Buckingham Palace

Buckingham House, a graceful Palace very commodiously situate at the Wly end of St. James's Park, having at one view a Prospect of the Mall and other Walks, and of the delightful and spacious Canal; a Seat not to be contemned by the greatest Monarch. It was formerly called Arlington House, and being purchased by his Grace the present Duke of Bucks and Normanby, he rebuilt it in the Year 1703, from the Ground near where the old Foundation stood. It consists of the Mansion-house, and at some distance from each end of that conjoined by 2 arching Galleries are the Lodging-rooms for Servants on the S. side the Court, and opposite on the N. side are the Kitchen and Landry, the Fronts of which are elevated on Pillars of the Tuscan, Dorick and Ionick Orders, thereby constituting Piazza's. The Walls are Brick, those of the Mansion very fine rubb'd and gag'd, adorned with 2 ranges of Pilasters, of the Corinthian and Tuscan Orders, on the latter (which are uppermost) is an Acroteria of Figures standing erect and fronting the Court, they appear as big as the Life and look noble; the most Nly [northerly] is the Figures of

1. Mercury with his winged Chapeau.
2. Represents Secret, reposing its Right-arm on a Pillar, and in the Left-hand a Key.
3. Equity holding a Balance and Plummet.
4. Liberty, having in his Right-hand a Scepter and a Cap in the Left.
5. Truth holding the Sun in his Right-hand and treading on a Globe.
6. (Or most Sly) is the Figure of Apollo holding a Lyre.

Also backward are 4 Figures beholding the W, viz. Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. Moreover on the Front of this Mansion are these words depensiled in Capital Gold Characters, &c.

SIC SITI LÆTANTUR LARES (on the E. side) i.e. The Lares rejoyce in such a Situation.

SPECTATOR FASTIDIOSUS SIBI MOLESTUS (on the S.) i.e. The scornful Spectator is troublesome to himself.

RUS IN URBE (on the W. side) i.e. It has the advantages both of a City and Country-Seat. And

LENTE SUSCIPE, CITO PERFICE (on the N.) i.e. Begin with Deliberation, Perfect with Expedition.

The Hall, partly paved with Marble, is adorned with Pilasters, the Intercolumns are Noble Painture in great variety, and on a Pedestal near the Foot of the great Staircase (whose Steps are entire Slabs) are the Marble Figures of Cain killing his brother Abel; and in short the whole Structure is spacious, commodious, rich and beautiful in its Building, but especially in the Finishing and Furniture. This House is now in the Occupation of his Grace. It has a spacious Court on its Ely side fenced with a handsome Wall, Iron-work and a beautiful Iron Gate, where the Duke's Coronet, Arms, Garter and George are exquisitely represented in Iron.

Buckingham-House, St. James's Park,—on the W. side of it, about ⅓ of a mile from St. James's palace.

Buckingham Palace, St. James's-park, is on the west side of the Park, about one-third of a mile from St. James's-palace. The first edifice on this spot was called Arlington House, which being purchased by the Duke of Buckingham, he rebuilt it in 1703, and named it Buckingham House. In 1762, it was purchased by George the Third, as a residence for his consort, Queen Charlotte, when it obtained the name of the Queen's Palace, having been settled on Her Majesty in 1775, in lieu of Somerset House. The greater part of it has been taken down by command of George the Fourth, and is being rebuilt by Mr. Nash, in a style more remarkable for singularity than for either taste or beauty.

Buckingham House, in St. James's Park, built in 1705 after the designs of Captain Wynne, a native of Bergen-op-Zoom, for John Sheffield, Marquis of Normanby and Duke of Buckinghamshire, the poet and patron of Dryden. The house was built on Crown land, for the surrender of a lease of which, to expire in 1771, the Duke gave £13,000. [For its earlier history see Mulberry Garden.]

It [Buckingham House] was formerly called Arlington House, and being purchased by his Grace, the present Duke, he rebuilt it from the ground in the year 1703.—Hatton, p. 623.

