Page:Catherine of Bragança, infanta of Portugal, & queen-consort of England.djvu/186

150 broad piazza in the Italian style. On the river side was another piazza against the house. Stairs and gate led direct to the water. The garden was laid out with a bowling-green, shady walks, parterres of flowers, and adorned with statues. It was divided into two parts. In the middle of that which lay westward a large fountain sprayed the air with its jets. The water gate was very fine, with statues of Thames and Isis to support it. From this garden to the house one ascended by dark and winding steps. The garden paths were paved, so that one could walk on them in all weathers, and trees in straight avenues ran to the river's edge.

Inside it was, as Pepys described it, "magnificent and costly." Through the older part of the palace ran long galleries. One of these was lined with oak in small panels, while the height of the mouldings was gilded. The floors were of solid oak, and the ceilings beautifully stuccoed. Apparently this was used as a ball-room, for in 1775, when George III. exchanged this palace for Buckingham House, as a dower house for Queen Charlotte, and the old palace was demolished to make room for the one now standing, the chains of chandeliers were found depending from the ceiling, and sconces were on the walls. A throne and canopy of state stood in this great gallery, and here were found also the crimson curtains of an audience-chamber, the crimson velvet fringed and laced with gold and silver. Those curtains may have witnessed the visit of Catherine to her mother-in-law, which has just been told, and on those chairs of state, found with the curtains, the two Queens may have sat and talked together.

Old, faded, moth-eaten tapestries still clung in 1775 to the walls, which had probably been hung there in the time of Henrietta Maria. Then the great audience-chamber was hung with costly silk, and long silk curtains edged the windows. The furniture was covered with gilt leather, and painted screens kept off the draughts. From the lofty painted ceilings hung