100,000/. ;" but were they subsequently released, with-
out any proof being obtained to fix the crime on any one t.
In the following reign, that of Edward 11., the romantic
and chivalrous character of the times was shown by a cu-
rious incident :—" In the yeere 1316, Edward 11. solemn-
nised the feast of Pentecost in Westminster Hall, and sit-
ting royally with all the Peers around him, there entered a
woman adorned like a minstrel, sitting on a great horse,
trapped as minstrels then used, who rode round about the
tables, and came up to the King's board, and laid a letter
before him, and turning her horse, left the Hall." This
letter was a petition or remonstrance against certain grie-
vances, and says much for the facility of access to the So-
vereign which was afforded in feudal times.
It is not, however, till the Reign of Richard the Second
that the actual situation of the Parliament is described,
though, according to Stow, "it appeareth that many Par-
liaments have been held there (in Westminster Hall ;) for
I find noted that in the year 1397, the Hall being out of
repair, King Richard having occasion to hold a Parliament,
caused (for that purpose) a large house to be builded in the
middest of the Palace Court, betwixt the clocke tower and
the gate of the old great halle. This house was very large
and long, made of timber, covered with tile, open on both
the sides and at both the ends, that all men might see and
hear what was said and done. The King's archers (4,000
Cheshire-men) compassed the house about with their bowes
bent and arrowes nocked in their hands, altvaise ready to
shoote ; they had bouche of Court (to wit, meate and
drinke), and greate wages of sixpence a day." After this
exploit of Richard the Second, the violent act of Crom-
well, in after times, of surrounding the House with his sol-
diers, must lose its claim to originality ; but the latter was
the most fortunate, for two years afterwards Richard was
deposed in the same hall, an occurrence which appears sin-
gularly retributive. We know not what mutations befel
the palace for a considerable time afterwards, but it conti-
nued to be the residence of the sovereign, and the head
quarters of the law of the land until the fourth year of

Henry the Eighth (1512), when a great part was once again
destroyed by fire—the third conflagration since the time of
the Confessor. It does not appear to have ever again been
repaired for a Royal residence, and in the next reign we find
the Parliament established in the Chambers which they so
recently occupied ; the Lords in the ancient Court of Re-
quests, and the Commons in the chapel of St. Stephen, "of
old," says Stow, " founded by King Stephen. It was rebuilt
in the reign of Edward the Third, in the year 1347, for 38
persons in that sanctuary to serve God. He also built in
the little sanctuary adjoining a strong clockard, of stone
and timber, covered with lead, and placed therein three
great bels, since usually rung at coronations, triumphs, fu-
nerals of Princes, and their obits. Of those bels men fa-
buled that their ringing sowered all the wine in the towne!"
This Chapel, or College, at the suppression was surrendered
to Edward the Sixth, since which time it has served as a
Parliament House. In point of antiquity little now remains
to be described ; the most interesting memorial of this kind
connected with the Houses of Parliament was the Painted
Stow's Survey, &e. t Ibid.