At the completion of our journey we went to Buckingham Palace. This year it was opened for the public.
Clive's father had stood in line before in the hot sun for the tickets for three hours.

The Grand Entrance

In the Quadrangle the visitor first savours the impact of Nash'sarchitecture for George IV. Here all seems to be golden Bathstone, but Edward Blore's surviving rear elevation of the east range is actually stuccoed and painted stone colour, while the lower columns are of cast iron, also painted. The quality of George IV's concept is apparent in the large but elegant double portico with its superimposed columns, stoutly Doric at ground-floor level and richly Corinthian above, influenced by Claude Perrault'sdesign for the Louvre portico in Paris.
An important feature of the original design of Buckingham Palace was the programme of integrated sculptural ornament intended to display contemporary artistic talent. It reflects the early nineteenth- century enthusiasm for British art, manifested also in the array of marble monuments to national heroes in St Paul's Cathedral. John Flaxman, the greatest of English Neo-classical sculptors, was first approached to design the carved decorations. But he died in 1826 after making sketches for the external sculpture which was executed by other hands. The beautifully moulded capitals and friezes are of Coade stone (a type of terracotta popularised in the eighteenth century by Mrs Eleanor Coade), supplied by William Croggan in 1827. Croggan also made the original crowning figures of Neptune, Commerce and Navigation (now removed). In the pediment is a marble relief, dated 1828, by E. H. Baily depicting Britannia Acclaimed by Neptune. Inside the portico is a long relief panel with seven roundels by J. E. Carew showing the Progress of Navigation. The original scheme for the entrance sculpture was British sea power and maritime trade. The two panels incorporated by Blore in the attic storey are by Richard Westmacott and were originally in tended for the Marble Arch. They celebrate the Battle of Trafalgar(The Death of Nelson) and the Battle of Waterloo(The Meeting of Blücher and Wellington).
The Marble Arch was conceived by George IV and Nash as a celebration of victory in the Napoleonic Wars; hence the subject of these two panels.The principal State Rooms of the palace are contained in the west range (behind the portico). The Queen's private apartments are in the north wing, and suites of rooms for important visitors occupy the main floor of the east wing, facing the Mall. Much of the ground floor of the palace is occupied by the offices of the Royal Household, and the kitchens are in the south wing.


The Grand Hall

The Grand Hall is of the same dimensions as the hall of the old Buckingham House and retains the same low proportions, stressing that this is the sub-storey with the mainrooms above on a piano nobile, as in an Italian Renaissance palace.
John Nash created dramatic spatial effects by lowering the floor of the
central area. There are interesting vistas across the different levels
into the adjoining spaces, and agreeable contrasts of light and shade.
The spatial qualities of the room are enhanced by the use of rich
materials. The floor and Corinthian columns are all of white Carrara
marble, supplied by Joseph Browne who was sent to Italy by Nash
to procure the marble used in the decoration of the palace. The
Corinthian capitals are of gilded bronze supplied by Samuel Parker.The chimney-piece at the north end of the hall, facing the Grand
Staircase, is among the finest in the palace and was supplied in 1829,
at a cost of £1,000, by Joseph Theakston, 'the ablest carver of
his time'. Its design shows the influence of Napoleon's architects
Percier and Fontaine. At the top is a small bust of George IV, a com-
paratively modest 'signature' for the chief creator of Buckingham
Palace. Originally the marmreal quality of this hall was enhanced
by the treatment of the walls, which were entirely lined with

coloured scagliola. The present white and gold decoration was executed in 1902 by C. H. Bessant for Edward VII.
The mahogany seat furniture, hall chairs and benches, was made for George IV when Prince of Wales and comes from two of his former residences, Brighton Pavillionand Carlton House. The latter stood at the other end of the Mall facing St James's Park and was the Prince's London home till he succeeded to the throne. The site is now occupied by Nash's Carlton House Terrace and the column commemorating the Duke of York. Carlton House was demolished when George IV decided to move to Buckingham Palace, but its magnificent fittings, furniture and works of art — the product of nearly forty years' discerning patronage on the part of the Prince — were all moved to Buckingham Palace andWindsor Castle. Throughout the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace, the visitor will notice magnificent chandeliers, French and English furniture, and paintings which George IV originally acquired for Carlton House and then moved to Buckingham Palace. The State Rooms were partly designed round his collection and were conceived as a magnificent setting for these superlative works of art.


