HAMPTON COURT

 Described by Walter Jerrold Pictured by E. W. Haslehust

 [Illustration]

 BLACKIE AND SON LIMITED LONDON GLASGOW AND BOMBAY 1912

 [Illustration: THE LION GATE]

 Beautiful England

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 OXFORD THE ENGLISH LAKES CANTERBURY SHAKESPEARE-LAND THE THAMES WINDSOR CASTLE CAMBRIDGE NORWICH AND THE BROADS THE HEART OF WESSEX THE PEAK DISTRICT THE CORNISH RIVIERA DICKENS-LAND WINCHESTER THE ISLE OF WIGHT CHESTER YORK THE NEW FOREST HAMPTON COURT EXETER

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 Beautiful Ireland

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

 Page The Lion Gate _Frontispiece_ The Great Gatehouse, West Entrance 8 A Corner of Wolsey's Kitchen 14 Anne Boleyn's Gateway, Clock Court 20 Master Carpenter's Court 26 Fountain Court 32 The Great Hall 38 The Pond Garden 42 East Front from the Long Water 46 The Wilderness in Spring 50 The Long Walk 54 The Long Water in Winter 58

 [Illustration: HAMPTON COURT]

 "Close by those meads for ever crown'd with flowers Where Thames with pride surveys his rising towers There stands a structure of majestic frame, Which from the neighb'ring Hampton takes its name. "--_Pope. _

I

For combined beauty and interest--varied beauty and historicalinterest--there is no place "within easy reach of London", certainlyno place within the suburban radius, that can compare with the statelyTudor palace which stands on the left bank of the Thames, little morethan a dozen miles from the metropolis and, though hidden in trees, within eye-reach of Richmond. It is not only one of the "show places", which every traveller from afar is supposed to visit as something of aduty, but it is a place that conveys impressions of beauty andrestfulness in a way that few others can. It remains ancient withouthaving lapsed into a state of desuetude that leaves everything to theimagination; it is a living whole far from any of the garishness thatbelongs to contemporaneity. Whether seen from the outside on the west, where the warm red brick, the varied roofs, the clustered decorativechimneys suggestive of the Tudor time make a rich and harmoniouswhole; or from the south east, where the many-windowed long straightlines of the Orange additions show the red brick diversified withwhite stone, it is a noble and impressive pile. Within, too, arepriceless treasures, themselves alone the objective of countlesspilgrimages. And recognizing the attractions of the buildings andtheir contents is to take no account of the lovely grounds, and of thecrowding associations of a place that, since its establishment fourhundred years ago, has again and again been the centre at whichhistory was made. 

Throughout our records for many centuries the valley of the Thames hasbeen favoured when our monarchs have sought to establish a new home. Greenwich and London--the Tower, Whitehall, Buckingham Palace--Richmondand Hampton Court, Windsor, Reading and Oxford, are some of the placesthat have at one time or another been the chosen centre of royal life;and Hampton Court Palace is the newest of those situated close on theriver's bank, though nearly two hundred years have elapsed since it wasa regular royal residence. It was, indeed, for something less than thesame length of time that it was in use as a home of the sovereign, butwithin that period it saw two revolutions, and the change of nationalconditions from the comparative medięvalism of the days of the eighthHenry to the comparative modernity of the beginning of the Hanoverianera. It is not, perhaps, overfanciful to see something of the lavishrichness, the opulent homeliness, of the earlier period typified in thevaried buildings, courts, and gateways of the Tudor portion of thePalace, and the more formal grandeur of the later time in thesymmetrical stateliness of the later part. 

Hampton Court Palace was the centre of many of the bluff King Henry'shunting parties--and the scene of some of his marital excitements, andhere, too, his long-hoped-for son was born; it was the scene ofElizabethan pageantry, and of the attempt on the part of the VirginQueen's successor to force other men's religion into his ownparticular groove; at Hampton Court Charles the First was seen at hisbest in the domestic circle and--after the interregnum--where his sonwas seen at his worst in anti-domestic intrigues. Here Cromwell soughtrest from cares greater than those of a king, and here he wasstricken with mortal illness; here William and Mary dwelt, and herethe former met with the seemingly trivial accident which cost him hislife. That the "story" of Hampton Court is, indeed, a full, splendid, and varied one is shown in the three fine volumes in which it is setforth by Mr. Ernest Law, a work to which no writer on the history ofthe Palace can help feeling indebted. Those who would learn theintimacies and details of the history of the place have Mr. Law'shistory, and those who seek a "guide" are well provided for in theofficial publications. Here, I am concerned with the history of theplace only in its broader and more salient points, and with the minordetails necessary in a guidebook not at all; I seek rather to givesomething of an impression of the past and present of the Palace, something that shall at once indicate the associations of the place, indicate its story, and hint at what there is to see, and that shallserve as souvenir and remembrancer of that which has been seen. 

 [Illustration: THE GREAT GATEHOUSE, WEST ENTRANCE]

II

It was just before he became a cardinal that Thomas Wolsey, on 11January, 1515, took a ninety-nine years' lease of the manor of HamptonCourt from the Knights Hospitaller of St. John of Jerusalem, and atonce set about building the magnificent pile which remains his mostenduring monument. There appears to have been here an earlier manorhouse or mansion, for there is a record of Henry the Seventh visitingit a few years before the lease was granted; but probably Wolsey didaway entirely with the older building and planned the whole placeanew. Rapidly rising in royal favour the Cardinal designed a lordlypleasure house on the banks of the Thames, where he could worthilyentertain his pleasure-loving sovereign, and where he could hold statein a manner that should prove impressive in the eyes of ambassadorsand other important visitors from foreign Courts. 

It is said that Wolsey's health was such that it was necessary for himto have a residence away from London, yet his position made itessential that he should still be within easy reach of the capital;therefore he "employed the most eminent physicians in England and evencalled in the aid of doctors from Padua, to select the most healthyspot within twenty miles of London", and the result was the selectionof Hampton and the erection of the princely Palace which has seen itsroyal neighbours of Hanworth and Richmond pass from palaces to merefragments, and Nonsuch disappear entirely. 

Having acquired his new manor Wolsey lost no time in getting hisdesigns carried into execution, and the magnificent edifice, builtabout five courts or quadrangles, grew so rapidly that in 1516 he wasalready able to entertain Henry the Eighth here. The whole Palace wasof red brick, and surmounted by many castellated turrets topped byornamental lead cupolas. The western portion of the buildings probablygives us a very fair idea of the whole as it was planned, though allthe turrets from this aspect are wanting their cupolas, though thegatehouse is less lofty than it was originally and though some morewesterly buildings have disappeared. 

As the Cardinal waxed in importance his stately palace grew until itsmagnificence set tongues wagging, and it was said that the Churchman'sresidence outshone in splendour the castles of the King. John Skelton, in his satire _Why come ye not to Court?_ probably only gave fullerexpression to things which many people were saying, when the powerfulfavourite was approaching the period of his declination:

 "Why come ye not to court? To whyche Court? To Kynge's courte, Or to Hampton Court?-- Nay, to the Kynge's court: The Kynge's Courte Shulde have the excellence; But Hampton Court Hath the preemynence. And Yorke's Place With my lord's grace, To whose magnifycence Is all the conflewence, Sutys and supplycacons Embassades of all nacyons. "

York Place was Cardinal Wolsey's scarcely less magnificent residenceat Westminster. 

Whether inspired by jealousy owing to the things said of the stateupheld by Wolsey, or whether his repeated visits simply inspired themonarch with envy of his Chancellor's new palace cannot be said, butwhen Hampton Court had been building for ten years King Henry, we aretold, asked the Chancellor why he had erected so magnificent a place. "To show how noble a palace a subject may offer to his Sovereign, " wasthe reply of the Cardinal--a truly courtly and an unquestionablycostly compliment. The King accepted the noble gift, but Wolseycontinued from time to time to occupy his own whilom palace at Hamptonand was besides given permission to make use of the royal palace atRichmond. This was in 1525, and already it may be the shadow of comingevents was over both the powerful Churchman and the fickle King, though Wolsey was still three or four years from that final downfallwhich was soon followed by his death. 

