It was spacious indeed and commodious, but mean and inelegant.

The people of the capital had been annoyed by the scoffing way in which foreigners spoke of the principal residence of our sovereigns, and often said that it was a pity that the great fire had not spared the old portico of St.Paul's and the stately arcades of Gresham's Bourse, and taken in exchange that ugly old labyrinth of dingy brick and plastered timber.

It might now be hoped that we should have a Louvre.

Before the ashes of the old palace were cold, plans for a new palace were circulated and discussed.

But William, who could not draw his breath in the air of Westminster, was little disposed to expend a million on a house which it would have been impossible for him to inhabit.