The Grand Staircase and Guard Room

The spatial complexity of the hall is continued in the Grand
Staircase where Nash contrived an almost Baroque vista, the steps continuing in one straight flight from the half-landing as well as returning in two arms along the side. This plan was an ingenious arrangement to enable the State Rooms to be approached from two directions. It permitted both a circuit of all the State Rooms and an axial approach to the Throne Room. The staircase is on the site of George III's and the Duke of Buckingham'sbut is a complete rebuilding by Nash for George IV and is one of the principal architectural features of the palace.
The staircase provides a dramatic transition to the State Rooms on the first floor. Light floods down from the engraved glass skylights by Wainwright and Brothers, the patterns on which are reminiscent of white damask tablecloths.The staircase itself is of Carrara marble, and the sumptuous gilt bronze balustrade embellighed with rich Grecian foliage is reflected in the design of the plaster string-course round the walls. It was made by Samuel Parkerin 1828-30 and is the finest of its type in England. It cost £3,900. Parker also provided the gilt metal mounts for the unique mahogany-framed mirror-plated doors designed by Nash and used throughout the State Rooms, adding enormously to their

glittery spaciousness. He charged 7d [nearly 3p] each for 'the little fleurs de lys' mouldings. The walls, which are now white and gold, were originally covered with polychrome panels of scagliola. The sculptural decorations in moulded plaster survive and were influenced by Perder and Fontaine's palace interiors for Napoleon. Here they were designed by the painter Thomas Stothard. The long rectangular reliefs of the four seasons were executed by his son Alfred Stothard, while the reliefs of cupids in the lunettes were modelled by Francis Bernasconi, the leading plasterer at the palace.

The approach to the Throne Room is of necessity much abridged from the traditional sequence in English palaces and comprises only the small Guard Room, the Drawing Room and the Throne Room itself. The Guard Room is more symbolic than useful. Though small, it is one of Nash's most successful spaces at the palace with its apsed ends, Carrara marble columns, and richly decorated plaster ceiling by Bernasconi. It forms an architectural overture to the glories to come. The white marble Neo-classical statues, including lifesize portraits of herself and Prince Albert, were placed here by Queen Victoria. The glass chandelier, like those throughout the State Rooms, comes from Carlton House.
The three rooms extending along the courtyard side of the palace therefore form a shortened version of the traditional arrangement in English palaces, still to be seen at its full extent in the Wren State Rooms at Hampton Court Palace.Because of lack of space at Buckingham Palace, the Guard Room is a mere formality and too small to accommodate the ceremonial guards on formal occasions. They are deployed instead in the adjoining rooms. The guards are composed of two corps. One is the Yeomen of the Guard — the royal bodyguard, initiated by Henry VIIin 1485 — and the oldest bodyguard in the world; they still wear picturesque Tudor uniform. The other is the Gentlemen-at-Arms founded by Henry VIII in 1537, who wear magnificent scarlet and gold nineteenth- century-style uniforms with plumed helmets of polished steel.

The Green Drawing Room

Forms the ante-room to the Throne Room. Guests, official groups and delegations gather here before proceeding to the Throne Room or Music Room, where they are presented to the Sovereign. It occupies the site of the saloon in the old Buckingham House and Queen Charlotte's Saloon which had been redesigned by Sir William Chambers. It retains its former dimensions, rising through two storeys with a high coved ceiling, but was entirely remodelled by Nash for George IV. It keeps to a large extent the original character of the Nash architecture with green silk wall hangifigs framed by the plasterer George Jackson's lattice-patterned pilasters. The original silk (now replaced) was woven in Ireland at Queen Adelaide's request to provide employment there.The ceiling is the first of a series of extraordinary designs by Nash with domes and concave and convex coving, which develops the tent-like 'Mogul' themes
originally explored by him at the Royal Pavilion,

