Page:Hutton, William Holden - Hampton Court (1897).djvu/39

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TROPHY GATES
5

by heavy curtains of magnificent stuffs. Tapestries covered the walls; and of these at Hampton Court splendid specimens survive.

III

Of the external grandeur of the building which Wolsey designed, perhaps the best impression can be obtained from the roofs, or from the north-west of what was once the tilt-yard. The extent of the buildings is amazing, and the dignity and magnificence of the design is no less impressive. The palace, says Mr. Law, "covers eight acres, and has a thousand rooms."[1]

Such a general view as is obtained from the roof gives an impression which is certainly not lost when the details are observed, and when the Palace is inspected at leisure.

IV

We pass through the "trophy gates"—poor specimens of the early Hanoverian age at its least interesting epoch—into the outer Green Court, by the unattractive barracks at the left (which may have been stables in their earliest history), to the great Gate-house. On each side project the beautiful buildings, with their fine windows, picturesque turrets, and the dull red of

  1. "History of Hampton Court Palace in Tudor Times," p. 49.