From London to Land's End
Sir,
I find so much left to speak of, and so many things to say in every
part of England, that my journey cannot be barren of intelligence
which way soever I turn; no, though I were to oblige myself to say
nothing of anything that had been spoken of before.
I intended once to have gone due west this journey; but then I
should have been obliged to crowd my observations so close (to
bring Hampton Court, Windsor, Blenheim, Oxford, the Bath and
Bristol all into one letter; all those remarkable places lying in a
line, as it were, in one point of the compass) as to have made my
letter too long, or my observations too light and superficial, as
others have done before me.
This letter will divide the weighty task, and consequently make it
sit lighter on the memory, be pleasanter to the reader, and make my
progress the more regular: I shall therefore take in Hampton Court
and Windsor in this journey; the first at my setting out, and the
last at my return, and the rest as their situation demands.
As I came down from Kingston, in my last circuit, by the south bank
of the Thames, on the Surrey side of the river; so I go up to
Hampton Court now on the north bank, and on the Middlesex side,
which I mention, because, as the sides of the country bordering on
the river lie parallel, so the beauty of the country, the pleasant
situations, the glory of innumerable fine buildings (noblemen's and
gentlemen's houses, and citizens' retreats), are so equal a match
to what I had described on the other side that one knows not which
to give the preference to: but as I must speak of them again, when
I come to write of the county of Middlesex, which I have now
purposely omitted; so I pass them over here, except the palace of
Hampton only, which I mentioned in "Middlesex," for the reasons
above.
Hampton Court lies on the north bank of the River Thames, about two
small miles from Kingston, and on the road from Staines to Kingston
Bridge; so that the road straightening the parks a little, they
were obliged to part the parks, and leave the Paddock and the great
park part on the other side the road--a testimony of that just
regard that the kings of England always had, and still have, to the
common good, and to the service of the country, that they would not
interrupt the course of the road, or cause the poor people to go
out of the way of their business to or from the markets and fairs,
for any pleasure of their own whatsoever.
The palace of Hampton Court was first founded and built from the
ground by that great statesman and favourite of King Henry VIII,
Cardinal Wolsey; and if it be a just observation anywhere, as is
made from the situation of the old abbeys and monasteries, the
clergy were excellent judges of the beauty and pleasantness of the
country, and chose always to plant in the best; I say, if it was a
just observation in any case, it was in this; for if there be a
situation on the whole river between Staines Bridge and Windsor
Bridge pleasanter than another, it is this of Hampton; close to the
river, yet not offended by the rising of its waters in floods or
storms; near to the reflux of the tides, but not quite so near as
to be affected with any foulness of the water which the flowing of
the tides generally is the occasion of. The gardens extend almost
to the bank of the river, yet are never overflowed; nor are there
any marshes on either side the river to make the waters stagnate,
or the air unwholesome on that account. The river is high enough
to be navigable, and low enough to be a little pleasantly rapid; so
that the stream looks always cheerful, not slow and sleeping, like
a pond. This keeps the waters always clear and clean, the bottom
in view, the fish playing and in sight; and, in a word, it has
everything that can make an inland (or, as I may call it, a
country) river pleasant and agreeable.
I shall sing you no songs here of the river in the first person of
a water-nymph, a goddess, and I know not what, according to the
humour of the ancient poets; I shall talk nothing of the marriage
of old Isis, the male river, with the beautiful Thame, the female
river (a whimsey as simple as the subject was empty); but I shall
speak of the river as occasion presents, as it really is made
glorious by the splendour of its shores, gilded with noble palaces,
strong fortifications, large hospitals, and public buildings; with
famous by the opulence of its merchants, the increase and
extensiveness of its commerce; by its invincible navies, and by the
innumerable fleets of ships sailing upon it to and from all parts
of the world.
As I meet with the river upwards in my travels through the inland
country I shall speak of it, as it is the channel for conveying an
infinite quantity of provisions from remote counties to London, and
enriching all the counties again that lie near it by the return of
wealth and trade from the city; and in describing these things I
expect both to inform and divert my readers, and speak in a more
masculine manner, more to the dignity of the subject, and also more
to their satisfaction, than I could do any other way.
There is little more to be said of the Thames relating to Hampton
Court, than that it adds by its neighbourhood to the pleasure of
the situation; for as to passing by water to and from London,
though in summer it is exceeding pleasant, yet the passage is a
little too long to make it easy to the ladies, especially to be
crowded up in the small boats which usually go upon the Thames for
pleasure.
