Anyone who has experienced the splendors of Europe's royal palaces might well be struck by the apparent simplicity and plainness of Britain's Buckingham Palace. The British are quite proud to point out that the reason for such modesty is that democracy developed early in their country, which meant that any monarch's grand designs were unlikely to be looked on favorably by a Parliament that held the purse strings.
遊罷歐洲大陸，帶著法、德等國堂皇壯麗的皇宮印象，再看英國白金漢宮，不免要驚訝於它的單調樸素。英國人卻有他驕傲的解釋：這是因為英國民主發生得早，皇宮興建還得要國會批准，因此不好大興土木、過度奢華。