Though the ownership of Hampton Court had passed from the subject tothe sovereign, the former continued on occasion to do the honours ofthe place to distinguished visitors. In 1527, for example, there camea noble "ambasset" from France, and arrangements were made for the dueentertainment here of the French nobles and their retinue. A fullaccount of it is given in George Cavendish's _Life and Death of ThomasWolsey_, the earliest of our biographies and assuredly one of the mostdelightful. There is not space here to transcribe Cavendish's fullaccount of the splendid entertainment accorded to "this great ambasset. .. Who were in number above fourscore and the most noblest andworthiest gentlemen in all the court of France"; but the biographer, who was gentleman-usher to the Cardinal, and thus well situated forgiving an authoritative record of things, was also an admirablenarrator, and from his description we may get a good idea of Tudorprodigality and splendour. Not only were there the fourscore Frenchnobles, but there were also their trains and the many home visitorswho must have been invited to accompany them; so that two hundred andeighty beds had to be arranged. We are told how the best cooks werebrought together, and wrought day and night in the preparing of"divers subtleties and many crafty devices", how the purveyors"brought and sent in such plenty of costly provisions as ye wouldwonder at the same", and further:

 "The yeomen and grooms of the wardrobes were busied in hanging of the chambers with costly hangings, and furnishing the same with beds of silk, and other furniture apt for the same in every degree. Then my Lord Cardinal sent me, being gentleman usher, with two other of my fellows, to Hampton Court to foresee all things touching our rooms, to be noblily garnished accordingly. Our pains were not small or light, but travailing daily from chamber to chamber. Then the carpenters, the joiners, the masons, the painters, and all other artificers necessary to glorify the house and feast were set to work. There was carriage and re-carriage of plate, stuff and other rich implements; so that there was nothing lacking or to be imagined or devised for the purpose. There were also fourteen score beds provided and furnished with all manner of furniture to them belonging, too long particularly here to rehearse. But to all wise men it sufficeth to imagine, that knoweth what belongeth to the furniture of such triumphant feast or banquet. "

Cavendish goes on to tell of the sumptuousness and wonder of theentertainment which the Cardinal gave to his guests before speedingthem on their way to Windsor on the following day. Of the furnishingof the chambers for the "fourteen score beds" prepared for the guests, he gives details which suggest an extraordinary display of gold andsilver; but the whole account should be read in the biography ofWolsey, where it gives us a peculiarly full and detailed descriptionof the splendour of banqueting in Tudor days. And it must be added, that though "the Frenchmen, as it seemed, were rapt into paradise", yet this feast at Hampton Court was but as "silver is compared togold" when contrasted with that which the King gave at Greenwich alittle later to speed his parting guests on their homeward journey. Inthe full account which Cavendish gives of the feasting at HamptonCourt and in his description of the furnishings of York House, Westminster, when Wolsey left it on his last unhappy journey, we haveglimpses of the richness and magnificence to which the great men ofthe sixteenth century had attained in the heyday of Henry the Eighth. King Henry was at Hampton Court, engaged in practising archery in thepark when George Cavendish arrived with the news of Wolsey's death, and the bluff King paid his old and too loyal servant the tribute ofsaying that he would rather have given £20, 000 than he had died. TheKing did not, however, let any sentiment about the builder of HamptonCourt trouble him long or interfere with his plans. 

 [Illustration: A CORNER OF WOLSEY'S KITCHEN]

When the monarch came into full possession of Hampton Court he soonconverted the lease into freehold by arrangements with the KnightsHospitaller, and at once set about having it made yet more magnificentthan before. Among his improvements was the erection of the GreatHall--one of the finest buildings of the kind belonging to the Tudorperiod that remain to us; he rebuilt, or at any rate considerablyaltered, the Chapel, and made many other changes in the Palace. Hisadditions and alterations may sometimes be recognized by theworking of his monogram and those of his wives into the decoration, asin the roof of Anne Boleyn's Gateway, where that unhappy lady'sinitial is to be seen. For though this roof is a modern restoration, it is a restoration believed to be in accordance with the originaldesign. Such evidence is not therefore always conclusive, forsometimes the monograms are not contemporary records--as in thewindows of the Great Hall where the stained glass, full of suchpersonal allusions, is all modern, having been put in between sixtyand seventy years ago. Those responsible for the replacing, after along interval, of the glass that had been destroyed when allconcerning royalty was out of favour, worked in monograms and devicesin a way that misleads many visitors, some of whom seeing "H" and "J"in the glass, too rashly assume that it dates from the time when JaneSeymour was the much married monarch's queen. 

When Anne Boleyn's ambition was gratified and she was made Henry'ssecond queen--vice Katherine of Arragon, divorced--Hampton Courtbecame for a time a scene of royal revelling. It was not so for long, however, for already the King's passion was cooling. It was at HamptonCourt that King Henry's hopes of a son and heir were disappointed forthe third time, when, early in 1536, Anne there gave birth to astill-born child. In the following May the unhappy Queen's brieftriumph was brought to a tragic close by the sword of the executioneron Tower Hill, and on the very next day King Henry was formallybetrothed to Jane Seymour. In October of the following year Queen Janegave birth in this Palace, presumably in that part of the buildingsdemolished more than a century and a half later, to a son whoafterwards became King Edward the Sixth. The arrival of a male heirwas no doubt a matter of great gratification to King Henry, and servedto lessen any sorrow that his easily salved affections might otherwisehave felt from the fact that the Queen only survived the child's birthbut a brief while. When he was but three days old the infant princewas christened here in great state. The Princess Mary held her tinybrother, twenty years her junior, during the ceremony at the solidsilver font, while the child Princess Elizabeth, herself carried, borethe chrysm. Nine days after the christening of her son Queen Janedied. 

The birth of Prince Edward in the Palace seems to have increased KingHenry's liking for his Thames-side pleasaunce, and in 1540 he causedthe Honour of Hampton Court to be created by Act of Parliament--theHonour including a number of manors on both sides of the Thames. Butthe King further showed his liking for the place--and his scantregard for his subjects--by making it the centre of a Chase, having alarge extent of the land on either side of the river afforested andenclosed with palings so that, though growing corpulent and unwieldy, he might yet be able to indulge in his favourite pastime of hunting. 

At the end of July, 1540, King Henry quietly married Katherine Howard, and in August she was openly shown at Hampton Court as his fifthqueen. Little more than a year later and the Palace saw the beginningof the slow drama which ended with her execution on Tower Hill inFebruary, 1543; for it was while Henry was at Mass in the chapel herethat Cranmer put into his hands the beginning of the evidence whichwas to prove a fatal net for the entangling of Queen Katherine. Thestory runs that the Queen sought to have a personal explanation withKing Henry, but he would not see her after once the charges were made, and when she tried to get to him in the chapel she was borne shriekingaway by the attendants along what is now known as the Haunted Gallery. There her wraith has since been seen and heard!

The bluff King seems to have been little troubled by his variouspasts, nor to have been worried at all by earlier associations, for inthe summer of 1543 he was married here at Hampton Court, to the lastof his queens, Katherine Parr, in the presence of the daughters ofKatherine of Arragon and Anne Boleyn, the Princesses Mary andElizabeth. Thus the Palace has associations with all of the six queensof King Henry, the one of whom Hampton Court has least memory beingAnne of Cleves, the Queen who appears never to have had even thebriefest place in the roving affections of the King, and who enjoyedlittle of the Court splendour beyond the magnificence of her receptionat Greenwich. Anne was at Hampton while awaiting the decree of divorcewhich followed close upon the ceremony of her marriage; and it was theneighbouring Palace of Richmond that became the home of this Queen, who was promptly removed from the position of the King's wife to thatof his "sister". 

Edward the Sixth during his short reign appears to have been butlittle associated with the place of his birth, though he was here whenthe Protector Somerset was nearing his fall, and hence were sent outfrantic appeals to the people to come armed to the defence of theiryouthful sovereign. Here King Edward splendidly entertained Mary ofGuise, Queen-Dowager of Scotland, on her journey through England. Themost notable association of Hampton Court with the boy-king's reignis, however, that it was then that the aggrieved people of thesurrounding afforested area dared to give voice to their feelings andpetition against that oppression before which they had had to bowunder Henry. The petition was successful, and the district wasdechased, the palings and deer being removed. 

King Edward's dour sister-successor Queen Mary and her sombre spousePhilip of Spain were scarcely the people to make the place bright ontheir occasional visits, and when they were here shortly after theirmarriage it was said "the hall door within the Court was continuallyshut, so that no man might enter unless his errand were first known:which seemed strange to Englishmen, that had not been used thereto". The most gorgeous association of the depressing couple with HamptonCourt was the Christmas feast of 1554, when the Great Hall wasilluminated "with a thousand lamps curiously disposed". 

