It is built of a buff-colored
or yellowish stone, with pillars or pilasters of polished Aberdeen
granite, wonderfully rich and beautiful; and there is a running border of
sculptured figures all round the upper part of the building, besides
other ornament and embroidery, wherever there was room or occasion for
it. It being an oblong square, the smooth and polished aspect in this
union of two rich colors in it,--this delicacy and minuteness of finish,
this lavish ornament--made me think of a lady's jewel-box; and if it
could be reduced to the size of about a foot square, or less, it would
make the very prettiest one that ever was seen. I question whether it
have any right to be larger than a jewel-box; but it is certainly a most
beautiful edifice. We turned down Whitehall, at the head of which, over
the very spot where the Regicides were executed, stands the bronze
equestrian statue of Charles I.,--the statue that was buried under the
earth during the whole of Cromwell's time, and emerged after the
Restoration. We saw the Admiralty and the Horse-Guards, and, in front of
the latter, the two mounted sentinels, one of whom was flirting and
laughing with some girls. On the other side of the street stands the
Banqueting-House, built by Inigo Jones; from a window of which King
Charles stepped forth, wearing a kingly head, which, within a few minutes
afterwards, fell with a dead thump on the scaffold. It was nobly done,--
and nobly suffered.
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