A Short History of Hampton Court ... With numerous illustrations

Front matter

A SHORT HISTORY OF HAMPTON COURT GEORGE BELL & SONS LONDON : YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN NEW YORK : 66, FIFTH AVENUE, AND BOMBAY: 53, ESPLANADE ROAD CAMBRIDGE : DEIGHTON, BELL & CO. HENRY VIII. AT THE AGE OF FORTY-FIVE. (After the Portrait at Hampton Court, probably by an Italian Artist. ) From a photograph by Messrs. Wm. M . Spooner and Co. A SHORT HISTORY OF HAMPTON COURT BY ERNEST LAW, B.A. BARRISTER-AT-LAW ; AUTHOR OF "THE HISTORY OF HAMPTON COURT PALACE," IN THREE VOLUMES ; " A HISTORICAL CATALOGUE OF THE PICTURES AT HAMPTON COURT," ETC, ETC. WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS LONDON: GEORGE BELL AND SONS CHISWICK PRESS : — CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO. TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.

Preface

. THIS volume has been compiled from the author's larger works with the view of affording a con tinuous narrative of events, and a picture of life at Hampton Court, during the four centuries of its history, in such a compact and compendious form, and at so moderate a price, as to bring it within the range and means of the general reader. Consequently, while all that seemed essential to this object has been reproduced in the present book, much topographical detail and many discussions on questions of art and archæology, which occupy a con siderable space in " The History of Hampton Court Palace," in three quarto volumes, have necessarily been either greatly abbreviated, or altogether omitted. Likewise it has been thought superfluous to give A VI

PREFACE.

. here any authorities or references, or to cumber the pages with notes and appendices, all of which, being furnished in ample detail in the larger works, can be easily consulted therein by anyone seeking fuller in formation. The favourable reception accorded by the press and the public to the author's previous volumes, and the considerable demand which continues to be made for them, encourage the hope that this " Short History of Hampton Court," designed as it is for a more extended class of readers, may equally meet with public approval. CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGE I. Cardinal Wolsey at Hampton Court ... i II. Decoration and Furniture of Wolsey's Palace 20 III. Cardinal Wolsey's Magnificence 35 IV. Henry VIII. at Home 55 V. Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour 77 VI. Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard, and Catherine Parr 103 VII.

Edward VI. and the Protector Somerset . 112 VIII. Queen Mary, King Philip, and the Princess Elizabeth 122 IX. Reconciliation of Mary and Elizabeth . . 128 X. Queen Elizabeth at Home 137 XI. Queen Elizabeth's Conferences and Entertainments 147 XII. James I.'s Christmas Entertainments . . . 160 XIII. James I.'s Amusements 181 XIV. Charles I.'s Quarrel with his Queen . . . 201 XV. Charles 1. as King and Captive 212 XVI. Charles I.'s Escape from Hampton Court . 227 XVII. The Commonwealth. Hampton Court for Sale 237 XVIII. Oliver Cromwell's Private Life at Hampton Court 243 XIX. The Restoration. Honeymoon of Charles II. and his Wife 258 XX. Charles II. 's Disagreement with his Wife . 270 XXI. Hampton Court under Charles II. and James II 285 XXII. William and Mary at Hampton Court . . 289 XXIII.

Queen Mary at Home in her new Palace . 300 XXIV. King William's Works and Improvements . 322 XXV. William III. in his new Palace — Further Works 333 XXVI. William III. 's Declining Health and Death . CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGE XXVII. Queen Anne at Hampton Court. " The Rape of the Lock " 351 XXVIII. George I. at Hampton Court 359 XXIX. Court Life under George II 373 XXX. Hampton Court during the Reign of George III. — the Palace divided into Private Apartments 380 XXXI. Hampton Court during the Reigns of George IV. and William IV 388 XXXII. Queen Victoria — Hampton Court as a Popular Resort 393 Index LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Henry VIII. at the Age of Forty-five Frontispiece Great Elm Tree in the Home Park known as the " Two Sisters," or " King Charles's Swing 3 Bird's-Eye View of Hampton Court, showing the extent of Wolsey's Palace 7 West Front of Wolsey's Palace 9 Gable.

