The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-09-09
historic SPOTS MARKED.
visitors to Westminster Can Now
Tell Where to Wax Enthusiastic.

From the Edinburgh Scotsman.
A slight and much-needed step has been
taken in the direction of making West
minister hall more plainly a symbol of
history to the crowds who visit it every
week Everybody knows that to walk
under the beautiful wooden roof that
tells of the time of Richard II is to tread
in the footsteps of statesmen whose time
goes back 800 years and to be in touch
with some of the most tragic events in
EngIand's history. Till now, however,
almost everything to the visitors imagi-
nation.
In the hall itself there was until this
week only one landmark-a tablet on the
the stairs leading up to st. Stephens
hall, showing the place where Charles
stood his trial. This tablet was put in
almost two years ago. Those who are in
charge of the hall say that the Saturday
crowd invariably throngs around it-occa-
sionally to hear remarks like that of a
Russian revolutionist not long ago, who
suggested that all the autocrats who vis-
tied London should be brought to see
the spot.
But If they wished to picture to them
selves other famous scenes-the trial of
Iaud. the assize of Warren Hastings, the
coronation banquets, the sittings of par
lament-they found no clew to assist
their fancies.
Two such clews have, one is glad to find
been provided by operations that were
finished two or three days ago. One is a
tablet in the wall close to the stairs
which descend into the crypt. 1t bears
an inscription saying that 1t marks "the
position of an archway which for upward
of 100 years from the first year of the
reign of Edward VI, 147, until the year
1880. was the principal access to the House
of Commons, which sat under a grant
from that monarch within the Chapel Of
ST. Stephen. This was the doorway
through which Charles passed when he
attempted the arrest of the five members
with the Identification of this place, the
site of the old House of Commons is now
well marked out for the visitors, for there
were already tablets in st. Stephens hall
showing where the speakers chair stood
and where the house itself was divided
from the lobby.
The second of the new clews is found in.
the floor of the hall near its center. It
locates the tragedy of STAFFORD. The in
scription runs that "it marks with as
much accuracy as can be attained the
MACE where Thomas Wentworth, Earl of
stra fford. stood in this hall during the
Impeachment brought against him by the
House of Commons before the House of
Lords" The scene at this trial was not
the same as nine years later when the
king on whose favor STAFFORD had re-
lied, was himself brought to account.
For the trial Of Charles the space at the
end of the hall where the courts OF the
exchequer and kings bench sat was used
so that the tablet showing where the king
was placed is, as / have said, on the steps
leading up TO the platform beneath the
great Gothic window. But for the Bloody
STAFFORD the court was set out In the CEN
Ter Of the hail. and Mr.. Jones, the clerk
of works basing his calculations on an
old print by Holder, has been able to work
out a complete and graphic design, which,
II II were exhibited somewhere in the hall
would add greatly to the pictorial sugges-
tiveness OF the tablet.