3-066-059 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

A Midsummer Night on the Terrace of the House of Commons, 1881. 'The Palace of Westminster has an agreeable river frontage, overlooking a fair wide space of Thames water...The private terrace attached to the suite of apartments belonging to the House of Commons, and available for the personal repose and refreshment of its members in their leisure hours, is strictly guarded against the intrusion of unauthorised persons. But honourable members have the privilege of bringing their friends, and even the ladies of their families or acquaintance...It is conveniently situated for the serving of...such things as a cup of tea or coffee, a vanilla ice, a bottle of zoedone, or a sherry cobbler, not to speak of a cigar...About nine or ten in the evening, with the sultry July weather that prevailed during the long discussions...no small degree of temporary solace was here obtained by some of the honourable gentlemen, especially if their wives and daughters kindly accompanied them...to the scene of their belated Parliamentary labours. To the ladies themselves, we have no doubt, this little glimpse of the outskirts of the great political assembly of the United Kingdom was far more entertaining than admission to the gallery above the Speaker's chair'. From "Illustrated London News", 1881.