From Wolsey's West Front " Entrance to Katharine of Arragon's Rooms 13 The Master Carpenter's Court on the North Side of the First Court of Wolsey's Palace '5 Entrance to the North Wing of the Palace, leading to the Offices . 17 The First Green Court, with the Cupolas restored 21 Arms of Cardinal Wolsey 23 Cardinal Wolsey's Closet 24 One of Cardinal Wolsey's Rooms 25 Decorative Frieze in Cardinal Wolsey's Closet 26 Oriel Window in Wolsey's First Green Court 27 Wolsey's oak-panelled Room in the Clock Court 31 Cardinal Wolsey in Bed 32 Cardinal Wolsey's Arms as Archbishop of York 3i Cardinal Wolsey 39 Wolsey's Low Gallery, on the Ground Floor of the South Range, in the First Court 41 Cardinal Wolsey in Progress 43 Seizure of the Cardinal's Goods 51 Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn, sending tokens of Goodwill to the sick Cardinal 53 Lead Water-spout, put up by Henry VIII 57 Back Court, by the Great Kitchen 65 View of one of the old Offices in Henry VIII.'s Palace .... 67 The Great Kitchen 71 Entrance to Henry VIII.'s Cellars under the Hall and Great Watching Chamber 73 Old Lattice Window, with Ventilators of perforated Lead ... 75 Anne Boleyn's Gateway 7^ Anne Boleyn 79 Exterior of the Great Hall.

From the Clock Court 81 Great Bay Window on the Dais in the Great Hall 83 The Great Hall. From the Dais 85 Jane Seymour 87 View of the old East Front of Hampton Court Palace, as finished by Henry VIII X LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE The Chapel 91 Carrying of Prince Edward to the Font 92 The Chapel Doorway 93 The Clock Court, as it appeared in the reign of Henr)- VIII. . . 95 The Ghost of Mrs. Penn, Edward VI. 's Nurse 99 The Chapel Court, as seen from Prince Edward's (Edward VI.) Lodgings 101 View from the River Thames of the old Palace of Hampton Court, as finished by Henry VIII 102 Henry VIII. and his Council 105 The Haunted Gallery 109 Henry VIII.'s Private Stairs in the Clock Court, leading to his Privy Chamber no Henry VIII. playing on the Lute ; with his jester, Will Somers, singing m Edward VI 113 The Duke of Somerset 115 Doorway of the Great Gate-house 116 The Great Gate-house, restored 117 Edward XI. and his Council 119 The Prison, so-called, in the Round Kitchen Court 121 Thilip II. of Spain 123 View of the Chimneys of the Great Kitchen, Tennis Court Lane . 125 View of Hampton Court Palace from the Thames in the reign of Queen Mary 129 Queen Mary ijj " My Lord Robert Dudley's Picture " 141 Round Kitchen Court 14c Carved Stone on Queen Elizabeth's Window 14S Foot of the Great Hall Stairs 149 Old Leaden Water-spouts on Queen Elizabeth's Stables . . . 151 The Fish Court icr The Dungeon kq Bay Window in the Great Watching Chamber ...... 165 The Screens in the Great Hall 167 Entrance to the Buttery under the Pantry and Great Hall . .' . 171 James I. out Hunting, " Taking the Assay " 1S9 King James I jo- Charles 1 20*.

Family of George Villiers, ist Duke of Buckingham 213 Charles I. and his Queen dining in Public 215 View of the North of the Palace in Tennis Court Lane . 22 . The Old Pond Garden . . 229 Parapet of the Great Hall as seen from the Roof . . . . _ 241 Mrs. Cromwell, " the Lady Protectress " 247 Old East Front of Hampton Court in the time of Charles II.' _ 269 Back Stairs to the Great Hall 270 Bird's-Eye View of Hampton Court in the reign of William III. '. 297 The Old Greenhouse, with an American Agave in flower, and Queen Mary's Orange Trees w Queen Mary's Bower A LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xi PAGE East Front and Great Fountain Garden 307 The South Front of William III.'s New Palace 309 The Colonnade 311 The Fountain Court 313 Pediment of a Window in the South Front, surmounted by William and Mary's Coat-of-Arms 317 Screen and Gate of Wrought Iron formerly in the Gardens at Hampton Court 319 The King's Great Staircase 325 The Flower-Pot Gate 327 The Maze 329 The King's Guard Chamber 331 King William III.'s State Bedchamber 335 " The Rape of the Lock " 357 The Queen's State Bedchamber, showing the Ceiling painted by Sir James Thornhill in 1716 361 The Pavilions belonging to the Bowling Green at the end of the Terrace Walk at Hampton Court 365 View, looking eastward, of the Diagonal Walks in the Great Fountain Garden in the time of George II 377 The Pavilion, Hampton Court Park, the Seat of H.R.H. the Duke of Kent 386 North-East Angle of the old Palace, with the Gateway into Lady Mornington's Garden 389 " Purr Corner " 391 " The Push " 401 The House or Home Park and Long Canal 403 The Privy Garden 405 View, looking east, of the Long Canal and Great Avenue in the House or Home Park

