d for purposes of state. Our
princes therefore had, since the Restoration, repaired thither seldom,
and only when they wished to live for a time in retirement. As William
purposed to make the deserted edifice his chief palace, it was necessary
for him to build and to plant; nor was the necessity disagreeable to
him. For he had, like most of his countrymen, a pleasure in decorating
a country house; and next to hunting, though at a great interval, his
favourite amusements were architecture and gardening. He had already
created on a sandy heath in Guelders a paradise, which attracted
multitudes of the curious from Holland and Westphalia. Mary had laid the
first stone of the house. Bentinck had superintended the digging of the
fishponds. There were cascades and grottoes, a spacious orangery, and
an aviary which furnished Hondekoeter with numerous specimens of
manycoloured plumage. [61] The King, in his splendid banishment, pined
for this favourite seat, and found some consolation in creating another
Loo on the banks of the Thames. Soon a wide extent of ground was laid
out in formal walks and parterres. Much idle ingenuity was employed in
forming that intricate labyrinth of verdure which has puzzled and amused
five generations of holiday visitors from London. Limes thirty years
old were transplanted from neighbouring woods to shade the alleys.
Artificial fountains spouted among the flower beds. A new court, not
designed with the purest taste, but stately, spacious, and commodious,
rose under the direction of Wren. The wainscots were adorned with the
rich and delicate carvings of Gibbons. The staircases were in a blaze
with the glaring frescoes of Verrio. In every corner of the mansion
appeared a profusion of gewgaws, not yet familiar to English eyes. Mary
had acquired at the Hague a taste for the porcelain of China, and amused
herself by forming at Hampton a vast collection of hideous images, and
of vases on which houses, trees, bridges, and mandarins were depicted
in outrageous defiance of all the laws of perspective. The fashion, a
frivolous and inelegant fashion it must be owned, which was thus set
by the amiable Queen, spread fast and wide. In a few years almost
every great house in the kingdom contained a museum of these grotesque
baubles. Even statesmen and generals were not ashamed to be renowned as
judges of teapots and dragons; and satirists long continued to repeat
that a fine lady valued her mottled green pottery qu