SPELTHORNE HUNDRED 



answered, peevishly, ' Do you wish me dead ? ' * 

 The 'Bill of Rights' was being debated at the 

 time, and no doubt William's presence in London 

 was highly desirable. The vexed question of the 

 succession was for the moment set at rest by the 

 birth at Hampton Court, on 24 July, of the 

 Princess Anne's son, William Henry, afterwards 

 known as Duke of Gloucester. He was bap- 

 tized in the chapel on the evening of Saturday, 

 28 July, just a hundred and fifty years after the 

 last christening there of an heir to the throne,* 1 * 

 and from the first seems to have been a very weakly 

 child. 643 The usual routine of the court was ob- 

 served ; William's adherents were knighted, and 

 the ambassadors were received. On 29 August, 

 George Walker, the hero of the defence of London- 

 derry, was given an audience by the king and 

 queen, who made him a present of 5,000."* 



HAMPTON 



trailer,' Mi and the queen wrote constantly to the 

 king during his absences in Ireland and Holland, 

 complaining of the delays caused by ' want of 

 money and Portland stone.' 6461 Pending the 

 completion of the new state apartments Mary in- 

 stalled herself in the building known as the ' Water 

 Gallery,' where Queen Elizabeth had been lodged 

 as a State prisoner, 646 and it is recorded that Mary 

 made of it ' the pleasantest little thing within 

 doors that could possibly be made, with all the 

 little neat curious things that suited her conveni- 

 ences.' M7 The interior was decorated for her by 

 Wren in the style that appears in his state apart- 

 ments, with painted ceilings and panels, carved 

 doorways and cornices, 648 oak dados, hangings of 

 tapestry, and the characteristic corner fire-places 

 with diminishing shelves in tiers above them. 

 Mary first introduced the taste for ' blue and 



HAMPTON COURT PALACE : WILLIAM THE THIRD'S BUILDINGS FROM THE SOUTH-EAST 



The history of the palace during this reign is 

 chiefly the history of the new building, which 

 absorbed all attention when William and Mary 

 were there. Quarrels occasionally arose between 

 Wren, the ' surveyor,' and Talman, the ' comp- 



white' oriental china into England ; many of her 

 quaint specimens are still to be seen in the palace. 

 She had James Bogdane, a fashionable painter of 

 animals, to decorate the ' Looking Glass Closett ' 

 for her ;" she also had a ' Marble Closett,' finely 



641 Renesby, Memoiri, 5 May 1689 

 (?). William's reserved and somewhat 

 morose temperament added to the 

 general feeling of dissatisfaction ; Diet. 

 Nat. Biog. ; Evelyn, Diary, 29 Jan. 

 1689. 



642 The Duke of Gloucester's un- 

 timely death was perhaps the origin of 

 the superstition concerning Mrs. Penn. 

 See p. 340. 



648 Jenkin Lewis, Queen Anne's Son 

 (ed. 1881), 14. 



George Walker (1618-90), gover- 

 nor of Londonderry, defended that town 

 against the Jacobites at the end of 

 1688. He was killed at the Battle of 

 the Boyne in 1690; Macaulay, Hist, 

 of Eng/. chap, x j Luttrell, Relation of 

 Affairs of State, i, 575 ; Diet. Nat. 

 Biog. ' George Walker ' ; Hist. MSS. 

 Com. Ref. xii, App. vii, 252. 



645 Col. Treas. Papers, vi, no. 37 ; 

 Aud. Off. Declared Accts. bdle. 2443, 

 R. 124. 



359 



6<5 Dalrymple, Memoirs, pt. ii, App. 

 139; Aud. Off. Declared Accts. bdle. 

 2482, R. 295. The account from 

 1 Apr. 1689 to 31 Mar. 1691 reached 

 the sum of 54,484. 



646 See below, p. 343. 



84 7 Defoe, Tour through Gt. Britain 

 (ed. 1738), i, 245. 



M8 Sometimes: aired most exquisitely 

 by Grinling Gibbons in limewood. 



Aud. Off. Declared Accts. bdle. 

 2482, R. 297. 