Buckingham House is one of the great beauties of London, both by reason of its situation and its building. It is situated at the west end of St. James's Park, fronting the Mall and the great walk; and behind it is a fine garden, a noble terrace (from whence, as well as from the apartments, you have a most delicious prospect), and a little park with a pretty canal. The Court-yard which fronts the Park is spacious; the offices are on each side divided from the Palace by two arching galleries, and in the middle of the court is a round basin of water, lined with freestone, with the figures of Neptune and the Tritons in a water-work. The staircase is large and nobly painted; and in the Hall before you ascend the stairs is a very fine statue of Cain slaying of Abel in marble. The apartments are indeed very noble, the furniture rich, and many very good pictures.¹ The top of the Palace is flat, on which one hath a full view of London and Westminster, and the adjacent country: and the four figures of Mercury, Secrecy, Equity, and Liberty, front the Park, and those of the Four Seasons the gardens. His Grace hath also put inscriptions on the four parts of his palace. On the front towards the Park, which is as delicious a situation as can be imagined, the inscription is—Sic siti lætantur Lares—(The Household Gods delight in such a situation); and fronting the garden, Rus in Urbe.²—The Country within a City), which may be properly said, for from that garden you see nothing but an open country, and an uninterrupted view, without seeing any part of the city, because the Palace interrupts that prospect from the Garden.—[J. Macky] Journey through England, 8vo, 1722, vol. i. p. 194.

The Duke's own account of it is as follows:—

The avenues to this House are along St. James's Park, through rows of goodly elms on one hand, and gay flourishing limes on the other; that for coaches, this for walking; with the Mall lying between them. This reaches to my iron palisade that encompasses a square court, which has in the midst a great bason with statues and water-works; and from its entrance rises all the way imperceptibly, 'till we mount to a Terrace in the front of a large Hall, paved with square white stones mixed with a dark -coloured marble; the walls of it covered with a set of pictures done in the school of Raphael. Out of this on the right hand we go into a parlour 33 feet by 39 feet, with a niche 15 feet broad for a Bufette, paved with white marble, and placed within an arch, with Pilasters of divers colours, the upper part of which as high as the ceiling is painted by Ricci. ... Under the windows of this closet [of books] and greenhouse is a little wilderness full of blackbirds and nightingales. The trees, though planted by myself, require lopping already, to prevent their hindering the view of that fine canal in the Park.—A Letter to the D[uke] of Sh[rewsbury],—(D. of Buckingham's Works, 8vo, 1729).³

The Duke died in 1721, having bequeathed his house to the Duchess, "upon this express condition only, that she does not marry again." In 1723 the Prince and Princess of Wales (afterwards George II. and Queen Caroline) were in treaty with the widow for the purchase of the house. The Duchess, a natural daughter of James II. by Catherine Sedley, names the purchase-money she requires, in a letter to Mrs. Howard:—

If their Royal Highnesses will have everything stand as it does, furniture and pictures, I will have three thousand pounds per annum; both run hazard of being spoiled, and the last, to be sure, will be all to be new bought whenever my son is of age. The quantity the rooms take cannot be well furnished under ten thousand pounds; but if their Highnesses will permit the pictures all to be removed, and buy the furniture as it will be valued by different people, the house shall go at two thousand pounds. ... If the prince or princess prefer much the buying outright, under sixty thousand pounds it will not be parted with as it now stands, and all His Majesty's revenue cannot purchase a place so fit for them nor for a less sum.—Duchess of Buckingham to Mrs. Howard, August 1, 1723 (Suffolk Papers, vol. i. p. 117).

The sum was either thought too much or the Duchess changed her mind—for nothing was done.

On the martyrdom of her grandfather [Charles I.] she [the Dss. of B.] received him [Lord Hervey] in the Great Drawing-room of Buckingham House, seated in a chair of state, in deep mourning, attended by her women in like weeds, in memory of the royal martyr.—Walpole's Reminiscences.

