5
London Sunday June 5, 1859
My dear Fanny
To day I have spent in a visit with
the Napiers to the palace and gardens of Hampton
Court. Any history of England will tell you the story
of Cardinal Wolseys greatness and downfall – you will
find it more strikingly told in the play Shakespeares story
of King Henry VIII than elsewhere – Hampton Court was
built by the Cardinal and relinquished by him to the
King. It is 18 miles from London – I have spent the On
the way we stopped to see Popes villa at twick-
enham,now converted into a Chinese Gothic Cottage
by some ambitious citizen. I cannot at all reduce
to readable dimensions an account of Hampden Court
It is now abandoned as a Royal residence, altogether
certainly fit for any King, but it is Kept up for a
resort to the People of London. The gardens and
fountains are vast and beautiful – The gallery
of paintings tells connectedly the story of English
History during a period of three hundred years
while the Church passed from Rome to Protestantism
and the state from a despotism to tyranny to
a free constitutional monarchy, The pictures arranged in
the galleries contribute an illustrated history of the
age – Only think of a family picture painted by a contempo-
rary, in which the group are King Henry the 8 ^th, his Lover
Jane Seymour and his two daughters Mary the Romanist

6
and
Elizabeth
the Protestant,
There is a dozen
contemporaneous likenesses
of Henry the 8 ^th from childhood
to age and as many of Elizabeth
from girlhood to the decline of life