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

22
HAMPTON COURT
VIII
When we turn back to look at the great Palace as a
whole, we are met at once by the fact that we cannot
adequately consider Wolsey's buildings to-day in the
light in which he intended them to be viewed. Time
and change have altered their whole setting. Not only
is the Cloister Green Court, and not a little beside it,
pulled down, but the outer buildings and the surroundings
generally are entirely altered. The tilt-yard,
for instance, is barely recognisable. The charming
tower that stands in the midst of the east side is but
a reminiscence.
And if we do not see Wolsey's buildings and Henry
VIII.'s as they left them, neither do we know what
they were designed to be. We have no full plans;and
more than that, the name of Wolsey's architect has yet
tobe discovered, though perhaps it is not undiscoverable.
Masters of the works and clerk comptrollers are
mentioned in the accounts; but of the man who made
the designs for the splendid building there is no trace.
It is by no means improbable that Wolsey himself
made the plans, and left the carrying out of details to
the skilled workmen of that age of artistic excellence.
Eustace Mascall was in 1534
"clerk ofthe cheque
in the King's works at Hampton Court; " but there
is nothing to show that he was architect.
When we come to the reconstruction the contrast is
great. We know the architect — perhaps the greatest