Chapter I. Cardinal Wolsey At Hampton Court

AMONG the many places of interest that lie within easy reach of London, there is none, if we except Windsor Castle, that can be held to vie in historic and artistic charms with the Queen's magnificent palace at Hampton Court. Nowhere else do we meet with attractions so uncommon, and yet so varied, as those which are to be found within its precincts. There we may behold a building, which still remains, altered and restored though it has been, an almost perfect specimen of Tudor palatial architecture, side by side with the best example existing in England of the debased classic Louis XIV., namely, Wren's State Apartments. There, too, we may feel, in a more than ordinary degree, amid its red-brick courts, solemn cloisters, picturesque gables, towers, turrets, embattled parapets, and mullioned and latticed windows, that indescribable charm which invests all ancient and historic places.

While walking through Wolsey's courts we may recall the splendour and wealth of the mighty Cardinal ; and while standing in Henry VIII.'s chapel, or his gorgeous Gothic hall, ponder on the many thrilling events enacted within the palace in the days of the Tudors and Stuarts — the birth of Edward VI. and the death of Jane Seymour ; the marriages of Catherine Howard and Catherine Parr ; the honeymoons of Philip of Spain and Mary Tudor, and of Charles II. and Catherine of Braganza ; James I.'s conference with the Puritans ; and Cromwell's sojourn here in almost regal splendour. And while passing through William III.'s splendid suite of rooms, with their B painted ceilings, carved cornices, tapestried and oak-panelled walls, we may mentally people them again with the king's and queens, and statesmen and courtiers, who thronged them in the last century.

Moreover, by the aid of an unbroken series of historical pictures and portraits, illus trative of three centuries of English history, we may recall the past with a vividness that no books can ever excite. And then, when satiated with art and archæology, we can relax the mind by wandering beneath the shade of William III.'s stately avenues of chestnut and lime; strolling in the ever-delightful gardens where Wolsey paced in anxious meditation a few weeks before his fall ; where Henry VIII. made love to Anne Boleyn and to Catherine Howard ; along the paths where Queen Elizabeth took her daily morning walk ; past the tennis court where Charles I. played his last game on the day he escaped from the palace ; beneath the bower where Queen Mary sat at needlework with her maids of honour ; along the terrace to the bowling green and pavilion where George II. made love to Mrs. Howard and Mary Bellenden ; under the lime groves which sheltered from the sun Pope and Hervey, Swift and Addison, Walpole and Bolingbroke.

Hampton Court is pleasantly situated on the left or north bank of the river Thames, in the hundred of Spelthorne, in the county of Middlesex, about one mile distant from the villages of Hampton and Hampton Wick, about a mile and a half from the town of Kingston-on-Thames, and thirteen miles or so from London, reckoning in a westerly direction from Charing Cross. It longitude is o° 20' west of Greenwich, and its latitude 51° 24' north. The boundaries of the ancient parish of Hampton appear to have been coterminous with those of the manor, which consists of about 3,000 acres and of which Hampton Court forms a part. The natural features of the country in which Hampton Court is situated are not particularly striking. The ground is flat, with scarcely an undulation rising more than twenty feet above the dead level, and the soil, though light and gravelly, supports very little indigenous timber.

Indeed, in primæval times, the whole district of Hampton appears to have been an open tract, forming part of the famous Hounslow Heath, to which it immediately adjoins ; and the INTRODUCTORY. 3 thorns in Bushey Park, with a few ancient gigantic elms and oaks in the Home Park, are still surviving remnants or traces of its original state. One of the oaks, which is believed to be the largest in England, is as much as 37 feet in girth at the waist. Nevertheless, the surrounding prospect must, from the earliest times, have been not unpleasing. The stretch of GREAT ELM TREE IN THE HOME PARK KNOWN AS THE "TWO SISTERS," OR "KING CHARLES'S SWING." the river opposite Hampton Court — studded with eyots, and bordered with luxuriant meadows fringed with willows — is one ofthe prettiest in the lower Thames ; and the stream, which is particularly clear and swift at this point, is always lively with boats and barges.

