.

In 1798 we hear of a man being accidentally shot while the keepers were
hunting (presumably shooting) foxes in Kensington Gardens.

In the Palace itself the state apartments are now open to the public
every day of the week except Wednesdays. This admittance was granted by
Queen Victoria in commemoration of her eightieth year. Previously to
this time the Palace had been allowed to fall into decay, and it needed
a large grant from Parliament to put it into repair again. The state
rooms, which are on the second floor, are well worth a visit, and the
names of each, such as "Queen Mary's Gallery," "Queen Caroline's
Drawing-room," and "King's Privy Chamber," are above the doors, as at
Hampton Court. These rooms are nearly all liberally supplied with
pictures, many of which were restored from Hampton Court after having
been previously taken there. We see here the winsome face of the poor
little Duke of Gloucester (p. 72), handsome Queen Caroline, sardonic
William, and the family group of the children of Frederick, Prince of
Wales. The selection has been made with judgment, and every picture
speaks to us of the reigns most closely connected with the Palace. It is
well to note the view eastward from the King's Drawing-room, which
comes as a surprise. The outlook is over the Round Pond and down a vista
of trees to the Serpentine, and gives a surprising effect of distance.
The rooms that will always attract most attention, however, are those
which were occupied by Queen Victoria as a child.

When the Duke and Duchess of Kent came to Kensington Palace seven months
after their marriage, the fact that a child of theirs might occupy the
English throne was a possibility, but a remote one. George III. was then
on the throne; the daughter and only child of his eldest son, Princess
Charlotte, had died a year previously, and it was natural that after
this event the succession should be considered in a new light. The next
son, William, Duke of Clarence, had carried on a lifelong connection
with Mrs. Jordan, by whom he had ten children, and when the death of his
elder brother's only child made him heir to the throne, it was necessary
for him to contract a more suitable alliance, so with great reluctance
he married Adelaide, daughter of the Duke of Saxe-Coburg Meiningen, in
1818. Frederick, Duke of York, the next in age, had been married for
many years, but his union had proved childless. He is the Duke
commemorated in the column in Wate