HAMPTON COURT AND THE CARTOONS.
Mr. JESSE, the naturalist, who holds the office of Surveyor of her Ma- jesty's Parks and Palaces, has just produced a very lively and intelligent guide-book* to Hampton Court Palace, Gardens, and Pictures, which will be found a welcome pocket-companion to visiters of every class. Setting out with the sight-seer, the cicerone notices the remarkable places on the road, and then at the gate of the Palace-gardens he enters upon the history of the ancient edifice, and of its celebrated founder WOLSEY ; whose character he defends from the imputation of vulgar pride and ostentation. Of the palace built by the Cardinal, and his princely state, he gives full particulars ; and describes the alterations made by CROMWELL, who built the barracks, and by WILLIAM the Third, at whose directions the present state apartments were erected by WREN, and the gardens laid out as they now appear. In enumerating the Sovereigns who successively resided at Hampton Court, Mr. JESSE gives some particulars of the escape of CHARLES the First from thence, taken from a scarce tract in the British Museum. An Illustra- tive Catalogue of the Pictures concludes the volume.
Of the extent and magnificence of the original palace, as built by WOLSEY, visiters generally have no adequate idea : the views of the * Title, A Summer's Day at Hampton Court. river front and garden front, copied from old prints, represent abuildi 2 very much more extensive than the present. Only two out of the fin; courts of which the ancient building consisted, remain ; and these app to have contained the offices and lodgings for infer2iosrosesravkanbtesds: ffoorra: tinue and household amounting to a thousand persons, including ree: tion-rooms and lodgings for guests—there were tors alone—a palace containing fifteen hundred rooms, as it is said t.0 have done, was not too ample. The only vestiges of the splendours( the state-apartments, are the grand hall, 106 feet long and 40 broad, with a lofty gabled roof of timber very richly carved, and a withdraw. ing-room adjoining, 62 feet long, having a superb ceiling, and hung with tapestries that still remain. This room attracted the admiration of Sir WALTER Scow, and was the model for a similar apartment at Abbotsford : it is further remarkable for an oriel window of sendeir• cular form. The Chapel is also of the same date, though it was coin. pleted by Ilmny the Eighth after he got the palace from Weiser, and has been in part modernized : the groined roof with its carved pendent* is very elegant. These curious and beautiful remains of the old palace are not even seen by the mass of visiters, who are scarcely aware of their existence. The cuts in the volume will be useful in calling atten- tion to the most interesting architectural features of the place. The Illustrative Catalogue deals more in information than criticism, as a popular book should : indeed, if we except the Cartoons 0( RaensEr. and the Triumphs of Caesar by ANDREA DE MANTEGNA, there is little scope for disquisition on painting ; the wealth of the col• lection consisting chiefly of portraits, more interesting as likenesses than as pictures. Mr. JESSE prefaces his description of the Cartoons with a justification of their continuance in their present distant and dark repository : but his arguments arc so very unsatisfactory that we are almost tempted to consider them as er redo only— "A wish has been sometimes expressed, by those who look only to the pub- lic convenience, that these inestimable productions of Raffitelle's genius should be removed from their present situation to the National Gallery in London. But when we consider how commodiously they are arranged at present, inn room built purposely fur them ; when we acknowledge that the light by which they arc seen is liable to little objection ; that the Mr is not, like that of the metropolis, tilled with particles that would be most injurious to water-colours; and that everypossible facility is given to inspect or to copy them ; and when we further find from the evidence of the artists examined before the Rouse of Commons, that it would be necessary, if they were exhibited in London, to have them placed in glass eases, for their protection,—we must consider that no sufficient reason less been given fur their removal from Hampton Court."
There are two grand objections to the Cartoons remaining where they are : first, they cannot be seen ; see md, they arc in danger from fire— and from water too, for the air is" filled with particles most injurious to water-colours," minutely, moisture from the spray of the finintain in the court. No one accustomed to look at pictures can "acknowledge that the light is liable to little objection ;" for it is not only a "side light," which is so far had, but they are not illumined by any direct rays, all the light that falls on them hieing thrown upwards by rdlectian : in proof of which, it is only necessary to reiterate the fact, that the foot of the pictures is on a level with the top of the windows. The danger of fire in an old building, warmed by stoves, and locked up during sixteen hours out of the twenty .four, is obvious. Such precious relics oughtto be in a fire-proof building ; and moreover, be protected by panes of' glass, as highly-valued oil-pictures are. The Cartoon sketches in the National Gallery are glazed in this way, though a more artful mode of joining the plates of glass might be adopted than the clumsy beading, that looks as if intended to deter people from wishing to have the Cartoons pre- served. In short, the only objection Mr. JESSE urges to their removal, the necessity of putting glass before them, is a means of preserva- tion required where they are, and which if adopted sooner would have saved these grand works from material damage ; and the mends on which he urges their remaining where they arc do not exist. We say nothing of the absurdity of excluding from a national gallery the finest productions of the pencil we have to boast of—nay, that the whole world can show. This parallels the old joke of the play of Hamlet with the principal character omitted.
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