VI

Entirely different is the impression which we take away with us of the

Orange portion of Hampton Court Palace from that which remains in

memory of the Tudor parts. From the west and north we see nothing but

the medley of red brickwork, gables, turrets, and irregular

chimneystacks. From the east and south sides we get views that

contrast greatly with those of the older portions. Here we have long

straight fronts broken with many stone-framed windows, and surmounted

by a regular stone parapet that quite inadequately masks the more

modern chimneystacks. These south and west fronts are sometimes

criticized by those who regret the parts of the Tudor palace

demolished to make room for them, but they are by no means wanting in

either dignity or beauty. Their red brick--less rich in tone than that

of the Tudor buildings--is much broken with white stone ornamentation,

and the southern side as seen from the gardens through massed shrubs

is particularly fine. This part of the palace probably remains in the

memory of most visitors as being Hampton Court, and it is only natural

that it should be so, for it is the portion mainly seen from the

grounds, and it is the portion with which visitors make the most

intimate acquaintance--for within it, on the first floor, are the many

State Rooms in which are hung the magnificent collection of pictures.

To reach the State Rooms, as has been said, we enter the Clock Court

and catering across it to the right pass under the colonnade which

uglifies the front of Wolsey's rooms, and so come to the King's Great

Staircase by which the public reaches the galleries. This staircase,

its walls and ceiling painted by Verrio, has on the whole a somewhat

sombre and certainly unpleasing effect. It is true that we have in it

one of the most notable examples of Verrio's decorative achievements,

but it is an example which I frankly find unattractive. It is sombrely

gorgeous but in an unrestful fashion, with its sprawling gods,

goddesses, and heroes in all manner of impossible positions, its

pillars overhung with clouds or clouds swooping down, as though

weighted with the figures, about the pillars. Beneath in a brownish

tone are painted various "trophies". The art of decoration, one cannot

help feeling, was at the time that William the Third had this

staircase painted, at a very low ebb indeed.

Curiosity may make some visitors pause to single out from the medley

the figures of the Fates, the Caesars, or particular gods and

goddesses, but most will pass on into the noble King's Guard Room with

its wonderful mural decoration of muskets, pikes, and pistols. Though

there are some pictures here--notably, opposite the fireplace, a large

portrait by Zucchero of Queen Elizabeth's porter--it is chiefly the

old arms marvellously arrayed in diverse patterns that take the eye.

Upwards of a thousand pieces are said to have been utilized in

decorating this room--their arrangement being made by a gunsmith who

had earlier done similar work at Windsor Castle and the Tower of

London. It may be added that he utilized his materials more

successfully than did Verrio in painting the staircase, and it is

pleasant to learn that Gunsmith Harris's work was so well appreciated

that he was granted a pension by way of reward. From the tall windows

at the farther end of the Guard Room we look out over the Privy Garden

to the river, with the terraced Queen Mary's Bower on the right.

It is not necessary to describe in detail the things to be seen in the

long succession of State Rooms, from the entrance to them by the

King's Great Staircase to the exit by the Queen's Great Staircase.

Varying in size in accordance to the purpose for which they were

designed, audience rooms, bedrooms, writing closets, or galleries, all

are lofty rooms, and some of the smallest are the most crowded with

pictures--as, for example, the Queen Mary's closet--leaving which we

pass from the rooms that occupy the first floor of the south front to

those of the rather longer east front. Details as to the paintings,

tapestries, or furnishings would alone occupy more than the space of

this little book, and the visitor in search of such details will find

them in the official handbooks. The tall windows, rising from the

window seat level, and affording beautiful views of the grounds,

form a feature of the Orange portion of the buildings, which shows a

distinct advance upon the earlier style of fenestration--picturesque

as are the smaller type of windows of the Tudor period.

[Illustration: EAST FRONT FROM THE LONG WATER]

The southern range of rooms formed the King's suite, and passing from

the Guard Room, we go successively through: the First Presence

Chamber, in which are to be seen Sir Godfrey Kneller's "Beauties" of

the Orange Court; the Second Presence Chamber, the most memorable

thing in which is Van Dyck's fine equestrian portrait of Charles the

First; the Audience Chamber with a portrait of Elizabeth, Queen of

Bohemia, over the fireplace; the King's Drawing Room; King William's

Bedroom, with an ornate ceiling painted by Sir William Thornhill, and

the great canopied bed with time-worn crimson silk hangings; the

King's Dressing Room, in which are several Holbeins including two

portraits of Henry the Eighth; and the last of King William's rooms,

the Writing Closet, in which are to be seen Zucchero's portrait of

Queen Elizabeth in fancy dress, also a smaller one of her, and a

remarkable full length of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, in scarlet

costume.

