HAMPTON COURT PALACE IN ORANGE AND GUELPH TIMES.*
MIL LAW'S new volume concludes his work on Hampton Court Palace, and brings its history down to the present time. It covers a period of just two centuries, a period which, he remarks, is as interesting, as far as Hampton Court is concerned, as that of Tudor and Stuart times. It certainly includes the pulling down of much that Cardinal Wolsey put up, the erection of a new building by Sir Christopher Wren, and the laying-out of the grounds more or less in their present form ; but it is a question whether the local associations of Orange and Guelph times are as fascinating as those of the preceding hundred and fifty years, or whether, indeed, any associations ever enter the thoughts of the ordinary visitor. The Maze and kiss-in-the-ring on the Green secure as many patrons as the Great Hall or the State Apartments. Even among those who are really anxious to examine a Palace crowded with historic memories, there will, of course, be a variety of opinions. To stand in the Hall where Charles I. was wont to dine, or in the Court where his son used to play tennis, would be to many preferable to a stroll through Queen Mary's Bower or a visit to King William's Bedchamber. The historian and the sentimental visitor would not agree, nor would the architect and the excursionist see much in common. Comparisons, however, are at the best inconclusive, and it may safely be said that all three volumes contain reminis- cences which will interest any one who opens them.
Directly William III, felt secure upon the throne, he began to look about for some place near London "where, without being too far away from his Ministers, he might be free from the press and crowd of Whitehall, and give full indulgence to his unsociable inclinations." Within ten days of their pro- clamation, he and Mary paid Hampton Court a visit, and he was at once captivated, "for not only did the flatness of the country remind him of the scenery of his own dear home in Holland, but even from the very palace windows he could look out on a long, straight canal, fringed with avenues of lime-trees, such as met his eye at Haarlem and the Hague." Both Sovereigns found the air of the place agree with them so well, that they resolved to live there the greater part of the year ; but William con- sidered the Palace "so very old-built and irregular," that it was decided to raise new buildings at once. To Sir Christopher Wren was entrusted the task of designing an edifice in the style of the "debased Renaissance of Louis XIV.," which should harmonise with the Tudor surroundings, and the architect's task was made the more difficult by having to consult the King's taste in everything. It is certainly to be regretted that the King should have shown so little regard for a palace impressed with the associations of two centuries as to sweep away so many of its most interesting features ; and we heartily wish, with Mr. Law, that King William, instead of laying his "irreverent hand" upon the home of the Tudor and Stuart Sovereigns, had reared, as he contemplated, a fresh palace where Kempton Park now stands. The addition of the building which encloses the Fountain Court, to the eastern side of the Tudor Palace, caused a corresponding advance of the gardens into the park, and the Canal, or Long Water, which came up close to the former frontage, was filled in for two hundred yards. Elaborate flower-beds edged with box were formed, and the three avenues springing from the centre of the east front, just where the visitor enjoys his first glimpse of the gardens, remain much as they were two centuries ago, as well as the greater portion of the semicircle of lime-trees planned by Charles II. While the new structure !was being raised, and during the King's long absence in Ireland, Queen Mary selected for her residence a detached building within the grounds close to the river, and known as the Water Gallery ; it had in earlier days been occupied as a prison by Princess (afterwards Queen) Elizabeth, under her sister's orders, but was chiefly used as a landing-place from the river. Under Sir Christopher Wren's superintendence, it was thoroughly decorated and made comfortable. Here Queen Mary worked many of the hangings and coverings which used to be pointed out as her handiwork ; and it was for this building, too, that Kneller painted his "Hampton Court Beauties," her Majesty wishing to emulate the enterprise of the Duchess of York, for whom Lely had painted his "Beauties." The Queen also had a dairy close by, and devoted a good deal • The History of Hampton Court Palace. VoL III. "Orange and Guelph Times." By Ernest Law, B.A. London ; George Bell ani Sons. 1891. of her time to gardening. She even sent to Virginia and the Canary Islands for choice plants, and raised others from seed in the hothouses of the Privy Gardens. Among the latter were fine specimens of the Agave Americana, or Century Plant, one of which was in bloom two years ago; and Mr. Law tells us that the "flower-stalk, which would grow several inches in a day, rose to a height of no less than sixteen feet, and carried thousands of pale yellow flowers dripping with nectar." There also remain some citron and orange-trees which William III. is believed to have brought over from his garden at Loo. During William's absence from England in 1700, the ground between the south front and the river was remade, and the Water Gallery pulled down because it ob- structed the view ; and about the same time the building known as the Banqueting House was enlarged, the King spending many of his evenings there with the Duke of Albe- marle, the Earl of Portland, and others. The Great Terrace— extending for nearly half-a-mile by the river, from Hampton Court Bridge to the Bowling Green and its four pavilions —was also begun, and was pronounced by Switzer, the writer on gardening, "the noblest work of the kind in Europe."
To William III. also the country is indebted for the twelve gates or screens of ironwork designed by Jean Tijou, which were made to surround the Privy Garden. Mr. Law says they are the "finest specimens of decorative ironwork ever executed in England, and it is doubtful whether that metal has ever, in any country or in any age, been moulded into forms more exquisitely delicate and graceful." Only two of these now remain at Hampton Court; the others have been removed to the South Kensington and Bethnal Green Museums. We readily join Mr. Law in pleading far their restoration to the Palace for which they were intended; and like- wise for the Raphael Cartoons, the furniture, and the tapestry which were taken from Hampton Court Palace five-and-twenty years ago. Hampton Court would also gladly welcome back the beautiful statues and vases which had adorned the gardens from William uva time, until George IV. removed them to Windsor, especially the statues of Flora, Ceres, Diana, and Pomona, which used to stand on the summit of the south front.
