The Sun.
London, England, 1847-01-05 00:00:00

HAMPTO

PALACE.

The great Gothic Hall of Hampton Court Palace,
better known, perhaps, as Wolsey's Hall, was re-opened
to the public on Saturday last, and is now probably the
finest and most brilliantly embellished building in Europe.
The large windows, thirteen in number, on the e
northe
and south sides of the hall, have been filled with is
stained glass, in a style harmonising with the noble
windows at the east and west extremities, and by the
same artist, Mr. Willement. The compartments of the
east and west windows are occupied by the arms of
Henry VIII. and those of his house. The subjects of
the thirteen new windows now added by Mr. Wille-
ment, are the armorial pedigrees of the six wives of
Henry VIII.
With Hampton Court Palace the names of Henry
VIII and Cardinal Wolsey are indissolubly connected,
and it has been considered proper to perpetuate in this
hall, by suitable decorations and ornaments, the memory
of the munificent founder of this royal residence and
that of his sovereign in close alliance.
Hampton Court Palace, as most of our readers re-
member, was built by Wolsey, who presented it to the
royal tiger, his master. The great hail was designed by
Wolsey, and finished by Henry VIII., when Ann Boleyn
was in the height of favour. It is 106 feet long, 40
wide, and 60 high. The roof is elaborately carved, and
the noble proportions of the hall, when first beheld, fill
every mind with dt light. The large window at the east
end is filled with stained glass, representing, es we have
stated, the arms of Henry VIII. and his ancestors, with
the arms of England, France, Ireland, &c. It also con-
tains a half-length portrait of the monarch. The oppo-
site window, at the west end of the hall, presents
another (whole-length) portrait of Henry, with the
arms of the other sovereigns of the Tudor family. The
large oriel window at the south side, also executed by
Mr. Willement, contains the arms of Cardinal Wolsey,
with those of the see of York and of his four bishoprics.
The banners, armour, some of the tapestry, and the por-
traits, have reference to the same exalted personages, or
to the period in which they lived.
With the view of making the Great Hall in its entire
embellishments illustrative of the reign and history of
Henry VIII., the arms of his six Queens have been
selected as the subjects of the new stained glass windows
of which we have now to speak. These windows are
each upwards of 20 feet in height, and of great width,
and when we state that the whole of the light admitted
into the building now passes through richly coloured
glass, it will easily be imagined that the coup d'ail on
entering the ball is very striking and magnificent. The
armorial pedigrees of the Queens commence at the
bottom of the left sides of six of the windows, and are
continued in richly emblazoned arms until they approach
the top, when they proceed to the right. On approach-
ing the opposite side of the window they descend until
they retch the foot, where the arms of each Queen are
seen impaled with those of Henry. The compartments
in the centre of these windows are of a light ground,
and contain black letter scrolls having reference to
the various coats of arms. It is worthy of remark that
the whole of the six Queens of Henry VIII. trace their
descent from Edward I. of England. Thus the scroll ap-
pended to the heraldic tree of Wolsey's illustrious
Queen bears the inscription "Katharine of Arragon,
first wife of Henry VIII.; her pedigree from Edward I.
and his first wife, Eleanor of Castile." Anne Boleyne's
pedigree is traced to Edward I. and the second wife of
that monarch, Margaret of France; Jane Seymour to
Edward I. and Eleanor; Anne of Cleves to Edward I.
and Eleanor; Katharine froward to Edward I. and Mar-
garet of Frarce; Katharine Parr to Edward I. and
Eleanor. It will thus be observed that the "Defender
of the Faith," in selecting the partners of his throne
and bed, by no means overlooked the claims of birth
and illustrious descent. If, too, as some hare supposed,
a man of great strength of mind and force of character
transmits some of his personal characteristics and pecu-
liarities through several successive generations, nothing
will appear more remarkable than the strong .affinity
which the " bluff King Hal" must hove felt for these
characteristics (s hether of mind or body) as represented
is the persons of the female descendants of Edward 1.--
except, perhaps, his wonderful haste to repudiate and
get rid of his fair cousins, after he had obtained the
gratification of his desires.
The alternate windows to those we hare described
each contain the eight heraldic badges of Henry VIII.,
the Tudor rose, the Fleur-de-lis, the portcullis, the red
dragon, &c., within separate wreaths of foliage. These
insignia, placed in different compartments of the window,
do not occupy a great deal of space ; and, being set off
by a light ground, formed of small yellow letters and
devices rum ing obliquely across the window, painted
upon white, the rich colours of the insignia are not only
shown to greater advantage, but these alternate windows,
by their chaste and more quietslight, bring out by con-
trast the splendid crimson emblazonments of the armorial
pedigrees. Mr. Willement has been very happy in his
crimsons ; and when a July sun shall pour his strung
radiance through the stained windows until the stone
pavement appears to he inlaid with blushing colours,
the rich yet softened light of the great hall will be a
welcome relief from the glare of the neon-day snn
without.

