Fascinating as are the old courts and the galleries with their
magnificent art collections, the grounds which surround the Palace
are, in their way, no less enticing. Indeed, if we might judge by
the thronging crowds in flower time, the gardens form for the majority
of visitors the most attractive part of the place. These gardens,
wonderfully varied and beautifully kept, are not by any means
extensive for so noble a Palace, but they prove an unfailing delight.
They are markedly divisible in character into three portions--the
north where is the Wilderness and Maze; the south where are the Privy
and Pond Gardens, the Great Vine House and Queen Mary's Bower; and the
east--or Great Fountain Garden--with its rich herbaceous border along
the Broad Walk, its level lawns set with great jewels of floral
colour, its compact yews, its radiating walks, its water-lily pond,
and beyond the gleaming stretch of the Long Canal and the tall trees
that border the Park. In all parts of these gardens are to be seen
beauties that delight the eye and linger in the memory, and each of
them successively draws the sightseers.
These gardens have seen many changes during the centuries of the
Palace's history, changes largely from one kind of formality to
another, judging from the plans of them at various times. As I have
said that the majority of visitors enter the Palace precincts by way
of the Western Trophy Gate, and as such visitors would naturally reach
the grounds by the eastern entrance beyond the cloistered Fountain
Court, it may be well to say something first of the eastern
gardens--which certainly, in summer, form the most florally gorgeous
part of the whole. We come out here in the middle of the Broad Walk,
which stretches from near the Kingston Road to the Thames' side. In
front of us, bordered by old yew trees, are gravel walks radiating to
the House or Home Park, the centre one leading, round a fountain pond
starred in summer with lovely water lilies of various colours, to the
head of the Long Canal, where are many water fowl--swans, geese, and
ducks of different species--expectant of the visitors' contributions
of bread or biscuit.
Right and left as we emerge from the Palace the Broad Walk stretches,
inviting us in each direction with a brilliant display of many
coloured flowers--more especially in spring and early summer, when the
gardens, attractive at all times, are perhaps at their very best. Old
plans of the grounds of Hampton Court show that these eastern gardens
have seen the greatest changes during successive centuries. At one
time the Long Canal stretched much closer to the Palace, and after it
was shortened the intervening gardens were for a period a veritable
maze of intricate ornamental beds with small fountains dotted about
them; at another time they showed an array of formally cut pyramidal
evergreens disposed along the sides of the walks.
It was probably the coming of William and Mary to Hampton Court that
caused special attention to be paid to the grounds, for Queen Mary
appears to have been greatly interested in the matter. Many and
various as have been the re-plannings it may be believed that never
have the gardens looked better than at present, when taste in things
floricultural has broken away from the formalism of scroll-pattern
borders and indulgence in the eccentricities of topiarian art--is
even, it is to be hoped, on the way to free itself finally from the
ugliness of "carpet bedding"--when plants are largely grouped and
massed instead of being placed in alternate kinds at regular intervals
in geometrical patterns. Present day taste with its appreciation of
garden colour, of masses and groups of particular kinds, instead of
isolated plants dotted about with irritating regularity, is found
beautifully exemplified in the numerous beds cut in the lawns of the
eastern gardens, and in the long borders which run north and south of
the palace along one side of the Broad Walk. Here, from the beginning
of the year, when the patches of cerulean, "glory of the snow", and of
low-growing irises of a deeper blue, begin that procession which is
soon to develop into a very pageantry of colour--from when myriad
yellow crocuses first star the lawns with gold in February--is given a
succession of changes that may well tempt the lover of gardens to
Hampton Court again and again. These beds and borders with their
succession of spring bulbs and summer flowers, their brilliant annuals
and massed perennials are not only a delight to the eyes of all, but
that they afford endless hints, are as it were horticulturally
educational to garden-loving visitors, may be gathered from the
frequency with which such visitors are seen to consult the name-labels
of the various plants.
The southern end of the Broad Walk is semi-circular with an outlook
over the river, upwards, to where Molesey Lock and Weir are cut from
view by the hideous Hampton Court Bridge, and downwards, towards
Thames Ditton and Kingston. It is one of the most charming views on
the river near London, the many trees on islands and banks shutting
off the neighbouring town. On a hot summer day, the decorated
houseboats moored to the Surrey bank and the innumerable small craft
passing up and down help to form a delightful and characteristic bit
of the Stream of Pleasure. That the view is one that is well
appreciated is shown by the fact that on such an afternoon the Water
Gallery, as this view point is named, generally attracts and holds
many of the visitors to the Palace.
[Illustration: THE LONG WATER IN WINTER]
The name of the Water Gallery survives from that of the building which
at one time stood here, the "dependance" which Queen Mary occupied
while the Palace was being rebuilt, and which was demolished when the
alterations were completed. East from this point runs the Long Walk,
parallel with, but well above, the towing path, and affording a good
view along the river on one hand and glimpses of the park on the
other. This walk led to the old Bowling Green and Pavilions. Some
distance along it a gate gives on to the towing path leading to
Kingston Bridge.
South of the Palace--shut off from the eastern gardens by a
climber-covered wall--is the smaller but very beautiful Privy Garden,
with its turf-banked terraces on either side, its sunken centre filled
with a wonderful variety of shrubs and trees. From the terrace walk on
the left we may look over the wall to the eastern gardens and park;
along the right-hand terrace is formed Queen Mary's Bower, an
intertwisted avenue of trimmed and cut wych-elms, some of the
distorted trunks of which might have inspired more than one of Dore's
Dante illustrations. This shady bower is in summer particularly
delightful, and from the farther end of it is to be had, through and
above the evergreens of this Privy Garden, a beautiful view of the
south front of the Palace. At the farther end of the Privy Garden,
fencing it from the towing path, are some magnificent iron gates and
screens.
