watching-chamber that the public declaration of her guilt was made; and it was at Hampton Court that the King wedded his last wife, Catherine Parr.
We may well hurry over these last years of the brutalised King; their memories, even at Hampton Court, are not fragrant.
IV
Edward VI. had some liking for the place of his birth, though he saw strange scenes there. There was dread of an attack on him, and his uncle held him guarded and the house in a state of siege. But he got rid of his uncle as his father had got rid of his wives, and his reign left no mark on the house. Philip and Mary stayed there for some time after their wedding, and it was there that preparations were made so extensively for the heir of England who never came. There, too, Elizabeth was kept for some time in close ward.
There is one lighter aspect of the time connected with the place. Mary's favourite recreation served to decorate the Palace. Catherine of Aragon, says Lady Marion Alford, had introduced the Spanish taste in embroidery, which was then white or black silk and gold "lace stitches" on fine linen. This "Spanish work," as it was called, continued in fashion under Mary, Catherine's daughter, who was doubly Spanish in her sympathies. She had her needle constantly in her hand, and when Wolsey and Campeggio paid to her their formal visit, she came forth to them with a
