Beth in London, Day Five
Leaving from Waterloo Station, we took our second daytrip on Thursday. I love English history so I had suggested that Dave and I visit Hampton Court Palace. Hampton Court was originally a medieval manor. In 1514, it was leased by Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, who rebuilt it as a palace. Henry VIII admired it so much that he thought the Cardinal should give it to him!
We took the introductory tour led by a costumed guide. Kateryn Parr, Henry VIII’s last wife, was walking the grounds that day, also. Rain showers may not last long in merry olde England, but it does rain quite a bit! We decided to walk through the extensive and quite beautiful gardens before exploring the rest of the palace. After lunch it did rain.
What remained of the Tudor palace was much more interesting than the parts of the palace that had been changed in later years. In 1689, Sir Christopher Wren demolished large parts of the palace and rebuilt it in the baroque style for King William III and Queen Mary II. After 1760, the palace no longer was used as a royal residence and people were sometimes allowed to live at the palace under the “grace and favour” of the sovereign. For example, if your husband and sons had died serving their king or queen, you as a widow may have been allowed to spend the rest of your days at Hampton in your own living quarters. If I remember correctly, the guide told us that there were still two people living there under “grace and favour.”
Okay, did you figure out why “Anne Boleyn sells cheap horse poop?”! I had a great high school English literature teacher who instilled in me a love of all things English. He taught me the well-known saying about Henry VIII’s wives regarding their fates: divorced, beheaded, died; divorced, beheaded, survivied. My brother could remember their actual names, however, because one of his classmates told him the horse poop saying!
Katherine of Aragon; Anne Boleyn; Jane Seymour; Anne of Cleves; Katherine Howard; and Kateryn Parr (names spelled as posted by Hampton Court Palace)
After returning to London, we had dinner at a well-known pub - Ye Olde Chesire Cheese. It was rebuilt after the Great Fire of 1666. Oliver Goldsmith, Mark Twain, Alfred Tennyson, and Arthur Conan Doyle are said to have been regulars. Another regular was Charles Dickens, who mentions the pub in his novel, A Tale of Two Cities. It is down an alley, off Fleet Street. Its rooms are dark and gloomy, and have little natural light. Having wanted me to experience pub food, my brother was a bit dismayed when I dined on macaroni and cheese!
Although I had only one day left of my most wonderful trip ever (so far?!!), I felt that we had really absorbed a lot in five days!
Beth, Reader’s Services
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