When we add, that the view from the palace extends, across the river, over a wide expanse of " Meads for ever crowned with flowers," clusters of trees, flowery hedgerows, and broad undulating heath-clad commons, — "To Claremont's terraced height, and Esher's groves, By the soft windings of the silent Mole,—" and that in the distance can be traced the dim blue outline of the Surrey hills; while on another side appear the crowded gables and the picturesque old church-tower of Kingston, we have enumerated all the natural and local amenities of Hampton Court. Of the annals of the place in the days of the ancient Britons, Romans, and Saxons, we can record nothing but a complete blank; nor have there been found here many traces or remains of those periods of history. To Saxon times we owe, of course, the name Hampton, a compound of the words Hame, meaning home or place of shelter, and Ton, signifying an aggregate of houses environed and fortified with a hedge and ditch.

The first mention of Hampton in any records is to be found in Domesday Book, compiled in 1086, where the manor of Hamntone in the county of Middlesex, and the hundred of Spelthorne, which in Saxon times had belonged to Earl Algar, is entered as held by Walter de St. Valerie or Valeric, and valued, including arable land, pasture for the cattle of the manor, and 3^. arising from the fisheries in the Thames, at a very high value for Domesday. In the time of Edward the Confessor it was valued at of which the King received For a century and a half after this, the manor remained in the possession of the family of De Valery or De St. Valery. From their hands it passed into those of Henry de St. Albans, who about the year 1 2 1 7 gave it, lent it, or leased it to the Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem, who appear to have had here, as early as the end of the twelfth century, a preceptory of some sisters of their Order; and who were, at any rate, by the middle of the thirteenth century in possession of the whole manor of Hampton.

The Order was at this time in the heyday of its prosperity and power, and possessed enormous property in every country in Europe, and not least in England, where their lands were farmed, and money amassed, to be paid into the LEASE OF THE MANOR TO WOLSEY. 5 exchequer for the general purposes of the ruling body. The establishment at Hampton, however, though a typical one, must have been on a small scale, and maintained for little more than managing the property and collecting the rents. For 1 60 years or so, we hear little of the manor of Hampton Court. But the house was still inhabited by the Order in the year 1503, when Elizabeth of York went there from Richmond Palace, as we gather from her privy purse expenses, to make a retreat, and pray for a happy delivery, just a month before she died in childbed.

We may observe here that long before the manor was acquired by Wolsey it was known by the name of " Hampton Court," and that it is incorrect to suppose that the word " Court " has anything to do with the palace, which he built. It has, in fact, the same origin and meaning as in the names Ember Court, Sayes Court, etc., and signifies, in distinction to the whole manor, that portion of it which was retained by the Lord for his own use, and called the demesne lands, and in which was situated the manor-house, or capital mansion of the manor. The next date in the history of Hampton Court is 1514, on the 20th of March of which year Henry visited the manor in company with Katharine of Arragon. A little later, in the same year, 15 14, namely, on Mid summer day, by an indenture executed on the nth of January of the following year, the manor of Hampton Court, with all its appurtenances, was leased by the prior, Sir Thomas Docwra, and his brethren Knights of the Hospital of St. John to "the most Rev. Father in God Thomas Wolsey, Archbishop of York," for a term of ninety-nine years, at a rent of ,£50 per annum.

A contemporary copy of the lease is still extant in the chartulary of the priory in the British Museum, and confirms our surmise that there was a manor-house on the site of the present palace previous to its acquisition by Wolsey, though it was evidently of small dimensions, and very rudely furnished. Several motives probably weighed with Wolsey in fixing on Hampton Court as a residence. In the first place, he was in need of a secluded country place, within easy access of London, whither he could withdraw occasionally for rest and quiet without being too far from the centre of affairs as he would certainly have been, had he retired to his diocesan palaces of York, Lincoln, or Durham. At the same time he was anxious to select a place where his health, which suffered much from the fogs and smoke of London, might be recruited in fresh and pure air.

