[St. James's Palace.] This Palace [Whitehall] being in the beginning of January, 1697, demolished by Fire except the said Banquenting-House, there has since been no Reception for the Court in Town but St. James's Palace, which is pleasantly situated by the Park, and tho' little can be said of its regular Design in appearance, yet it contains many noble, magnificent and beautiful Rooms, and Appartments; and White-Hall will doubtless be rebuilt in a short time, being designed one of the most famous Palaces in Christendom.

[St. James's Palace.] Also West of Charing Cross stands St. James's: Once a religious House, now a Royal Palace, built by King Henry the Eighth. King Edward the First granted a Fair to be kept here, which held a Fortnight, and was called St. James's Fair; which of late Years was kept in the Road leading to Tyburn; but such great Debauchery and Lewdness was practised here, that it was suppressed by King Charles the Second.

St. James's is made by successive Kings and Queens far better and larger than it was at first; and hath been lately beautified and enlarged for the Reception of their Royal Highnesses Prince George and the Princess Anne of Denmark, our late most Noble Queen.

St. James's Palace. On the place where this edifice stands, was once an hospital dedicated to St. James, originally founded by the citizens of London for only fourteen maids afflicted with the leprosy, who were to live a chaste and devout life; but afterwards new donations increased the extent of the charity, and eight brethren were added, to minister divine fervice. This hospital, which is mentioned in a manuscript of the Cotton library, so early as in the year 1100, was at length suppressed by King Henry VIII. who allowed the sisters pensions during the term of their lives, and taking down the edifice built a palace in its room, which retained the name of the hospital, and is still standing. In this edifice our Kings have resided ever since Whitehall was consumed by fire in 1697, and his Majesty usually resides here during the winter season: but though it is pleasantly situated on the north side of the Park, and has very convenient, and not inelegant apartments, it is an irregular brick building, without having one single beauty on the outside to recommend it, and is at once the contempt of foreign nations, and the disgrace of our own. In the front next St. James's Street, there appears little more than an old gatehouse; and on passing through the gate we enter a little square court, with a piazza on the west side of it leading to the grand stair case; the buildings are low, plain, and mean; and there are two other courts beyond, which have not much of the air of a palace. The windows however look into a pleasant garden, and command a view of St. James's Park, which seem to be the only advantage this edifice enjoys, above many others devoted to charity. This palace claims a print, as it is the dwelling of a British Monarch, having otherwise not the least beauty to recommend it. The print shews both sides of it.

In other kingdoms the attention of foreigners is first struck with the magnificent residence of the Sovereign, on which all the decorations of architecture are lavished without the least regard to expence. The outside is grand and noble; and the galleries and apartments are adorned with all the boasted pieces of art, the finest efforts of genius, and the most rare and precious productions of nature: for the magnificence of the palace is intended to give an idea of the power and riches of the kingdom: but if the power, wealth and strength of the King of England should be judged from this palace, how great would be the mistake! We are however in no want of a design for an edifice suitable to the dignity of the British Crown; the celebrated Inigo Jones drew a draught of such a strudlure; but the ideas of that architect were greater than the spirit of the public, and the expence of building it has hitherto prevented its being begun: but as a taste for elegance in building gains ground, and new schemes are continually laid for building magnificent bridges, streets and squares, it is to be hoped that the erecting of so necessary a structure will not be much longer neglected: especially if it be considered, that however great the expence may be, it will cost the nation nothing, for on these occasions, what is given by the people is paid to the people.

St. James's Palace,—the W. end of Pall-Mall, on the L. about ⅓ of a mile from the Haymarket, or the S. end of St. James's st. near ¼ of a mile from 163, Piccadilly.

St. James's Palace, Westminster, stands on the north side of St. James's-park, and at the western end of Pall-mall. On the place where this edifice stands, was anciently an hospital, dedicated to St. James, originally founded by the citizens of London for fourteen single women, who were to live a chaste and devout life. The charity was afterwards considerably increased by new donations. This hospital, which is mentioned in a manuscript of the Cottonian library, so early as in the year 1100, was at length suppressed by Henry VIII., who took it down and built the palace which still retains the name of the original patron saint. It is a very irregular brick building of no exterior beauty.

