Page:Hutton, William Holden - Hampton Court (1897).djvu/75

Rh dwelling-place of English rulers. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries much of the national history was made there. Councils met, sovereigns cogitated, ministers worked, ambassadors intrigued within the walls. The Palace became a little town, with its foreign inmates as well as its native residents. Hour by hour messengers rode swiftly to and from London, and stately barges bore personages of dignity up the highway of the Thames to the royal court. But amid all the great names that are associated with the famous buildings as we see them now, two stand out conspicuous over the rest—Wolsey and William III. Other sovereigns and other ministers lived there, but to these it was the centre of their lives. Elizabeth, James I., Charles I., Cromwell, Charles II., Anne, the Georges—these had other dwellings that they loved as well. They made their fame in other places, or left no permanent impression here to become a part of the enduring memories of the most homely of English palaces. Episodes of the lives of other ministers and other sovereigns come to our minds as we walk through the rooms and gardens, but only of Wolsey and of William of Orange can we say that they were creators of Hampton Court, and that the place they created formed a great part of their lives.

As we go through the historical memories of the Palace, then, two names will especially rise up before us. On them we shall linger, and try to master something of their real character and of their place in English history. Other figures, more interesting in