March 1848

In the new Parliament House, great poverty of ornament, the ball and crown repeated tedi- ously all over the grand gate, near the Abbey, and Vivat Regina written incessantly all over the casements of the windows in House of Lords. Houses of Parliament a magnificent document of English power and of their intention to make it last. The Irish harp and shamrock are carved with the rose and thistle over all the house. The houses cover eight acres, and are built of Bol- sover stone. Fault, that there is no single view commanding great lines ; only, when it is finished, the Speaker of the House of Commons will be able with a telescope to see the Lord Chancellor in the Lords. But mankind can so rarely build a house covering eight acres that 't is pity to de- prive them of the joy of seeing a mass and grand and lofty lines.