But The
King's Death Put An End To All These Things.
Since the death of King William, Hampton Court seemed abandoned of
its patron.
They have gotten a kind of proverbial saying relating
to Hampton Court, viz., that it has been generally chosen by every
other prince since it became a house of note. King Charles was the
first that delighted in it since Queen Elizabeth's time. As for
the reigns before, it was but newly forfeited to the Crown, and was
not made a royal house till King Charles I., who was not only a
prince that delighted in country retirements, but knew how to make
choice of them by the beauty of their situation, the goodness of
the air, &c. He took great delight here, and, had he lived to
enjoy it in peace, had purposed to make it another thing than it
was. But we all know what took him off from that felicity, and all
others; and this house was at last made one of his prisons by his
rebellious subjects.
His son, King Charles II., may well be said to have an aversion to
the place, for the reason just mentioned--namely, the treatment his
royal father met with there--and particularly that the rebel and
murderer of his father, Cromwell, afterwards possessed this palace,
and revelled here in the blood of the royal party, as he had done
in that of his sovereign. King Charles II. therefore chose
Windsor, and bestowed a vast sum in beautifying the castle there,
and which brought it to the perfection we see it in at this day--
some few alterations excepted, done in the time of King William.
King William (for King James is not to be named as to his choice of
retired palaces, his delight running quite another way)--I say,
King William fixed upon Hampton Court, and it was in his reign that
Hampton Court put on new clothes, and, being dressed gay and
glorious, made the figure we now see it in.
The late queen, taken up for part of her reign in her kind regards
to the prince her spouse, was obliged to reside where her care of
his health confined her, and in this case kept for the most part at
Kensington, where he died; but her Majesty always discovered her
delight to be at Windsor, where she chose the little house, as it
was called, opposite to the Castle, and took the air in her chaise
in the parks and forest as she saw occasion.
Now Hampton Court, by the like alternative, is come into request
again; and we find his present Majesty, who is a good judge too of
the pleasantness and situation of a place of that kind, has taken
Hampton Court into his favour, and has made it much his choice for
the summer's retreat of the Court, and where they may best enjoy
the diversions of the season. When Hampton Court will find such
another favourable juncture as in King William's time, when the
remainder of her ashes shall be swept away, and her complete
fabric, as designed by King William, shall be finished, I cannot
tell; but if ever that shall be, I know no palace in Europe,
Versailles excepted, which can come up to her, either for beauty
and magnificence, or for extent of building, and the ornaments
attending it.
From Hampton Court I directed my course for a journey into the
south-west part of England; and to take up my beginning where I
concluded my last, I crossed to Chertsey on the Thames, a town I
mentioned before; from whence, crossing the Black Desert, as I
called it, of Bagshot Heath, I directed my course for Hampshire or
Hantshire, and particularly for Basingstoke--that is to say, that a
little before, I passed into the great Western Road upon the heath,
somewhat west of Bagshot, at a village called Blackwater, and
entered Hampshire, near Hartleroe.
Before we reach Basingstoke, we get rid of that unpleasant country
which I so often call a desert, and enter into a pleasant fertile
country, enclosed and cultivated like the rest of England; and
passing a village or two we enter Basingstoke, in the midst of
woods and pastures, rich and fertile, and the country accordingly
spread with the houses of the nobility and gentry, as in other
places. On the right hand, a little before we come to the town, we
pass at a small distance the famous fortress, so it was then, of
Basing, being a house belonging then to the Marquis of Winchester,
the great ancestor of the present family of the Dukes of Bolton.
This house, garrisoned by a resolute band of old soldiers, was a
great curb to the rebels of the Parliament party almost through
that whole war; till it was, after a vigorous defence, yielded to
the conquerors by the inevitable fate of things at that time. The
old house is, indeed, demolished but the successor of the family,
the first Duke of Bolton, has erected a very noble fabric in the
same place, or near it, which, however, is not equal to the
magnificence which fame gives to the ancient house, whose strength
of building only, besides the outworks, withstood the battery of
cannon in several attacks, and repulsed the Roundheads three or
four times when they attempted to besiege it. It is incredible
what booty the garrison of this place picked up, lying as they did
just on the great Western Road, where they intercepted the
carriers, plundered the waggons, and suffered nothing to pass--to
the great interruption of the trade of the city of London,
Basingstoke is a large populous market-town, has a good market for
corn, and lately within a very few years is fallen into a
manufacture, viz., of making druggets and shalloons, and such
slight goods, which, however, employs a good number of the poor
people, and enables them to get their bread, which knew not how to
get it before.
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