Brighton; they are a unique feature of the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace. Fraser's Magazine in 1830 commented, lt is indeed, not easy to conceive anything more splendid than the designs for ceilings which are to be finished in a style new in this country, partaking very much of the boldest style in the Italian taste of the fifteenthcentury ... they will present the effect of embossed gold. t ,ornaments.' The detailsand motifs are derived from a wide range of sources including the ItalianRenaissance as well as Classical Greece and Rome; they stretch the canon of Georgian taste to the limits.
The carved marble chimney-pieces are part of a series supplied for the palace by Joseph Browne at a cost of £6,000 between 1827 and 1830.
The State Rooms at Buckingham Palace were not completed at the

time of George IV's death in 1830. Their decoration and finishing was therefore carried on during the reign of William IVby Viscount Duncannon, the government minister responsible for Crown buildings. Duncannon was also in charge of finishing the new palace in 1834. As well as the contents of Carlton House, he brought some additional pieces from Windsor Castle. The gilt seat furniture in here is part of a huge set made by Morel & Seddon in 1826-8 for the Semi-State Rooms at Windsor Castle. The fluted pedestals for candelabra came from the Throne Room at Carlton House. This room now also contains two of George IV's finest purchases of French furniture, a cabinet by Adam Weisweilerand a chest of drawers by Martin Carlin, both embellished with superb sevehteenth- century pietra dura panels. The magnificent Sevres porcelain in here and throughout the State Rooms was also collected by George IV. Now divided between Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, it forms the finest group of Sevres porcelain in the world, much of it of French royal provenance. During the French Revolution the contents of the palaces of France were systematically sold in order to raise much needed funds. Many of the finer pieces were bought by English collectors, led by George IV who as Prince of Wales and then as King employed a series of agents in Paris to acquire suit- able objects, first for Carlton House and later for the new rooms at Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace. Much of this incomparable collection remains in the settings for which he finally intended it. The Sevres pot pourri vase here, for instance, was bought in Paris in 1817 by George IV's agent Francois Benois and cost the King 2,500 francs.


The Throne Room

The Throne Room was intended for Investitures andceremonial receptions of dignitaries by the Sovereign. Itwas also used by Queen Victoria, in the early years of her reign, as a ballroom. She was very fond of music and dancing and before the death of Prince Albert gave a whole series of concerts and balls at Buckingham Palace. Felix Mendelssohnplayed for her on three occasions. The Strauss orchestrawas another favourite, and the Alice Polka, named after Queen Victoria's daughterPrincess Alice, was first performed at a ball in the palace in 1849. Several of these occasions were bah costunds, such as the Stuart Ball held in the Throne Room in 1851, when all the guests dressed in the style of Charles II'scourt. The room proved too small, however, for most of its original purposes and was superseded by the new rooms in Pennethorne's south extension to the palace. The Throne Room is now used principally for the reception of formal addresses on impor- tant occasions, such as those presented at The Queen's Silver Jubilee in 1977. Royal wedding photographs are also usually taken in this room, including The Queen's own in 1947.Twenty metres [60 feet] long, it is dominated by the almost Baroque `proscenium' flanked by a pair of lively winged genii holding gilded garlands above the 'chairs of state'; the genii are Francis Bernasconi's masterpiece. They hold free-hanging swags modelled completely in the round — a virtuoso performance — from which is suspended a medallion with the cypher of George IV. The plaster frieze, designed by Thomas Stothard, is remarkable for its attempt to treat a medieval subject — the Wars of the Roses — as if it were the Parthenon frieze. It is only the Gothic armour that gives the game away. The subjects are the Battle of Tewkesbury (north), the Marriage of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York (east), the Battle of Bosworth(west) and Bellona, goddess of war, en- couraging the troops (south). The same

attempt to assimilate medieval ideas in Classical dress enlivens the
bold display of heraldry of the four kingdoms of England, Scotland, Ireland and Hanover, and the Garter Stars, on the plaster cove. The elaborate door case opposite the throne is of artificial stone (now painted) and was made by William Croggan; the little bust of William IV above shows that the decoration of this room was completed to the Nash designs after George IV's death. The crimson silk hangings on the walls are a recent restoration. The four carved and gilt trophies on either side of the throne may have come from Carlton House.As in the other rooms, many of the contents came from Carlton House, including the bronze and cutglass chandeliers, the gilt bronze candelabra on the chimneypiece and the velvet benches flanking the door from the Green Drawing Room. The most extraordinary items of Regency furniture are the two council chairs (flanking the throne dais) which were made for the Throne Room at Carlton House.