When Elizabeth came to the throne the Palace became again the centreof much Court splendour. It is a curious fact that althoughmagnificence and pomp are generally more associated with RomanCatholic than with Protestant Courts, the Tudors were exceptions tothe rule. Under Queen Elizabeth, Hampton Court saw again something ofthe brilliancy and pageantry in which her father had delighted. HereHer Majesty held high revel at Christmas on more than oneoccasion--"if ye would know what we do here, " wrote one in attendanceto a friend, in 1592, "we play at tables, dance--and keep Christmas". Elizabeth had been brought to Hampton Court shortly after the marriageof her sister with Philip, in the hope that she might be turned totheir way of religion, but though she was for a time a sort ofsemi-prisoner in the Palace it became one of her favoured places ofresidence after her accession. Here she toyed with the idea ofmatrimony and entertained wooers or their ambassadors, and here sheheld high state and gorgeous pageantry of which many records have beenkept. Elizabeth appears, indeed, to have had something of her father'slove for the place and to have added to it or embellished it from timeto time. On the south side of the Palace, Wren's reconstruction stopsshort at beautiful bayed windows doubly decorated with the monogramE. R. And the date 1568. 

A foreign Duke visiting Hampton Court during Elizabeth's reigndescribed it as the most splendid, most magnificent royal palace ofany to be found in England or any other kingdom, and the details whichhe gives seems to bear this out. More especially was he struck by whata later verse writer described as "that most pompous room calledParadise", a room which, according to the ducal description, "captivates the eyes of all who enter by the dazzling of pearls of allkinds", and "in particular there is one apartment belonging to theQueen, in which she is accustomed to sit in state, costly beyondeverything; the tapestries are garnished with gold, pearls, andprecious stones--one table-cover alone is valued at above fiftythousand crowns--not to mention the royal throne, which is studdedwith very large diamonds, rubies, sapphires and the like that glitteramong other precious stones and pearls as the sun among the stars". 

 [Illustration: ANNE BOLEYN'S GATEWAY, CLOCK COURT]

III

If under the Tudors--more especially the pleasure-loving Henry and thedisplay-loving Elizabeth--Hampton Court was the scene of much splendidpageantry, under the Stuart monarchs it was the scene of more variedhappenings, even as it was the home of yet more varied rulers. TheStuart regime began, however, quite in the spirit of the Palacetraditions, for here, during the first Christmas after James hadascended the English throne, there were grand festivities includingthe presentation of some of those masques then coming into vogue. Indeed, Daniel's _Vision of the Twelve Goddesses_, presented in theGreat Hall here by the Queen and her Ladies of Honour on 8 January, 1604, has been described as the first true masque in the literarysense. Many contemporary letters throw light on this Christmascelebration, when, if one letter writer is to be believed, as many asthirty masques and interludes were presented, when all the Court, theforeign ambassadors and their attendants thronged to Hampton Court. The twelve hundred rooms of the Palace did not suffice, many peoplehad to put up in the outbuildings, while tents were erected in thepark for a number of the servants--the fact that three or four peopledied daily in these tents from the plague (then ravaging London) doesnot appear to have been allowed to interfere with the festivities. There was tilting and running at the ring in the park and otherdiversions, but the masquings seem to have formed the most importantpart of the celebration, and of these, of course, the chief was that"Vision" in which the Queen took part in the Great Hall. King Jamessat in state on the dais by the great oriel window, spectators werepresumably ranged in tiers along either side of the hall, and from a"heaven" above the Minstrels' Gallery the goddesses descended to theirdancing on the floor of the hall. The "scenes" at either end of thehall were designed by no less notable a craftsman than Inigo Jones. [1]

That same month of January, 1604, which saw here such magnificentmasquings saw also in Hampton Court a gathering of a very differentkind--a gathering which, although it proved abortive so far as itsparticular purpose was concerned, yet had one remarkable consequence. Says Carlyle in his survey of the beginnings of the seventeenth-centuryprefatory to the Cromwell letters:

 "In January, 1603-4, was held at Hampton Court a kind of Theological Convention of intense interest all over England . .. Now very dimly known, if at all known, as the 'Hampton Court Conference'. It was a meeting for the settlement of some dissentient humours in religion. .. . Four world-famous Doctors from Oxford and Cambridge represented the pious straitened class, now beginning to be generally conspicuous under the nickname _Puritans_. The Archbishop, the Bishop of London, also world-famous men, with a considerable reserve of other bishops, deans, and dignitaries, appeared for the Church by itself Church. "

The one great consequence of the Conference was the undertaking of theAuthorized Translation of the Bible; for the rest, the King eloquently"scouted to the wind" the Puritans, and threatened that if they didnot conform he would hurry them out of the country. Thus early in theyears of the Stuart rule may be said to have begun at Hampton Courtthat struggle between conformity and nonconformity which was to havemomentous results later on in the same century. 

When Charles the First succeeded his father as King, Hampton Courtcontinued a favourite royal residence. This monarch appears to havehad something of the same dread of the plague as inspired Henry theEighth and Elizabeth, and when it broke out in London he hurriedlyremoved the Court to this Palace and issued a proclamation prohibitingall communication with the capital during the continuance of thevisitation. He and his queen seem to have particularly favoured thisone of their palaces, and not only made frequent stays here butcontinually added to the works of art and furnishings of the rooms. 

Hampton Court was also to have its part in those later chapters of thelife of the vacillating king which led up to the tragic finish atWhitehall. On 10 January, 1642, King Charles journeyed from London toHampton and arrived here for the last time as a free king. Theinevitable breaking-point had come, and hence he set forth to theearly scenes of civil war. He was not at Hampton Court again until theAugust of 1647, and then it was virtually as a prisoner "in the powerof those execrable villains", who had the courage to regard thewelfare of the people before that of their titular ruler. Leaving hiscloak in the gallery by way of diverting suspicion, on 11 November, 1647, the King "passed by the backstairs and vault to the waterside"and so made good his escape, and fled in a fashion that made anyreconciliation of the opposing parties impossible. 

In the beginning of 1649 came the culminating tragedy and two yearslater the manor of Hampton Court was sold to one John Phelps. ThePalace itself was presumably not included in the transaction, forshortly afterwards it was occupied by Oliver Cromwell. 

During the troubles between King and Parliament some damage was doneat Hampton Court--damage which may well be deplored, but which willalways be done by the least thoughtful in any such conflict. We may, to-day particularly, regret the destruction of the stained glass inthe windows of the Great Hall, but in defence of the iconoclasts itmust be remembered that stained glass was associated by them withthose aspects of religion which they were banded together tooverthrow. Destruction is one of the most persistent of primitiveinstincts, and should such an outbreak as that of the sixteenthcentury occur again--there would again be wanton destruction. 

Under the Commonwealth Hampton Court of course saw none of thepageantry to which kings and queens had accustomed it, but on 18November, 1657, it was here that Oliver Cromwell's daughter, Mary, wasmarried to Lord Falconbridge, and the nuptials were honoured with "TwoSongs" from the pen of Andrew Marvell, in one of which the poet usedthe courtly conceit applicable to a November marriage of:

 "They have chosen such an hour When she is the only flower. "

In August of the following year the Protector's other daughter, hisfavourite one, it is said, Mrs. Elizabeth Claypole, died at HamptonCourt, and the grieved father was taken ill of the malady of whichless than a month later he died at Whitehall. In the _Journal_ of Foxthe Quaker occurs the following striking passage about a meeting withCromwell. "I met him riding into Hampton Court Park, and before I cameto him, as he rode at the head of his life guard, I saw and felt awaft of death go forth against him, and when I came to him he lookedlike a dead man. "

 [Illustration: MASTER CARPENTER'S COURT]

After Oliver Cromwell's death it was proposed that Hampton CourtPalace should be sold, but the supporters of the Commonwealth underRichard Cromwell were at loggerheads on the subject, one partythinking that the place should be reserved "for the retirement ofthose that were engaged in Public affairs, when they should beindisposed in the summer season", the other, "that such places mightjustly be accounted amongst those things that prove temptations toambitious men, and exceedingly tend to sharpen their appetite toascend the Throne". To-day we may say that it is fortunate that thefirst party won the day, and the Parliament duly ordered "that theHouse called Hampton Court, with the outhouses and gardens thereuntobelonging, and the little park where it stands, be stayed fromsale, until the Parliament takes further order". Still the Parliamentmen were evidently determined that the view taken by those whoregarded such places as temptations to power should not be forgotten, for Richard Cromwell was formally taken to task for having thetemerity to go to Hampton to hunt the deer! Then, despite thetemptation it might prove, the Long Parliament offered Hampton Courtto General Monck, but that astute man, thinking it a dangerous gift, would accept no more than the custody and stewardship of it forlife--and was thus able to hand it over to Charles the Second on theaccomplishment of that Restoration, in which he probably alreadyregarded himself as an important factor. 

