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

158
HAMPTON COURT
Eight rooms, said Giustiniani,1 must be crossed
before audienceof the great Cardinal could be obtained
— the way can still be traced, though doors are now
here and there closed — " and they are all hung with
tapestry, which is changed once a week." And Du
Bellay, who came with old Anne de Montmorency,
enthusiastically declares that "the very bed-chambers
had hangings of wonderful value, and every place did
glitter with innumerable vessels of gold and silver.
There were two hundred and fourscore beds, the
furniture to most of them being silk, and all for the
entertainment of strangers only." One remembers
Cavendish's proud description of the occasion when
Du Bellay was entertained, and can thus compare the
foreigner's impressions with the statements of the
gentleman of the household.2
Wolsey indeed, as Mr.Law has said, had a passion
for tapestry: just as a century later the ambassadors
and political agents of the English King ransacked
Europe, and even the far East, for books and manuscripts
for Laud, the great bibliophile, so now the
churchman at the head of affairs set his master's
envoys to work to collect tapestry and arras whereever
it could be obtained. At home it was the same.
Sir Richard Gresham was directed to measure eighteen
rooms, and to buy hangings for them at over a
saner momentsofcourt gaieties"(see inventoryof Henry VIII.'sgoods
and 1EdwardVI.,Harl. 1419,quotedby Felix Summerly (thelate Sir
Henry Cole),in his " Complete Handbookto Hampton Court **).
1 "VenetianRelation,"ii.314.
Cf. above,p. 43.