THE PICTURE GALLERY

This is the great spine of the State Apartments. It is 50 metres [155 feet] long
and is entirely top lit. It occupies thesite of the first-floor rooms of old
Buckingham House. It was designed by Nash to display George IV's outstanding collection of Dutch and Flemish paintings, many of which still hang here. At Carlton House, paintings and sculpture had been scattered throughout the rooms, but for Buckingham Palace George IV planned a sculpture gallery and a picture gallery (one over the other) specially for the display of his finest works of art. The original ceiling was a complex design combining a timber
hammerbeam frame with hanging pendants and a series of 17 little
glazed saucer domes or lanterns. It was something of a practical failure as it leaked and failed to throw light on the pictures. It was modified by Blore and totally remodelled for King George Vin 1914 asa glazed segmental arched ceiling. The door cases were also simplified and the columnar screen at the south end was redesigned. The architect for these changes was Frank Baines, chief architect of the Office of Works. The wood carvings, in the style of Grinling Gibbons, were made by H. H. Martyn of Cheltenham. The result is rather like the interior of the saloon of one of the great ocean liners of this period. Its 'subdued tastefulness" makes a striking contrast to the extreme

opulence of Nash's adjoining rooms. The walls were hung in 1914 with olive-green silk damask woven by Warners, but this has since been replaced by the present pink flock coverings.
The four Carrara marble chimney-pieces supplied by Joseph Browne in the 1820s survive from the gallery's first incarnation and were designed by Nash. They each display a circular portrait relief of a famous artist: Dürer, Rubens, Titian and Michelangelo. In the mid-nineteenth century there were 185 paintings in the gallery. Today it is the quality of the paintings that makes this room so remarkable: the collection includes works by Rubens and Rembrandt, Van Dyck and Vermeer.The Royal Collection is today the most extensive private collec- tion in the world. It was begun by Charles I in the seventeenth century. Though his works of art were dispersed during the Commonwealth, several were later re-acquired, notably his magnif- icent equestrian portrait with Monsieur de St Antoine painted by Van Dyck in 1633. The collection was considerably enriched in the eighteenth century by Frederick, Prince of Wales( the eldest son of George II), and by George III. The largest group of paintings in the Picture Gallery, however, is that assembled by George IV. These include the wonderful landscapes by Cuyp, The Farm at Laeken by Rubens and also the Rembrandt portraits Agatha Bas and The Ship Builder and his Wife.

The Picture Gallery Lobby

The Picture Gallery Lobby is divided from the main part of the gallery by a screen of white marble Corinthian columns, but is otherwise treated in the same architectural manner, with a door case by Martyn of Cheltenham and a plaster frieze of 1914 by Frank Baines. The most interesting object here is the lifeize marble statue by Sir Francis Chantrey of Mrs Jordan and two of her children. Mrs Jordan was a celebrated actress and the mistress of the Duke of Clarence, later William IV, before his marriage to Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen and his succession to the throne. Mrs Jordan had five sons and five daughters by the Duke. They took the name Fitzclarence and
the eldest son, George Augustus Frederick, was created Earl of Munsterin 1831. This charming statue was commissioned by William IV in 1834, after Mrs Jordan's death. It was bequeathed to The Queen in 1975 by the 5th Ear! of Munster.
Hanging behind the statue is one of George IV's more unusual acquisitions, a large embroidered silk reli-gious hanging depicting the Annunciation. It dates from the mid- seventeenth century and was originally made for an Italian church, where such needlework panels were hung on great feast days.


The Silk Tapestry Room

This indeterminate space was contrived by Blore as a linkbetween the Grand Staircase, the Picture Gallery and the gardenfront State Rooms. It takes its name from the Italian needlework panels which formerly hung in this area. The room is notable for its contents. The large River Landscape with the Finding of Moses by Francesco Zuccarelliis one of a number of paintings commissioned by George III directly from the artist. It is signed 'Francesco Zuccarelli, London 1768'. Zuccarelli was an Italian artist who settled in London in the mid-eighteenth century and a founder member of the Royal Academy. His work was much admired by George III, who acquired thirty of his landscapes. The monumental French pedestal clock with Rococo ormolu decoration was another of George IV's acquisitions for Carlton House, where it formed a focal point on the principal staircase.

