lso, level with the middle or
principal tier of windows (those of the suite of state rooms) runs a
stone balcony or balustrade, supported by corbels of a mixed
character,--Gothic and Italian masques of chimera blended with wings
and scrolls of foliage of singular beauty. On this side, too, is an
extensive terrace, descending into the ground, with a rusticated
front; and a balustrade with pedestals supporting vases of antique and
classical models; and at each end an open Ionic temple, intended to be
used as a summer conservatory.

The _north_ front facing Piccadilly is of the same style and character
with the garden front, but of lighter proportions. Here are the king's
private apartments, from choice, comparatively small and compact, and
the cabinet picture-gallery. Here, also, the terrace is continued, and
a similar Ionic temple conservatory placed at the other extremity.
Thus, his majesty's windows look out between these conservatories,
upon the flower-garden spread below.

We are bound to acknowledge our partial, if not entire concurrence,
in the general criticism on the central front, and of the two wings.
The first impression is far from that produced by unity, grandeur, or
elegance; there is a fantastical assemblage of turrets, attics, and
chimneys, and a poverty or disproportion, especially in "the temple-like
forms" which complete the ends towards the park. The dome, too, has been
sarcastically compared with a "Brobdignagian egg." It strictly belongs
to the back part of the palace, and had it been screened from the front,
its form might have been less objectionable.

Of the internal arrangements of the palace, little is as yet perfectly
known. On the principal floor of the centre, between the east and west
suites of rooms, runs a splendid picture and statue gallery (the whole
length of the building); the light into which is to be admitted from
the sides, in a slanting direction, by metal skylights. The ceiling
has iron girders thrown across, and is arched with combs, each having
the ends closed, with the exception of a small hole (like an inverted
flower-pot), which admits a current of air to circulate through the
floor. The roof of this gallery is flat, and covered with slate
embedded in a composition of hot coal-tar, lime, and sand: the roofing
of the other parts of the palace is mostly covered with a similar
composition, but _not_ slated. The approach to the gallery is up the
grand stairs, and through seve