Under the restored Stuarts the Palace became once more the scene ofbrilliant Court doings. Here King Charles brought his bride, Catherineof Braganza, and here took place the contest which preceded thatQueen's acceptance of Charles's mistress, Lady Castlemaine, as one ofher attendant ladies. An important development of the surroundings ofthe Palace was made by Charles the Second in slightly shortening theLong Canal and bordering it with avenues of limes, thus providing forlater generations a lovely vista from the east front of the buildings. 

Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn, the diverse diarists to whom we owe somuch of our intimate knowledge of their time, were both frequentlyhere, and both have left us characteristic passages about it; Evelynenlarging upon the art treasures and the gardens, Pepys noting that"it was pretty to see the young, pretty ladies". 

FOOTNOTE:

[1] In the preface to his reprint of Daniel's Masque, Mr. Ernest Lawhas pieced together, from contemporary letters and other documents, avery full account of a scene the splendour of which can be but hintedat here. 

IV

It is with the coming of William the Third and Mary to rule thekingdom, a work for which James the Second had proved himself unfit, that Hampton Court came to be formed as we know it now. King Jamesseems never to have stayed in the Palace after his accession, but hisdaughter and her husband soon made of it a favourite and favouredresidence. It is to William and Mary that the Palace owes itsbeautiful galleries and many of the art treasures in them. Calling tohis aid Sir Christopher Wren, King William resolved to rebuild a largepart of the great Tudor palace, and mould it nearer to his heart'sdesire. A considerable part of the place was entirely demolished, comprising the whole series of buildings around the Cloister GreenCourt, and forming the south-eastern portion in which were the royalrooms that formed the residential centre of the extensive palace. Where this large part of the old edifice had been razed Wren erected, in striking contrast to the Tudor portions left standing north andwest of it, the Renaissance building, which is probably remembered bymany visitors as the chief feature of Hampton Court. Contrastingstrongly with the earlier portions of the Palace the new fronts andthe beautiful Fountain Court yet do not clash with them, thanks to theway in which the architect carried out his work. 

While the new additions were being made to the Palace King William andQueen Mary frequently stayed at Hampton Court, the Water Gallery--adetached portion of the Tudor buildings standing on the riverside atthe end of what is now the Broad Walk--being furnished and decoratedto afford a temporary residence. Not only were the State Chambersrebuilt in this reign, but the gardens were newly laid out andplanted--a work in which the Queen greatly interested herself. Despitethese vast changes yet more were contemplated, for Sir ChristopherWren had planned a new approach and entrance on the north side. HerMajesty did not live to occupy the State Apartments, and her death in1694 delayed for several years the completion of the work. As for KingWilliam, he, too, did not live long to enjoy his new palace, forhaving come hither on 21 February, 1702, from Kensington Palace for aday's hunting, his horse stumbled--presumably in Hampton CourtPark--throwing the King so that he broke his collar bone. William hadfor some time been suffering in health, but when the broken bone wasset he insisted on returning to Kensington, and there he died on 8March, just over a fortnight later. 

Queen Anne was at Hampton Court many times during her reign of a dozenyears, but the story of that reign is not much associated with thePalace, though that association is immortalized in a couplet of Pope's_Rape of the Lock_, the scene of which comedy-narrative is set here. Here the bold baron of the poem cut one of the tempting locks from thefair Belinda's head, and a family feud followed which was only stoppedby Pope's delightful poem. 

With the coming of the Hanoverians the importance of the Palace as aCourt centre dwindled. It is true that George the First and his son, while Prince of Wales, were often at Hampton Court, and that thelatter when he became George the Second carried out a number of minoralterations; but the place became less regularly and less notably acentre of royal pageantry, though it was more than once made thecentre of state theatrical performances. King George the Third nevertook up his residence here at all, owing, it is said, to the fact thatit was here that his grandfather had boxed his ears! It was, indeed, during his long reign that the removal of many furnishings of thePalace, and the systematic allotting of suites of rooms to people whohad some claim on royal gratitude took place. After the death ofGeorge the Second Hampton Court ceased to be used as a royalresidence, and shortly after the accession of Queen Victoria the StateApartments were thrown open to the public, and the Palace graduallycame to be recognized as one of the most delightful and interestingcentres of historical association within easy reach of the metropolis. 

V

It has been seen that Hampton Court Palace has associations--oftenpeculiar and intimate associations--with our monarchs for close uponthree hundred years. In the first two chief courts, in the Great Hall, the kitchens, the old cloisters, and the courts along the north sideof the building, it is not a difficult effort of the imagination thatis required to make us see it as it was in the brightly-attired daysof Tudor splendour and lavishness; to make us realize the arrival inone of the courts of some noble company, when the great Cardinal wasentertaining and when King Henry was setting forth hunting; to make usrealize the hurrying of the cooks and their minions in the corridorsand cloisters about the great kitchens, the knots of idlers andretainers in the lesser courts. In the later portions of the Palace, the Fountain Court and the State Chambers, we may, "with the mind'seye", see something of the more formal brightness of a later day, maysee the beaux and beauties of the early eighteenth century promenadingor "taking tea" with "proud Anna whom three realms obey". 

The casual visitor to Hampton Court probably carries away two or threedefinite impressions of the place, of a medley of decoratedchimneystacks, of warm red brick, of cool quadrangles, of broad lawnsand blazing flower beds, of an outlook over a boat-dotted river, ofgalleries filled with a bewildering succession of old paintings, oftapestried walls--and of the whole set amid stretching tree-grownlevels. It is, however, necessary to know the place closely toappreciate it fully--it grows upon one, as the saying is; we shouldhave seen the homely court of the Master Carpenter as well as thestately Fountain Court, the sculptures in the gardens as well as theencyclopędic clock, the kitchens as well as the picture galleries, tohave lingered about the Wilderness in the spring as well as to haveseen the Broad Walk in the blaze of summer, to have visited in some ofthe residences as well as to have passed through the public galleries, to have been about it at all seasons and not merely to havescampered through it as the central incident in a half-day'sexcursion. It is, indeed, properly a place for restful enjoymentrather than for hurried sightseeing; though a hurried glimpse may wellprove a provocation to further visits and more leisurely inspection. 

 [Illustration: FOUNTAIN COURT]

Perhaps in beginning a ramble about the Palace and its grounds it maybe assumed that most people arrive by railway at the station which, though it is in East Molesey at the Surrey end of the bridge, takesits name from the palace on the Middlesex bank. This means that theyenter it--as also do those who journey from London by tramcar--at theTrophy Gate, and have before them at once, at the end of a broadgravel walk, the Outer Court and the rich red-brick medley of theTudor buildings, to which the eye is led by the severely plain row oflow barracks on the left, and a row of fine elms along the towing pathon the right. Here, at the west front, the recently-cleared moat atonce attracts attention. Until within the past year or two the gravelforecourt extended right up to the palace walls, but excavationrevealed that the course of the moat, and the very walls of the moat, and the old bridge approach to the Gatehouse were still plainlytraceable. The rubbish with which long since the moat had beenfilled--possibly when William the Third made his alterations to thePalace, or perhaps even earlier--was cleared away, the brick sidesrevealed, the bottom of the moat neatly turfed over, and a parapetwith shield-bearing heraldical beasts erected on either side. Theseheraldical beasts, it must be admitted--whether a restoration inaccordance with an old design or not--tend to spoil the approach tothe Great Gatehouse, for the whole would have gained in dignity hadthey been omitted and the plain low castellated wall remainedunadorned. The similar banner-bearing heraldical beasts along the roofof the Great Hall look far better on the skyline--but their fellows onthe eyeline below mar the dignity of the approach considerably. 

The beautiful red brickwork, the various castellated turrets, and theclusters of decorated chimneys, with the quaintly carven beastsseemingly toboganning down the gables of the wings, together form afine example of Tudor architecture, though the appearance would havebeen still better had the Gatehouse when restored in the eighteenthcentury been kept to its original proportions, and had the leadencupolas not been removed from the many turrets. Two or three of thoseturrets that remain in other parts of the buildings retain theircupolas, to indicate how fine must have been the whole effect beforeany had been removed. In the wall of either tower of the gateway is tobe seen a terra-cotta medallion portrait of one of the Cęsars, othersof which will be noticed in the succeeding courts. 