THE EAST GALLERY

Queen Victoria found George IV's State Rooms, despite their magnificence, too small for court entertainments and ceremonial. She and Prince Albert therefore added a large new block to the south end of the west range of the palace in 1853-5 to provide extra space including a vast new ballroom and a series of galleries for royal processions. These rooms were designedby James Pennethornewho had been a protege of Nash at the Office of Works; they were built by William Cubitt. Their interiorfinishing and decoration was executed under the immediate direction of the Prince Consort and the team of artists whom he admired. These included Professor Ludwig Grüner from Dresden and the artist Nicolä Consoni from Rome, where the latter had been responsible for some of the paintings in the basilica of St Paul's outside the Walls. Much of this decoration has been covered up in the course of various redecorations in this century, but Consoni's gold and grisaille panels of cupids at play survive round the top of the East Gallery.The East Gallery extends southwards towards the Ballroom from the Grand Staircase and contains one of the marble chimney- pieces designed by Nash and made under Joseph Browne's direction at Carrara in the 1820s, en suite with those in the Picture Gallery. It contains a carved portrait roundel of Rembrandt.

THE CROSS AND WEST GALLERIES

The Cross and the West Galleries are smaller than the East Gallery but were also designed by Pennethorne and decorated originally by Ludwig Grüner. The West Gallery is the most successful as an architectural space with its fine proportions and semi-circular ceiling. The tympana at either end have spir-
ited plaster sculptures in the style of those in George IV's rooms.
These are the work of William Theed the Younger, a sculptor who
was admired by Prince Albert. The Prince's aim was to introduce a serious 'artistic' note into the decoration of the palace as a demonstration of the High Renaissance, Raphaelesque style that he and Grüner were trying to promote in England. It is similar to that favoured by other German princely patrons of the mid-nineteenth century, as can be seen at Potsdam, Dresden and Munich.
These spaces are now used to display works of art from the Royal Collection. In the West Gallery are four Gobelins tapestries from the Don Quixote series which were given to George IV in 1789 by the artist Richard Cosway, one of the 'Carlton House set'. Cosway himself had been given them, while in Paris two years earlier, by Louis XVI.Cosway was one of the Prince's chief artistic advisers in the 1780s and helped to influence George IV's taste for French fashion and art, with the results which are so spectacularly repreented at Buckingham Palace.



THE STATE DINING ROOM

The State Dining RoomT he State Dining Room was originally intended to be a
music room; the pair of white marble chimnev-pieces,possibly the work of Matthew Cotes Wyatt, show flanking female figures playing musical instruments. It is possible that the bed of the ceiling with its three little saucer domes may also havebeen designed by Nash as it is more refined than the coving of Blore's surround with its heavy and relentless bracketing.

The room was completed Queen Victoria, both of whose cyphers can be found in the plaster roundels in the penetration of the coving. The conversion of this room to a dining room was one of William IV's few alterations to his predecessors' layout of the State Rooms. The new King wanted a dining room on the principal floor adjoining the drawing rooms, rather than on the ground floor as Nash and George IV had envisaged. The character of the room, with its somewhat coarse and heavy detailing, is now largely due to Edward Blore, who was commissioned by the Government to finish the palace after George IV's death and Nash's dismissal for financial incompetence.

