Page:The reign of George VI - 1763.djvu/87

 engrossed by more weighty concerns; but now that peace left him the master of his time, he displayed a taste and genius in more arts than that of war. London, though the wonder of the world, never pleased the King. Its prodigious size was its only boast; it contained few buildings that did honour to the nation; in a word, it was a city finely calculated for trade, but not for the residence of the polite arts. The meanness of his Majesty's palace disgusted him; he had a taste for architecture, and determined to exert it in raising an edifice, that should at once do honour to his kingdom, and add splendour to his court.

In Rutlandshire, near Uppingham, was a small hunting box of the late King's, which George admired; not for the building, but its beautiful situation. In his hours of rural amuse-