Turning at an angle through Queen Mary's closet we pass on to inspect

the series of rooms which Her Majesty did not live to occupy, and from

the generous windows we get beautiful views of the yew-grown lawns

and the park beyond--the view straight up the Long Canal from the

Queen's Drawing Room is particularly fine, especially when the broad

gravel walks between the avenued yews are dotted with summer visitors,

and the beds are gorgeous with many flowers set in the wide greenery

of the lawn. Before reaching the Drawing Room we come to the Queen's

Gallery, hung with rich tapestry and ornamented with splendid china

vases, and the Queen's Bed Room, the bed hung with remarkably

fresh-looking ornate hangings in red and gold. Beyond the Drawing Room

are the Queen's Audience Chamber, the Public Drawing Room, and at the

end of the eastern front the Prince of Wales' suite.

Through the farther end of the Drawing Room is the Queen's Presence

Chamber, with another magnificent canopied bed, and beyond it, the

Queen's Guard Room, giving on to the stairs. These last two rooms look

out on to the Fountain Court, of which they form the northern side,

but they do not exhaust the rooms open to public inspection; for along

the eastern side of the Court is a series of smaller rooms, containing

further pictures and furnishings. Owing to the smallness of these

rooms, their darkness, and the fact that visitors can only pass

straight through them from door to door, close inspection of the

pictures is not easy. Along the whole length of the southern side of

the Fountain Court is the King's Gallery or Great Council Chamber--a

magnificent room in which used to hang the Raphael Cartoons now at

South Kensington. The room was, indeed, designed by Sir Christopher

Wren as a setting for those famous pictures; and the walls are now

covered by reproductions of them in tapestry. On the west side of the

Court is the Communication Gallery leading to the Queen's Great

Staircase, and it is worthy of note that from the last of the State

Rooms the visitor should carry away impressions of one of the most

splendid of Hampton Court's many splendid art treasures. Along the

wall here are the nine large tempera pictures by Mantegna--"one of the

chief heroes in the advance of painting in Italy"--in which are

represented "The Triumph of Caesar". Says Mr. William Michael Rossetti,

"these superbly invented and designed compositions, gorgeous with all

splendour of subject-matter and accessory, and with the classical

learning and enthusiasm of one of the master spirits of the age, have

always been accounted of the first rank among Mantegna's works".

Though in part restored, these paintings, by an artist who died more

than four hundred years ago, are full of interest for their vivid

presentation of a rich imagination of a great historical event. In

front of the victor--in the last of this series of paintings--is borne

a device bearing his famous words "Veni, Vidi, Vici"--and it is

worthy of recollection that one tradition places the scene of Julius

Caesar's final victory over the Britons at Kingston, not far from where

this splendid delineation of his triumphal pageant on his return to

Rome has hung for close upon three centuries. Though it is a fine

final memory to bring away from the rooms, it is perhaps to be

regretted that this series of paintings is in the last of the

galleries through which we pass; for, as I have learned from various

visitors--after going through more than a couple of dozen rooms and

galleries, housing about a thousand pictures, and tapestries besides

other articles of interest--the eye has become wearied and the mind

overcharged with an embarrassment of riches. Several people have told

me that they have come through these last galleries scarce noticing

what was on the walls at all. It is a pity that the rule of having to

pass through the rooms always in one order cannot be maintained only

on Sundays, holidays, and such days as there are crowds, when such

order is necessary for the comfort of all; at other times, when there

are but few people about, it might surely be permissible to enter or

leave the State Rooms by either of the great staircases.

[Illustration: THE WILDERNESS IN SPRING]

Of the riches of art in the Palace this is not the place to speak in

detail, it is only possible to hint at them. Before leaving the

Communication Gallery for the exit staircase there are small rooms to

the left which call for inspection--rooms which not only mark

internally the linking of the original Tudor Palace with the Orange

additions, but which also are traditionally associated with the

builder of the Palace himself, for here is Wolsey's Closet. In the

outer lobby the most interesting object is the drawing (after

Wynegaarde) of Hampton Court Palace as seen from the Thames in 1558.

