urveys his rising towers
There stands a structure of majestic frame,
Which from the neighb'ring Hampton takes its name."--_Pope._

I

For combined beauty and interest--varied beauty and historical
interest--there is no place "within easy reach of London", certainly
no place within the suburban radius, that can compare with the stately
Tudor palace which stands on the left bank of the Thames, little more
than a dozen miles from the metropolis and, though hidden in trees,
within eye-reach of Richmond. It is not only one of the "show places",
which every traveller from afar is supposed to visit as something of a
duty, but it is a place that conveys impressions of beauty and
restfulness in a way that few others can. It remains ancient without
having lapsed into a state of desuetude that leaves everything to the
imagination; it is a living whole far from any of the garishness that
belongs to contemporaneity. Whether seen from the outside on the west,
where the warm red brick, the varied roofs, the clustered decorative
chimneys suggestive of the Tudor time make a rich and harmonious
whole; or from the south east, where the many-windowed long straight
lines of the Orange additions show the red brick diversified with
white stone, it is a noble and impressive pile. Within, too, are
priceless treasures, themselves alone the objective of countless
pilgrimages. And recognizing the attractions of the buildings and
their contents is to take no account of the lovely grounds, and of the
crowding associations of a place that, since its establishment four
hundred years ago, has again and again been the centre at which
history was made.

Throughout our records for many centuries the valley of the Thames has
been favoured when our monarchs have sought to establish a new home.
Greenwich and London--the Tower, Whitehall, Buckingham Palace--Richmond
and Hampton Court, Windsor, Reading and Oxford, are some of the places
that have at one time or another been the chosen centre of royal life;
and Hampton Court Palace is the newest of those situated close on the
river's bank, though nearly two hundred years have elapsed since it was
a regular royal residence. It was, indeed, for something less than the
same length of time that it was in use as a home of the sovereign, but
within that period it saw two revolutions, and the change of national
conditions from the comparative mediaevalism of the days of the eighth
Henry to the comp