Page:Hutton, William Holden - Hampton Court (1897).djvu/203

Rh their most striking merits. There could hardly be a better example of the culmination of Renaissance influence in England. The monograms of William and Mary form part of the centre of several of the screens, and they appear to have been erected in the years following 1691.

After the Queen's death the works seem for a time to have been suspended. The King did not live at Hampton Court for several years, and his mind was employed on other matters.

The great plans for the reconstruction of the Palace were in being while she lived, but the greatest changes in the gardens were made after her death. About 1699 William resumed his interest in the Palace, and gave minute directions for the addition of a number of fountains to what was now becoming the "Great Fountain Garden," which stretched in front eastwards to the canal and the Long Water. At this time also Bushey Park was laid out in avenues, and "The Lynes" with limes and horse-chestnuts. The park was to have been an approach to the new entrance court, as Wren designed it. But happily the old buildings beyond the Chapel Court were never destroyed, and the wilderness remains as it was before Wren drew his magnificent new plans.

In 1700 the completion of the great garden as we know it was begun. The Broad Walk, which extends the whole length of the eastern front, from the gate which touches the road to Hampton Wick and Kingston beyond the private garden to the river, was