From this may be noted the extent of building demolished, or masked,

when Wren carried out his work of rebuilding for William the Third.

The Closet is chiefly notable for its beautiful ceiling, its mullioned

window, and its fine linen-fold panelling which, however, though of

old workmanship, has been brought together here from various parts of

the Palace. The room is supposed, from the frieze, to have been at one

time much larger than it now is. In the corner, between fireplace and

window, is a small room, sometimes described as an oratory. Though

other of Wolsey's rooms remain, they are part of the private

apartments of the Palace, and not, of course, accessible to visitors,

and this small Closet and its lobbies is, therefore, worth lingering

over.

During the latter part of a promenade through the State Rooms, as has

been pointed out, we go practically round the four sides of the

Fountain Court, and when descending the stairs and leaving the hall

below them, we find ourselves in the north-western corner of the

Cloisters that surround the Court. Entirely differing from the Tudor

ones, this is the most impressive of all the courts here, with its

cloisters surrounding a quadrangle of greenery in the midst of which a

fountain plays. Whether looked at from the gallery windows, where the

plashing of the water may be heard on a summer day, or examined in our

walk round the Cloisters, the Fountain Court is a beautiful and

restful place, which, with its surrounding of untrodden grass--starred

in spring with myriad daisies--forms a delightful contrast to the

white cloister pillars and the red brick walls above. Over the windows

of the King's Gallery on the south side are a dozen round, false

windows, filled with time and atmosphere darkened paintings. These

paintings, now but dimly discernible as such, were the work of Louis

Laguerre, who had been employed in "restoring" the Mantegna "Triumph"

in the Communication Gallery, who was very highly esteemed as an

artist by William the Third, and who was granted by that monarch

apartments in Hampton Court. Probably these pictures, representing the

Twelve Labours of Hercules, are beyond fresh restoration, otherwise

they might presumably be cleaned and glazed to save them from

disappearing completely. Laguerre is said also to be responsible for

the painting of imitation windows in similar circular spaces on the

south front of the Palace--imitations which are frankly hideous. The

spaces would look far better if filled with plain brick or stone.

Perhaps some of these spaces being occupied with practical windows, it

was thought necessary for the sake of symmetry to make the rest appear

such to the casual glance. Around the Fountain Court--along the north

cloister of which the public way passes to the gardens--are entrances

to various apartments allotted to private residents. On the east side

flights of steps go up to the two private suites, known as the Gold

Staff Gallery, at the south-eastern corner of the Palace above the

State Rooms. One of these suites--at the south-east angle--is

interesting as being the one in which, according to tradition, took

place that "Rape of the Lock", which Pope was to celebrate in the most

remarkable poem of its kind in the language. Hither came the fair

Belinda--Arabella Fermor--to play that game of ombre which the poet

was to make famous; and here, her triumph at cards achieved, she was

taking coffee--

"For lo! the board with cups and spoons is crowned

The berries crackle and the mill turns round"--

when "the Peer", Lord Petre, "spreads the glittering forfex wide" and

snips off the lock of hair!

"Then flash'd the living lightning from her eyes,

And screams of horror rend th' affrighted skies.

Not louder shrieks to pitying heav'n are cast,

When husbands or when lapdogs breathe their last,

Or when rich china vessels fall'n from high

In glitt'ring dust and painted fragments lie!"

The Gold Staff Gallery has tragedy as well as comedy in its history,

for at one time the other suite formed out of it--that facing

south--was occupied by Richard Tickell, grandson of that Thomas

Tickell, who, though a poet of some note in his day, is chiefly

remembered from his association with Addison. Richard Tickell, who was

also a poet and political writer, married as his first wife the

beautiful Mary Linley, sister-in-law of Sheridan. On 4 November, 1793,

Tickell--who appears to have been financially embarrassed--threw

himself from the window of one of his rooms here, and was killed

instantly on the gravel path below. Though it was officially decided

at the time--thanks, it is believed, to the influence of

Sheridan--that it was an accidental death, the historians have no

hesitation in describing the tragedy as suicide.

[Illustration: THE LONG WALK]