astellated wall remained
unadorned. The similar banner-bearing heraldical beasts along the roof
of the Great Hall look far better on the skyline--but their fellows on
the eyeline below mar the dignity of the approach considerably.

The beautiful red brickwork, the various castellated turrets, and the
clusters of decorated chimneys, with the quaintly carven beasts
seemingly toboganning down the gables of the wings, together form a
fine example of Tudor architecture, though the appearance would have
been still better had the Gatehouse when restored in the eighteenth
century been kept to its original proportions, and had the leaden
cupolas not been removed from the many turrets. Two or three of those
turrets that remain in other parts of the buildings retain their
cupolas, to indicate how fine must have been the whole effect before
any had been removed. In the wall of either tower of the gateway is to
be seen a terra-cotta medallion portrait of one of the Caesars, others
of which will be noticed in the succeeding courts.

The wing to the right as we front the Gatehouse is the south-west wing
and is worthy of special mention before entering the buildings, for
there one of Hampton Court's ghosts has been given to manifesting
itself. This is the ghost of Mistress Penn who was nurse to Edward the
Sixth. An elaborate and circumstantial story tells of the sound being
heard of a ghostly spinning-wheel, and when search was made by the
officials a small sealed-up chamber was revealed, containing nothing
but a spinning-wheel and a chair!

Entering through the Great Gatehouse--where, though the Palace is no
longer used as a residence by the royal family, a sentry is always on
guard--we reach the First Green Court or Base Court--a peaceful
quadrangle surrounded by low red buildings with the western end of the
Great Hall fronting us to the left. This, the only turfed "quad", is
the largest of them all. In the surrounding rooms are supposed to have
been many of the chambers which Wolsey allotted to his guests when
they came in such numbers as are indicated in the passage already
quoted from Master George Cavendish. Opposite us is the end of the
Great Hall to the left, and directly in front is the clock gatehouse
on either turret of which is to be observed one of those terra-cotta
plaques of the Roman Emperors which were at one time thought to have
been the work of Della Robbia, and to have been presented to Wolsey
when he was buildin