health
confined her, and in this case kept for the most part at Kensington,
where he died; but her Majesty always discovered her delight to be at
Windsor, where she chose the little house, as it was called, opposite to
the Castle, and took the air in her chaise in the parks and forest as she
saw occasion.

Now Hampton Court, by the like alternative, is come into request again;
and we find his present Majesty, who is a good judge too of the
pleasantness and situation of a place of that kind, has taken Hampton
Court into his favour, and has made it much his choice for the summer's
retreat of the Court, and where they may best enjoy the diversions of the
season. When Hampton Court will find such another favourable juncture as
in King William's time, when the remainder of her ashes shall be swept
away, and her complete fabric, as designed by King William, shall be
finished, I cannot tell; but if ever that shall be, I know no palace in
Europe, Versailles excepted, which can come up to her, either for beauty
and magnificence, or for extent of building, and the ornaments attending
it.

From Hampton Court I directed my course for a journey into the south-west
part of England; and to take up my beginning where I concluded my last, I
crossed to Chertsey on the Thames, a town I mentioned before; from
whence, crossing the Black Desert, as I called it, of Bagshot Heath, I
directed my course for Hampshire or Hantshire, and particularly for
Basingstoke--that is to say, that a little before, I passed into the
great Western Road upon the heath, somewhat west of Bagshot, at a village
called Blackwater, and entered Hampshire, near Hartleroe.

Before we reach Basingstoke, we get rid of that unpleasant country which
I so often call a desert, and enter into a pleasant fertile country,
enclosed and cultivated like the rest of England; and passing a village
or two we enter Basingstoke, in the midst of woods and pastures, rich and
fertile, and the country accordingly spread with the houses of the
nobility and gentry, as in other places. On the right hand, a little
before we come to the town, we pass at a small distance the famous
fortress, so it was then, of Basing, being a house belonging then to the
Marquis of Winchester, the great ancestor of the present family of the
Dukes of Bolton.

This house, garrisoned by a resolute band of old soldiers, was a great
curb to the rebels of the Parliament party almost through that whole war;
till i