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den was John Lewis, a brewer, of Richmond. The right of footway was established; and the right of carriage-way was afterwards conceded. Lewis, who so successfully resisted these encroachments, afterwards became reduced in circumstances; and it ought to be told, that the inhabitants of Richmond acknowledged their obligation by settling upon him an annuity, which he enjoyed till his death in 1792. It is time, however, that we turn to look at the village. The name of Richmond was given to it by Henry VII.; the original name, or at least the earliest by which it is mentioned in any known record, was Schene or Scheen, a Saxon word signifying "beautiful" or "shining," from which our word shine is immediately derived; and which is yet retained in the German language, in its primary signification of "beautiful" and with a very slight difference in the spelling-schön or schoen. Some writers have fancied that the village owed its name to the splendour of its palace; but it was called Schene long before there is any evidence of its possessing a royal habitation: and I do not know why our Saxon forefathers, having eyes and hearts to see and enjoy the beauty of the scenery, may not, as they gave to other places appropriate names, have called this Schene because of its beauty.

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The historical interest which Richmond possesses is chiefly connected with its palace. How early the sovereigns of England had a residence here, is not exactly ascertained. Henry I. is known to have had a house at Schene;' but he granted it, along with the manor, to the Belet family, who held the hereditary office of king's butler. The manor appears to have reverted to the crown towards the close of the reign of Edward I., and

VOL. II.

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it has formed a part of the royal property ever since. From existing documents it is known that Edward I. and his immediate successors resided here, at least occasionally; and from this time we find the palace of 'Sheen' frequently mentioned by the old chroniclers.

It was at Sheen that Edward III., the conqueror of France, finished his career in gloom and solitude. His successor, Richard II., resided here during the earlier years of his reign. It deserves to be noticed that Chaucer, whose poetry shows him to have been familiar with the characteristics of architecture, was surveyor of works to the palace of Sheen during the reign of this monarch. Henry V. restored the house, which had fallen into some neglect, to its former splendour. But it was under the Tudors that it rose to its highest magnificence. All of that family were fond of fine houses and showy pageants; and even Henry VII. in a great measure overcame his ordinary propensity, when money was to be thus expended. This was his favourite residence. From his accession to the throne till his death, he most loved to be here, and here many of his most sumptuous entertainments were given. In 1492 he held a grand tournament at Sheen, in which "Sir James Parker, in a controversy with Hugh Vaughan for right of coat-armour, was killed at the first course.' In 1499, while the king was resident in it, an accidental fire occurred, by which the old palace was almost entirely consumed. Henry caused it to be immediately after builded again sumptuously and costly, and changed the name of 'Sheen,' and called it RICHMOND,' because his father and he were Earls of Richmond." (Hall, 491, reprint.) The palace built thus

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Richmond Palace.

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"sumptuously and costly" was of unusual magnificence for those days. It was completed in 1501: Henry himself died in it in 1509.

During the earlier years of his reign Henry VIII. frequently resided at Richmond, where he kept considerable state. In 1523 he entertained Charles V. of Germany here. When, however, Wolsey built his new palace of Hampton Court, which so completely eclipsed the glory of Richmond, the spleen of his jealous master became excited, and Wolsey found it necessary to endeavour to propitiate him by presenting him with that mansion, which thenceforth became the royal habitation. In return for this munificent gift, the king, we are told," of his gentle nature, licensed him to lie in his manor of Richmond at his pleasure, and so he lay there at certain times: but when the common people, and in especial such as had been King Henry VII.'s servants, saw the Cardinal keep house in the manor royal of Richmond, which King Henry VII. so highly esteemed, it was a marvel to hear how they grudged and said, 'See a butcher's dog lie in the manor of Richmond !' ' (Hall, 703.)

It is not worth while to notice the few events that checkered the Cardinal's brief abode here. He maintained his old splendour, and even appears to have endeavoured, by a show of gaiety at an unusual time, to conceal the vexation that was eating at his heart. Thus whilst the King kept the Christmas of 1625 at Eltham privately, on account of the plague which prevailed in London, we read that "the Cardinal in this season lay at Richmond, and there kept open household to lords, ladies, and all other that would come, with plays and disguisings in most royal manner: which sore grieved the people, and especially the king's servants." (Ibid. 707.)

In his disgrace Wolsey again visited Richmond; but this time he was not allowed to occupy the palace. He was remanded to the lodge in the neighbouring park, where he remained, says Cavendish, "from shortly after Candlemas until it was Lent, with a privy number of servants, because of the smallness of the house." But Wolsey was now thoroughly humbled, and he appears to have turned his thoughts away from the concerns of earth in earnest. He removed, early in Lent, to a lodging built for himself by Dean Colet in the priory of Sheen, and passed that penitential season in severe observance of the austerities prescribed by the monks. "He had," Cavendish relates, "to the same house a secret gallery, which went out of his chamber into the Charter-house church, whither he resorted every day to their service; and at afternoon he would sit in contemplations with one or other of the most ancient fathers of that house in his cell, who, among them by their counsel, persuaded him from the vain glory of this world, and gave him divers shirts of hair, the which he often wore afterward, whereof I am certain, and he thus continued for the time of his abode there in godly contemplation." (Cavendish's Life of Wolsey, i. 237; Singer's ed.)

For awhile during the gloomy reign of her sister, Elizabeth was a prisoner in the palace of Richmond, but she also inhabited it when queen, and on several occasions entertained foreign magnates in it. Towards the end of her life she seems to have been a good deal here, and to have spent her days somewhat merrily: John Stanhope, one of the gentlemen of the Privy Chamber, in the postscript of a letter to Lord Talbot, dated from Richmond, 22nd of December, 1589, (Lodge's

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