II.
held, in 1492, a grand tournament here. In 1499, it was almost consumed
by fire, when Henry rebuilt the palace, and gave it the name of RICHMOND.
Cardinal Wolsey frequently resided here; and Hall, in his Chronicles,
says, that "when the common people, and especially such as had been
servants of Henry VII., saw the cardinal keep house in the manor royal at
Richmond, which that monarch so highly esteemed, it was a marvel to hear
how they grudged, saying, 'so a butcher's dogge doth lie in the manor of
Richmond!'"[1]

Queen Elizabeth was prisoner at Richmond during the reign of her sister
Mary; after she came to the throne, the palace was her favourite
residence; and here she died in 1608. Charles I. formed a large
collection of pictures here; and Charles II. was educated at Richmond. On
the restoration, the palace was in a very dismantled state, and having,
during the commonwealth, been plundered and defaced, it never recovered
its pristine splendour.

The survey taken by order of parliament in 1649, affords a minute
description of the palace. The great hall was one hundred feet in length,
and forty in breadth, having a screen at the lower end, over which was
"fayr foot space in the higher end thereof, the pavement of square tile,
well lighted and seated; at the north end having a turret, or clock-case,
covered with lead, which is a special ornament to this building." The
prince's lodgings are described as a "freestone building, three stories
high, with _fourteen turrets_ covered with lead," being "a very graceful
ornament to the whole house, and perspicuous to the county round about."
A round tower is mentioned, called the "Canted Tower," with a staircase
of one hundred and twenty-four steps. The chapel was ninety-six feet long
and forty broad, with cathedral-seats and pews. Adjoining the prince's
garden was an open gallery, two hundred feet long, over which was a close
gallery of similar length. Here was also a royal library. Three pipes
supplied the palace with water, one from the white conduit in the new
park, another from the conduit in the town fields, and the third from a
conduit near the alms-houses in Richmond. In 1650, it was sold for
10,000_l_. to private persons.

All the accounts which have come down to us describe the furniture and
decorations of the ANCIENT PALACE as very superb, exhibiting in gorgeous
tapestry the deeds of kings and of heroes who had signalized themselves
by their conquests throughou