We may presume, too, that he was not regardless of the advantage attaching to a site on the banks of the Thames, in days when, on account of the badness and danger of the roads, no route was so safe, convenient, and expeditious as the "silent highway" of a river. With these objects in view, he is declared by the legend of the parish to have " employed the most eminent physicians in England, and even called in the aid of doctors from Padua, to select the most healthy spot within twenty miles of London." The decision of the faculty was emphatically in favour of Hampton Court, on account of its " extraordinary salubrity"; and Wolsey, in accordance with their advice, forthwith proceeded to treat for a lease of the manor. Whether this tradition be founded on fact or not, it would be impossible now to decide ; but certainly the healthiness of Hampton Court at the present is an unquestioned fact, nor has anything ever happened, during the last 370 years, to belie the favourable opinion of Wolsey's doctors.

The building, though the ground floor is scarcely 10 feet above the average level of the river, is wonderfully free from damp, while the air, though sometimes foggy, is never unwholesome. Much of this is doubtless due to the gravelly nature of the soil, the absence of moist vegetation, and the proximity of the running stream of the river, which acts as a drain to carry off all surface water and impurites. Wolsey had no sooner entered into possession of Hampton Court, than he began with characteristic energy to plan the erection of a vast and sumptuous edifice commensurate with the dignity and wealth he had just attained to. He was then on the threshold of his career of greatness, and already receiving enormous revenues. Besides his office of Grand Almoner, he had been appointed within a year to three several bishoprics — that of Lincoln, that of Tournay in France, and the archbishopric of York ; and in quick sue- CARDINAL WOLSEY'S EARLY DAYS. 7 cession followed the Abbey of St. Albans in commendam and the bishopric of Durham (though he surrendered Durham soon after into the King's hand to take the bishopric of Winchester instead), and the bishoprics of Bath, Worcester, and Hereford, in farm.

To these and many minor dignities were added those of Cardinal on the 20th of September, TURD _-EYE VIEW OF HAMPTON COURT, SHOWING THE EXTENT OF WOLSEY'S PALACE. 1515, ofthe Lord Chancellorship of England on the 22nd of December in the same year, and of a Legate a latere in 15 18. And yet amid the multifarious labours that these offices entailed upon him, he found time to supervise everything relating to his buildings and his household. No matter was too insignificant, no detail too trivial, to come within the grasp of his all-reaching intellect. Though engaged till midday in the administration of justice in Westminster Hall, and occupied the rest of the day in carrying on the whole government of the kingdom, receiving foreign ambassadors, reading despatches, writing instructions to his agents abroad, and retaining in his mind the whole complex thread of continental politics, we find him superintending the most minute details in regard to the works at Hampton Court, besides doing the same for his school at Ipswich, his college at Oxford, and his other place at Whitehall.

He was resolved to have a country residence, befitting the dignity of his high station as a prince of the Church, and he spared no effort for this object. Hundreds of artificers, of all sorts, were daily engaged on "my Lord Cardinal's works" in the parks, gardens, and buildings, which were pushed on with the greatest speed possible. The old manor-house already stood in the midst of an extensive domain of pasture land, consisting of some 2,000 acres. All this he proceeded to convert into two parks, fencing them partly with paling, and partly inclosing them with a stout red-brick buttressed wall, a great part of which remains to this day, and may be identified by its deep crimson colour, toned here and there with chequered lines of black burnt bricks. There may be found, too, inserted in this wall of Wolsey's on the Kingston Road, near the Paddock, a curious device of these black bricks, disposed in the form of a cross, evidently an allusion to his ecclesiastical character.

At the same time he surrounded the house and gardens with a great moat — a precaution which is noticeable, as the mediævalcustomof so defending dwelling places had generally died out, since the Wars of the Roses, and Wolsey's moat here must have been one of the last made. It remained as a prominent feature in front of the palace till the time of William III., and traces of it still exist on the north side of the palace. His gardens, also, were to be an appanage in every way worthy of the princely residence he was projecting. Many curious entries for wages of gardeners, and for spades, shovels, barrows, seeds, plants, "for the use of my Lorde's garthinges at Hampton Courte," occur in the original bills, which are still preserved in the Record Office. WOLSEY'S EXTENSIVE BUILDING SCHEMES. 9 Nor did the Cardinal neglect the sanitary arrangements of his house.

