Hampton Court ... Illustrated with forty-three drawings by Herbert ...

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HAMPTON COURT
"A very clearlooking-glass, ornamented with columns
and little images of alabaster; a portrait of Edward
VL, brother to Queen Elizabeth; the true portrait of
Lucretia; a picture of the battle of Pavia;the history
of Christ's Passion,carved in mother-of-pearl;the portraits
of Mary Queen of Scots, who was beheaded, and
her daughter; the picture of Ferdinand, Prince of
Spain, and of Philip, his son; that of Henry VIII.
Under it was placed the Bible curiously written upon
parchment;an artificial sphere;several musical instruments;
in the tapestry are represented negroes riding
upon elephants. The bed in which Edward VI. is said
to have been born, and where his mother, Jane
Seymour, died in child-bed. In one chamber were
several exceedingly rich tapestries, which are hung up
when the Queen gives audience to foreign ambassadors;
there were numbers of cushions ornamented with gold
and silver; many counterpanes and coverlids of beds
lined with ermine;in short, all the walls of the Palace
shone with gold and silver. Here is, besides, a certain
cabinet called Paradise, where, besides that everything
glitters so with silver,gold, and jewels, so as to dazzle
one's eyes, there is a musical instrument made all of
glass, except the strings. Afterwards we were led into
the gardens, which are most pleasant; here we saw
rosemary so planted and nailed to the walls as to cover
them entirely, which is a method exceeding common
in England." :
1 It is hardly necessary to point out that the account of the pictures
bristles with inaccuracies.