Hampton Court ... Illustrated with forty-three drawings by Herbert ...
Hampton Court ... Illustrated with forty-three drawings by Herbert ...
Hampton Court ... Illustrated with forty-three drawings by Herbert ...
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AT HAMPTON COURT 105<br />
was not virtuous, and he was not a hero. He left<br />
us a legacy of ruinous and bloody wars, a halfcentury<br />
of oligarchy under Whig control, and a<br />
hatred of foreigners almost as bitter as that bequeathed<br />
<strong>by</strong> the Marian persecution.<br />
XI<br />
William as a king and as a man is not worthy of<br />
English admiration. If we are to enjoy the new<br />
<strong>Hampton</strong> <strong>Court</strong> <strong>with</strong> an eye on its history, we must<br />
regard it as Wren's creation, not his. And William<br />
we may leave in the " Banquet House," which he built<br />
in 1700, smoking <strong>with</strong> Keppel and Bentinck, <strong>with</strong> his<br />
mug before him.<br />
What has to be said of the Palace under the Dutch<br />
king comes more appropriately in connection <strong>with</strong> the<br />
work of Wren. William liked <strong>Hampton</strong> <strong>Court</strong>, and<br />
lived there as much as he could. " He found the<br />
air," says Burnet, " agreed so well <strong>with</strong> him, that he<br />
resolved to live the greatest part of the year there."<br />
And much as he hated Louis XIV., he must needs,<br />
like everybody else, imitate him. So a new <strong>Hampton</strong><br />
<strong>Court</strong> was to rise as a rival to Versailles. " A very<br />
few days after he was set on the throne," says Burnet<br />
again, " he went out to <strong>Hampton</strong> <strong>Court</strong>, and from<br />
that palace came into town only on council days; so<br />
that the face of a court and the rendezvous usual in<br />
the public rooms was now quite broken." His love
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