In this edifice our kings resided ever since Whitehall Palace was consumed by fire in 1697, till the south eastern wing was accidentally burned in January, 1809. Since which a part only has been rebuilt, but it was put into ornamental repair during the years 1821–2, and 3.

James's (St.) Palace, an irregular brick building, the only London Palace of our Sovereigns from the period of the fire at Whitehall in the reign of William III. to the occupation of Buckingham Palace by George IV. It was first made a manor 1528 by Henry VIII., and was previously a hospital dedicated to St. James, and founded for fourteen sisters, "maidens that were leprous." When Henry altered or rebuilt it (it is uncertain which), he annexed the present park, closed it about with a wall of brick, and thus connected the manor of St. James's with the manor or palace of Whitehall,² Little remains of the old palace except the brick gatehouse facing towards St. James's Street, part of what has since been called the Chapel Royal and the initials H. A. (Henry and Anne Boleyn) in the chimney-piece of the old Presence Chamber. A detached Library, on part of the site of Stafford House, was commenced by Caroline, Queen of George II., and finished October 29, 1737. Godolphin House in the Stable-yard (pulled down to erect Stafford House) was the last London residence of Charles James Fox. A frontage (facing Cleveland Row) was built for Frederick, Prince of Wales, upon his marriage, on the site of the suttling-houses belonging to the Guards.³ A fire, on January 21, 1809, in the Duke of Cambridge's lodgings, destroyed much of the eastern part of the building.

Though I do not think so lowly of St. James's as others, yet still I must say, if it does not look like a palace, it does not look like anything else; certainly, not like a private house. That and the parke are the only signs that London is ever used as a royal residence.—W. Windham, June 30, 1808.

When the negotiations for the marriage of Charles, Prince of Wales (afterwards Charles I.), with the Infanta of Spain seemed likely to terminate favourably, St. James's Palace was named as their residence, and the alterations deemed necessary by the Spanish Ambassador served to quicken the popular dislike to the match.

March 23, 1623—Lord Chamberlain Pembroke to Secretary Conway.—The fitting up of St. James' Palace for the Infanta is the most pressing point, as her side will have to be enlarged, the oratory built, and the whole palace refurnished: the furniture there being too mean for their highnesses.—Cal. State Pap., 1619–1623, p. 536.

April 20, 1623—Secretary Conway to the Lord Treasurer.—To hasten the Chapel, and to prepare St. James's House, whither the Princess is first to be brought, and which is to be her constant seat.—Cal. State Pap., 1619–1623, p. 563.

May 3, 1623.—The Spanish Ambassador has surveyed the lodgings appointed for her at Denmark House and St. James's, and ordered a new Chapel at each place, which Inigo Jones is to prepare with great costliness; the Savoy Chapel is to be given up to her household.—Cal. State Pap., 1619–1623, p. 576.

May 30, 1623—Chamberlain to Carleton.—It is rumoured that the Prince is to have the title of King of Scotland or Ireland, in order that the Infanta may be a Queen. The Spanish Ambassador has laid the first stone of a Chapel for her at St. James's.—Cal. State Pap., 1619–1623, p. 593.

Historical Associations.—Mary I. died here. Henry, Prince of Wales, eldest son of James I., died here. Charles II. was born here. It was here that Charles I. spent his last days, his confinement, according to a suppressed passage in Clarendon,¹ being most strict and irksome; "no man was suffered to speak to him but the soldiers of his guard, some of whom sat up always in his bed-chamber, and never suffered him to go into any other room, or out of their sight." And here he took leave of his children the day before his execution; and here he passed his last night, walking the next morning "from St. James's through the Park, guarded with a regiment of foot and partisans,"² to the scaffold before Whitehall. James, Duke of York, who was confined here with his brother and sister, contrived to escape on the night of April 20, 1648, by some back stairs into the "inmost garden," whence, with a key which had been provided, he let himself into the park, where he found Bamfield and a footman waiting with a cloak and periwig, which he put on, and thus disguised "went through the Spring Garden, where one Mr. Jupp was ready with a hackney-coach, which carried them as far as Salisbury House." There the Duke and Bamfield left the coach and went down Ivy Lane, where they took boat.³ [See Ivy Lane.] Monk took up his quarters in "St James's House," while his plans for the Restoration were as yet undecided.⁴ In James II.'s reign Verrio, the painter, was keeper of the gardens, and had apartments in the Palace, where Evelyn visited him.

