this old structure should be incorporated in the new building; and it is generally admitted that the architect, Mansard, failed somewhat in his design for the palace, owing to this obstacle. The old château or hunting-seat is a small brick building with stone dressings, and this was repaired and adorned as the king's residence in the new structure. The garden-front, however, is really the palace, in an architectural point of view. The grand gallery, with the square vestibules at each end, is considered to be one of the most magnificent apartments in Europe, so rich is it in marbles and in decoration; although it cannot compare in dimensions with the galleries of the Louvre. The theatre and the chapel are both very sumptuous; while the gardens are almost unrivalled.

The famous palaces of the Louvre and the Tuileries have gradually been so linked together as to become almost one. There had for many centuries been a palace for the kings of France at the spot where the Louvre now stands; but the present structure was commenced by Francis I. about 1540. The south-west angle was the part first commenced. Catherine de Médicis, a few years later, began the Tuileries from the design of Philibert de l'Orme. The original plan was for a rectangular block, 860 feet by 550, with a square court in the centre and smaller courts nearer the sides. Only the garden façade, however, was finished by its foundress. During the time of Henri Quatre the façade was extended to the excessive length of 1000 feet, by the addition of two pavilions at the ends. Louis XIV. afterwards raised the height of the whole façade, to make it correspond better with the length, and with the pavilions of Flore and Marsan at the ends. Among the works of Henri Quatre was the commencement of a gallery to connect the Louvre with the Tuileries. It was in the reign of Louis XIV. that an effort was seriously made to finish the Louvre; and the eastern façade, by Perrault, is considered to be a very favourable specimen of the architecture of that period in France. Very little more was effected until recently, when Napoleon III. resolved to make the Louvre and the Tuileries as nearly as possible parts of one vast building. The space that used to separate the two palaces, called the Place du Carrousel, is a vast square of 930 feet by 850; but this is now enclosed by new buildings on the north and south. Another court, called the Place Napoléon, is 600 feet by 400, and this is bounded on the north and south by new buildings still more palatial. The result of all this is, that the Louvre and the Tuileries, in whatever way the interior is occupied, now really form one enormous palace so far as the exterior is concerned, about 600 feet along the west end (Tuileries), 300 on the east end (Louvre), and no less than 1100 feet on the north and south sides, facing the Rue de Rivoli and the Seine.

The most famous civil structure in Spain is unquestionably the Royal Palace of Escurial. Commenced in 1563 by Gianbattista, it

was finished several years afterwards by Herrera. Externally the vast mass is singularly destitute of grandeur in design; but the inner façades around the several courts, and the church in the middle of the whole, are much finer. The quadrangular mass is 680 feet long by 520 wide, or, with certain outworks, 744 by 580. The shorter sides or flanks are little more than plain granite walls pierced with five stories of unornamented square windows, with as little design and as little ornament as one generally finds in a Manchester cotton-mill;' but the main façade is a little more diversified by columns, arches, and pediments. A multitude of courts in the interior, and passages leading from one court to another, have given rise to a story that the Escurial was built in the form of a gridiron, to typify the martyrdom of St Lawrence; but this idea has not been traced to any authentic source. The great feature of the interior is the church, a grand cathedral-like structure, 320 feet long by 200 wide. The western façade has two bold flanking towers; and in the centre of the pile is a dome, not so large as some others in Europe, but grand in its general appearance. The church is square in plan, and is divided into a sort of Greek cross by the four great piers and arches of the dome. One of the finest features in the building is what is called the Court of the College, about 140 feet square, with an arcaded cloister in two stories running round its four sides. The central entrance in the main front leads to a well-proportioned atrium or court; on one side of which is the college, on the other a monastery, and at the further end the church; and beyond the church are the state apartments of the palace.

The Caserta, or royal palace, at Naples is one of the largest palaces in Europe, being 766 feet long, 500 wide, and 125 high to the top of the balustrade. It was built about a century ago, from the plans of Vanvitelli. Each angle is surmounted by a square pavilion, and a dome crowns the centre. The design is uniform throughout all the four façades, presenting a four-storied range of Italian character. Even the centre of each façade is only slightly broken by a pediment. It is, in fact, something like a Pall Mall club-house of unprecedentedly large dimensions. The mass of the interior is divided into four equal courts or open quadrangles by two ranges of buildings, which contain the state apartments. This arrangement is somewhat remarkable, leaving the whole of the exterior buildings visible to the outer world, to the officers and subordinates of the household. The interior courts present more architectural richness than the exterior façades. Naples no longer being the residence of a sovereign, the Caserta is shorn of some of its importance.

