does your Majesty keep an open table as I do?'" The retort, it would seem, was appropriate, since when Pepys went to the Palace to speak to the Duke of York about Admiralty business and the occupation of Tangier, he was not invited anywhere to dinner, "though a stranger, which did also trouble me."
While Pepys and Grammont, and the writers of diaries and memoirs, leave an impression of reckless profusion and license in the Hampton Court of the Restoration age, John Evelyn preserves in his diary the quieter aspect of the place and of the age. The gardens, the park, and the improvements Charles was making everywhere were noted by him in his careful, sober way, critically yet with appreciation.
James II., it would seem, never lived at Hampton Court.[1] This may have made the Palace so constant a resort of his daughter, who never, it would seem, forgave herself the treachery with which she supplanted him.
X
With the "glorious Revolution" Hampton Court began a new career. The Dutch king, like Wolsey, is here a creator and builder. It might be said that Hampton Court more than any other place was his home. It is in such surroundings that we can most happily form a critical estimate of him.
- ↑ "It is not certain whether, as King, he everpassed a single night in the Palace."—E.Law, "History of Hampton Court Palace." vol. ii. p. 255.
