The Prince And Princess, Indeed, I Remember Came Once Down By Water
Upon The Occasion Of Her Royal Highness's Being Great With Child,
And Near Her Time--So Near That She Was Delivered Within Two Or
Three Days After.
But this passage being in the royal barges, with
strength of oars, and the day exceeding fine, the passage,
I say,
was made very pleasant, and still the more so for being short.
Again, this passage is all the way with the stream, whereas in the
common passage upwards great part of the way is against the stream,
which is slow and heavy.
But be the going and coming how it will by water, it is an
exceeding pleasant passage by land, whether we go by the Surrey
side or the Middlesex side of the water, of which I shall say more
in its place.
The situation of Hampton Court being thus mentioned, and its
founder, it is to be mentioned next that it fell to the Crown in
the forfeiture of his Eminence the Cardinal, when the king seized
his effects and estate, by which this and Whitehall (another house
of his own building also) came to King Henry VIII. Two palaces fit
for the kings of England, erected by one cardinal, are standing
monuments of the excessive pride as well as the immense wealth of
that prelate, who knew no bounds of his insolence and ambition till
he was overthrown at once by the displeasure of his master.
Whoever knew Hampton Court before it was begun to be rebuilt, or
altered, by the late King William, must acknowledge it was a very
complete palace before, and fit for a king; and though it might
not, according to the modern method of building or of gardening,
pass for a thing exquisitely fine, yet it had this remaining to
itself, and perhaps peculiar--namely, that it showed a situation
exceedingly capable of improvement, and of being made one of the
most delightful palaces in Europe.
This her Majesty Queen Mary was so sensible of, that, while the
king had ordered the pulling down the old apartments, and building
it up in that most beautiful form which we see them now appear in,
her Majesty, impatient of enjoying so agreeable a retreat, fixed
upon a building formerly made use of chiefly for landing from the
river, and therefore called the Water Galley, and here, as if she
had been conscious that she had but a few years to enjoy it, she
ordered all the little neat curious things to be done which suited
her own conveniences, and made it the pleasantest little thing
within doors that could possibly be made, though its situation
being such as it could not be allowed to stand after the great
building was finished, we now see no remains of it.
The queen had here her gallery of beauties, being the pictures at
full-length of the principal ladies attending upon her Majesty, or
who were frequently in her retinue; and this was the more beautiful
sight because the originals were all in being, and often to be
compared with their pictures. Her Majesty had here a fine
apartment, with a set of lodgings for her private retreat only, but
most exquisitely furnished, particularly a fine chintz bed, then a
great curiosity; another of her own work while in Holland, very
magnificent, and several others; and here was also her Majesty's
fine collection of Delft ware, which indeed was very large and
fine; and here was also a vast stock of fine china ware, the like
whereof was not then to be seen in England; the long gallery, as
above, was filled with this china, and every other place where it
could be placed with advantage.
The queen had here also a small bathing-room, made very fine,
suited either to hot or cold bathing, as the season should invite;
also a dairy, with all its conveniences, in which her Majesty took
great delight. All these things were finished with expedition,
that here their Majesties might repose while they saw the main
building go forward. While this was doing, the gardens were laid
out, the plan of them devised by the king himself, and especially
the amendments and alterations were made by the king or the queen's
particular special command, or by both, for their Majesties agreed
so well in their fancy, and had both so good judgment in the just
proportions of things, which are the principal beauties of a
garden, that it may be said they both ordered everything that was
done.
Here the fine parcel of limes which form the semicircle on the
south front of the house by the iron gates, looking into the park,
were by the dexterous hand of the head gardener removed, after some
of them had been almost thirty years planted in other places,
though not far off. I know the King of France in the decoration of
the gardens of Versailles had oaks removed, which by their
dimensions must have been above an hundred years old, and yet were
taken up with so much art, and by the strength of such engines, by
which such a monstrous quantity of earth was raised with them, that
the trees could not feel their remove--that is to say, their growth
was not at all hindered. This, I confess, makes the wonder much
the less in those trees at Hampton Court gardens; but the
performance was not the less difficult or nice, however, in these,
and they thrive perfectly well.
While the gardens were thus laid out, the king also directed the
laying the pipes for the fountains and JET-D'EAUX, and particularly
the dimensions of them, and what quantity of water they should cast
up, and increased the number of them after the first design.
The ground on the side of the other front has received some
alterations since the taking down the Water Galley; but not that
part immediately next the lodgings.
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