used it daily. Near this is a long
gallery which is supposed to be haunted by the ghost of Queen
Catharine Howard. After the dullness of the State Apartments, this
possessed great interest for the boys, and they lingered here as long
as Mrs. Pitt would allow. They were forced to come away disappointed,
however, without having heard even one little scream.

"You'd better spend the night here, John," remarked Philip, in teasing
tones. "That's the proper time to see and hear ghosts." John decided
not to wait, however.

Of all the one thousand rooms of the great palace, they saw only one
more, and that was Henry VIII's Gothic Chapel, gorgeous in its fine
carving and gilding, and in which the magnificent ceremony of the
baptism of Prince Edward, afterwards Edward VI, was held.

The gardens of Hampton Court are perhaps better known and enjoyed than
the palace itself. They are very extensive, and are laid out in the
French style. Directly before the long front of William III's
addition, is a great round basin with a fountain, and beyond stretches
the "Long Canal,"--a straight and narrow artificial pond, bordered by
very beautiful trees. Then there is the "Home Park" on either side of
the canal; here Henry VIII and Catharine Howard probably wandered
often during their long honeymoon at Hampton Court; and here William
III was riding on the day when he was thrown from his horse and
killed.

There is what is called the "Wilderness,"--in reality a maze--which
was greatly enjoyed by the party; and nearer the palace, again, is the
tennis-court, where that game has been played for three centuries and
a half. Some of the players here have been Henry VIII, the Earl of
Leicester, Charles I, Charles II, and the present King, Edward VII,
when he was Prince of Wales.

"And didn't that American, Pettitt, play here?" inquired John. "He won
the World's Championship in England, you know. Yes, I thought it was
here, though the word Hampton Court never meant much to me before
to-day."

There is still the remarkable Hampton Court Vine, the fame of which
has spread so far. The vine fills a whole greenhouse, and one of its
branches is a hundred and fourteen feet long. The attendant told Betty
that the crop consists of about eight hundred bunches, each one
weighing a pound. Having duly marveled at this, they explored Queen
Mary's lovely bower or arbor, where that Queen used to sit with her
ladies at the tapestry-frames.

"Dear me, let's go