branch to Hampton Court Bridge. Several trains run to and fro in the course of the day, the time occupied by the journey being about 40 minutes. There are four tolerably good inns at Hampton Court. Hampton Court Palace is in Middlesex, on the northern bank of the Thames, about twelve miles from Hyde Park Corner. The Palace, which covers eight acres of ground, was founded by Cardinal Wolsey when in the plenitude of his power, and presented by him to Henry VIII., when he saw that the magnificence of the building excited the jealousy of his master. Here Edward VI. was born, and his father married to his sixth wife Catharine Parr. Here Edward VI. resided during part of his short reign, and Queen Mary spent her honeymoon with her Spanish husband. Both Elizabeth and James occasionally resided here, and during the reign of the latter there was held here that conference between the Presbyterians and the State clergy which is noticed as a remarkable event in English church history. James's queen Anne died here; and hither Charles I. and Queen Henrietta retired during the plague of 1625. Here in 1647 the same king was kept in confinement until he made his escape. The Parliament sold the palace, but it afterwards came into the hands of Cromwell, one of whose daughters was married and another one died here. William III. enlarged the palace considerably, and employed Sir Christopher Wren to make the additions. He laid out the park and gardens in the form they retain to this day. His queen was much attached to the place, and here she employed herself and her maids of honour upon needle-work, of which so much was done that it sufficed to fit up one of the rooms. Several succeeding sovereigns resided here, George II. being the last. It is now inhabited by a large number of persons in reduced circumstances, chiefly connected with the aristocracy, to whom the Crown has granted the privilege of having apartments here. Approaching the palace from the west we pass the low buildings used as barracks by the soldiers stationed here, and passing under an arch, enter a quadrangle, around which are apartments appropriated as previously mentioned. Crossing this we reach an arched passage where are the steps leading to the great hall, and proceeding we enter a second quadrangle known as the Clock Court. On the towers are terra cotta busts of some of the Roman Emperors sent from Rome by Pope Leo X. to Cardinal Wolsey. The buildings around the next court were erected by Wren as may be seen from the style. The fountain in the middle gives its name to this court, which is surrounded by an arcade below, and by the state apartments above. The way to the chapel is out of the north-west corner of this arcade. The passage on the east side leads into the garden. At a considerable height on the south side of the Fountain Court are some paintings by Laguerre representing the twelve labours of Hercules. The entrance to the State Apartments is up the grand staircase, painted by Verrio with allegorical devices intended to be complimentary to William and Mary. Passing through the Guard Chamber, which is ornamented with weapons fancifully arranged on the walls, we arrive at the King's First Presence Chamber, the first of a series of rooms in the south front of the palace looking into the private garden. The pictures hung in the rooms to which we are introducing the reader exceed a thousand, a number far too great to be satisfactorily inspected in a single visit. With the view of aiding the visitor to select those most worthy of notice in so large a collection, where a considerable number are absolutely worthless, we shall give him a few hints in passing along, and must refer him for a full list of them to Mr. Grundy's Stranger's Guide to Hampton Court, Palace, and Gardens," which may be purchased at the palace for sixpence. Mr. Grundy is the keeper, and his little work contains much information about the objects committed to his care. 66 * First Presence Chamber. Here are hung the portraits of ladies at the court of William and Mary, painted *There were about 200 pictures here before the accession of William IV. Since that time the pictures deposited in Kensington Palace have been brought hither, with many from Windsor and Buckingham Palace, until, as mentioned above, they now amount to more than a thousand. Notwithstanding the complaints that have been made ever since the palace was thrown open to the public as to the utter want of arrangement in the hanging of the pictures, they continue in the same reprehensible disorder. Twenty years ago Mrs. Jameson wrote "I do not say that nothing could be worse; but I do say that even admitting all the difficulty of arranging such a heterogeneous medley of pictures, some of infinite beauty and value, others bad beyond all terms of badness, in rooms not originally adapted for their reception, and where the light is only partially diffused; admitting all this, and the best intentions on the part of those employed, it is certain that something much better might be done here than has yet been done or apparently thought." Surely it is now time that some better arrangement should now be attempted, looking at the large number of persons who come here in the course of a year (upwards of 200,000), and the wide-spread, rapidly-increasing taste amongst the people for works of art. by Kneller, known as the Hampton Court Beauties, as well as a portrait of the Second Presence Chamber. 67. A Sculpture, by L. Bassano. 68. Alessandro dé Medici, by Titian. 69. Audience Chamber. 111. Ignatius Loyola, by Titian. 124. Titian, by himself. 125. Queen of Bo- King's Drawing-Room. 152. Family of Pordenone, by himself. 160. Presentation of Queen Esther, by William III.'s Bed-Room contains Queen Charlotte's state bed; the clock at the head goes twelve months mann. King's Dressing-Room. 209. Poultry, by Hondekoeter. The ceiling by Verrio. King's Writing-Closet. 