The wing to the right as we front the Gatehouse is the south-west wingand is worthy of special mention before entering the buildings, forthere one of Hampton Court's ghosts has been given to manifestingitself. This is the ghost of Mistress Penn who was nurse to Edward theSixth. An elaborate and circumstantial story tells of the sound beingheard of a ghostly spinning-wheel, and when search was made by theofficials a small sealed-up chamber was revealed, containing nothingbut a spinning-wheel and a chair!

Entering through the Great Gatehouse--where, though the Palace is nolonger used as a residence by the royal family, a sentry is always onguard--we reach the First Green Court or Base Court--a peacefulquadrangle surrounded by low red buildings with the western end of theGreat Hall fronting us to the left. This, the only turfed "quad", isthe largest of them all. In the surrounding rooms are supposed to havebeen many of the chambers which Wolsey allotted to his guests whenthey came in such numbers as are indicated in the passage alreadyquoted from Master George Cavendish. Opposite us is the end of theGreat Hall to the left, and directly in front is the clock gatehouseon either turret of which is to be observed one of those terra-cottaplaques of the Roman Emperors which were at one time thought to havebeen the work of Della Robbia, and to have been presented to Wolseywhen he was building, but which Mr. Law has shown to be the work ofJoannes Maiano and to have been ordered by the Cardinal. This gate isknown as Anne Boleyn's Gateway, in the groined ceiling (restored) ofwhich as we pass beneath are to be noticed around a central Tudor rosethe monograms of that unhappy Queen, Henry the Eighth, and "T. C. "repeated alternately with them--the last-mentioned initials may wellpuzzle the visitor who does not know that they stand for ThomasCardinal, a designation which Wolsey was fond of employing. 

A broad flight of steps to the left leads upwards from Anne Boleyn'sGateway to the Great Hall, but before proceeding thither most visitorswill wish to look into the Clock Court beyond. In this Court we getthe greatest clashing of the two periods to which the Palace as weknow it to-day belongs. On the left, or north side, is the buttressedwall of the Great Hall with above the pinnacles surmounted by theheraldical beasts already referred to; while on the right is acolonnade masking the Tudor buildings on that side--Wolsey's ownapartments--in most incongruous fashion. Beneath that colonnade is theentrance to the King's Grand Staircase and so to the State Rooms nowknown as the Picture Galleries. 

Looking back at the gateway through which we have come we see thewonderful clock--a veritable horological encyclopędia--which, afterlying long neglected, was in the latter part of last century restoredto its original position and set going. It was first put up in 1540and is a remarkable survival from that time--though everything but thedial has been renewed--seeing that we can now ascertain from it, according to Mr. Ernest Law--though but few visitors are likely toseek to obtain all this information from it--"the hour, the month, theday of the month, the position of the sun in the ecliptic, the numberof days since the beginning of the year, the phase of the moon, itsage in days, the hour of the day at which it souths (that is crossesthe meridian), and thence the time of highwater at London Bridge". Itmay be said that the clock needs a deal of learning, and those whomerely wish to know the time of day can find it more expeditiously byconsulting the conventional dial that fronts on the Base Court. 

Two interesting matters connected with the astronomical clock areworthy of passing mention--one is that its bell which strikes thehours is probably the oldest thing about the Palace, for it goes backto some years before Wolsey acquired the manor, and is mentioned amongthe properties at the place where he purchased it; and the other isthat ever since the clock struck the hour at which Anne of Denmark, the Queen of James the First, passed away in 1619 it is said to havestopped whenever an old resident of the Palace has died. Those curiousin such matters declare, according to the historian of the Palace, that there have been many coincidences in support of thissuperstition. Perhaps the custom grew up of stopping the clock on theoccasion of a death. Beneath the dial is to be seen an elaborate pieceof relief sculpture in terra-cotta representing the coat of arms ofWolsey supported by plump cherubs and surmounted by the Cardinal'shat, the monogram "T. W. ", and the date 1525--presumably the date ofthe completion of this gateway. 

On the farther side of the Clock Court is the entrance to the Queen'sStaircase, on passing through the hall at the foot of which we come tothe Chapel and the Fountain Court. At the entrance are two more of theterra-cotta plaques to which reference has already been made. 

 [Illustration: THE GREAT HALL]

Turning back for a time to Anne Boleyn's Gateway we may follow thesteps up to the Great Hall, and entering from beneath the Minstrels'Gallery at a doorway through an elaborately carven screen, we see atonce before us one of the finest and most impressive of Tudorhalls--very similar to but not quite so large as that of Christ Churchat Oxford. Whether we look up towards the dais as we enter fromunder the Minstrels' Gallery, or whether standing on the dais--raisedbut a few inches from the general level of the hall--we look backtowards the Minstrels' Gallery and the blue west window above it--itis a grand and pleasing view that we get. The tapestried walls, thehigh windows, and the fine Perpendicular hammer-beam roof togetherform a magnificent and pleasing whole, one of the noblest halls of itsperiod that the country has to show. The tapestries, in which aredepicted incidents in the life of Abraham--though time has dimmedsomewhat the splendour of their colouring--are yet remarkable linkswith Tudor times, for they were purchased by Henry the Eighth and haveremained at Hampton Court ever since the period of their acquisition. Though much restoration was done in the middle of last century thegeneral character of the whole was not interfered with. Then it wasthat the stained glass was put in--to replace that which hadpresumably been destroyed during the times "when civil dudgeon firstgrew high and men fell out they knew not why"--and we may well begrateful that the taste displayed in doing so was on the whole so welldisplayed, though the garish blue of the western window above theMinstrels' Gallery is perhaps an exception to that taste. The greatoriel window at the southern end of the dais, with the beautifulgroining above cannot fail to attract attention, and looking back fromthe dais down the Hall we may notice the elaboration and richness ofthe magnificent roof, which is acknowledged to be probably the mostsplendid roof of the kind ever erected in England. 

Though we see the Hall to-day with but a few sightseers in it, itneeds no great effort of imagination to repeople it with figures ofthe past; to recall the time when it was a centre of Tudor revellings, or when King James sat in his chair by the great oriel or Bay Windowand saw the "goddesses" descend from the "heaven" above the Minstrels'Gallery to carry on their masquings below. At the farther end of thedais is a door, now covered over, leading to the antechamber known asthe Horn Room. 

A doorway in the eastern end of the Hall from the centre of the daisgives into the Great Watching Chamber which runs at right angles toit. This also is one of Henry the Eighth's contributions to thePalace, and with its richly ornamented roof, its wonderfully elaborateold tapestries may be regarded as one of the most fascinating andinteresting parts of it. Indeed, if we except the Great Hall itself, this is the most remarkable part of the Tudor edifice that remains. According to an old engraving it was in this chamber that CardinalWolsey entertained the French ambassadors at the sumptuous banquetreferred to earlier. 

The tapestries here, representing the Triumphs of Renown, Time, andFate, are particularly interesting as they form part of a seriesbought by Cardinal Wolsey in 1523 and have been hanging at HamptonCourt for close upon four hundred years. They are old Flemish work, and should be supplemented by three others if the set were complete. These wonderful examples of ancient "art needlework" are the moreinteresting from the fact of their being links with the originalPalace. It should be remembered to Cromwell's credit that, though theywere duly valued as among the available Crown assets, he refused topermit of their removal, and thus we have in them one of the mostnotable links with the gorgeous past of Hampton Court. At the fartherend of the Great Watching Chamber is a small room--the Horn Room--withstairs leading down to the cloisters and kitchens, and with the closeddoorway giving on to the northern end of the dais in the Great Hall. 

Before passing on into the Orange part of the buildings, the StateRooms and Picture Galleries, we may retrace our steps to the outercourt, at the north side of which, passing under an archway, we gothrough the delightful series of courts along the north side of thePalace--the Lord Chamberlain's Court, the Master Carpenter's Court, and others. Here are to be seen the narrow, irregular side courts ofthe old Tudor buildings, and remnants of the past in old lead waterpipes, and in the heraldical beasts along the roof of the Great Hallwhich are most effectively seen from the Master Carpenter's Court, through which we gain access to the cloisters and the ancientkitchens. The kitchens, which unfortunately are not thrown open to thepublic, are much as they were in olden days, and afford a curious andinteresting glimpse of old-time domestic conditions, with their greatfireplaces and their "hatches", through which the dishes were passedto the servers whose duty it was to take them to the dining-hall. 

