nevertheless be content with what has been saidand indeed we have stayed listening somewhat too long already.

After Hampton Court came into his possession Henry built the grand hall, and made other additions to the buildings, "till it became more like a small city than a house. And having," as was said in the Report made by the Royal Commissioners in the next reign, "waxed heavy with sickness, age, and corpulency of body, so that he might not travel so readily abroad, but was constrained to seek to have his game and pleasure ready and at hand"-he with his usual reckless selfishness, afforested the country around, converting Hampton and several other parishes into a chase, which he stocked with deer. So intolerable was this found to the inhabitants-" very many households of the same parishes being let fall down, the families decayed, the people much diminished, and the country thereabout in manner made desolate " -that the chase was broken up in the following reign; but the Crown still retains exclusive rights over the game within its bounds. Henry spent a good deal of his time at Hampton Court. There Edward VI. was born; and a few days afterwards his mother, Jane Seymour, died. During the residence of Edward VI. at Hampton, some stormy councils were held in the palace, while the Protector Somerset and his rivals were struggling for the ascendancy in the government. On one occasion, the servants and household rose in arms and called in the assistance of the villagers, under the apprehension that the young king was about to be carried off by force.

In succeeding reigns Hampton Court continued

to be a frequent residence of the sovereign. Paul Hentzner, the German, who wrote an account of his Journey into England' in 1598, which Horace Walpole has translated, was exceedingly delighted with the splendour of Hampton, of which, after giving a brief but glowing description, he says by way of summary, "in short, all the walls of the palace shine with gold and silver." James I., on his arrival in England, took up his abode in Hampton Court, and there was held, in January, 1604, that mockery of а "Conference at which the pedant-king presided.

Charles I. spent many of his earlier and happier days here, and some of his latest and most anxious. Two of the most characteristic sketches of his abode at Hampton as a prisoner, are from the pens of ladies-Lady Fanshawe and Mrs. Hutchinson, the one a devoted royalist, the other a zealous republican. It was from Hampton Court that Charles made the ill-advised and worse conducted attempt to escape from the hands of his captors, which resulted in his more rigorous confinement in Carisbrooke Castle.

Hampton Court owed much to the taste and munificence of Charles. To the superb furniture which it already possessed, he added the nobler adornment of many most admirable works of art. These, when they passed into the possession of the Parliament, were sold and dispersed, and many now grace the palaces of the Continent. The building itself was sold, along with the manor of Hampton, for about 10,700l. Cromwell, in 1656, purchased Hampton Court, and from that time made it his principal abode. One of his daughters was married, and another, his favourite, Mrs. Claypole, died here.

The history of Hampton Court from the Restoration would prove extremely curious and amusing, if all the late additions to our historical and biographical literature were carefully sifted by one whose taste made it a congenial employment. Yet the review would be depressing as well as amusing. The fearful neglect of grave duties, and the utter disregard of weighty responsibilities, could not fail to haunt the mind, while revelling amidst the pleasant unrestrained vivacity, or observing the profligacy and licentiousness, the selfishness, the insincerity, and the wretched frivolity over which so thin a veil of decency was thrown; and which a heedless gaiety only causes in the retrospect to appear so much more vile as well as meretricious. The English Courts, from the first year of the reign of Charles II. to the last of the second George, can hardly be thought of without shame as well as wonder. Grammont and Pepys, in their different ways, give a lively notion of the scenes which Hampton Court witnessed, while the second Charles kept his Court in it. James II. resided here occasionally. William made it his ordinary residence. To him it owes its present general character and appearance. The state apartments were built by this monarch, with whom Hampton Court was an especial favourite. Of this new portion of the building Sir Christopher Wren was the architect; but it does very little honour to his taste and judgment. It harmonizes not at all with the older edifice, and it is in itself formal, ungraceful, ill-arranged, and inconvenient. The residence of the next sovereign here is immortalized by Pope, and the dull routine of her Court-where business and scandal, and political and personal intrigue, followed each other

in regular order-is hinted at in his inimitable Rape of the Lock :'

"Here thou, Great Anna! whom three realms obey,
Dost sometimes counsel take-and sometimes tea;
Here British statesmen oft the fall foredoom
Of foreign tyrants, and of nymphs at home.
Hither the heroes and the nymphs resort,
To taste awhile the pleasures of a Court;
In various talk th' instructive hours they past,
Who gave the ball, or paid the visit last;
One speaks the glory of the British queen,
And one describes a charming Indian screen;
A third interprets motions, looks, and eyes-
At every word a reputation dies.

Snuff or the fan supply each pause of chat,
With singing, laughing, ogling, and all that."

6

Mrs.

Pope's letters too enable us to imagine the equally dull and less decent manners of her successors. George II. was the last monarch who made Hampton Court even an occasional dwelling-place. Thomson, in her Memoirs of Lady Sundon,' has printed a letter of Lord Hervey's (Pope's Lord Fanny) in which is an amusing account of the "unchanging circle of Hampton Court" in the time of its last royal inhabitant: but a more complete and infinitely more startling picture of the royal life here may now be found in Lord Hervey's own Memoirs, which have just been published. It is needless to observe that the memoirs and manifold letters of Horace Walpole throw a good deal of light upon the interior of the palace, and the doings of those who figured in it, while he lived in the neighbourhood.

The private apartments are now, as is well known, appropriated as residences for members of noble families; while the state apartments, with all their

rich treasures of art, and the beautiful gardens, are freely devoted to the public gratification. But it is quite time we entered the palace: we have made rather too long a stay on the threshold.

The entrance being by the gateway near the foot of the bridge, the visitor obtains a general view of what is left of Wolsey's palace, before he reaches the state apartments, which, as was said, are of King William's building. A row of low cavalry barracks and stables, whose presence, with their ungraceful accompaniments, is very much of an eyesore, have to be first passed, and excite a momentary feeling of disappointment; but the rich varied quaintness of the buildings in front soon removes any unfavourable impression. This grand west front is indeed one of the very finest and most striking examples of the Tudor palatial architecture remaining. The recent reparations have restored it to nearly all its original characteristic picturesqueness and beauty. A good general view of Wolsey's palace may be obtained from Tennis Court passage, on the north side of the Hall.

The original palace consisted of five principal quadrangular courts: it now consists of but three. Of these, two only belonged to the old building: the western or Outer Court, which is 167 feet by 161 feet; and the Clock Court, which is 133 feet by 92 feet. With the exception of the great hall, they are principally divided into suites of private apartments. The third quadrangle, or Fountain Court, which is the workmanship of Sir Christopher Wren, and in which are the state rooms, is about 110 feet by 117 feet. Besides these there are long ranges of buildings, chiefly for domestic offices, behind the superior apartments, and connected with