The Duchess left the house to John, Lord Hervey (Pope's Lord Hervey), for his life; but he tells us he did not care to take possession. It was bought by George III. of Sir Charles Sheffield (the Duke's natural son) in 1762 for £28,000, and was called by the mob Holyrood House.¹ It was settled on Queen Charlotte in lieu of Somerset House by an Act passed in 1775 (15 Geo. III., c. 33). Here, in "the Queen's House," as it was then commonly called, Johnson had his famous interview with George III. The principal portion of the King's Library (which was afterwards presented to the nation by George IV.) occupied three large rooms, two oblong and one octagon. Here all that king's children were born, George IV. alone excepted.

At Pimlico an ancient structure stands
Where Sheffield erst, but Brunswick now commands.
Rolliad (Probationary Odes).

Buckingham House stood till 1825, when it was added to by George IV., and the present unsightly palace (the subject of the next article) arose in its stead. More than half the house, all the north-west wing, and other buildings on the north part, occupied the site of the famous Mulberry Garden; and that part of the courtyard in front of the house, containing two rods and nine perches, was taken by the Duke of Buckingham from St. James's Park, with, it was said, the consent of Queen Anne.

Buckingham Palace, the palace of Her Majesty in St. James's Park, built in the reign of King George IV., on the site of Buckingham House, from the designs of John Nash, and completed in the reign of William IV., but never inhabited by that sovereign, who is said to have expressed his great dislike to the general appearance and discomfort of the whole structure.

Yet I must say, notwithstanding the expense which has been incurred in building the Palace, that no Sovereign in Europe, I may even add, perhaps, no private gentleman, is so ill lodged as the King of this country. —Duke of Wellington to House of Lords, July 16, 1828.

When the grant was given by Parliament it was intended only to repair and enlarge old Buckingham House; and therefore the old site, height, and dimensions were retained, probably from knowing that Parliament would not have granted the funds for an entirely new Palace. On Her Majesty's accession several alterations were effected—a dome in the centre was removed, and new buildings added to the south. The alterations were made by Mr. Edward Blore, and Her Majesty entered into her new Palace on July 13, 1837. Greater changes have since been made by the removal of the Marble Arch (1850) and the erection, at a cost of £150,000, of an east front, under the superintendence of Mr. Blore, by which the whole building was converted into a quadrangle. The chapel on the south side, originally a conservatory, was consecrated by the Archbishop of Canterbury, March 25, 1843. The Grand Staircase is of white marble and decorated by L. Gruner. The Library is generally used as a waiting-room for deputations, which, as soon as the Queen is ready to receive them, pass across the Sculpture Gallery into the Hall, and thence ascend by the Grand Staircase through an ante-room and the Green Drawing-room to the Throne Room. The Green Drawing-room, which opens upon the portico of Nash's building, is 50 feet in length and 32 in height, and hung with green satin, striped and relieved with gilding. The door and shutter-panels are filled with mirrors. The magnificent Ballroom on the south side was completed in 1856, from Pennethorne's designs, and decorated by L. Gruner. When state balls are given, visitors having the entree alight at the temporary garden entrance, and the general company enter by the Grand Hall. Visitors are conducted through the Green Drawing-room to the Picture Gallery and the Grand Saloon. On these occasions refreshments are served in the Garter Room and Green Drawing-room, and supper laid in the principal Dining-room. The State concerts are given in the Grand Saloon. The Throne Room is 64 feet in length. Here is placed the Royal Throne or Chair of State. The ceiling of the room is coved, richly emblazoned with arms, and gilded in the boldest Italian style of the 15th century. Beneath is a white marble frieze (the Wars of the Roses), designed by Stothard and executed by E.H. Baily, R.A. The pictures in Buckingham Palace were principally collected by George IV. The Dutch and Flemish pictures, of which the collection chiefly consists, are hung together. They are almost without exception first-rate works. The portraits are in the State Rooms adjoining.

