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

VI
PREFACE
there a garden that Henry VIII. may have planned
just as it now lies, have appealed with a new force as
Isaw how they had been, or could be, the subjects
of the artist's most delicate draughtsmanship. With
the kind help of the Chaplain of the Palace,Ihave
penetrated to many a place whichIhad never seen
before. Each hour the impression has deepened, and
at lastIhave sat down to put together a few memorials
of some happy vacation days.
This book has no ambitious claim. It attempts
only to say, in a series of sketches not always closely
connected with each other, something about what the
writer has enjoyed and what he has learnt.
To wander about the gardens, to study the
architecture and the pictures, with the records of
the great men of past ages who planned and built
and lived there, is the first and best way to know
Hampton Court and its history. The stately Palace
has had its historian. It is not too much to say that
our pleasure in and our knowledge of Hampton Court
is increased tenfold by the work of Mr.Ernest Law.
At every step he has been before us. There is not a
source of information which he has not studied, there
is no memory which he has not appreciated and
preserved. The recognition which Her Majesty the
Queen has bestowed upon his labours of love,the most
graceful and appropriate that could be found, is the
fit expression of the gratitude which Her Majesty's
subjects feel to him who has done so much to
enhance the pleasure with which the public receives