Queen Anne preferred Windsor and Kensington, as re- sidences, to Hampton Court, and seldom made any stay at the latter; but she carried on the improvements begun by William III. Pope wrote of her :— " Here thou, great Anna ! whom three realms obey, Dost sometimes counsel take—and sometimes tea."
She also fenced the meadows, which had hitherto been open to the river, to preserve her " studd " from being killed or drowned ; and Verrio was commissioned to paint the ceiling of "the Great Room," the subject being a huge allegorical representation of the Queen as Justice. In May, 1710, she entertained some Indian Kings at the Palace, and the same year redecorated the chapel, embellished its walls with carvings by Gibbon, erected new pews of fine Norway oak, and ordered the organ which is there now, and which, thanks to the quality of the wood and metal, still preserves its beautiful tone. It was at Hampton Court in 1711 that Lord Petre cut off a lock of Miss Fermor's hair, an incident which caused a serious breach between the two families, and it was only healed by Pope ridiculing the affair in his famous poem, The Rape of the Lock. During the latter part of Queen Anne's reign, the Great Diana Fountain, which originally stood in the Privy Gardens, was re-erected in its present position in Bushey Park, under the supervision of Sir Christopher Wren, and the whole of the work, including the working and carving of the pedestal of stone on which the marble (gilt) fountain stands, amounted to £1,300. The four Georges did little for Hampton Court, and that little did not improve it. The latter half of the volume before us deals with biographical details, which would be more appropriate in somebody's memoirs than in a History of the Palace.
The illustrations are decidedly unequal,—the fac-similes of old prints, the engravings from historical paintings, and the plans and designs, are excellent; the selection has been judicious, and the execution clear and effective. But there are others which do no sort of justice to their subject. Those reproduced from the pages of the English _Illustrated Magazine, together with the original drawings specially executed for Mr. Law's book, convey little idea of what they represent, and are far inferior in effect and quality to illustrations of the same character in some of the monthly magazines. We commend to Mr. Law's atten- tion the views of Hampton Court Palace which have been inserted in Dr. Gardiner's Student's History of England, recently published. In the course of his narrative, Mr. Law is frequently far too explicit. There was no need to devote a whole page to the various nurses who suckled the infant Duke of Gloucester in 1689, nor to dilate on the confinement of the Princess of Wales in 1737; the event did not take place at
Hampton Court Palace, and an allusion to the hurried and enforced departure of the Princess from Hampton Court would have sufficed; as it is, the bedroom details may keep the book from many a drawing-room table. The associations of Hampton Court are so abundant and interesting, that it was ill-judged to crowd them with superfluous and often objectionable matter. Mr. Law, however, delights in gossips and has endeavoured to give flavour to his book by hunting up scraps of anecdote and scandal about anybody who hap- pened to have been at Hampton Court,—the same ferreting- out of personal details which is the curse of the " society " papers of modern times. There are many passages which will prompt mothers to close the book and advise their .daughters not to read it. This is to be regretted, for the work gains nothing by such digressions, and is robbed of much of its charm.
We are surprised at Mr. Law's allowing himself to write so strongly about the Sabbatarians who protested against Hampton Court Palace being thrown open to the public on Sundays, and to his giving up five or six pages to his denunciation. The ineffectual attempts of recent years to get places of amusement opened on Sunday should have warned him that the "Lord's Day Rest Association" are not the only persona who would preserve the day of rest so dear to the majority of Englishmen, and so essential to their mental and bodily welfare. Did Mr. Law feel no twinge of conscience when he condemned that "bitter intolerance and selfish dis- regard for the freedom of others which always stamps your true fanatics" ? And does he include among those whose eyes are "jaundiced by the light of Puritanism," all those, from
the Archbishop of Canterbury downwards, who advocate some observance of Sunday ? Here is Mr. Law's ideal or what he
sneeringly terms "that fine old institution, the British Sabbath : "—
" On all sides are to be seen hundreds of omnibuses, vans, char- k-bancs, brakes, cabs, dog-carts, and carriages and conveyances of all sorts, including several coaches; all of which have brought their parties for the palace, the gardens, the parks, and the river. On the river, above all, the scene is of the gayest : it is often so crowded with rowing-boats, steam-launches, sailing-boats with -various coloured sails, and house-boats decked with drapery and flowers, that one would imagine a regatta was going on. Through Molesey Lock also, just above the bridge, ceaseless streams, literally of hundreds of pleasure-boats, each with their merry party of holiday-makers, pass all day long; while upon the banks stroll throngs of young people, not perked out in Sunday-go-to- Meeting best,' but men rationally dressed in easy shooting suits or flannels, and girls in neat and pretty lawn-tennis or boating costumes."
And what do the residents say to all this, or the riverside boatmen and others whose Sunday is thereby made their hardest day ? Perhaps Mr. Law does not consider them part of that general public whose interests he is defending. Does he imagine these "merry parties of holiday-makers" went to church on the morning of the scene he so sympathetically describes? Or does he recommend the river as a sub- stitute for the church? His digression is a mistake. Stripped of its padding, and compressed within two volumes, this would be a thorough, interesting, and valuable History of Hampton Court. So long as Mr. Law confined him- self to the Palace, its architecture, its growth, and its contents ; to the Sovereigns and historical personages who lived in it, and from whom its traditions and associations sprang; and to the laying out of the parks and gardens, he did well, and we could have wished no better chronicler of the picturesque pile of buildings; but the work is marred, par- ticularly in the volume under notice, by the presence of a mass of trivialities which choke up the narrative, and by the intro- duction of outside topics which cause impatience on the part of the reader, and betray prejudice on the part of the writer.
Previous page
