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

HISTORICAL MEMORIES 31
dwelling-place of English rulers. During the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries much of the national history
was made there. Councils met, sovereigns cogitated,
ministers worked, ambassadors intrigued within the
walls. ThePalace became alittle town,withits foreign
inmates as well as its native residents. Hour by hour
messengers rode swiftly to and from London, and
stately barges bore personages of dignity up the highway
of the Thames to the royal court. But amid
all the great names that are associated with the famous
buildings as we see them now, two stand out conspicuous
over the rest — Wolsey and William III.
Other sovereigns and other ministers lived there, but
to these it was the centre of their lives. Elizabeth,
James I., Charles I., Cromwell, Charles II.,Anne, the
Georges— these had other dwellings that they loved
as well. They made their fame in other places, or
left no permanent impression here to become a part
of the enduring memories of the most homely of English
palaces. Episodes of the lives of other ministers
and other sovereigns come to our minds as we walk
through the rooms and gardens, but only of Wolsey
and of William of Orange can we say that they were
creators of Hampton Court, and that the place they
created formed a great part of their lives.
As we go through the historical memories of the
Palace, then, two names will especially rise up before
us. On them we shall linger, and try to master something
of their real character and of their place in
English history. Other figures, more interesting in