Along the gravel walk, immediately against the south front of the
Palace, are ranged in summer great tubs with orange trees, believed to
be those originally planted here by Queen Mary--though it is not easy
to realize that they are over three hundred years old! And close to
this wall of the Palace stand two heroic Statues, Hercules with his
club, and another; it might be thought, half of the quartette of
figures that, as old views of the Palace show, at one time stood on
the low columns which rise above the balustrading of the roof, only
that quartette is said to have consisted of goddesses, since removed
to Windsor. In an old engraving, dated 1815, two figures are still to
be seen on the skyline.
Beyond the steps up to Queen Mary's Bower, a gateway leads us to the
farther Privy Gardens. On the right may be observed where Wren's
additions end abruptly against the windows of Queen Elizabeth's
Chambers, and her monogram is to be seen carved boldly above the
first-floor window in a decorative ribbon pattern, while above the
second-floor window are her initials beside a crowned Tudor rose, each
carving having the date 1568.
Here we are in the Pond Garden--or series of gardens--on the right,
over a low old wall, is a small turfed and flower grown enclosure with
the long Orangery at the farther side. On the left is a close grown
hedge, beyond which are a succession of small garden enclosures, only
the centre one of which is kept up as a show place, and this is the
delightful quadrangular enclosed space sometimes spoken of as the
Dutch Garden. This sunk garden, with its turf, its stone walks, that
are not walked upon, its small evergreens, cut by topiarian art into
the semblance of birds, its low-growing plants rich in varicoloured
flowers, its evergreen arbour at the farther end as a background to a
statue of Venus, its little fountain in the centre, is a spot that
always attracts visitors--attracts and holds them by its spell of
quiet beauty.
At the farther end of the gravel walk is the glasshouse in which for
close upon a hundred and fifty years has flourished the great grape
vine, which always proves an enormous attraction to those who come to
see the Palace. The vine--a Black Hamburg--was planted in 1768, and it
annually bears about twelve hundred bunches of grapes, many incipient
bunches being removed in accordance with the custom of viticulture to
allow the rest to mature the better. The vine has been known to bear
well over two thousand pounds weight--or about a ton--of grapes in a
single season. It is not, however, though sometimes so described, the
largest grape vine in England.
To the north of the Palace--reached by a gate in the wall of the Long
Walk, or first seen by those who come to Hampton Court Palace through
the Lion Gate--is the Wilderness, a half-cultivated place contrasting
greatly with the parts of the grounds that we have already been
visiting. Here are tall trees of various kinds, massed shrubs, and
broad stretches of turf spangled with daffodils and other bulbs in the
spring; within it is a smaller wilderness overlooked by many visitors
forming a kind of wild garden, its many flowers growing upon the rocky
banked sides of the tortuous paths, with groups of slender bamboo,
flowering shrubs and brambles,--a place which is particularly
fascinating in the late springtime.
Here, too, close to the Lion Gate, is that Maze which is always a
popular feature with holiday-makers old and young. Between the
Wilderness and the Palace lies the Old Melon Ground, now apparently
utilized by the gardeners whose incessant work maintains the grounds
of Hampton Court in so beautiful a state. West of the Wilderness is
the Old Tilt Yard, long since given over from joustings and tiltings
to the cultivation of plants, and not open to the public.
To go back to the eastern garden, we see at its farther edge the lime
avenue, with beyond it the Home Park, the two separated by shady
canals well grown with gorgeous water lilies and bordered by clumps of
fine foliage plants. It was presumably in the Park near here that
George Cavendish found Henry the Eighth engaged at archery practice
when he came to tell him of the death of Wolsey. It was in this Park,
at the farther end near Kingston Bridge, that Fox saw Oliver Cromwell
just before his fatal seizure, and it was in this Park, it is
believed, that the tripping of his horse over a molehill caused
William the Third's fatal fall. Just across the road bordering the
northern boundary of the Palace grounds lies the great extent of Bushy
Park, with its magnificent chestnut avenue; and mention may be made of
the fact that had King William lived, and Wren's plans been fully
carried out, that avenue would have been the approach to the grand new
Palace front which it was designed to make. As it is we have but such
part of the Tudor palace as the rebuilders allowed to remain, and we
have but such part of the Orange palace as destiny allowed William to
complete.
What we have, however, is a splendid whole, consisting, it may be, of
incongruous parts, yet one that for charm, for beauty generally and in
detail, and for fullness of interest, has but few rivals. Whether we
visit it on some quiet day in winter, or in the time when the grounds
are at their floral best, and when there are many hundreds of people
thronging the galleries and gardens on Sunday afternoons or on popular
holidays, it always gives us the same feeling of satisfaction that
comes of beautiful surroundings. In the smaller courts and in the
shady cloisters may be found in the heat of summer the soothing sense
that is one of the secret charms of haunts of ancient peace.
Cardinal Wolsey built himself a lordly pleasure house, unthinking of
the fickleness of a monarch's favour; Dutch William sought to make of
it a rival to Versailles; and each, though he did not completely
realize his design, may be said to have builded better than he
knew--in providing for succeeding ages a place of beauty "in which the
millions rejoice".