ALBERT DURER (1).—An Altar Piece in three parts.

MABUSE (1).—St. Matthew called from the receipt of Custom.

REMBRANDT (7).—Noli me Tangere. Adoration of the Magi. The Shipbuilder and his wife (very fine, cost George IV. when Prince of Wales, 5000 guineas). Burgomaster Pancras and his Wife. Three portraits.

RUBENS (7).—Pythagoras—the fruit and animals by SNYDERS, 8 feet 8 inches high by 12 feet 6 inches wide. A Landscape. The Assumption of the Virgin. St. George and the Dragon—in Charles I.'s Collection. Pan and Syrinx. The Falconer. Family of Olden Barneveldt.

VANDYCK (6).—Marriage of St. Catherine. Christ healing the Lame Man. Study of Three Horses. Portrait of a Man in black. Queen Henrietta Maria presenting Charles I. with a crown of laurel. Virgin and Child.

MYTENS (1).—Charles I. and his Queen, full length figures in a small picture.

JANSEN (1).—Charles I. walking in Greenwich Park with his Queen and two children.

CUYP (9).—HOBBEMA (2). RUYSDAEL (i). A. VANDERVELDE (7), of great excellence. YOUNGER VANDERVELDE (4). PAUL POTTER (4). BACKHUYSEN (1). BERGHEM (8). BOTH (1). G. Douw (8). KAREL DU JARDIN (5). DE HOOGHE (2).

N. MAES (1). —A Young Woman, with her finger on her lip and in a listening attitude, stealing down a dark winding staircase (very fine).

METZU (6). One his own portrait.

F. MIERIS (4).—A. OSTADE (9). I. OSTADE (2). SCHALKEN (3). JAN STEEN (6). YOUNGER TENIERS (14). TERBURG (2). VANDERHEYDEN (2). VANDERMEULEN (13). A. VANDERNEER (1). VANDERWERFF (3). WOUVERMANS (10). WEENIX (1). WYNANTS (1). WATTEAU (4).

There are also a few good works by French painters, as CLAUDE LORRAINE, GASPAR POUSSIN, WATTEAU, GREUZE (3) and GRANES.

SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS (3).—Death of Dido. Cymon and Iphigenia. His own portrait, in spectacles.

ZOFFANY (2).—Interior of the Florentine Gallery. Royal Academy in 1773.

SIR P. LELY (1).—Anne Hyde, Duchess of York.

SIR D. WILKIE (3).—The Penny Wedding. Blind Man's Buff. Duke of Sussex in Highland dress.

SIR W. ALLAN.—The Orphan. Anne Scott near the vacant chair of her father, Sir Walter Scott.

Mode of admission—order from the Lord Chamberlain, granted only when the Court is absent.

The Mews, concealed from the palace by a lofty mound, contains a spacious riding-school; a room expressly for keeping state harness; stables for the state horses; and houses for forty carriages. Here, too, is kept the magnificent state coach, designed by Sir W. Chambers, architect, in 1762; and painted by Cipriani with a series of emblematical subjects, the entire cost being £7661: 16: 5. The stud of horses and the carriage may be inspected by an order from the Master of the Horse. The entrance is in Buckingham Palace Road. The garden, by Jenkins, is about 40 acres, of which nearly 5 acres are occupied by a lake. The garden has been laid out and planted to secure privacy as far as possible. In the garden is the Queen's summer-house, on the pavilion, containing the frescoes (eight in number) from Milton's Comus, executed in 1844-1845 by Eastlake, Maclise, Landseer, Dyce, Stanfield, Uwins, Leslie, and Ross. The ornaments and borders are by Gruner.

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¹ See a Catalogue of the Pictures in Harl. MS., 6344.
² Tatler, No. 18.
³ There are three small views of Buckingham House and Gardens worked into the text of this edition of the Duke's Works.

¹ Walpole to George Montagu, June 8, 1762.