Old Palace Yard

Old palace yard, is betn Westminster hall E. and the Abby W. and betn Fish yard N. and Mill bank S. being from Cha+ S. 940 Yds.

[Old Palace Yard.] Out of ... New Palace Yard is a Passage on the West through St. Margaret's Lane, North into the Old Palace Yard, a spacious Place also well built. [Here, toward the East, the Lords of Parliament, brought in their Coaches or Chairs, go up to their House, as do the Kings and Queens, when they go to Parliament. More on the left Hand is a narrow and darkish Passage, in which is Cotton House, wherein is kept that invaluable Collection of Manuscripts, known by the Name of the Cotton Library. A little farther in this Passage on the Left, is a Pair of Stone Stairs leading up to St. Stephen's Chapel, now the House of Commons. By the same Passage we are led into Westminster Hall, entering Northward. In this Old Palace Yard, in the North-West Corner, is an House, where the Originals of the Rolls of Parliament are reposited. Westward from this Palace Yard is a Passage along by King Henry the Seventh's Chapel into Westminster Abbey, by the little East Door.]

Old Palace yard, by St. Margaret's lane, Westminster, was built by Edward the Confessor, or, as others say, by William Rufus, and received the name of Old on the building of New Palace yard. See New Palace yard.

Palace-Yard (Old), Westminster,—the open space on the S. side of Westminster-hall by the Abbey.

Palace-Yard, Old, Westminster, is the open space on the south side of Westminster Hall, by the Abbey.

Palace Yard (Old), an open space between the Houses of Parliament and Henry VII.'s Chapel, and so called from the Palace of our Kings at Westminster. [See Westminster.] It has been the scene of many public executions. Here, January 31, 1605–1606, Guy Fawkes, T. Winter, Rookwood, and Keyes were executed for the Gunpowder Plot. Here, on Thursday, October 29, 1618—

A great and very strange scene the last scene in the Life of Walter Raleigh. Raleigh was beheaded in Old Palace Yard: he appeared on the scaffold there about eight o'clock that morning: an immense crowd, all London, and in a sense all England looking on. A cold hoar-frosty morning. Earl of Arundel, now known to us by his Greek marbles; Earl of Doncaster ("Sardanapalus" Hay, afterwards Earl of Carlisle): these, with other Earls and dignitaries sat looking through windows near by; to whom Raleigh in his last brief, manful speech appealed, with response from them. ...A very tragic scene. Such a man with his head grown grey, with his strong heart "breaking"—still strength enough in it to break with dignity. Somewhat proudly he laid his old grey head on the block; as if saying in better than words "There then!"—Carlyle's Cromwell.²

Here too was enacted an equally strange scene.

On the 30th of June, 1637, in Old Palace Yard, three men, gentlemen of education, of good quality, a Barrister, a Physician, and a Parish Clergyman of London, were set on three Pillories: stood openly as the scum of malefactors, for certain hours there; and then had their ears cut off,—bare knives, hot branding irons—and their cheeks stamped S.L., Seditious Libeller; in the sight of a great crowd, "silent" mainly, and looking "pale." The men were ... William Prynne, Barrister: Dr. John Bastwick: and the Rev. Henry Burton, Minister of Friday Street Church. Their sin was against Laud and his surplices at Allhallowtide, not against any other man or thing. ... Bastwick's wife on the scaffold, received his ears in her lap, and kissed him. Prynne's ears the executioner "rather sawed than cut." "Cut me, tear me," cried Prynne, "I fear thee not. I fear the fire of Hell, not thee!" The June sun had shone hot on their faces. Burton, who had discoursed eloquent religion all the while, said, when they carried him, near fainting into a house in King Street, "It is too hot to last long." Too hot indeed.—Carlyle's Cromwell, vol. i. p. 135.

Edmund Calamy died at his house in Old Palace Yard in 1732. The landing-place by which communication was kept up with the Thames was called Old Palace or Parliament Stairs.

    Thus all the Way they row'd by Water,
My Eyes were still directed a'ter,
'Till they arriv'd at Palace Stairs,
The Place of Landing for our May'rs.—Hudibras Redivivus.

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² See also the account by Sir John Eliot, in his Monarchy of Man, quoted in Forster's Eliot, vol. i. p. 34.