Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume 1 | Page 9

THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT [Footnote: From "English Note
Books." By arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers of
Hawthorne's works, Houghton, Mifflin Co. Copyright, 1870-1898.]
BY NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
A little before twelve, we took a cab, and went to the two Houses of

Parliament--the most immense building, methinks, that ever was built;
and not yet finished, tho it has now been occupied for years. Its exterior
lies hugely along the ground, and its great unfinished tower is still
climbing toward the sky; but the result (unless it be the river-front,
which I have not yet seen) seems not very impressive. The interior is
much more successful. Nothing can be more magnificent and gravely
gorgeous than the Chamber of Peers--a large oblong hall, paneled with
oak, elaborately carved, to the height of perhaps twenty feet. Then the
balustrade of the gallery runs around the hall, and above the gallery are
six arched windows on each side, richly painted with historic subjects.
The roof is ornamented and gilded, and everywhere throughout there is
embellishment of color and carving on the broadest scale, and, at the
same time, most minute and elaborate; statues of full size in niches
aloft; small heads of kings, no bigger than a doll; and the oak is carved
in all parts of the paneling as faithfully as they used to do it in Henry
VII.'s time--as faithfully and with as good workmanship, but with
nothing like the variety and invention which I saw in the dining-room
of Smithell's Hall. There the artist wrought with his heart and head; but
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 House, we think of them but as dimly discernible to their
opponents, and uplifting their voices, so as to be heard afar; whereas
they sit closely enough to feel each other's spheres, to note all
expression of face, and to give the debate the character of a
conversation. In this view a debate seems a much more earnest and real
thing than as we read it in a newspaper. Think of the debaters meeting
each other's eyes, their faces flushing, their looks interpreting their
words, their speech growing into eloquence, without losing the
genuineness of talk! Yet, in fact, the Chamber of Peers is ninety feet
long and half as broad and high,