By Sarah Abeling
The House of Lords or Peers is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United Kingdom. De Saussure wrote that the room was "larger and longer than broad" (54). The seats were upholstered in crimson red and embroidered gold. The hall had been hung with tapestries of Queen Mary of Scots depicting the Spanish Armada that Phillip II of Spain sent against Queen Elizabeth.
By Krista Walrath
The Gate of Westminster was located on the wide, squared stoned street outside the Banqueting Hall. The gate was quite ancient. De Saussure describes the gate as “remarkable for its gothic architecture and its antiquity” (p. 66). King Charles I was led down Whitehall passed this gate when he was going to the block to be executed. The Westminster Gate is now demolished and there are no signs of it ever being there.
Sources:
César de Saussure. A Foreign View of England in the Reigns of George I and George II. London: J. Murray, 1902.
By Rahel Mideksa and Jillian Place
By Rahel Mideksa and Jillian Place
By Maddie Pounder
The Tower, “the citadel of London” is a historic castle located on the north end of the Thames River in central London (De Saussure 84). De Saussure remarks that the complex is about a mile in circumference and is surrounded by a wide moat. Because the Tower was built on the river it has cannons pointed outward at all times to maintain security.
By: Cooper Sarafin
Built on the side of the Thames, the first Customs house was raised in the 14th century. It was responsible for handling the export of wool which made the country so prosperous. After the great fire in 1666, they rebuilt it in the same location, but made it larger to handle growing trade.
De Saussure speaks of how busy the building is and of the skill by which the officers find contraband. He also speaks of his annoyance that he had to pay to bring in his worn clothes to the country where everywhere else it was not the custom.
Sources:
By Abbey Wells
At 215 miles long, the River Thames is the longest river in England. Cesar de Saussure describes it as “too beautiful not to be worth a description. It takes its rise in the county of Oxford and early navigable. The Thames is everywhere wide, beautiful, and peaceful” (93-94). He continues on to compare the width of the Thames to the length of the London Bridge, but also mentions that the bridge is “not built over the widest part of the river, yet is 800 feet long” (p. 94).
By Liesl Magnus
When Cesar de Saussure visited London in 1725, he noted that “[After] leaving the Monument, you get to the Thames bridge, which is built out of stone. A stranger standing on the bridge can scarcely tell that it is one, houses on either side making it look like a pretty street.”
By Chris Denham
In 1666, a fire erupted on Puddings Lane and it would spread to decimate two-thirds of the City of London. Following these traumatic events, Parliament decreed that a monument be erected in the bakers’ district where it began, so that London would always remember the cost it paid. Cesar De Saussure’s letter describing London in 1725 spent a page on describing this iconic sight.
By Sarah Abeling
The Penny Post was a series of small post offices established on principal streets throughout the City of London. De Saussure claims that they are very useful otherwise it would be "inconvenient in such a large town as London to have to run from one end of it too the other every time you had anything special to communicate" (153).
