hment by enlarging the park, appropriating a good slice of
Enfield Chace, with parts of Northaw and Cheshunt Commons, and
surrounding the whole with a high brick wall ten miles in circumference.
Within this ring he found ample scope for the indulgence of his hunting
propensities, since it contained an almost inexhaustible stock of the
finest deer in the kingdom; and within it might be heard the sound of
his merry horn, and the baying of his favourite stag-hounds, whenever he
could escape from the cares of state, or the toils of the
council-chamber. His escapes from these demands upon his time were so
frequent, and the attraction of the woods of Theobalds so irresistible,
that remonstrances were made to him on the subject; but they proved
entirely ineffectual. He declared he would rather return to Scotland
than forego his amusements.

Theobalds, in the time of its grandeur, might be styled the
Fontainebleau of England. Though not to be compared with Windsor Castle
in grandeur of situation, or magnificence of forest scenery, still it
was a stately residence, and worthy of the monarch of a mighty country.
Crowned with four square towers of considerable height and magnitude,
each with a lion and vane on the top; it had besides, a large,
lantern-shaped central turret, proudly domineering over the others, and
"made with timber of excellent workmanship, curiously wrought with
divers pinnacles at each corner, wherein were hung twelve bells for
chimage, and a clock with chimes of sundry work." The whole structure
was built, says the survey, "of excellent brick, with coigns, jambs, and
cornices of stone." Approached from the south by a noble avenue of
trees, planted in double rows, and a mile in length, it presented a
striking and most picturesque appearance, with its lofty towers, its
great gilded vanes, supported, as we have said, by lions, its crowd of
twisted chimnies, its leaded and arched walks, its balconies, and its
immense bay windows. Nor did it lose its majestic and beautiful aspect
as you advanced nearer, and its vast proportions became more fully
developed. Then you perceived its grand though irregular facades, its
enormous gates, its cloistered walks, and its superb gardens; and
comprehended that with its five courts and the countless apartments they
contained, to say nothing of the world of offices, that the huge edifice
comprised a town within itself--and a well-peopled town too. The members
of the household, and