Blore had a reputation for being able to work within a budget. The pier glasses, pelmets and other florid gilded enrichments of the room were designed by him.
The principal feature of the room is the series of splendid, full-length royal portraits. These were placed here by Queen Victoria, who had a particular interest in portraits of her family and arranged several of the rooms as dynastic galleries. Those in here are the State Portraits of some of the Hanoverian sovereigns of Britain. Their gilded frames were supplied by Ponsonby & Sons in 1840. The alcove at the south end, which now contains the entrance to the West Gallery, was originally the sideboard recess, used for displaying gold plate during banquets, but it was altered when Pennethorne's wing was added in 1853-5.
The State Dining Room is used regularly by The Queen for official entertaining, luncheons and formal dinners. On these occasions the tables are set with part of the great silver-gilt services acquired over many years by George IV, mainly from the Crown goldsmiths Rundell, Bridge & Rundell. Some examples are displayed in this room, including the pair of ewers and stands made for the King in 1822 and an oval tureen by Paul Storr. George IV had a particular love of gold plate, and commissioned some of the most magnificent pieces ever made in England. A great feature of the State Dining Room and all the rooms on the west side of the palace is the beautiful views over the gardens landscaped in the the head gardener at Kew. The lake and the picturesque, naturalistic planting of trees and shrubs, and the green lawns, make. the palace truly rus in urbe. The gardens form the setting for the summer Garden Parties, started by Queen Victoria and originally called 'breakfasts' despite taking place in the afternoon; they were revived by King George VI. These have become an increasingly popular feature of the Buckingham Palace year.


The Blue Drawing Room

George IV intended this as a ballroom though it has been Ballroom in the south-west wing. Guests gather here for drinks before large luncheon parties and grand state and diplomatic occasions. This is one of the finest rooms in the palace and the ne plus ultra of Georgian sumptuousness in decoration, even more splendid than the Throne Room sequence on the east Front. It is 21 metres [68 feet] long and divided into bays by giant Corinthian columns. It was first called the South Drawing Room and its original decoration was a symphony of red with porphyry scagliola columns, crimson vel- vet curtains and figured silk wall hangings. It now has a blue flock paper installed by Queen Mary near the beginning of the twentieth century, while the Corinthian columns were painted to resemble onyx, covering up defects in the scagliola, in the reign of Queen Victoria. The ceiling with its great billowing coves and bold console brackets shows Nash at his most daring and original.The three moulded plaster reliefs in the tympana are by William Pitts (1835) and have a literary theme depicting the Apotheoses of Shakespeare(north), of Spenser(south) and of Milton(facing north).

William Pitts (1790-1840) designed and modelled most of the high relief plasterwork in the State Rooms. He started life as a silver chaser and modeller and executed the famous silvergilt Achilles Shield to Flaxman's design. His work at Buckingham Palace has consid- erable grace and charm but is perhaps too small in scale to be appreciated in its lofty situation. The florid whiteness of the forms and foliage stands out against a richly gilded ground. This and the following two rooms are the principal features of Buckingham Palace. The richness of their fittings and fixtures distinguishes them from any`comparable State Rooms in England, while the originality of their architecture marks them out from contemporary palace rooms on the Continent. The aim of George IV and Nash, in which they triumphantly succeeded, Was to create an aura of extreme opulence. Only the architectural part of the room was completed by the time of George IV's death, and the decoration and the furnishing were carried out in the reign of William IV under the supervision of Viscount Duncannon. The gilt sofas and some of the armchairs were made for Carlton House in the early part of the nineteenth century. The four marble side tables with gilt bronze mounts are the work of Alexandre-Louis Bellange (c. 1823) and were acquired for Windsor Castle by George IV in 1825. They were brought here in 1834 by Lord Duncannon as part of the furnishing and fitting up of the new Buckingham Palace State Rooms for William IV. They had to be adapted slightly to fit into the spaces between the plinths of the Corinthian columns. The cutglass chandeliers are from the Crimson Drawing Room at Carlton House.

In this room is one of George IV's favourite possessions — the Table of the Grand Commanders. The top is of Sevres porcelain painted in trompe l'oeil to resemble sardonyx with the head of Alexander the Great surrounded by similar cameoike portraits — heads of twelve other great commanders of Antiquity. It was commissioned by Napoleon in 1806 when, as the conqueror of all

Europe and the recently crowned Emperor of the French, he was at his apogee and saw himself as a modern Alexander the Great. The painting is by Louis-Bertin Parant and the ormolu mounts by Pierre- Philippe Thomire. It was presented by Louis XVIII of France to George IV, when still Prince Regent, in 1817. George IV was so thrilled by this magnificent trophy that he instructed the painter Sir Thomas Lawrenceto include it in his State Portraits. It was placed in the Bow Drawing Room at Carlton House before being brought here.Other Sevres vases from George IV's incomparable collection can be seen in this room, notably the garnitures of dark blue vases — many of rare and unusual shape — on the chimney-pieces and Bellange side tables.


