HAMPTON COURT,
and our notebook says, "We were not only delighted, but astonished at the place." As we have said something of the place before, we now simply add that we found hundreds of people in the palace, and thousands in the fine grounds. The establishment is open Sundays as well as week-days, and it is a great place of resort. 1,100 oil-paintings are in the picture-galleries; and they are of all subjects, and most of them from the Masters. Another part of the palace of note and interest is the grand Hall of Henry VIII. The ceiling is of oak, very rich and heavy in design and ornamentation.
Tradition has it that Shakespeare's plays were first acted in this old hall. Portraits of Cardinal Wolsey, and of Henry VIII. and each of his six wives are on the walls. It is said, and is probably a fact, that in this room James I. held that memorable conference with the disputants of the Established Church and the Puritans, when he made the celebrated remark, "No bishop, no king." History has it that he afterwards wrote to a friend:—
I kept up such a revel with the Puritans these two days as was never heard the like; where I have peppered them as roundly as ye have done the Papists. They fled me from argument to argument, without ever answering me directly, as I was forced to say to them.
Remained here in this Eden till night, and back to London. Monday a. m. began our last day of tramping over this old metropolis, here and there attending to little matters till now neglected, now and then happening in, just for a few moments, to look at some grand old church,—as St. Bride's, and that marvel of good taste and construction, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, London; and so with visits and letter-writing the day was filled up, and all preparations made to leave London for France, but to stop by the way at Rochester, Canterbury, and finally at that "jumping-off place," Dover.
Tuesday, at 9 a. m., we took train for good old