There is no better specimen in England than this court of what is loosely called the early Tudor style of domestic architecture. It is the exact reverse of formal or tame in colour and design. It is sombre in tone yet warm—the introduction of darker coloured bricks at intervals adding in a very marked way originality and variety. The design discards uniformity. On three sides (broken, however, by the Gate-house), the windows are ranged at regular intervals and are of the same size, and there are only two storeys. But on the third side, the east, the line is broken not only by the Clock-tower, but by a variety in the arrangement of the windows, and the building is of three storeys.
The court is particularly homely. The grass shows up the fine dark red of the buildings very happily, and the whole air of it is like that of some quiet college in one of our Universities. The interior of the rooms show something of the old plan of "double lodgings" of which Cavendish speaks. Here were the great chambers for the foreigners, and the great persons of the court, whom Wolsey so freely entertained.
Details of the work are interesting, such as Henry VIII.'s arms below the great oriel window on the gateway tower, and the arms and initials of Edward VI. on the two turrets near. From the Base Court, which is practically all Wolsey's work, we pass to the much more composite series of buildings within the Clock-court. We enter by what is called Anne Bullen's gateway, which has a restoration of what was once a beautiful groined roof. In the
