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

THE GREAT VINE 137
VI
A charming writer has lately dwelt upon an aspect
of the parks and gardens which is not always noticed.
They are the home of many birds and fish. The
beautiful canal which separates garden and park is
full of water-fowl, water-hens, ducks, and the stately
swans. For the benefit of the tame birds " exists the
only distinctly Dutch contrivance now surviving at
Hampton Court. Small ' duck-houses,' either built
of boards, or made each spring out of laurel-boughs,
are set along the margin for the ducks and geese tolay
in. This is a very old Dutch custom to protect the
eggs of the waterfowl on the canals and lakes round
the Dutch country-houses from the magpies which
aboundin the woods. There are no magpies to steal
them at Hampton Court, but it has always been the
custom to make ' duck-houses ' each spring, and the
tradition probably dates from the days of William
III." x One is tempted to inquire if the phlegmatic
monarch was as fond ofduck as he was of green peas.
Fish, particularly the carp, a royal fish that seems
always to speak of ancient days, throng the canals, and
birds haunt the trees — rooks, blackbirds, flycatchers,
redstarts, and many more. A " paradise ofbirds " it is
indeed.
To forget " the great vine " would be an unpardonable
offence in any account of Hampton Court. It has
1 The Spectator, August I,1896.