The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 12, No. 347, December 20, 1828. Various

herald go before my bier,

      Bearing on point of lance the robe I wear.

      Shouting aloud, 'Behold what now remains

      Of the proud conqueror of Syria's plains,

      Who bow'd the Persian, made the Christian feel

      The deadly sharpness of the Moslem steel;

      But of his conquests, riches, honours, might,

      Naught sleeps with him in death's unbroken night,

      Save this poor robe.'"

      D.A.H.

      BANQUETTING HOUSE, WHITEHALL

      (For the Mirror.)

      This splendid pile which is at present under repair, was erected in the time of James I. Whitehall being in a most ruinous state, he determined to rebuild it in a very princely manner, and worthy of the residence of the monarchs of the British empire. He began with pulling down the banquetting rooms built by Elizabeth. That which bears the above name at present was begun in 1619, from a design of Inigo Jones, in his purest style; and executed by Nicholas Stone, master mason and architect to the king; it was finished in two years, and cost £17,000. but is only a small part of a vast plan, left unexecuted by reason of the unhappy times which succeeded. The ceiling of this noble room cannot be sufficiently admired; it was painted by Rubens, who had £3,000. for his work. The subject is the Apotheosis of James I. forming nine compartments; one of the middle represents our pacific monarch on his earthly throne, turning with horror from Mars, and other of the discordant deities, and as if it were, giving himself up to the amiable goddess he always cultivated, and to her attendants, Commerce, and the Fine Arts. This fine performance is painted on canvass, and is in high preservation; but a few years ago it underwent a repair by Cipriani, who had £2,000. for his trouble. Near the entrance is a bust of the royal founder.

      Little did James think (says Pennant) that he was erecting a pile from which his son was to step from the throne to the scaffold. He had been brought in the morning of his death, from St. James's across the Park, and from thence to Whitehall, where ascending the great staircase, he passed through the long gallery to his bed-chamber, the place allotted to him to pass the little time before he received the fatal blow. It is one of the lesser rooms marked with the letter A in the old plan of Whitehall. He was from thence conducted along the galleries and the banquetting house, through the wall, in which a passage was broken to his last earthly stage. Mr. Walpole tells us that Inigo Jones, surveyor of the works done about the king's house, had only 8s. 4d. a day, and £46. a year for house-rent, and a clerk and other incidental expenses. The present improvements at Whitehall make one exclaim with the poet, Pope—

      1

      Cavendish's Life of Wolsey, p. 1. edit. 1641. Most of his biographers affirm that he was the son of a butcher.

      2

      "Northern Tour." The same author observes, that "the death of Wolsey would make a fine moral pict

1

Cavendish's Life of Wolsey, p. 1. edit. 1641. Most of his biographers affirm that he was the son of a butcher.

2

"Northern Tour." The same author observes, that "the death of Wolsey would make a fine moral picture, if the hand of any master could give the pallid features of the dying statesman, that chagrin, that remorse, those pangs of anguish, which, in the last bitter moments of his life, possessed him. The point might be taken when the monks are administering the comforts of religion, which the despairing prelate cannot feel. The subject requires a gloomy apartment, which a ray through a Gothic window might just enlighten, throwing its force chiefly on the principal figure, and dying away on the rest. The appendages of the piece need only be few and simple; little more than the crozier and red hat to mark the cardinal and tell the story."

3

Stow's "Annals," p. 557, edit. 1615.

4

Shakspeare introduces this memorable saying of the cardinal into his play of "Henry the Eighth:"—

—"O Cromwell, Cromwell,Had I but serv'd my God with half the zealI serv'd my king, he would not in mine ageHave left me naked to mine enemies."

5

Stow's "Annals."

6

Holinshed's "Chronicle," vol. iii. p. 765, edit. 1808.

7

"Collectanea," vol i. p. 70.

8

Tanner.

9

For the particulars of which, see Knolle's "history of the Turks."

10

Azrael, in the Mahometan creed, the angel of death.