Continuing past the kitchens the passage turns to the right and comesout at the north-west angle of the Fountain Court, before reachingwhich point, however, the entrance to the Chapel is passed on theleft. On either side of the Chapel door are to be seen, carved, coloured, and gilt, the arms of Henry the Eighth and Seymour with theinitials of the King and the Queen (of the moment) united by a truelover's knot. The true lover's knot was but a slip knot to the fickleking, the Queen Jane's arms and cipher but replaced the earlier onesof Anne's. 

 [Illustration: THE POND GARDEN]

The present chapel was one of King Henry's additions--Wolsey'soriginal chapel being either entirely demolished or so altered asto be made anew. It has been surmised that had the great Churchman'sedifice remained it would have been something externally beautiful andnotable, whereas the present building is so much hidden that I havemore than once known visitors to point out the Great Hall as being theChapel. If the King did not make much of the Chapel externally, helavished attention on it internally, so that a German visitor towardthe close of the sixteenth century was able to wax enthusiastic as toits splendour. Above the public entrance near the Fountain Court isthe great Royal Pew--entered from the Haunted Gallery--with a paintedceiling. 

Though the Chapel dates from Tudor times, it must be remembered thatits interior was rearranged and redecorated in the reign of QueenAnne, and that those responsible for the work were by no meanshampered by any pedantic ideas of congruity. A matter of grievance tomany visitors is that the Chapel is not thrown open to the public. Itcan only be seen at service time. 

VI

Entirely different is the impression which we take away with us of theOrange portion of Hampton Court Palace from that which remains inmemory of the Tudor parts. From the west and north we see nothing butthe medley of red brickwork, gables, turrets, and irregularchimneystacks. From the east and south sides we get views thatcontrast greatly with those of the older portions. Here we have longstraight fronts broken with many stone-framed windows, and surmountedby a regular stone parapet that quite inadequately masks the moremodern chimneystacks. These south and west fronts are sometimescriticized by those who regret the parts of the Tudor palacedemolished to make room for them, but they are by no means wanting ineither dignity or beauty. Their red brick--less rich in tone than thatof the Tudor buildings--is much broken with white stone ornamentation, and the southern side as seen from the gardens through massed shrubsis particularly fine. This part of the palace probably remains in thememory of most visitors as being Hampton Court, and it is only naturalthat it should be so, for it is the portion mainly seen from thegrounds, and it is the portion with which visitors make the mostintimate acquaintance--for within it, on the first floor, are the manyState Rooms in which are hung the magnificent collection of pictures. 

To reach the State Rooms, as has been said, we enter the Clock Courtand catering across it to the right pass under the colonnade whichuglifies the front of Wolsey's rooms, and so come to the King's GreatStaircase by which the public reaches the galleries. This staircase, its walls and ceiling painted by Verrio, has on the whole a somewhatsombre and certainly unpleasing effect. It is true that we have in itone of the most notable examples of Verrio's decorative achievements, but it is an example which I frankly find unattractive. It is sombrelygorgeous but in an unrestful fashion, with its sprawling gods, goddesses, and heroes in all manner of impossible positions, itspillars overhung with clouds or clouds swooping down, as thoughweighted with the figures, about the pillars. Beneath in a brownishtone are painted various "trophies". The art of decoration, one cannothelp feeling, was at the time that William the Third had thisstaircase painted, at a very low ebb indeed. 

Curiosity may make some visitors pause to single out from the medleythe figures of the Fates, the Cęsars, or particular gods andgoddesses, but most will pass on into the noble King's Guard Room withits wonderful mural decoration of muskets, pikes, and pistols. Thoughthere are some pictures here--notably, opposite the fireplace, a largeportrait by Zucchero of Queen Elizabeth's porter--it is chiefly theold arms marvellously arrayed in diverse patterns that take the eye. Upwards of a thousand pieces are said to have been utilized indecorating this room--their arrangement being made by a gunsmith whohad earlier done similar work at Windsor Castle and the Tower ofLondon. It may be added that he utilized his materials moresuccessfully than did Verrio in painting the staircase, and it ispleasant to learn that Gunsmith Harris's work was so well appreciatedthat he was granted a pension by way of reward. From the tall windowsat the farther end of the Guard Room we look out over the Privy Gardento the river, with the terraced Queen Mary's Bower on the right. 

It is not necessary to describe in detail the things to be seen in thelong succession of State Rooms, from the entrance to them by theKing's Great Staircase to the exit by the Queen's Great Staircase. Varying in size in accordance to the purpose for which they weredesigned, audience rooms, bedrooms, writing closets, or galleries, allare lofty rooms, and some of the smallest are the most crowded withpictures--as, for example, the Queen Mary's closet--leaving which wepass from the rooms that occupy the first floor of the south front tothose of the rather longer east front. Details as to the paintings, tapestries, or furnishings would alone occupy more than the space ofthis little book, and the visitor in search of such details will findthem in the official handbooks. The tall windows, rising from thewindow seat level, and affording beautiful views of the grounds, form a feature of the Orange portion of the buildings, which shows adistinct advance upon the earlier style of fenestration--picturesqueas are the smaller type of windows of the Tudor period. 

 [Illustration: EAST FRONT FROM THE LONG WATER]

The southern range of rooms formed the King's suite, and passing fromthe Guard Room, we go successively through: the First PresenceChamber, in which are to be seen Sir Godfrey Kneller's "Beauties" ofthe Orange Court; the Second Presence Chamber, the most memorablething in which is Van Dyck's fine equestrian portrait of Charles theFirst; the Audience Chamber with a portrait of Elizabeth, Queen ofBohemia, over the fireplace; the King's Drawing Room; King William'sBedroom, with an ornate ceiling painted by Sir William Thornhill, andthe great canopied bed with time-worn crimson silk hangings; theKing's Dressing Room, in which are several Holbeins including twoportraits of Henry the Eighth; and the last of King William's rooms, the Writing Closet, in which are to be seen Zucchero's portrait ofQueen Elizabeth in fancy dress, also a smaller one of her, and aremarkable full length of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, in scarletcostume. 

Turning at an angle through Queen Mary's closet we pass on to inspectthe series of rooms which Her Majesty did not live to occupy, and fromthe generous windows we get beautiful views of the yew-grown lawnsand the park beyond--the view straight up the Long Canal from theQueen's Drawing Room is particularly fine, especially when the broadgravel walks between the avenued yews are dotted with summer visitors, and the beds are gorgeous with many flowers set in the wide greeneryof the lawn. Before reaching the Drawing Room we come to the Queen'sGallery, hung with rich tapestry and ornamented with splendid chinavases, and the Queen's Bed Room, the bed hung with remarkablyfresh-looking ornate hangings in red and gold. Beyond the Drawing Roomare the Queen's Audience Chamber, the Public Drawing Room, and at theend of the eastern front the Prince of Wales' suite. 

Through the farther end of the Drawing Room is the Queen's PresenceChamber, with another magnificent canopied bed, and beyond it, theQueen's Guard Room, giving on to the stairs. These last two rooms lookout on to the Fountain Court, of which they form the northern side, but they do not exhaust the rooms open to public inspection; for alongthe eastern side of the Court is a series of smaller rooms, containingfurther pictures and furnishings. Owing to the smallness of theserooms, their darkness, and the fact that visitors can only passstraight through them from door to door, close inspection of thepictures is not easy. Along the whole length of the southern side ofthe Fountain Court is the King's Gallery or Great Council Chamber--amagnificent room in which used to hang the Raphael Cartoons now atSouth Kensington. The room was, indeed, designed by Sir ChristopherWren as a setting for those famous pictures; and the walls are nowcovered by reproductions of them in tapestry. On the west side of theCourt is the Communication Gallery leading to the Queen's GreatStaircase, and it is worthy of note that from the last of the StateRooms the visitor should carry away impressions of one of the mostsplendid of Hampton Court's many splendid art treasures. Along thewall here are the nine large tempera pictures by Mantegna--"one of thechief heroes in the advance of painting in Italy"--in which arerepresented "The Triumph of Cęsar". Says Mr. William Michael Rossetti, "these superbly invented and designed compositions, gorgeous with allsplendour of subject-matter and accessory, and with the classicallearning and enthusiasm of one of the master spirits of the age, havealways been accounted of the first rank among Mantegna's works". Though in part restored, these paintings, by an artist who died morethan four hundred years ago, are full of interest for their vividpresentation of a rich imagination of a great historical event. Infront of the victor--in the last of this series of paintings--is bornea device bearing his famous words "Veni, Vidi, Vici"--and it isworthy of recollection that one tradition places the scene of JuliusCęsar's final victory over the Britons at Kingston, not far from wherethis splendid delineation of his triumphal pageant on his return toRome has hung for close upon three centuries. Though it is a finefinal memory to bring away from the rooms, it is perhaps to beregretted that this series of paintings is in the last of thegalleries through which we pass; for, as I have learned from variousvisitors--after going through more than a couple of dozen rooms andgalleries, housing about a thousand pictures, and tapestries besidesother articles of interest--the eye has become wearied and the mindovercharged with an embarrassment of riches. Several people have toldme that they have come through these last galleries scarce noticingwhat was on the walls at all. It is a pity that the rule of having topass through the rooms always in one order cannot be maintained onlyon Sundays, holidays, and such days as there are crowds, when suchorder is necessary for the comfort of all; at other times, when thereare but few people about, it might surely be permissible to enter orleave the State Rooms by either of the great staircases. 

