20 DECEMBER 1930, Page 22

There have been, at one time or another, many Royal

Homes near London, and the volume in which Major Benton Fletcher has described and pictured them (Lane, 21s.) is inter- esting and attractive. Hampton Court and Kew, Greenwich and Eltham still have a royal air. At Nonsuch and Oatlands, Enfield and King's Langley, Berkhsunpsted and Jericho (near Ongar) there is little or nothing surviving of their past glories. The remnants of Richmond Palace, where four Tudor Sove- reigns lived and died, are scanty. It seems very doubtful whether the panelled room over the gateway, which the author has sketched, was Elizabeth's death chamber. But it may have been the room out of the window of which Robert Cary's sister dropped a ring as a sign that the Queen was dead, and that he might ride to Edinburgh to give the welcome news to Icing James. Major Fletcher's account of Eltham Palace is worth noting, though few would agree with him that Westminster Hall alone can compare with the great hall at Eltham. There arc others—notably, Christ Church, Oxford, and the Middle Temple.