St. Stephens Hall 95 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 56 feet high to the apex of the stone groining, is lined by twelve “statues of Parliamentary statesmen who rose to eminence by the eloquence and abilities they displayed in the House of Commons,” Fox and Pitt are here placed on opposite sides of the hall, “facing” each other after the manner they were wont to in the House of Commons.

Westminster Hall is 290 feet in length, 68 feet in width, and 110 feet in height.  “It is the largest apartment not supported by pillars in the world.”  Let the reader picture to himself the scenes of the events which history records as having taken place in this venerable Hall.  “Here were hung the banners taken from Charles I., at the battle of Naseby; from Charles II. at the battle of Worcester; at Preston and Dunbar; and, somewhat later, those taken at the battle of Blenheim.  Here, at the upper end of the Hall, Oliver Cromwell was inaugurated as Lord Protector, sitting in a robe of purple velvet lined with ermine, on a rich cloth of state, with the gold sceptre in one hand, the Bible richly gilt and bossed in the other, and his sword at his side.  Here, four years later, at the top of the Hall fronting Palace-yard, his head was set on a pole, with the skulls of Ireton on one side, of Bradshaw on the other.  Here, shameless ruffians sought employment as hired witnesses, and walked openly in the Hall with a straw in the shoe to denote their quality; and here the good, the great, the brave, the wise, and the abandoned have been brought to trial.  Here (in the Hall of Rufus) Sir William Wallace was tried and condemned; in this very Hall, Sir Thomas More and Protector Sommerset were doomed to the scaffold.  Here, in Henry VIII.’s reign (1517), entered the City apprentices, implicated in the murders on ‘Evil May Day’ of the aliens settled in London, each with a halter round his neck, and crying ‘Mercy, gracious Lord, Mercy,’ while Wolsey stood by, and the King, beneath his cloth of state, heard their defense and pronounced their pardon—­the prisoners shouting with delight and casting up their halters to the Hall roof, ‘so that the King,’ as the chroniclers observe, ’might perceive they were none of the descreetest.’  Here the notorious Earl and Countess of Somerset were tried in the reign of James I. for the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury.  Here, the great Earl of Stafford was condemned; the King being present, and the Commons sitting bareheaded all the time.  The High Court of Justice which condemned King Charles I. sat in this Hall, the upper part hung with scarlet cloth, and the King sitting underneath, with the Naseby banners suspended above his head.  Lilly, the astrologer, who was present, saw the silver top fall from the King’s staff, and others heard Lady Fairfax exclaim, when her husband’s name was called over, ’He has more wit than to be here.’  Here, in the reign of James II., the seven bishops were acquitted.  Here Dr. Sacheverel was tried and pronounced guilty by a majority