[Illustration: AUDLEY END, WESTERN FRONT.]
Journeying farther from London, and into the county of Essex, we come to
the little river Cam, and on the side of its valley, among the gentle
undulations of the Essex uplands, is seen the palace of Audley End, and
beyond it the village of Saffron Walden. Here in earlier times was the
abbey of Walden, which, when dissolved by Henry VIII., was granted to
Sir Thomas Audley, who then stood high in royal favor. But almost all
remains of this abbey have disappeared, and Sir Thomas, who was Speaker
of the House, got the grant because of his industry in promoting the
king's wishes for the dissolution of the religious houses, and was also
made Lord Audley of Walden. This, as Fuller tells us, was "a dainty
morsel, an excellent receipt to clear the Speaker's voice, and make him
speak clear and well for his master." But he did not live long to enjoy
it, although giving the estate his name, and it passed ultimately to the
Duke of Norfolk, after whose execution it became the property of his
son, Lord Thomas Howard, whom Queen Elizabeth made Baron Walden, and
King James appointed lord treasurer and promoted to be Earl of Suffolk.
He built the great palace of Audley End, which was intended to eclipse
every palace then existing in England. It was begun in 1603, and was
finished in 1616, the date still remaining upon one of the gateways.
King James twice visited Audley End while building, and is said to have
remarked, as he viewed its enormous proportions, that the house was too
large for a king, though it might do for a lord treasurer. It cost over
$1,000,000, but no accurate account was kept, and the earl was so
straitened by the outlay, that after being dismissed from office he was
compelled to sell out several other estates, and died nearly $200,000 in
debt. The second and third earls tried to maintain the white elephant,
but found it too heavy a burden, and the latter sold the house to King
Charles II. for $250,000, of which $100,000 remained on mortgage. It was
known as the New Palace, and became a royal residence. It consisted of a
large outer court and a smaller inner one. Around these the buildings
were constructed from one to three stories high, with towers at the
corners and centres of the fronts. The impression produced by the design
is said not to have been very favorable, it being insufficiently grand
for so vast a pile, and while it was a pleasant residence in summer, the
want of facilities for heating made it in winter little better than a
barn. When Pepys visited Audley End in 1660 and 1668, his chief
impression seems to have been of the cellars, for he writes: "Only the
gallery is good, and, above all things, the cellars, where we went down
and drank of much good liquor. And, indeed, the cellars are fine, and
here my wife and I did sing, to my great content." It was in the
following year that the house was sold to the king. In 1701, however, it
passed back to the fifth Earl of Suffolk, and about twenty years later a
large part of the structure was taken down. Three sides of the great
court, including the gallery referred to by Pepys, were demolished, and
Audley End was reduced to the buildings around the smaller quadrangle;
this was further reduced in 1749, so that the house assumed its present
appearance of three sides of a square, open towards the east, and thus
remains an excellent type of an early Jacobean mansion, its best view
being from the garden front. Within it has fine apartments, and contains
the only authentic portrait of George II. that is known. This king would
never sit for his picture, and the artist by stealth sketched his
likeness from a closet near the staircase of Kensington Palace, where he
had an excellent view of the peculiar monarch. It is, as Thackeray says,
the picture of a "red-faced, staring princeling," but is believed true
to nature nevertheless. Lady Suffolk, it seems, was one of his few
favorites. Audley End has been for a long time in possession of the
Barons of Braybrooke, and is their principal seat. Lord Cornwallis, of
American Revolutionary remembrance, was a member of this family, and his
portrait is preserved here.
[Illustration: VIEWS IN SAFFRON WALDEN.