Every part of the building was carefully drained, and the rain-water and other refuse was carried off by great brick sewers, 3 feet wide and 5 feet high, into the Thames. So excellent, in truth, was his system of drainage, that it was not found necessary to interfere with or supersede it till the year 1871. Another aim of the Cardinal's was to secure, for the use of himself and his household, the purest water that was to be had anywhere in the vicinity, for though people in these enlightened days are content to drink the " diluted sewage " of the Thames, Wolsey, living in the benighted times of the WEST FRONT OF WOLSEY'S PALACE. Tudors, would by no means tolerate its then comparatively innocuous waters. With the object, accordingly, of procur ing the best possible supply, the springs at Coombe Hill, a spot about three miles distant from Hampton Court, were collected in several conduits or water-houses, whence the water was conveyed, in a double set of strong leaden pipes, from Coombe to Surbiton, under the Hogsmill River (a small tributary of the Thames), and then under the Thames above Kingston Bridge, and so through the Home Park to the palace.

The leaden pipes as originally laid down were moulds in lengths of 25 feet each. The diameter of each pipe is about 2i inches, the thickness is half an inch, and the amount of lead used must have been about tons, which, with the labour in laying them down, would give a cost of something like ,£50,000. We find, also, that there were in several parts of the palace baths and other conveniences — facts which go to modify the too common notion that cleanliness is entirely a modern virtue, and was little thought of in mediæval times. To these wise precautions, as much, perhaps, as to the natural salubrity of the locality, we may ascribe the immunity from any serious epidemic which Hampton Court has enjoyed during the last 370 years, when the sweating sickness, the plague, small-pox, and scarlet fever have been fiercely raging around.

All this, however, was only subsidiary to the main concern of the building of the palace itself, which was planned on a most extensive scale. As to who was Wolsey's architect we can arrive at no certain determination. Whoever he was, there can be no question as to the skill and taste with which the building was carried out. The general plan and scope of the building were, no doubt, determined by the Cardinal himself. The material selected was red brick, stone being employed for the windows, the doorways, the copings of the parapets and turrets, the string-courses, and the various ornamental details, — such as pinnacles, gargoyles, and heraldic beasts, on gables and elsewhere. The first portion taken in hand was, doubtless, the great west front of the building, which extends, with its two wings, from north to south 400 feet.

The fagade, though only two storeys in height, has considerable beauty about it, and the picturesque turrets at the angles of the building, the embrasured parapet, the chimneys of carved and twisted brick, the graceful gables with their gargoyles and pinnacles, and the varied mullioned windows, form an admirable specimen of Tudor domestic architecture. An especially striking feature in Wolsey's west front, as in other parts of the Tudor building, is the delicately moulded forms of the chimney shafts, which rise in variously grouped clusters, like slender turrets, above the battlements and gables. They are all of red brick, constructed on many varieties of plan, and wrought and rubbed, with the greatest nicety, into different decorative patterns. Some are circular, BUILDING OF THE PALACE. 11 some square (but set diagonally), and some octagonal ; and they are grouped together in twos or fours, with their shafts sometimes carried up solid, and sometimes separate.

Another charm is the deep crimson of the bricks, approxi mating often to a rich purple, which contrasts favourably with the staring scarlet of modern red brickwork. As to the use to which this part of Wolsey's palace was GABLE. FROM WOLSEY _ WEST FRONT. put, it appears to have been intended entirely for the suites of guest chambers, which were always in readiness to receive friends and strangers. By the month of May, 1516, the building had so far advanced that Wolsey was able to receive the King and Queen at dinner in his new abode. This was a time when Henry delighted to honour with his company his "awne goode Cardinall," as he termed him, at pleasant little entertainments, when he could throw offthe restraints of royalty, and join in unconventional intercourse with his personal friends. During dinner or supper the minstrels usually played music, and afterwards the King and a few intimate friends took part in a masquerade or an impromptu dance.

Some times he "would oblige the company with a song," accompanying himself on the harpsichord or lute. At other times, the King would visit the Cardinal in state accompanied by his whole Court. " And when it pleased the King's majesty," says Cavendish, "for his recreation, to repair unto the Cardinal's house, as he did divers times in the year, there wanted no preparation or goodly furniture with viands of the finest sort, that could be gotten for money or friendship. Such pleasures were then devised for the King's comfort and consolation as might be invented or imagined. Banquets were set forth, masques, and mummeries in so gorgeous a sort, and costly manner, that it was a heaven to behold. There wanted no dames, nor damoselles, meet or apt to dance with the masquers, or to garnish the place for that time, with other goodly disports.