The History of Hampton Court Palace Volume 1

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1890 Excerpt: ...in the print of the doorway on page 189. In the meanwhile the works on the King's apartments were being continued; and it was probably in the year 1536 that the final touches were put to Henry VIII.'s " Great Watching Chamber" or Guard Chamber, which, as we have said, had been nearly completed during the reign of Anne Boleyn. Among all the State rooms in the palace, Plan of the Ceiling of Henry VIIl.'s Great Watching Chamber. including those in William 111.'s apartments, there is scarcely one so large and fine as this;1 and with its low ceiling of intricate ribs and pendants, its great semicircular oriel of thirty-six lights, its high clerestory windows, and its quaint and faded hangings of antique arras,2 it preserves more of an old-world aspect than almost any other room in England. Its general appearance may be seen from the folding plate 1 Its length is 71 feet, its width 29 a It is still hung with the "Triumphs" feet, and its height 29! feet. described on pages 63-67. 1537 Henry Villi's Great Watching Chamber. 181 at page 106, from which the structure of the ceiling can be followed out, by comparing it with the plan here inserted.1 The pendants, as well as the ribs that radiate from them, are of oak, carved and moulded; and though now smothered in modern whitewash, were formerly richly coloured and gilt. Between the ribs are ornaments, made of a composition somewhat like papier-mache, consisting of wreaths encircling the arms and badges of Henry VIII., and in one or two instances the badge of Jane Seymour--a castle, from the upper storey of which issue stalks of Tudor red-andwhite roses, and flames of fire surmounted by a phcenix Ornaments in the Ceiling of the King's Great Watching Chamber. crowned; while in the lower storey grows ...