There
are banners, so fresh in their hues, and so untattered, that I think they
must be modern, suspended along beneath the cornice of the hall, and
exhibiting Wolsey's arms and badges. On the whole, this is a perfect
sight, in its way.
Next to the hall there is a withdrawing-room, more than seventy feet
long, and twenty-five feet high. The walls of this apartment, too, are
covered with ancient tapestry, of allegorical design, but more faded than
that of the hall. There is also a stained-glass window; and a marble
statue of Venus on a couch, very lean and not very beautiful; and some
cartoons of Carlo Cignani, which have left no impression on my memory;
likewise, a large model of a splendid palace of some East Indian nabob.
I am not sure, after all, that Verrio's frescoed grand staircase was not
in another part of the palace; for I remember that we went from it
through an immensely long suite of apartments, beginning with the
Guard-chamber. All these rooms are wainscoted with oak, which looks new,
being, I believe, of the date of King William's reign. Over many of the
doorways, or around the panels, there are carvings in wood by Gibbons,
representing wreaths of flowers, fruit, and foliage, the most perfectly
beautiful that can be conceived; and the wood being of a light hue
(lime-wood, I believe), it has a fine effect on the dark oak panelling.
The apartments open one beyond another, in long, long, long succession,--
rooms of state, and kings' and queens' bedchambers, and royal closets
bigger than ordinary drawing-rooms, so that the whole suite must be half
a mile, or it may be a mile, in extent.
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