St Petersburg has been called 'a city of palaces ;' no other capital in Europe presenting so numerous an array of vast palatial edifices. Even the barracks for the soldiery, and the offices for the government, are quite palatial in character. True, many of these buildings are only of brick, with ornaments of stucco; but nevertheless the

aggregate effect is unquestionably majestic. The finest of the buildings is the Imperial Winter Palace, commenced about a century ago on the plans of Rastrelli, and gradually brought to its present state. It is 731 feet long, by 584 wide; being a hollow square, it has a rectangular court in the centre, 385 feet by 300. The main façade is on the banks of the Neva. It is nevertheless an unsatisfactory specimen of architecture, striking only for its vastness. The palace of the Grand-duke Michael, though smaller in size, is considered by men of taste to be superior in design and general effect. All the offices and domestic buildings are placed in the wings, leaving a magnificent central block wholly for the imperial family and suite. The staircase in this block is one of the grandest in Europe; it is in the entrance-hall, a noble apartment 80 feet square, and the whole height of the building.

The Kremlin at Moscow is a far more remarkable structure, or rather group of structures, than anything at St Petersburg. It was built five hundred years ago, but has been frequently rebuilt since. It is surrounded with a wall from 12 to 16 feet thick, and from 28 to 50 feet high, with battlements, embrasures, numerous towers, and five gates. The chief buildings within the walls are the Palace of the Czars and the Cathedral. The latter is not large as a cathedral, but is adorned with profuse magnificence; there are more than two thousand paintings on the walls, of angels, apostles, saints, martyrs, czars, czarinas, and patriarchs; and there are numerous highly prized relics. Besides this cathedral, in which the czars are solemnly crowned, there are no less than thirty-one churches within the Kremlin, three of which are known as the cathedrals of St Michael, the Annunciation, and the Transfiguration; the first of these contains the tombs of the Russian sovereigns and grand-dukes, for many centuries. The Kremlin is, in short, an imperial palace embedded in a mass of imperial cathedrals and churches.

The only palace in England worthy of being compared with those on the continent is one which illustrates castellated as well as palatial architecture. Windsor Castle is most magnificently situated on the brow of a hill overlooking the Thames. The Round Tower or Keep is a sort of centre, with the royal apartments on one side, and various adjuncts on the other. The keep is not perfectly circular, being 102 feet in one direction by 93 in the other, and rising 80 feet above a kind of mound on which it stands, with a watchtower 25 feet high. Starting from this keep, and proceeding from right to left round the buildings which surround the royal court or quadrangle, we come in succession to St George's Gateway; Edward III.'s and George IV.'s Gateways, between Lancaster and York Towers; South Turret; and Victoria Tower. Then we come to the east front, where are Clarence Tower; Chester Tower, with the state drawing-room; and Prince of Wales's Tower, with the state diningroom. Next, on the north side, are Brunswick Tower, an octagon

38 feet in diameter externally, by 100 feet; Cornwall Tower, with the ball-room, 90 feet by 32; Waterloo Gallery, 95 feet by 46; George IV.'s Tower; the State Staircase, 50 feet by 36; Henry VIII's Building; Queen Elizabeth's Gallery; and Norman Tower and Gateway, which bring us round again to the keep. The quadrangle frontages of this vast range of building present numerous vestibules and corridors connected with the state apartments, and with the private apartments of the royal family. Some of these apartments are furnished with palatial magnificence; and the clustering of buildings, varying in date from the Norman times down to those of Victoria, give to this castle a historical interest scarcely paralleled by any other in Europe. But this is not all. On the western side of the keep are St George's Hall and the Royal Chapel, on which much cost has been lavished; and there are a vast number of subsidiary buildings, which render the whole castle a small town in itself. The stables, erected at a cost of £70,000, form quite a distinct structure at a short distance from the castle, and are unquestionably the most magnificent stables in England.