August 4, 1686.—I dined at Signior Verrio's, the famous Italian Painter, now settled in his Majesty's garden at St. James's, which he has made a very delicious Paradise.—Evelyn.

James II.'s son, by Mary of Modena, the old Pretender, was born here. A contemporary plan of the Palace is dotted with lines to show the way in which the child was said to have been conveyed in the warming-pan to her Majesty's bed in the great bed-chamber. Queen Anne (then the Princess Anne) describes St James's Palace "as much the properest place to act such a cheat in."⁵ The Prince of Orange [William III.], on arriving in London with his army, December 18, 1688, went straight to St James's Palace, where, "in a short time all the rooms and staircases were thronged by those who came to pay their court."¹ James, meanwhile, had departed for Rochester.

December 18, 1688.—I saw the King take barge to Gravesend at 12 o'clock—a sad sight! The Prince comes to St. James's and fills Whitehall with Dutch guards. ... All the world go to see the Prince at St. James's, where there is a greate Court. There I saw him and severall of my acquaintance who came over with him. He is very stately, serious, and reserved.—Evelyn.

The Duchess of Kendal (Mademoiselle Schulemberg), the German mistress of King George I., and Miss Brett, the English mistress of the same king, had apartments in St James's Palace. The Duchess of Kendal's apartments were "on the ground-floor, towards the garden." Three of the King's grand-daughters were lodged in the Palace at the same time; and Anne, the eldest, a woman of a most imperious and ambitious nature, soon came to words with the English mistress of her grandfather. When the King set out for Hanover, Miss Brett, it appears, ordered a door to be broken out of her apartment into the Palace garden. The Princess Anne, offended at her freedom, and not choosing such a companion in her walks, ordered the door to be walled up again. Miss Brett as promptly reversed that command; and while bricks and words were bandied about, the King died suddenly, and the empire of the mistress was at an end. Mrs. Howard (afterwards Countess of Suffolk), the mistress of George II., had apartments here, the same formerly occupied by the Duchess of Kendal. The King was not allowed to retain undisturbed possession of his mistress. Mr. Howard went one night into the quadrangle of St. James's, and before the guards and other audience vociferously demanded his wife to be restored to him. He was soon thrust out, and almost as soon soothed, selling (as Walpole had heard) his noisy honour and the possession of his wife for a pension of £1200 a year.² Here Miss Vane, one of the Maids of Honour ("Yet Vane could tell what ills from beauty spring"), was delivered in her apartments of a child, the father of which was Frederick, Prince of Wales. Here died Caroline, Queen of George II.; and here George IV. was born. In the brick house on the west side of the Ambassadors' Court, or west quadrangle, Marshal Blucher was lodged in 1814. He used to sit at the drawing-room windows, and smoke and bow to people, pleased with the notice that was taken of him. In the Great Council Chamber, before the King and Queen, the odes of the Poets Laureate were performed and sung.

In St. James's Palace, until the death of the Prince Consort, the Queen held her drawing-rooms. They are now held at Buckingham Palace; but levees are still held here. In the "Colour-court" (to the east, and so called because the standard of the household regiment on duty is planted within it) the Guards muster every day at eleven, and the band of the regiment plays for about a quarter of an hour.

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² Stow, p. 168.
³ London Daily Post of September 24, 1735.

¹ History of the Rebellion, vol. vi. p. 229.
² Whitelocke, p. 374.
³ Clarke's Life of James II. vol. i. p. 35.
⁴ Whitelocke, p. 696.
⁵ Dalrymple, vol. ii. pp. 303, 308.

¹ Macaulay, vol. iii. p. 327.
² Horace Walpole, Reminiscences of the Courts of George the First and Second: Letters, vol. i. pp. cxxv.–cxxvi.