Produced by Sam W. and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
Described by Walter Jerrold Pictured by E. W. Haslehust
BLACKIE AND SON LIMITED LONDON GLASGOW AND BOMBAY 1912
OXFORD THE ENGLISH LAKES CANTERBURY SHAKESPEARE-LAND THE THAMES WINDSOR CASTLE CAMBRIDGE NORWICH AND THE BROADS THE HEART OF WESSEX THE PEAK DISTRICT THE CORNISH RIVIERA DICKENS-LAND WINCHESTER THE ISLE OF WIGHT CHESTER YORK THE NEW FOREST HAMPTON COURT EXETER
Page The Lion Gate _Frontispiece_ The Great Gatehouse, West Entrance 8 A Corner of Wolsey's Kitchen 14 Anne Boleyn's Gateway, Clock Court 20 Master Carpenter's Court 26 Fountain Court 32 The Great Hall 38 The Pond Garden 42 East Front from the Long Water 46 The Wilderness in Spring 50 The Long Walk 54 The Long Water in Winter 58
"Close by those meads for ever crown'd with flowers Where Thames with pride surveys his rising towers There stands a structure of majestic frame, Which from the neighb'ring Hampton takes its name."--_Pope._
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.