Having procured tickets we entered by the Royal Entrance under the
Victoria Tower, one of the most stupendous structures of the kind in the
world. It is 340 feet high and seventy-five feet square. The entrance
archway is sixty-five feet high, and the vault is a rich and beautiful
grained roof of elaborate workmanship, while the interior is decorated
with statues of her present Majesty, supported by Justice and Mercy, and
the statues of the patron saints of England, Scotland and Ireland.

The first apartment that we entered, was the Robing Room. From this room,
after the ceremony of robing, her Majesty on her way to the Throne passes
through a magnificent hall 110 feet long, forty-five feet wide and
forty-five feet high, called the Victoria Gallery. It contains two
magnificent frescoes of events in the history of England, covering large
sections of the two side-walls. One represents the death of Nelson, and
the other the meeting of Wellington and Blücher after the Battle of
Waterloo.

_The House of Peers_, ninety-seven feet long, forty-five feet wide, and
forty-five high, is one of the richest and most magnificent chambers in
the world. To the left of the entrance is the Throne on which her Majesty
sits when she attends the House, and beside it, the chair of the Prince of
Wales. Rich in carvings and lavishly gilt, this noble chamber presents a
view of great grandeur.

The subdued light, admitted by the stained glass of its windows, does not
dazzle the eye as would a perfect illumination of such giltings, but what
is lost in _splendor_, is perhaps gained in _modest grandeur_.

"The arrival of her Majesty is announced within the House by the booming