The Music Room

0riginally known as the Bow Drawing Room, this occupies
the centre of the garden front behind the semi-circularbow window — an architectural feature much admired by George IV, who liked rooms with a bow on one side. It is more disciplined than the Blue Drawing Room, with an ingeniously designed vaulted and domed ceiling, lavishly gilded. The diagonal coffering of the dome is moulded with the rose, thistle and shamrock, emblem- atic of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland. This room is entirely Nash's design as it was completed in 1831 and has not been altered since. This is the room where guests, having assembled in the Green Drawing Room, are presented before a dinner or a banquet. Here wo, royal babies are sometimes christened.The Queen's three eldest children were all baptised here in water brought from the River Jordan.

A spectacular feature of the room is the parquet floor of satinwood, rosewood, tulipwood, mahogany, holly and other woods. It was made by Thomas Seddon and cost £2,400. It is a triumph of English craftsmanship and one of the finest of its type in the coun- try. The columns round the wall are of lapis lazuli scagliola; and originally the walls were hung with bright yellow silk, which must have presented a dramatic visual impact in conjunction with the blue columns. In the tympana at the tops of the walls are three graceful reliefs by William Pitts depicting the Progress of Rhetoric. The subjects are Harmony (north), Eloquence (east) and Pleasure (south). Over the white marble fireplaces are large arched mirrors in concave plaster frames designed by Nash which complete the architectural treatment of the room.The carved and gilt Louis XVI seat furniture was acquired by George IV and comes from Carlton House. This set was supplied from Paris by Georges Jacob, through the dealer Dominique Daguerre, for Henry Holland's interior there in the late 1780s. The spectacular chandeliers, of gilt bronze and cut glass, also come from Carlton House and are among the most beautiful in the palace. The Carlton House chandeliers were considered at the time of their manufacture to be the finest in Europe. The windows in the bow, like all the windows on the principal floor of Buckingham Palace, have large-paned glass casements, rather than smallpaned Georgian sashes. They were a technological innovation in the 1820s and are one of the earliest surviving English uses of plate glass. They enhance the views out over the surrounding gardens and parks.

The White Drawing Room

The Royal Family gather here before meeting their guests in the Music Room. This was originally called the North Drawing Room; the pilasters were of Siena scagliola and the walls covered with gold and white figured damask. The present white and gold French-inspired wall decoration dates from the late nineteenth century. The ceiling survives as designed by Nash and combines a swagger tent-like composition with brilliant convex coving and delicate moulded plasterwork by Bernasconi. William Pitts' twelve frieze panels depict the Origin and Progress of Pleasure and were described by the Parliamentary Select Committee into the financing of the rebuilding in 1831 as the 'sports of Boys'; they cost £800. The twelve individual panels are Love Awakening the Soul to Pleasure, the Soul in the Bower of Fancy, the Pleasure of Decoration, the Invention of Music, the Pleasure of Music, the Dance, the Masquerade, the Drama, the Contest for the Palm, the Palm Assigned, the Struggle for the Laurel and the Laurel Obtained. The two white marble chimney-pieces after a design by Flaxman are particularly fine. The gilt-framed pier glasses were designed by Blore. One of them conceals a secret door from the Royal Closet through which the Royal Family enters the State Apartments on formal occasions. The capitals of the pilasters were designed by Nash and are a novel composition incorporating the Garter Star.

Like the other State Rooms, this contains magnificent French furniture acquired by George IV. The set of Louis XVarmchairs is by Jean-Baptiste Gourdin. The most impor- tant object is the marquetry roll-top desk by Jean-Henri Riesener, which was bought by George IV in 1825. Almost certainly of French royal provenance, it is reputed to have been made circa 1775 for one of Louis XV's daughters at Versailles.More garnitures of Sevres vases can also be found here, these predominantly with a green ground. The four ebony and gilt bronze cabinets with pietra dura panels under, Blore's large giltframed pier glasses are adaptations of cabinets formerly at Carlton House.

