of Denmark, was also a seaman, and her Lord High Admiral.

HER MAJESTY, QUEEN MARY II., who founded this royal naval hospital*, enjoined her architect, Sir Christopher Wren, to build the fabric with great magnificence, and being very solicitous for the execution of the design, visited Greenwich at various times, to inspect the building erected by Charles II., as a part of his intended palace, and also the one built by Inigo Jones, called the Queen's house. She declared her unwillingness to demolish either of these buildings, as some persons had proposed to her; and therefore reserved a road, or right of way, one hundred and fifteen feet wide from the Thames, through the ground granted to the hospital, that she might have access by water, as well as by land, to the Queen's house and park. To this building, she proposed to add the four pavilions designed by Inigo Jones, but left unexecuted, that she might make that little palace complete as a royal villa for her own retirement, or from which foreign ambassadors, public ministers, and illustrious foreign visiters, might make their public entry, as was then the custom, into London. This decision caused the present arrangement of the buildings, with the exception of the later additions to Jones's unfinished structure, which adapted it as a handsome centre, joined by

* See HAWKSMOOR's account of the founding of this Hospital, drawn up by order of Parliament in 1728. He was a pupil of Wren, and his deputy-surveyor at Greenwich. ELMES's Memoirs, p. 480 and note.

colonnades of a feeble style to some wings of no style at all, for the royal naval school.

THE names of the various courts and buildings, which are fully described in my larger work, as the royal court, nearer the river, King Charles the Second's court on the western side, and that of Queen Anne on the eastern; to the southward of each, are the painted hall and chapel, the interior of the latter being the first and finest specimen of Athenian architecture ever executed in Europe from the designs of James Stuart, the Athenian traveller and delineator, who was appointed architect to the establishment by the liberality and good taste of King George III. Soon after Stuart's appointment a fire destroyed Wren's chapel, which Stuart restored, externally, precisely as before, but used his own taste in decorating the interior. The great wing and pavilion next the river, which contains the Governor's residence, is the portion of the building that was erected by Charles II. as a portion of his intended palace. The other wing and rest of the building were erected by Queen Mary in the style, externally, of her uncle's intention, but internally arranged, for the officers and men, and finished accordingly by her successors, King William and Queen Anne, from the designs and under the superintendence of Wren.

THE fine Doric colonnades on the east and west sides of the southern esplanade, intended for communication from the hall on the west side and the chapel on the east to the wards and dormitories, and to protect the men from the inclemency of the weather, as well

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as for air and exercise under shelter of the flat roof and ceiling. The order selected or composed by the architect is in the purest style of Roman architecture, consisting of three hundred columns and pilasters, twenty feet in height, raised on low pedestals, with a protecting balustrade between them, and surmounted by a well-proportioned entablature, all of Portland stone, beautifully executed. The perspective under these colonnades, looking either towards the river, or towards Inigo Jones's building, which Wren, with due respect to his honoured predecessor, made the centre or focus of his magnificent design, the key stone, as it were, of his tasteful royal arch.

THE western side of this colonnade is King William's court and wing, which contains the painted hall, vestibule and western cupola, the tambour of which is composed of a peristyle of duplicated columns of the Composite order, broken at the angles with groups of columns, surmounted by a circular attic without breaks, and finished by a graceful cupola, and wellproportioned lantern.

OPPOSITE to King William's building, is the court and wing of Queen Mary, which, externally is duplicate to that of King William, and contains, the beforementioned chapel, vestibule and cupola, both containing extensive wards and dormitories.

QUEEN ANNE's building and court, with its pavilions next the river, forms the north-eastern wing, in duplicate with King Charles's court and wing, and contains,

the apartments of the Deputy-governor and other officers, etc.

THIS sketch may be termed the biography of the building; its history, and more detailed description, being given in my larger work.

On the 30th of June 1696, the first stone of Queen Mary's naval hospital at Greenwich was laid by Sir Christopher Wren and Mr. John Evelyn, attended by a select committee of the Royal Commissioners, at five o'clock in the afternoon precisely, after they had dined together, the Rev. Mr. Flamsteed, the Royal Professor of Astronomy, observing the precise* time, for the operation by his instruments. Evelyn was appointed treasurer, and Mr. Vanburgh, nominated secretary by the treasurer. The park was planted by Evelyn, for the use of Queen Mary's little palace, in 1694.

THE ancient and magnificent palace of Whitehall, the scene of so many important, secret and mysterious events, was consumed by fire in 1697. This metropolitan residence of our royal, republican and constitutional governments, contained upwards of one thousand apartments, and even in Cromwell's time, as mentioned in a former paget, was kept up, as Evelyn relates, in royal splendour. The altar-piece of the ancient chapel, designed by Wren, was destroyed with the rest of the sacred edifice; but one of marble, which he designed for a private chapel of King James II., escaped the

* EVELYN's Diary of this date.

+ Page 127, and note.

flames, and was afterwards presented by Queen Anne to the Collegiate Church of St. Peter, Westminster, and erected therein*.

On the 2nd of December this year, the choir of the new Cathedral of St. Paul, was opened for divine service, on the day appointed+ for a public thanksgiving for the recently-signed Treaty of Ryswick. On this occasion, so triumphant to the allied armies under King William's command, the following emphatic prayer, from the pen of Archbishop Tillotson, was added by the command of the King, to the form appointed for the day, and was introduced in the communion service‡.

"MOST GRACIOUS FATHER, who hast remembered thy ancient loving kindness, and restored to us the public solemnities of worship in this Thy house; we offer our devout praises and thanksgivings to Thee for this Thy mercy, humbly beseeching Thee to perfect and establish this good work. Thou, O Lord! dwellest not in houses made with hands heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee; but, though Thy throne is in heaven, earth is Thy footstool. Vouchsafe, therefore, we beseech Thee, Thy gracious presence in this Thy house, to hear our prayers and accept our sacrifices of praise and thanksgivings and grant it may never be defiled with idolatrous worship or pro

Parentalis p. 330.

Sir HENRY ELLIS'S Dugdale, p. 172.

✦ London Gazette, No. 3346, Dec. 2 to 6, 1697.