230. Judith with the head of Holofernes. 239, 240. Still Life, by De Heém Queen Mary's Closet. 258. Daughter of Herodias, with John the Baptist's head-artist unknown. The Queen's Gallery, in the east front, is 172 feet long, and contains several good pictures, but placed in Reskemeer, and Henry VIII., all by Holbein. 329. Will Somers, Henry VIII.'s jester, by Holbein. 330. Francis I. of France, by Holbein. 331. Erasmus, by Holbein. 334. James I., by Van Somer. 336. Holbein's Father and Mother, by Holbein. 345, 346. Portraits of Ladies, by Sir A. More. 346. Laughing Boy, by F. Hals. 381. Sea-piece, by Van der Velde. 391. Infant Christ and St. John, by L. da Vinci. 392. St. Catherine reading, by Correggio. 403. A Sibyl, by Bordone. 410. Lucretia, by Titian. 412. St. Catherine, by Luini. 416. Venetian Gentleman, by Tintoretto. 421. Jewish Rabbi, by Rembrandt. 426. Boar's head, by Snyders. 428. Fruit, and Still Life, by Cuyp. 432. Dutch lady, by Rembrandt. 437. Bo paring Fruit, by Murillo. 438. Venetian Gentleman, by L. Bassano. The Queen's Bed-Room contains Queen Anne's state bed, the velvet furniture and hangings of Spitalfields manufacture. Sir James Thornhill, Hogarth's father-in-law, painted the ceiling. 455, 459. James I. and his Queen, by Van Somer. 773. Lady and Gentleman, by Giorgione. 457. Christian, Duke of Brunswick Lunenburg, by Honthorst. 463. Venus and Cupid, drawn by Michael Angelo, painted by Pontormo. 464. Dogs, by Snyders. 466. Virgin and Child, by Giorgione. The Queen's Drawing-Room is full of the pictures of West, the favourite painter of George III. His works are little esteemed in these days, but two of his best pictures are here-497. The Death of General Wolfe, considered his chef d'œuvre; and 501. The Departure of Regulus. The view from the middle window of this room is worth notice. The canal, threequarters of a mile long, and the avenue of lime trees in the Home Park, were formed by William III., and are quite in the Dutch style. Kingston Church is seen down the avenue on the left. The scene reminds us of Pope's couplet, "Grove nods at grove, each alley has a brother, The Queen's Audience Chamber. 509. The Woman of Samaria, by Palma. 510. Henry VIII., his Queen, Jane Seymour, and his three Children, with Will Somers the jester and his wife, by Holbein. 511. Cupid, by Parmegiano. 514. James I., Whitehall in the background, by Van Somer. The next four are very curious paintings by Holbein. 515. Henry VIII. embarking at Dover. 517. The Battle of Spurs. 520. Meeting of Henry VIII. with Francis I. on the "Field of the Cloth of Gold." 524. Meeting of Henry VIII. and the Emperor Maximilian. 526. The Apostles Peter, James, and John, by Caravaggio. The Public Dining-Room. Here are placed the state canopy and bier used for the lying in state of the late Duke of Wellington at Chelsea Hospital. On the walls are some of the prize cartoons exhibited in Westminster Hall in 1845. They were prepared with a view to the decoration of the walls of the new Houses of Parliament. The Prince of Wales' Presence-Chamber. 543. A Lady's Portrait, by Parmegiano. 554. A Concert, by Giov. Bellini. 560. Ganymede, by Michael Angelo. 577. A Barrack-Room, by C. Troost. 588. Villiers, first Duke of Buckingham, by Janssen. 589. A Foreign Prince, by Mirevelt. The Prince of Wales' Drawing-Room. 609. Frederick Prince of Wales (son of George II.), with his Wife and Children. Prince George, afterwards George III., and the Duke of York are inspecting a plan, the others playing; a large picture, by Knapton. 627. Queen Charlotte with the Prince of Wales, afterwards George IV., and the Duke of York when young, by Ramsay. The Prince of Wales' Bed-Room. 631. Holy Family, by Pordenone. 632. Holy Family, by Giorgione. We may hurry through the next small rooms (which contain several pictures, but so placed that no opinion can be formed of their merits), and through the Private Dining-Room, which contains the state beds of William III. and Mary, and the bed used by George II. when residing here, to the gallery in which are hung the celebrated Cartoons of Raphael. The gallery was built by Wren expressly to receive these great works, which are known all over the world by the numerous engravings that have been made from them.* The drawings were made by Raphael in 1513 and 1514 with chalk upon paper (charta, whence cartoon), and afterwards coloured in distemper in order that Pope Leo X. might have them copied in tapestry at Arras in Flanders. Two sets were executed, one of which was retained by the Pope, and is still at the Vatican in a dilapidated condition, and the other was presented to Henry VIII., at that time Defender of the Faith. After the death of Charles I., the second set of tapestry was sold to the Spanish ambassador, and went to Spain, where it remained until 1823, when, having been bought by an English gentleman, it was again brought to England. It has since passed through various hands, and is now somewhere in Germany. As to the cartoons before us, seven of the original number (three having been lost or destroyed) were purchased in Flanders on account of Charles I., and added to the royal collection. When that was sold they were bought for £300, by order of Cromwell. George III. removed them to Buckingham House, and afterwards to Windsor. After remaining there about twenty years they were brought back to Hampton Court. 1. The Death of Ananias. 2. Elymas the sorcerer struck with blindness. 3. Peter and John healing the lame man at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple. 4. The Miraculous draught of Fishes. 5. Paul and Barnabus at Lystra. 6. St. Paul preaching at Athens (generally thought the finest of the series). 7. Christ's Charge to Peter. * Photographs of different sizes of these cartoons may now be obtained at the Suoth Kensington Museum for a small sum. |