Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III THE PRECINCTS AND THE BUILDINGS Having in the preceding Chapter discussed the question whether the House of Commons can be considered a Club—I proceed in this Chapter to describe shortly the buildings, the chambers and the precincts of the House, as they are seen—not so much by the public but by a Member. There is, of course, an entrance on the ground floor for Members only. This leads into the Mediaeval cloisters of St. Stephen, constructed during the Tudor time in the florid Gothic style; the roof being quite exquisite in stonework These form the four sides of a quadrangle. As an annex on one side, and slightly jutting out into the quadrangle is a small chamber in the same elaborate style. In this beautiful apartment according to a consistent tradition the death warrant of Charles I. was signed. These cloisters are used as a cloak room for the Members—where they hang their overcoats only, as their hats are carried with them always by the etiquette of the House. Each one of the 760 Members has a peg with his name attached, the names being arranged alphabetically. Near the end of this lovely and classic quadrangle, a short flight of steps descends to a lower level, below the surface of the ground. This leads to a semi-subterranean chapel, commonly called "the crypt,"—though it is not really a crypt, but is probably the first chapel of St. Stephen that was built before the larger chapel was undertaken, as will be mentioned presently. This crypt chapel in its inception must be of great age. It was most elaborately completed and decorated in the Tudor time. These grand old decorations have been fully and faithfully restored down to the minutest detail of colouring and gilding. So the interior is now at least as good as it was in the days of its most gorgeou... --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.