Some critics have objected to the minuteness of the decorative designs on the flat surfaces of the walls, but these are really quite in accord with the delicate genius of Gothic architecture, and fine examples of this kind of work are found in Belgium and other parts of the Continent.
Every one must admit the elegance of proportion manifested in the architect's design, and this it is which makes the towers stand out so well above the main building from every point of view; moreover, this is the special characteristic which is often so terribly lacking in modern architecture. One wonders whether Vitruvius and kindred works receive their due meed of attention in this twentieth century.
Within the palace the main staircase, with the lobby and corridors leading to either House of Parliament, are particularly fine, and form a worthy approach to the legislative chambers of the vast Empire of Great Britain.
The Palace of the Savoy also needs some notice. The original house was built by Peter, brother of Boniface, for so many years Archbishop of Canterbury, and uncle of Eleanor of Provence, wife of King Henry III. By his will Peter bequeathed this estate to the monks of Montjoy at Havering-at-Bower, who sold it to Queen Eleanor, and it became the permanent residence of her second son Edmund, Earl of Lancaster, and his descendants. When King John of France was made a prisoner after the battle of Poitiers in 1356, he was assigned an apartment in the Savoy, and here he died on April 9, 1364. The sad event is thus mentioned in the famous chronicle of Froissart:—
"The King and Queen, and all the princes of the blood, and all the nobles of England were exceedingly concerned from the great love and affection King John had shewn them since the conclusion of peace."
The best-known member of the Lancastrian family who resided in this palace is the famous John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. During his time, so tradition has it, the well-known poet Chaucer was here married to Philippa, daughter of Sir Paon de Roet, one of the young ladies attached to the household of Blanche, Duchess of Lancaster, and the sister of Catherine Swynford, who at a later period became the Duke's third wife. However this may be, the Savoy was at that time the favourite resort of the nobility of England, and John of Gaunt's hospitality was unbounded. Stow, in his Chronicle, declares "there was none other house in the realm to be compared for beauty and stateliness." Yet how very transitory is earthly glory, all the pride of place and power!
In the terrible rebellion of Wat Tyler, in the year 1381, the Savoy was pillaged and burnt, and the Duke was compelled to flee for his life to the northern parts of Great Britain. His Grace had become very unpopular on account of the constant protection he had extended to the simple followers of Wickcliffe.
After this dire destruction the Savoy was never restored to its former palatial proportions. The whole property passed to the Crown, and King Henry VII. rebuilt it, and by his will endowed it in a liberal manner as a hospital in honour of St. John the Baptist. This hospital was suppressed at the Reformation under Edward VI., most of the estates with which it was endowed passing to the great City Hospital of St. Thomas. But Queen Mary refounded the hospital as an almshouse with a master and other officers, and this latter foundation was finally dissolved in 1762.
Over the gate, now long destroyed, of King Henry VII.'s foundation were these words:—
"Hospitium hoc inopi turbe Savoia vocatum
Septimus Henricus solo fundavit ab imo."