t much of this work, I suppose,
was done by machinery.

It is a most noble and splendid apartment, and, tho so fine, there is not
a touch of finery; it glistens and glows with even a somber magnificence,
owing to the deep, rich hues and the dim light, bedimmed with rich colors
by coming through the painted windows. In arched recesses, that serve as
frames, at each end of the hall, there are three pictures by modern
artists from English history; and tho it was not possible to see them well
as pictures, they adorned and enriched the walls marvelously as
architectural embellishments. The Peers' seats are four rows of long sofas
on each side, covered with red morocco; comfortable seats enough, but not
adapted to any other than a decorously exact position. The woolsack is
between these two divisions of sofas, in the middle passage of the
floor--a great square seat, covered with scarlet, and with a scarlet
cushion set up perpendicularly for the Chancellor to lean against. In
front of the woolsack there is another still larger ottoman, on which he
might lie at full length--for what purpose intended, I know not. I should
take the woolsack to be not a very comfortable seat, tho I suppose it was
originally designed to be the most comfortable one that could be
contrived.

The throne is the first object you see on entering the hall, being close
to the door; a chair of antique form, with a high, peaked back, and a
square canopy above, the whole richly carved and quite covered with
burnished gilding, besides being adorned with rows of rock crystals--which
seemed to me of rather questionable taste....

We next, after long contemplating this rich hall, proceeded through
passages and corridores to a great central room, very beautiful, which
seems to be used for purposes of refreshment, and for electric telegraphs;
tho I should not suppose this could be its primitive and ultimate design.
Thence we went into the House of Commons, which is larger than the Chamber
of Peers, and much less richly ornamented, tho it would have appeared
splendid had it come first in order. The Speaker's chair, if I remember
rightly, is loftier and statelier than the throne itself. Both in this
hall and in that of the Lords we were at first surprized by the narrow
limits within which the great ideas of the Lords and Commons of England
are physically realized; they would seem to require a vaster space. When
we hear of members rising on opposite sides of the Hou