t amid stretching tree-grown
levels. It is, however, necessary to know the place closely to
appreciate it fully--it grows upon one, as the saying is; we should
have seen the homely court of the Master Carpenter as well as the
stately Fountain Court, the sculptures in the gardens as well as the
encyclopaedic clock, the kitchens as well as the picture galleries, to
have lingered about the Wilderness in the spring as well as to have
seen the Broad Walk in the blaze of summer, to have visited in some of
the residences as well as to have passed through the public galleries,
to have been about it at all seasons and not merely to have
scampered through it as the central incident in a half-day's
excursion. It is, indeed, properly a place for restful enjoyment
rather than for hurried sightseeing; though a hurried glimpse may well
prove a provocation to further visits and more leisurely inspection.

[Illustration: FOUNTAIN COURT]

Perhaps in beginning a ramble about the Palace and its grounds it may
be assumed that most people arrive by railway at the station which,
though it is in East Molesey at the Surrey end of the bridge, takes
its name from the palace on the Middlesex bank. This means that they
enter it--as also do those who journey from London by tramcar--at the
Trophy Gate, and have before them at once, at the end of a broad
gravel walk, the Outer Court and the rich red-brick medley of the
Tudor buildings, to which the eye is led by the severely plain row of
low barracks on the left, and a row of fine elms along the towing path
on the right. Here, at the west front, the recently-cleared moat at
once attracts attention. Until within the past year or two the gravel
forecourt extended right up to the palace walls, but excavation
revealed that the course of the moat, and the very walls of the moat,
and the old bridge approach to the Gatehouse were still plainly
traceable. The rubbish with which long since the moat had been
filled--possibly when William the Third made his alterations to the
Palace, or perhaps even earlier--was cleared away, the brick sides
revealed, the bottom of the moat neatly turfed over, and a parapet
with shield-bearing heraldical beasts erected on either side. These
heraldical beasts, it must be admitted--whether a restoration in
accordance with an old design or not--tend to spoil the approach to
the Great Gatehouse, for the whole would have gained in dignity had
they been omitted and the plain low c