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

COURT SCANDALS 81
when he doth not ride abroad; and when he doth
ride abroad, he is on horseback by break of day, and
most commonly back before noon." : He was a keen
tennis-player, as was his brother James. Pepys notes
the servility with which their playing was applauded,
and how well it deserved praise: "but such open
flattery is beastly."
However much Charles might be flattered, no one
thought it necessary to flatter his poor wife in her
strange Portuguese garments, or the wonderful women
she brought with her, six ladies, " old, ugly, and
proud," said the severe Lord Chancellor Clarendon,
" and incapable of any conversation with persons of
quality and a liberal education; " but even they were
not above suspicion, from the miserable Pepys at any
rate, of the gravest scandal. Catherine soon found
that she stood second in the King's affections to
Barbara Palmer, Countess of Castlemaine, and the
long struggle which ended in the Queen's being compelled
to receive the mistress as one ofher bedchamber
women is one of the saddest stories of the dissolute
court. Yet for some while the King and Queen
lived happily together, and idly;for even Pepys cen-
"
sured their carelessness. This Itake to be as
bad a juncture as everIobserved. The King and
Queen minding their pleasures at Hampton Court :
all people discontented."
The return of the King's mother, Henrietta Maria,
1 Mr. Law quotes this from the (Appendix to) Fifth Report on
HistoricalMSS. (Duke of Sutherland'sMSS.).
F