Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/710

 A HISTORY OF SURREY

��memory of this did not diminish the attraction of the place for her. She was constantly here when she be- came queen, and it was during her reign that Richmond perhaps reached the height of its brilliance and gaiety. 80 The queen at length died at the palace, having con- tracted a cold and removed to Richmond, which she regarded as the ' warm winter-box to shelter her old

age.' 31

On the accession of the Stuarts Richmond became less frequently the abode of the sovereigns. James I used the palace very little, although the courts of Exchequer, Wards, Liveries and Duchy of Lancaster were temporarily moved to the manor of Richmond in October 1603 "in consequence of the plague." The palace, however, still continued to have a royal resident in the person of the young Prince Henry, who spent a large sum of money on improvements and passed most of his time here from 1604 until his death in 1612." His brother also lived here as Prince of Wales," and a few months after his accession to the throne as Charles I the Exchequer and the records belonging to it were again moved to Rich- mond, owing to the plague, 36 which, however, attacked the village itself in the summer of 1625." The king gave the palace with the manor (q.v.) to Queen Henrietta Maria, probably in 1626, and it became the home of the royal children. 18 Richmond was again visited by the plague in 1 640," and in 1 641 a member of the prince's household died of it, the prince himself having joined the queen at Oatlands. 40 When, in I 647, the Parliament was anxious to take the king out of the hands of the army, they voted that he should be removed to Richmond," but the impeachment of the eleven members by the army caused the idea to be abandoned." After the execution of Charles a very interesting and detailed survey of the palace was taken." It is stated in the course of it that the capital messuage, palace, or court-house con- sisted of 'one large and fair structure of free stone, of two stories high covered with lead ' ; and that the higher story contained ' one fayr and large room, I oo feet in length and 40 in breadth, called the great hall.' This, no doubt, was of the height of two stories ; for the ' Privy lodgings ' were three stories high, and the whole appears to have been of one height, except the towers. In the chapel building the ' third stoj-ie conteyns one fayr and large room 96 feet long and 30 feet broad, used for a chapel. This room is very well fitted with all things useful for a chapel ; as fair lights, handsome cathedral seates and pewes, a removeable pulpit, and a fayr case of carved work for a payr of organs.' Richmond Green ' conteyns twenty acres, more or less, excellent land, to be depastured only with sheep ; is well turfed, level, and a special orna- ment to the palace. . One hundred and thirteen elm trees, forty-eight whereof stand all together on the west side, and include in them a very handsome walk.'

��The palace was sold in 1650 to Thomas Rookesby, William Goodrick, and Adam Baynes," on behalf of themselves and other creditors, and subsequently to Sir Gregory Norton, but it was restored with the manor (q.v.) to Queen Henrietta Maria in 1660," although in a dismantled condition, having suffered much dilapidation during the interregnum. A cer- tain Elizabeth wife of Andrew Mollett gave evi- dence that Henry Carter of Richmond was the first puller-down of the king's house there, sold stones to the value of 1,000, and raised forces within the previous three months to oppose the Restoration. 4 * The ruined palace was never rebuilt. The ' capital messuage ' was included in the grant of the manor (q.v.) to James, Duke of York, in 1664, but in 1703 the remains of it were broken up into several houses and tenements.

Now but little is left to confirm the fact that there was a palace upon the site built as late as the time of Henry VII and standing in the I7th century. The most conspicuous of the remains are those in the house occupied by Mr. John Lyell Middleton (facing Richmond Green) and the gateway to Ward- robe Court, with its upper chamber forming part of the house. The gateway is of red brick, and has a large four-centred archway of stone over which is a perished stone panel bearing the arms of Henry VII, on the east side towards the green. North of the large archway is a doorway with a Tudor head to- wards the green and a square-headed doorway towards the court. Over the panel of arms on the east side is an 1 8th-century oriel window, and on the other side three blocked windows above a stone string-course with a moulded top member and a bead at the bottom. The building is cut short north of the gateway, but evidence of its continuation in that direction is given by the arched recesses on the ground floor and the blocked doorway in the upper story, besides the marks showing the position of the first floor and the flat roof on that face which now overlooks the gardens of the Old Court House, an 18th-century building occupied by Mrs. B. Crowther. Some of the lower walls of Mr. Middleton's house no doubt retain the original brickwork, and the three projecting bays on the east front a semi-octagonal one between two five-sided bays are evidently on the old foundations, but there is little in the house to call attention to its age excepting a fireplace on the first floor with a Tudor arch and a 17th-century chimney-stack on the west side.

Running back from this house and forming the present south-east boundary of the Wardrobe Court is the house occupied by Mr. George Cave, K.C., M.P. ; it seems very doubtful whether the walls of this house are on the Tudor foundations. Wynyardes' view of the east front, taken in 1562, shows the gateway to be almost in the middle of the courtyard instead of very

��80 Cat. S.P. Dom. and Acti of P.O. for reign of Eliz. ; also Hat. MSS. Com. Rep. xii and xiii, passim.

81 Hiit. MSS. Cam. Rep. ix, App. ii, 423 ; Strickland, Li-vet of the Queens of Engl. iv, 771, 783.

Ba Stow, op. cit. 828.

88 Manning and Bray, Surr. i, 411.

84 Ibid. ; Folkestone Williams, op. cit. ii, 199; iii, 23 ; Hiit. MSS. Com. Rep. xii, App. iv, 396.

86 Folkestone Williams, op. cit. iii, 43.

��88 Cal. S.P. Dom. 1625-6, p. 73. See the Richmond Parish Registers.
 * > Hiit. MSS. Com. Rep. xi, App. i, 29.

88 Folkestone Williams, op. cit iii, 129; Cal. S.P. Dom. 1640, p. 167 ; Hiit. MSS. Com. Rep. xiii, App. ii, 132.

89 Cal. S.P. Dom. 1640-1, p. 333. Richmond Parish Registers show an un- usual number of burials from June to the end of August.

40 Ibid. 1641-3, p. 134.

41 Commons' Journ. v, 210.

��45 Whitelocke, Mem. of Engl. Affairs, June 1647.

48 The survey of 1649 is printed in the Vetmta Monumenta (Soc. of Antiq.), ii, and is also transcribed by Mr. Chancellor in his Hiit. of Richmond, Ke-w, Petersham, and Ham, App. B. See also Surr. Arch. Coll. v, 75-103.

44 Lysons, Environs of London, \, 442.

4 * Commons' Journ. viii, 73. Sir Gregory was a regicide.

46 Cal. S.P. Dom. 1660-1, p. 71.

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