A high ceiling adorned with many-faced relievos and gilded cornices, circled over the chamber where the Lords assembled.  The Commons had but a flat ceiling.  There is a meaning in all monarchical buildings.  At one end of the long chamber of the Lords was the door; at the other, opposite to it, the throne.  A few paces from the door, the bar, a transverse barrier, and a sort of frontier, marked the spot where the people ended and the peerage began.  To the right of the throne was a fireplace with emblazoned pinnacles, and two bas-reliefs of marble, representing, one, the victory of Cuthwolf over the Britons, in 572; the other, the geometrical plan of the borough of Dunstable, which had four streets, parallel to the four quarters of the world.  The throne was approached by three steps.  It was called the royal chair.  On the two walls, opposite each other, were displayed in successive pictures, on a huge piece of tapestry given to the Lords by Elizabeth, the adventures of the Armada, from the time of its leaving Spain until it was wrecked on the coasts of Great Britain.  The great hulls of the ships were embroidered with threads of gold and silver, which had become blackened by time.  Against this tapestry, cut at intervals by the candelabra fastened in the wall, were placed, to the right of the throne, three rows of benches for the bishops, and to the left three rows of benches for the dukes, marquises, and earls, in tiers, and separated by gangways.  On the three benches of the first section sat the dukes; on those of the second, the marquises; on those of the third, the earls.  The viscounts’ bench was placed across, opposite the throne, and behind, between the viscounts and the bar, were two benches for the barons.

On the highest bench to the right of the throne sat the two archbishops of Canterbury and York; on the middle bench three bishops, London, Durham, and Winchester, and the other bishops on the lowest bench.  There is between the Archbishop of Canterbury and the other bishops this considerable difference, that he is bishop “by divine providence,” whilst the others are only so “by divine permission.”  On the right of the throne was a chair for the Prince of Wales, and on the left, folding chairs for the royal dukes, and behind the latter, a raised seat for minor peers, who had not the privilege of voting.  Plenty of fleurs-de-lis everywhere, and the great escutcheon of England over the four walls, above the peers, as well as above the king.

The sons of peers and the heirs to peerages assisted at the debates, standing behind the throne, between the dais and the wall.  A large square space was left vacant between the tiers of benches placed along three sides of the chamber and the throne.  In this space, which was covered with the state carpet, interwoven with the arms of Great Britain, were four woolsacks—­one in front of the throne, on which sat the Lord Chancellor, between the mace and the seal; one in front of the bishops, on which sat the judges, counsellors of state, who had the right to vote, but not to speak; one in front of the dukes, marquises, and earls, on which sat the Secretaries of State; and one in front of the viscounts and barons, on which sat the Clerk of the Crown and the Clerk of the Parliament, and on which the two under-clerks wrote, kneeling.