The prince and princess, indeed, I remember came once down by water
upon the occasion of her Royal Highness's being great with child,
and near her time--so near that she was delivered within two or
three days after. But this passage being in the royal barges, with
strength of oars, and the day exceeding fine, the passage, I say,
was made very pleasant, and still the more so for being short.
Again, this passage is all the way with the stream, whereas in the
common passage upwards great part of the way is against the stream,
which is slow and heavy.
But be the going and coming how it will by water, it is an
exceeding pleasant passage by land, whether we go by the Surrey
side or the Middlesex side of the water, of which I shall say more
in its place.
The situation of Hampton Court being thus mentioned, and its
founder, it is to be mentioned next that it fell to the Crown in
the forfeiture of his Eminence the Cardinal, when the king seized
his effects and estate, by which this and Whitehall (another house
of his own building also)
came to King Henry VIII. Two palaces fit
for the kings of England, erected by one cardinal, are standing
monuments of the excessive pride as well as the immense wealth of
that prelate, who knew no bounds of his insolence and ambition till
he was overthrown at once by the displeasure of his master.
Whoever knew Hampton Court before it was begun to be rebuilt, or
altered, by the late King William, must acknowledge it was a very
complete palace before, and fit for a king; and though it might
not, according to the modern method of building or of gardening,
pass for a thing exquisitely fine, yet it had this remaining to
itself, and perhaps peculiar--namely, that it showed a situation
exceedingly capable of improvement, and of being made one of the
most delightful palaces in Europe.
This her Majesty Queen Mary was so sensible of, that, while the
king had ordered the pulling down the old apartments, and building
it up in that most beautiful form which we see them now appear in,
her Majesty, impatient of enjoying so agreeable a retreat, fixed
upon a building formerly made use of chiefly for landing from the
river, and therefore called the Water Galley, and here, as if she
had been conscious that she had but a few years to enjoy it, she
ordered all the little neat curious things to be done which suited
her own conveniences, and made it the pleasantest little thing
within doors that could possibly be made, though its situation
being such as it could not be allowed to stand after the great
building was finished, we now see no remains of it.
The queen had here her gallery of beauties, being the pictures at
full-length of the principal ladies attending upon her Majesty, or
who were frequently in her retinue; and this was the more beautiful
sight because the originals were all in being, and often to be
compared with their pictures. Her Majesty had here a fine
apartment, with a set of lodgings for her private retreat only, but
most exquisitely furnished, particularly a fine chintz bed, then a
great curiosity; another of her own work while in Holland, very
magnificent, and several others; and here was also her Majesty's
fine; and here was also a vast stock of fine china ware, the like
whereof was not then to be seen in England; the long gallery, as
above, was filled with this china, and every other place where it
could be placed with advantage.
The queen had here also a small bathing-room, made very fine,
suited either to hot or cold bathing, as the season should invite;
also a dairy, with all its conveniences, in which her Majesty took
great delight. All these things were finished with expedition,
that here their Majesties might repose while they saw the main
building go forward. While this was doing, the gardens were laid
out, the plan of them devised by the king himself, and especially
the amendments and alterations were made by the king or the queen's
particular special command, or by both, for their Majesties agreed
so well in their fancy, and had both so good judgment in the just
proportions of things, which are the principal beauties of a
garden, that it may be said they both ordered everything that was
done.
Here the fine parcel of limes which form the semicircle on the
south front of the house by the iron gates, looking into the park,
were by the dexterous hand of the head gardener removed, after some
of them had been almost thirty years planted in other places,
though not far off. I know the King of France in the decoration of
the gardens of Versailles had oaks removed, which by their
dimensions must have been above an hundred years old, and yet were
taken up with so much art, and by the strength of such engines, by
which such a monstrous quantity of earth was raised with them, that
the trees could not feel their remove--that is to say, their growth
was not at all hindered. This, I confess, makes the wonder much
the less in those trees at Hampton Court gardens; but the
performance was not the less difficult or nice, however, in these,
and they thrive perfectly well.
While the gardens were thus laid out, the king also directed the
laying the pipes for the fountains and JET-D'EAUX, and particularly
the dimensions of them, and what quantity of water they should cast
up, and increased the number of them after the first design.
The ground on the side of the other front has received some
alterations since the taking down the Water Galley; but not that
part immediately next the lodgings. The orange-trees and fine
Dutch bays are placed within the arches of the building under the
first floor; so that the lower part of the house was all one as a
greenhouse for sometime. Here stand advanced, on two pedestals of
stone, two marble vases or flower-pots of most exquisite
workmanship--the one done by an Englishman, and the other by a
German. It is hard to say which is the best performance, though
the doing of it was a kind of trial of skill between them; but it
gives us room, without any partiality, to say they were both
masters of their art.
