ge structure to know
that therein are one hundred stairways and eleven hundred rooms!
Visitors are shown the "King's Robing-room," the "Victoria or Royal
Gallery," the "Prince's Chamber," and so many rooms and corridors,
that it is impossible to remember them all, or even to appreciate them
at the time of a visit. Fine wall paintings, statues, and rich
decorations of all kinds abound. Both the rooms where sit the House of
Peers and the House of Commons, respectively, are magnificent
apartments; perhaps the former is rather more splendid in appearance,
with its stained-glass windows picturing all the English sovereigns,
its frescoes, and throne, with the gilded canopy.

As they finally passed out and started over toward Westminster Abbey,
Mrs. Pitt said:

"It was at one of these entrances (perhaps at the very one by which we
just left), that a most curious thing happened in 1738. It had just
been decided that ladies should no longer be permitted in the
galleries of the Houses. Certain noble dames who were most indignant
at this new rule, presented themselves in a body at the door. They
were, of course, politely refused admission, and having tried every
known means of gaining entrance, they remained at the door all day,
kicking and pounding from time to time. Finally, one of them thought
of the following plan. For some time they stood there in perfect
quiet; some one within opened a door to see if they were really gone,
whereupon they all rushed in. They remained in the galleries until the
'House rose,' laughing and tittering so loudly that Lord Hervey made a
great failure of his speech. Wasn't that absurd? It seems that there
were 'Suffragettes' long before the twentieth century."

Arrived at the Poets' Corner once again, they found that one of the
vergers was just about to conduct a party "in behind the scenes," as
Barbara called it. "Behind the scenes" includes the Chapel of Henry
VII and that of Edward the Confessor, besides the many smaller ones
which surround the choir.

These little irregular chapels are crowded with all sorts of tombs,
from those of the long effigy to those of the high canopy. Sometimes a
husband and wife are represented on the tomb, their figures either
kneeling side by side, or facing each other. Often the sons and
daughters of the deceased are shown in quaint little reliefs extending
all around the four sides of a monument. The figures are of alabaster
or marble, and there are frequently f