3-034-554 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The British Association at Edinburgh: the Great Hall of the Parliament House, 1871. '...our Illustration shows the fine old hall fitted up for a reception-room with furniture lent by the Faculty of Advocates and the Writers to the Signet, or attorneys, from the Advocates' Library and the Signet Library...The hall was decorated also with greenhouse plants from the nursery-gardens of Messrs. Lawson, and bouquets of flowers were laid on the tables. Sofas and chairs invited the visitors to repose or to converse with each other at ease; newspapers and the materials for letter-writing were freely provided; and there were refreshment-rooms, as well as a post-office and telegraph-office, within the building...The hall is 122 ft. long and 49 ft. wide. It has a beautiful roof of dark oaken beams, resting on brackets with boldly-carved heads...This Parliament Hall was the actual meeting-place of the Scottish Legislature, the Lords and Commons sitting together, some time before the Union of 1707. It was here that George IV. was entertained, in 1822, with a grand banquet'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.