The PARTERRE on that side descends from the terrace-walk by steps,
and on the left a terrace goes down to the water-side, from which
the garden on the eastward front is overlooked, and gives a most
pleasant prospect.
The fine scrolls and BORDURE of these gardens were at first edged
with box, but on the queen's disliking the smell those edgings were
taken up, but have since been planted again--at least, in many
places--nothing making so fair and regular an edging as box, or is
so soon brought to its perfection.
On the north side of the house, where the gardens seemed to want
screening from the weather or the view of the chapel, and some part
of the old building required to be covered from the eye, the vacant
ground, which was large, is very happily cast into a wilderness,
with a labyrinth and ESPALIERS so high that they effectually take
off all that part of the old building which would have been
offensive to the sight. This labyrinth and wilderness is not only
well designed, and completely finished, but is perfectly well kept,
and the ESPALIERS filled exactly at bottom, to the very ground, and
are led up to proportioned heights on the top, so that nothing of
that kind can be more beautiful.
The house itself is every way answerable on the outside to the
beautiful prospect, and the two fronts are the largest and, beyond
comparison, the finest of the kind in England. The great stairs go
up from the second court of the palace on the right hand, and lead
you to the south prospect.
I hinted in my last that King William brought into England the love
of fine paintings as well as that of fine gardens; and you have an
example of it in the cartoons, as they are called, being five
pieces of such paintings as, if you will believe men of nice
judgment and great travelling, are not to be
matched in Europe.
The stories are known, but especially two of them--viz., that of
St. Paul preaching on Mars Hill to the self-wise Athenians, and
that of St. Peter passing sentence of death on Ananias--I say,
these two strike the mind with the utmost surprise, the passions
are so drawn to the life; astonishment, terror, and death in the
face of Ananias, zeal and a sacred fire in the eyes of the blessed
Apostle, fright and surprise upon the countenances of the beholders
in the piece of Ananias; all these describe themselves so naturally
that you cannot but seem to discover something of the like
passions, even in seeing them.
In the other there is the boldness and courage with which St. Paul
undertook to talk to a set of men who, he knew, despised all the
world, as thinking themselves able to teach them anything. In the
audience there is anticipating pride and conceit in some, a smile
or fleer of contempt in others, but a kind of sensible conviction,
though crushed in its beginning, on the faces of the rest; and all
together appear confounded, but have little to say, and know
nothing at all of it; they gravely put him off to hear him another
time; all these are seen here in the very dress of the face--that
is, the very countenances which they hold while they listen to the
new doctrine which the Apostle preached to a people at that time
ignorant of it.
The other of the cartoons are exceeding fine but I mention these as
the particular two which are most lively, which strike the fancy
the soonest at first view. It is reported, but with what truth I
know not, that the late French king offered an hundred thousand
LOUIS D'ORS for these pictures; but this, I say, is but a report.
The king brought a great many other fine pieces to England, and
with them the love of fine paintings so universally spread itself
among the nobility and persons of figure all over the kingdom that
it is incredible what collections have been made by English
gentlemen since that time, and how all Europe has been rummaged, as
we may say, for pictures to bring over hither, where for twenty
years they yielded the purchasers, such as collected them for sale,
immense profit. But the rates are abated since that, and we begin
to be glutted with the copies and frauds of the Dutch and Flemish
painters who have imposed grossly upon us. But to return to the
palace of Hampton Court. Queen Mary lived not to see it completely
finished, and her death, with the other difficulties of that reign,
put a stop to the works for some time till the king, reviving his
good liking of the place, set them to work again, and it was
finished as we see it. But I have been assured that had the peace
continued, and the king lived to enjoy the continuance of it, his
Majesty had resolved to have pulled down all the remains of the old
building (such as the chapel and the large court within the first
gate), and to have built up the whole palace after the manner of
those two fronts already done. In these would have been an entire
set of rooms of state for the receiving and, if need had been,
lodging and entertaining any foreign prince with his retinue; also
offices for all the Secretaries of State, Lords of the Treasury,
and of Trade, to have repaired to for the despatch of such business
as it might be necessary to have done there upon the king's longer
residence there than ordinary; as also apartments for all the great
officers of the Household; so that had the house had two great
squares added, as was designed, there would have been no room to
spare, or that would not have been very well filled. But the
king's death put an end to all these things.
Since the death of King William, Hampton Court seemed abandoned of
its patron. They have gotten a kind of proverbial saying relating
to Hampton Court, viz., that it has been generally chosen by every
other prince since it became a house of note. King Charles was the
first that delighted in it since Queen Elizabeth's time. As for