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

MEMORIES OF THE PAST 233
choir, its staff of royal officials and servants,it has its
close links with the past in the continuous occupation
of many of its rooms by those who have borne their
part, themselves or their kindred,in making England
great. So we may walk through its courts with
thronged memories of great names — and from them
we may pass to " thick-coming fancies " of a world
invisible or half known. Imagination and tradition
vie in bringing forth tales of strange noises and
mysterious presences. That long room, now so grey
and wanin the moonlight, that leads round the great
kitchen-court from the great watching chamber to
the top of the Queen's staircase, bears the name of
the Haunted Gallery. Was it here — for it opens into
the Pages' Chamber — that the Guards heard the sad,
stern voice of Strafford give the countersign " Christ,"
as he passed by the sleeping pages and Mr.Inglesant
on to where the King slept ? Mr. Shorthouse may
tell us that the vision was earlier and in another place;
but Charles in those last days of his at Hampton must
have had dark memories of the days that could not be
recalled. Or is it Catherine Howard who tears herself
from her guardians and runs shrieking to the door
of the royal closet, that is in the west gallery of the
chapel ? Henry sits still within at his prayers, and
the door will not open, and the guard force her back;
but her shrieks can still be heard above the storm on
windy nights. It is locked, and we may not enter it
at night;but the custodian of the pictures, who has
here some canvases that need his treatment, will not