LEGISLATIVE PALACES.

The Palace of Westminster, or Houses of Parliament, is the grandest modern Gothic building in England, and the grandest structure ever devoted to the sittings of a legislative body. Indeed, it is doubtful whether there is another Gothic edifice in the world covering so large an area. The old legislative buildings were burned down in 1834; the present, from the plans of Sir Charles Barry, were commenced after two or three years' delay and consideration, and are not even finished now; nor can they be brought into harmony with the complete design until a total sum of £3,000,000 has been spent on them. The building, in its present form, extends 900 feet in length along the river-front, but about 1000 feet in a line with the Clock-tower. The eastern or river front is a magnificent display of Gothic work-traceried windows, carved mullions, niches, statues, pinnacles, and ornaments being lavished in a degree unequalled in any other modern building in Europe. The statues and the shieldsof-arms alone form almost an epitome of the history of England. The whole building covers an area of nearly eight acres, and comprises the enormous number of 1100 apartments and 100 staircases. In a building of such vast magnitude, it is necessary to have many interior open quadrangles or courts, to afford window-light. These (beginning at the northern end) are the Speaker's Court, Starchamber Court, Commons' Court, Cloister Court, Commons' Inner Court, St Stephen's Court, Peers' Court, Peers' Inner Court, Judges' Court, Chancellor's Court, and Royal Court. Besides the two main chambers-the House of Lords and the House of Commons-the chief apartments and halls are the Queen's Robing-room, the Royal

Gallery, the Norman Arch, the Prince's Chamber, St Stephen's Porch, St Stephen's Hall, the Central Hall, the Peer's Lobby, the Commons' Lobby, Conference Rooms, and Refreshment Rooms. The Victoria Tower, at the south-west angle, is one of the finest Gothic towers in the world, being 340 feet high by 75 feet square. The Central Tower, over the beautiful octagonal Central Hall, is 300 feet high. The Clocktower, 320 feet high by 40 feet square, contains the celebrated bell weighing 14 tons, and a clock which is now considered to be the most accurate of all the great clocks in Europe, having dials 30 feet in diameter (12 feet larger than those of St Paul's). The chamber in which the Peers meet (popularly known as the 'House of Lords') is so lavishly decorated as to be almost oppressive in its grandeur; sculpture, carving, bronze-work, gilding, painting, and stained glass are so combined as to leave scarcely a square inch of plain surface; while the windows are so high up and so deeply stained as to leave the chamber insufficiently lighted. The dimensions are 97 feet long, 45 feet high, and 45 feet wide. The House of Commons (35 feet shorter than the House of Lords, but the same height and breadth) is much plainer, but is now found to be too small for its intended purpose. The Royal or Victoria Gallery contains two magnificent water-glass fresco paintings by Mr Maclise; there are six other large frescoes in the Peers' Chamber by Maclise, Dyce, Cope, and Horsley; in the corridors on either side of the Central Hall are frescoes on subjects from the history of England, by Ward, Pickersgill, Cross, and other painters; while in the Upper Waitinghall are subjects from Chaucer, Spenser, Shakspeare, Milton, Dryden, Pope, and other poets. In St Stephen's Hall are statues of twelve statesmen whose eloquence adorned parliament in past days -Hampden, Falkland, Clarendon, Selden, Walpole, Somers, Mansfield, Chatham, Fox, Pitt, Burke, and Grattan. Taken altogether, this sumptuous building is one of which the nation has reason to be proud, albeit there is a want of space in some of the rooms, and of light in still more.

The finest civil or secular building in America is perhaps the Capitol or legislative palace at Washington. The eastern or principal front consists of a centre 352 feet wide, and two wings which increase the total façade to 751 feet. Each of the three portions has a rich Corinthian portico. In the centre of the whole mass is a dome resting on a drum or tambour, the latter surrounded by a circular colonnade. This dome, when finished, will be 130 feet diameter by 310 feet high; and under it is a fine circular rotunda. The chambers for the two Houses of the legislature are far larger than those of our English legislative palace—one being 139 feet by 93, and the other 112 by 82.

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