 [Illustration: THE WILDERNESS IN SPRING]

Of the riches of art in the Palace this is not the place to speak indetail, it is only possible to hint at them. Before leaving theCommunication Gallery for the exit staircase there are small rooms tothe left which call for inspection--rooms which not only markinternally the linking of the original Tudor Palace with the Orangeadditions, but which also are traditionally associated with thebuilder of the Palace himself, for here is Wolsey's Closet. In theouter lobby the most interesting object is the drawing (afterWynegaarde) of Hampton Court Palace as seen from the Thames in 1558. From this may be noted the extent of building demolished, or masked, when Wren carried out his work of rebuilding for William the Third. The Closet is chiefly notable for its beautiful ceiling, its mullionedwindow, and its fine linen-fold panelling which, however, though ofold workmanship, has been brought together here from various parts ofthe Palace. The room is supposed, from the frieze, to have been at onetime much larger than it now is. In the corner, between fireplace andwindow, is a small room, sometimes described as an oratory. Thoughother of Wolsey's rooms remain, they are part of the privateapartments of the Palace, and not, of course, accessible to visitors, and this small Closet and its lobbies is, therefore, worth lingeringover. 

During the latter part of a promenade through the State Rooms, as hasbeen pointed out, we go practically round the four sides of theFountain Court, and when descending the stairs and leaving the hallbelow them, we find ourselves in the north-western corner of theCloisters that surround the Court. Entirely differing from the Tudorones, this is the most impressive of all the courts here, with itscloisters surrounding a quadrangle of greenery in the midst of which afountain plays. Whether looked at from the gallery windows, where theplashing of the water may be heard on a summer day, or examined in ourwalk round the Cloisters, the Fountain Court is a beautiful andrestful place, which, with its surrounding of untrodden grass--starredin spring with myriad daisies--forms a delightful contrast to thewhite cloister pillars and the red brick walls above. Over the windowsof the King's Gallery on the south side are a dozen round, falsewindows, filled with time and atmosphere darkened paintings. Thesepaintings, now but dimly discernible as such, were the work of LouisLaguerre, who had been employed in "restoring" the Mantegna "Triumph"in the Communication Gallery, who was very highly esteemed as anartist by William the Third, and who was granted by that monarchapartments in Hampton Court. Probably these pictures, representing theTwelve Labours of Hercules, are beyond fresh restoration, otherwisethey might presumably be cleaned and glazed to save them fromdisappearing completely. Laguerre is said also to be responsible forthe painting of imitation windows in similar circular spaces on thesouth front of the Palace--imitations which are frankly hideous. Thespaces would look far better if filled with plain brick or stone. Perhaps some of these spaces being occupied with practical windows, itwas thought necessary for the sake of symmetry to make the rest appearsuch to the casual glance. Around the Fountain Court--along the northcloister of which the public way passes to the gardens--are entrancesto various apartments allotted to private residents. On the east sideflights of steps go up to the two private suites, known as the GoldStaff Gallery, at the south-eastern corner of the Palace above theState Rooms. One of these suites--at the south-east angle--isinteresting as being the one in which, according to tradition, tookplace that "Rape of the Lock", which Pope was to celebrate in the mostremarkable poem of its kind in the language. Hither came the fairBelinda--Arabella Fermor--to play that game of ombre which the poetwas to make famous; and here, her triumph at cards achieved, she wastaking coffee--

 "For lo! the board with cups and spoons is crowned The berries crackle and the mill turns round"--

when "the Peer", Lord Petre, "spreads the glittering forfex wide" andsnips off the lock of hair!

 "Then flash'd the living lightning from her eyes, And screams of horror rend th' affrighted skies. Not louder shrieks to pitying heav'n are cast, When husbands or when lapdogs breathe their last, Or when rich china vessels fall'n from high In glitt'ring dust and painted fragments lie!"

The Gold Staff Gallery has tragedy as well as comedy in its history, for at one time the other suite formed out of it--that facingsouth--was occupied by Richard Tickell, grandson of that ThomasTickell, who, though a poet of some note in his day, is chieflyremembered from his association with Addison. Richard Tickell, who wasalso a poet and political writer, married as his first wife thebeautiful Mary Linley, sister-in-law of Sheridan. On 4 November, 1793, Tickell--who appears to have been financially embarrassed--threwhimself from the window of one of his rooms here, and was killedinstantly on the gravel path below. Though it was officially decidedat the time--thanks, it is believed, to the influence ofSheridan--that it was an accidental death, the historians have nohesitation in describing the tragedy as suicide. 

 [Illustration: THE LONG WALK]

VII

Fascinating as are the old courts and the galleries with theirmagnificent art collections, the grounds which surround the Palaceare, in their way, no less enticing. Indeed, if we might judge bythe thronging crowds in flower time, the gardens form for the majorityof visitors the most attractive part of the place. These gardens, wonderfully varied and beautifully kept, are not by any meansextensive for so noble a Palace, but they prove an unfailing delight. They are markedly divisible in character into three portions--thenorth where is the Wilderness and Maze; the south where are the Privyand Pond Gardens, the Great Vine House and Queen Mary's Bower; and theeast--or Great Fountain Garden--with its rich herbaceous border alongthe Broad Walk, its level lawns set with great jewels of floralcolour, its compact yews, its radiating walks, its water-lily pond, and beyond the gleaming stretch of the Long Canal and the tall treesthat border the Park. In all parts of these gardens are to be seenbeauties that delight the eye and linger in the memory, and each ofthem successively draws the sightseers. 

These gardens have seen many changes during the centuries of thePalace's history, changes largely from one kind of formality toanother, judging from the plans of them at various times. As I havesaid that the majority of visitors enter the Palace precincts by wayof the Western Trophy Gate, and as such visitors would naturally reachthe grounds by the eastern entrance beyond the cloistered FountainCourt, it may be well to say something first of the easterngardens--which certainly, in summer, form the most florally gorgeouspart of the whole. We come out here in the middle of the Broad Walk, which stretches from near the Kingston Road to the Thames' side. Infront of us, bordered by old yew trees, are gravel walks radiating tothe House or Home Park, the centre one leading, round a fountain pondstarred in summer with lovely water lilies of various colours, to thehead of the Long Canal, where are many water fowl--swans, geese, andducks of different species--expectant of the visitors' contributionsof bread or biscuit. 

Right and left as we emerge from the Palace the Broad Walk stretches, inviting us in each direction with a brilliant display of manycoloured flowers--more especially in spring and early summer, when thegardens, attractive at all times, are perhaps at their very best. Oldplans of the grounds of Hampton Court show that these eastern gardenshave seen the greatest changes during successive centuries. At onetime the Long Canal stretched much closer to the Palace, and after itwas shortened the intervening gardens were for a period a veritablemaze of intricate ornamental beds with small fountains dotted aboutthem; at another time they showed an array of formally cut pyramidalevergreens disposed along the sides of the walks. 

