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

TUDOR GROUP 173
skill in thepainting of the great ship, with her sails set,
leaving the harbour. The " Battle of the Spurs "
again presents the King in his gold armour. The
" Field of the Cloth of Gold " itself displays theextraordinary
minuteness in which the court painters of the
age delighted. It is like a newspaper report or a
photograph. Every historical incident is crowded into
the canvas, and thus as a picture of the social order
the work is invaluable. There is spirit, too, in
the charming insouciance with which riders hurry
hither and thither, kings meet, or stately ladies proceed
in impressive line. To the " school of Holbein "
may be ascribed, with the laxity of catalogue-makers,
the stiff composition, rich with gold in canopy and
decorative work, No. 340. It is strangely mis-labelled
as it now stands. The catalogue of Charles I. says,
" A long piece painted with gold, where King Henry
VIII. sits with his Queen, and his son Prince Edward
on the right side, and his two daughters, Queen Mary
and Queen Elizabeth, standing at each side, and a fool
at the left side in the door, with a jackanapes on his
shoulder, and on the other side a waiting-woman."
The Queen is probably CatherineParr;on the right is
Elizabeth, on the left Mary. The fool is the famous
Will Somers, and the woman is probably "Jane the
fool." The picture has special interest here because
the background, through archways, shows the old
Tudor garden of Hampton Court, exactly as the
accounts describe it, with painted wooden rails and
the king and queen beasts. The portrait of Henry