This splendid pile which is at present under repair, was erected in the time of James I. Whitehall being in a most ruinous state, he determined to rebuild it in a very princely manner, and worthy of the residence of the monarchs of the British empire.  He began with pulling down the banquetting rooms built by Elizabeth.  That which bears the above name at present was begun in 1619, from a design of Inigo Jones, in his purest style; and executed by Nicholas Stone, master mason and architect to the king; it was finished in two years, and cost L17,000. but is only a small part of a vast plan, left unexecuted by reason of the unhappy times which succeeded.  The ceiling of this noble room cannot be sufficiently admired; it was painted by Rubens, who had L3,000. for his work.  The subject is the Apotheosis of James I. forming nine compartments; one of the middle represents our pacific monarch on his earthly throne, turning with horror from Mars, and other of the discordant deities, and as if it were, giving himself up to the amiable goddess he always cultivated, and to her attendants, Commerce, and the Fine Arts.  This fine performance is painted on canvass, and is in high preservation; but a few years ago it underwent a repair by Cipriani, who had L2,000. for his trouble.  Near the entrance is a bust of the royal founder.

Little did James think (says Pennant) that he was erecting a pile from which his son was to step from the throne to the scaffold.  He had been brought in the morning of his death, from St. James’s across the Park, and from thence to Whitehall, where ascending the great staircase, he passed through the long gallery to his bed-chamber, the place allotted to him to pass the little time before he received the fatal blow.  It is one of the lesser rooms marked with the letter A in the old plan of Whitehall.  He was from thence conducted along the galleries and the banquetting house, through the wall, in which a passage was broken to his last earthly stage.  Mr. Walpole tells us that Inigo Jones, surveyor of the works done about the king’s house, had only 8s. 4d. a day, and L46. a year for house-rent, and a clerk and other incidental expenses.  The present improvements at Whitehall make one exclaim with the poet, Pope—­

  “I see, I see, where two fair cities bend
  Their ample brow, a new Whitehall ascend.”

Again,

“You too proceed, make falling arts your care, Erect new wonders, and the old repair; Jones and Palladio to themselves restore, And be whate’er Vitruvius was before.”

P.T.W.

* * * * *

THE UNIVERSE.

(For the Mirror.)

  O light celestial, streaming wide
    Through morning’d court of fairy blue—­
  O tints of beauty, beams of pride,
    That break around its varied hue—­
  Still to thy wonted pathway true,
    Thou shinest on serenely free,
  Best born of Him, whose mercy grew
    In every gift, sweet world, to thee.