It was probably the coming of William and Mary to Hampton Court thatcaused special attention to be paid to the grounds, for Queen Maryappears to have been greatly interested in the matter. Many andvarious as have been the re-plannings it may be believed that neverhave the gardens looked better than at present, when taste in thingsfloricultural has broken away from the formalism of scroll-patternborders and indulgence in the eccentricities of topiarian art--iseven, it is to be hoped, on the way to free itself finally from theugliness of "carpet bedding"--when plants are largely grouped andmassed instead of being placed in alternate kinds at regular intervalsin geometrical patterns. Present day taste with its appreciation ofgarden colour, of masses and groups of particular kinds, instead ofisolated plants dotted about with irritating regularity, is foundbeautifully exemplified in the numerous beds cut in the lawns of theeastern gardens, and in the long borders which run north and south ofthe palace along one side of the Broad Walk. Here, from the beginningof the year, when the patches of cerulean, "glory of the snow", and oflow-growing irises of a deeper blue, begin that procession which issoon to develop into a very pageantry of colour--from when myriadyellow crocuses first star the lawns with gold in February--is given asuccession of changes that may well tempt the lover of gardens toHampton Court again and again. These beds and borders with theirsuccession of spring bulbs and summer flowers, their brilliant annualsand massed perennials are not only a delight to the eyes of all, butthat they afford endless hints, are as it were horticulturallyeducational to garden-loving visitors, may be gathered from thefrequency with which such visitors are seen to consult the name-labelsof the various plants. 

The southern end of the Broad Walk is semi-circular with an outlookover the river, upwards, to where Molesey Lock and Weir are cut fromview by the hideous Hampton Court Bridge, and downwards, towardsThames Ditton and Kingston. It is one of the most charming views onthe river near London, the many trees on islands and banks shuttingoff the neighbouring town. On a hot summer day, the decoratedhouseboats moored to the Surrey bank and the innumerable small craftpassing up and down help to form a delightful and characteristic bitof the Stream of Pleasure. That the view is one that is wellappreciated is shown by the fact that on such an afternoon the WaterGallery, as this view point is named, generally attracts and holdsmany of the visitors to the Palace. 

 [Illustration: THE LONG WATER IN WINTER]

The name of the Water Gallery survives from that of the building whichat one time stood here, the "dépendance" which Queen Mary occupiedwhile the Palace was being rebuilt, and which was demolished when thealterations were completed. East from this point runs the Long Walk, parallel with, but well above, the towing path, and affording a goodview along the river on one hand and glimpses of the park on theother. This walk led to the old Bowling Green and Pavilions. Somedistance along it a gate gives on to the towing path leading toKingston Bridge. 

South of the Palace--shut off from the eastern gardens by aclimber-covered wall--is the smaller but very beautiful Privy Garden, with its turf-banked terraces on either side, its sunken centre filledwith a wonderful variety of shrubs and trees. From the terrace walk onthe left we may look over the wall to the eastern gardens and park;along the right-hand terrace is formed Queen Mary's Bower, anintertwisted avenue of trimmed and cut wych-elms, some of thedistorted trunks of which might have inspired more than one of Doré'sDante illustrations. This shady bower is in summer particularlydelightful, and from the farther end of it is to be had, through andabove the evergreens of this Privy Garden, a beautiful view of thesouth front of the Palace. At the farther end of the Privy Garden, fencing it from the towing path, are some magnificent iron gates andscreens. 

Along the gravel walk, immediately against the south front of thePalace, are ranged in summer great tubs with orange trees, believed tobe those originally planted here by Queen Mary--though it is not easyto realize that they are over three hundred years old! And close tothis wall of the Palace stand two heroic Statues, Hercules with hisclub, and another; it might be thought, half of the quartette offigures that, as old views of the Palace show, at one time stood onthe low columns which rise above the balustrading of the roof, onlythat quartette is said to have consisted of goddesses, since removedto Windsor. In an old engraving, dated 1815, two figures are still tobe seen on the skyline. 

Beyond the steps up to Queen Mary's Bower, a gateway leads us to thefarther Privy Gardens. On the right may be observed where Wren'sadditions end abruptly against the windows of Queen Elizabeth'sChambers, and her monogram is to be seen carved boldly above thefirst-floor window in a decorative ribbon pattern, while above thesecond-floor window are her initials beside a crowned Tudor rose, eachcarving having the date 1568. 

Here we are in the Pond Garden--or series of gardens--on the right, over a low old wall, is a small turfed and flower grown enclosure withthe long Orangery at the farther side. On the left is a close grownhedge, beyond which are a succession of small garden enclosures, onlythe centre one of which is kept up as a show place, and this is thedelightful quadrangular enclosed space sometimes spoken of as theDutch Garden. This sunk garden, with its turf, its stone walks, thatare not walked upon, its small evergreens, cut by topiarian art intothe semblance of birds, its low-growing plants rich in varicolouredflowers, its evergreen arbour at the farther end as a background to astatue of Venus, its little fountain in the centre, is a spot thatalways attracts visitors--attracts and holds them by its spell ofquiet beauty. 

At the farther end of the gravel walk is the glasshouse in which forclose upon a hundred and fifty years has flourished the great grapevine, which always proves an enormous attraction to those who come tosee the Palace. The vine--a Black Hamburg--was planted in 1768, and itannually bears about twelve hundred bunches of grapes, many incipientbunches being removed in accordance with the custom of viticulture toallow the rest to mature the better. The vine has been known to bearwell over two thousand pounds weight--or about a ton--of grapes in asingle season. It is not, however, though sometimes so described, thelargest grape vine in England. 

To the north of the Palace--reached by a gate in the wall of the LongWalk, or first seen by those who come to Hampton Court Palace throughthe Lion Gate--is the Wilderness, a half-cultivated place contrastinggreatly with the parts of the grounds that we have already beenvisiting. Here are tall trees of various kinds, massed shrubs, andbroad stretches of turf spangled with daffodils and other bulbs in thespring; within it is a smaller wilderness overlooked by many visitorsforming a kind of wild garden, its many flowers growing upon the rockybanked sides of the tortuous paths, with groups of slender bamboo, flowering shrubs and brambles, --a place which is particularlyfascinating in the late springtime. 

Here, too, close to the Lion Gate, is that Maze which is always apopular feature with holiday-makers old and young. Between theWilderness and the Palace lies the Old Melon Ground, now apparentlyutilized by the gardeners whose incessant work maintains the groundsof Hampton Court in so beautiful a state. West of the Wilderness isthe Old Tilt Yard, long since given over from joustings and tiltingsto the cultivation of plants, and not open to the public. 

To go back to the eastern garden, we see at its farther edge the limeavenue, with beyond it the Home Park, the two separated by shadycanals well grown with gorgeous water lilies and bordered by clumps offine foliage plants. It was presumably in the Park near here thatGeorge Cavendish found Henry the Eighth engaged at archery practicewhen he came to tell him of the death of Wolsey. It was in this Park, at the farther end near Kingston Bridge, that Fox saw Oliver Cromwelljust before his fatal seizure, and it was in this Park, it isbelieved, that the tripping of his horse over a molehill causedWilliam the Third's fatal fall. Just across the road bordering thenorthern boundary of the Palace grounds lies the great extent of BushyPark, with its magnificent chestnut avenue; and mention may be made ofthe fact that had King William lived, and Wren's plans been fullycarried out, that avenue would have been the approach to the grand newPalace front which it was designed to make. As it is we have but suchpart of the Tudor palace as the rebuilders allowed to remain, and wehave but such part of the Orange palace as destiny allowed William tocomplete. 

What we have, however, is a splendid whole, consisting, it may be, ofincongruous parts, yet one that for charm, for beauty generally and indetail, and for fullness of interest, has but few rivals. Whether wevisit it on some quiet day in winter, or in the time when the groundsare at their floral best, and when there are many hundreds of peoplethronging the galleries and gardens on Sunday afternoons or on popularholidays, it always gives us the same feeling of satisfaction thatcomes of beautiful surroundings. In the smaller courts and in theshady cloisters may be found in the heat of summer the soothing sensethat is one of the secret charms of haunts of ancient peace. 

Cardinal Wolsey built himself a lordly pleasure house, unthinking ofthe fickleness of a monarch's favour; Dutch William sought to make ofit a rival to Versailles; and each, though he did not completelyrealize his design, may be said to have builded better than heknew--in providing for succeeding ages a place of beauty "in which themillions rejoice". 

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN

_At the Villafield Press, Glasgow, Scotland_

Transcriber's Note

Archaic and variable spelling and quoted material is preserved asprinted, as is the author's punctuation style. 

Illustrations have been moved where necessary so that they are not inthe middle of a paragraph.