We have been thus far minute in our description
of the new embellishments at Hampton-court Palace,
from a desire to see the highest artistic talent in
the country finding honourable and lucrative em-
pleyrnent in the pursuit of a long-neglected
branch of the fine arts. When we remember
the cold and cheerless aspect of most of our cathedrals
and ecclesiastical edifices, from the absence of those
stained glass windows, which at ones ministered to the
religious sentiment and infused a sense of bodily warmth
and comfmt, we shall perceive how wide a field is open
to men of science and painters of genius who may endea-
vour to perfectionate this branch of high and devotional
art. The Government are making a wise and enlightened
exercise of their patronage i I doing what they can to
stimulate and encourage the art of staining in glass,
and, as the English school of painters is acknowledged to
excel all other existing schools in colouring, there seems
no reason why our church and cathedral stained-glass
windows should not, if possible, excel the chefsdauere of
the modern Munich artist.
The number of visitors at Hampton Court during the
past year has never been c xceeded in any former season,
notwithstanding the" fresh fields and pastures new" offered
to the public by the various railway companies in the
shape ofcheap excursion trains uponthe gt sat holidays. It
is gratifying to state that the lib: rality of the Woods
and Forests was properly appreciated by the public, and
that no damage whatever worthy of being mentioned was
committed either upon the trees and shrubs, or the pic-
tures in the galleries ; on the contrary, the sense of a
paternal Government, and of its opportunities of dif-
fusing happiness, w, re probably never more pleasurably
impressed upon the minds of the hundreds of thousands
of the humbler classes who visited Harnpt. n court.
Notwithstanding the increasing. number of visitors to
Hampton-court, we may be permitted to doubt whether
the present attractions of the palace and gardens arc
known as universally as they doseeve to be. In the spring
hundreds of pilgrims make a special journey to Hampton-
court from the metropolis, to see the splendid avenue of
chestnuts in full blossom in Bushy-park. A little later
in the summer the avenues of limes fill the air with
their rich fragrance. About the middle of Juno the
parterres of Hampton Court resemble a rose garden, such
is the profusion of roses and the delightful perfume they
exhale. In the autumn the wondrous vine, the dahlias,
and the tints of the departing year, furnish new objects
of interest. Every Saturday afternoon, during the fine
weather, the band of the cavalry regiment quartered a
Hampton Court and Hounslow plays for two or three
hours opposite the great cast front of the palace, at which
time the gardens receive most of the aristocratic visitors
Hampton Court. Saturday is the fashionable day par
excellence, and the groups of well-dressed ladies teen in
various parts af the grounds, surrounded by the choicest
precluei ions of Flora, furnish pictures worthy of Breughel.
The deterioration in the physique of our pepulatien is a
matter of so much national moment that the existence of
plales of healthful amusement and out of-door recreation
an the neighbourhood of all our large cities and towns
ought never to become a matter of indifference to the Go-
vernment.

GAiictA.—The following fact, ....."I,a-feied from a
letter dated frontiers of Galicia. the 11th instant, will
afford an idea of the frightful anarchy existing in that
province :—" In the neighbourhood of Ta: now," says the
writer, "r3sides an elderly lady, who, although belong-
ing to one of the first families in the country, is so be-
loved by the peasantry, that she continued to reside on
her estates during the recent massacres. 'I h. popula-
tion living on the lands amount to about 1,000 inhabit-
ants, only one of whom joined the bands which carried
murder and devastation through the province. Having
lately returned to his home, this wretch was enjoying
quietly the fruit of his rapine, when, in the beginning
of this month, a party of seven of his companions in
crime, entered his dwelling and demanded the money
they knew him to be possessed of. On his refusal to
acquiesce, they threatened to hang him, and were actu-
ally preparing to carry their threat into execution. when,
perceiving they were serious, he determined on disclosing
to them the place where he had concealed his treasure,
Once in possession of it those miscreants deliberated
among themselves, and one of them having suggested
that he would inform on them if they did not put him
out of the way, they concurred in the suggestion, and
hung the man.' Fortunately, however, a young boy
heard from an adjoining room what was going on, and
having proe„ed.
in all haste to the village, he gave the
alarm.- In an in
and, placing themselves ten. armed peasants sallied out.
ambuscade, waited until the
arrival of a reineerceesmeinnt when they surrounded and
forcibly entered the boast:.
Weized sixoey bt:ltgoEbthl.,lditti,
one
down the man, who wasanhdans
speaurtktinogf
life was not
eintgexettirnecctted
ithe affray.
of them having
, by Which
The peasants then formed a speciesPoef tribunal,
the culprits were judged and condemn:iclhetosdiaxeath.
sentence was immediately executed. The
suspende I from the nearest trees, and their
exerncuettl: were
loners
having kept guard upon them until life had departed,
placed the six corpses in a cart, and sent them to th
authorities of Tarnow."—Galignuni's Messenger.
REMARKABLE SUICIDE.—On Saturday informa-
tion was forwarded to Mr. Bedford, the coroner, of the
suicida of a man named James Berrall, under the follow-
ing extraordinary circumstances :—The deceased, who
was a married man, with a family of five children, was
by trade an upholsterer, being what is termed a jobbing_
master, and resided at No. 17, Brown-street, Grosvenor-
square. Although in humble circumstances he was not
in actual want, but he had frequently of late been in the
habit of saying that he had an unaccountable dread of
the approach of the year 1847, and that as sure as it
came he should on the first day of it commit suicide by
banging himself. His threats were taken no notice of,
but on his landlady going into the washhouse, about lice
o'clock on the evening of Friday last, the Ist instant, she
found him suspended by a cord tied tightly round his
neck, and fastened to a hook in the wall, An inquest
%ill be held to morrow (Tuesday).