The four French gilt bronze candelabra on carved and gilt pedestals, supplied by Tatham, Bailev & Sanders in 1811, come from the Crimson Drawing Room at Carlton House but are well suited in scale to this larger room.The gilded and painted grand piano by Erard was bought by Queen Victoria in 1856 and is a reminder of her, and the Prince Consort's, love of music and the many concerts they held in the State Rooms, when new works by Mendelssohn and the elder Strauss were among the most frequently heard.


The Ante Room and Minister's Staircase

The Ante Room was contrived by Blore as a link betweenNash's Picture Gallery and the new private rooms . intended for William IV and Queen Adelaide but never occupied by them. It is given some distinction by its octagonal shape. After the grandeur of the principal State Rooms it has something of the character of a room on a nineteenth-century royal yacht, with its elaborate but smallscale decoration. The Victorian atmosphere is enhanced by the portraits by Heinrich von Angeli of royal princesses.
The Ministers' Staircase was also introduced by more, to give access to the monarch's apartments on the first floor and to improve the circulation at this end of the palace. The staircase was remodelled by Queen Victoria. A sign of Blore's more economical approach to the completion of the palace is that the balustrade is of gilt lead rather than the sumptuous bronzework chosen by Nash and George IV for the Grand Staircase. The space was redecorated in white and gold in 1902 as part of a sweeping renovation of the interiors of the palace by Edward VII. The late eighteenth-century Gobelins tapestries are from the Amours des Dieux series and were bought by George IV in 1826. The English barograph in mahogany, kingwood and gilt bronze by Alexander Cumming is one of the few survivors of George III's original furnishings of Buckingham House. It was commissioned by the King in 1765, and well represents George III's interest in clocks and scientific instruments.At the foot of the stairs is an imposing marble group by the Italian sculptor Antonio Canova, commissioned by George IV (when Prince Regent) for the Circular Room at Carlton House at the time of Canova's visit to England in 1815. It depicts Mars and Venus. It is seen to best advantage from the Marble Hall, where it forms a focus at the north end. Canova was the greatest sculptor of the age, and George IV owned several examples of his work.


The Marble Hall

The Marble Hall lies underneath the Picture Gallery, running from north to south of the main block. It was originally conceived at Lord Farnborough's suggestion as a sculpture gallery, repeating the arrangement in his house at Bromley Hill, Kent, which had separate sculpture and picture galleries superimposed. Its original architectural character was more aus- tere, with plain scagliola walls as a background to marble statues. The floor and Corinthian columns are of Carrara marble and match those in the Grand Hall, to which it is spatially connected. The two small-scale marble chimney-pieces were probably brought from Carlton House when it was demolished. Here, as elsewhere, the later gilded decorations were added by Bessant in 1902; the carved and gilded wood swags above the fireplaces, which may be in part early eighteenth century in date, were placed here then.
Here can be found another fine work by Canova, the Fountain Nymph with Putto, which was originally commissioned by Lord Cawdorwho, however, allowed George IV to have it when it was completed. The other marble nymphs were mainly commissioned by Queen Victoria and are by German sculptors: Emil Wolff,Carl Steinhäuserand Josef Engel.The portraits were arranged here by Queen Victoria and are of some of her immediate relations — including her mother, the Duchess of Kent; and Ernest, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the father

The Bow Room

This room is well known to visitors to the Garden Parties as they pass through it into the gardens. Its more restrained Classical architecture with simple Ionic columns is typical of the semi- state rooms on the ground floor which were originally intended as George IV's private apartments. This was to be the King's library but was never fitted up as such. The pair of dark marble chimney-pieces with Empire gilt bronze mounts by Benjamin Vulliamydate from 1810. They were purchased by Queen Mary and inserted here, where they form a sympathetic counterpart to Nash's architecture. The oval portraits with gilt frames set into the walls were installed at the wish of Queen Victoria in 1853. They are of European royalty related to the Queen, including the Kings and Queens of Belgium and Hanover.The most interesting item in the room is the grand Chelsea dinner service commissioned by George III and Queen Charlotte as a present for her brother the Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz in 1763. At that time it was the most ambitious example of English porcelain ever made.

After our return there was a little lunch and went to Stanstead toward 4 pm.
Take-off was at 7:30 pm.
We were in Munich toward 10:05 pm again.