SPELTHORNE HUNDRED 



William wrote to Heinsius that he was ' quite 

 exhausted by the labour of hearing harangues and 

 returning answers.' " The first day, after all this 

 fatigue, he afterwards walked for two hours in the 

 garden at Hampton Court." 1 Macaulay writes 

 of this time that ' the whole kingdom, meanwhile, 

 was looking anxiously to Hampton Court. Most 

 of the ministers were assembled there. The most 

 eminent men of the party which was out of 

 power had repaired thither, to pay their duty to 

 their sovereign, and to congratulate him on his 

 safe return. . . . Both Whigs and Tories waited 

 with intense anxiety for the decision of one 

 momentous and pressing question Would there 

 be a dissolution ? ' '" 



William, as he owned to Heinsius, had some 

 difficulty in making up his mind, but on 1 1 Novem- 

 ber 1701 he announced in council his intention 

 to dissolve Parliament, and the proclamation to 

 that effect, calling together a new one to meet on 

 30 December, was issued from Hampton Court at 

 1 1 o'clock p.m. 7 " 



The king continued at the palace, with Portland 

 and Albemarle, who perceived, as he did himself, 

 that his health was breaking down rapidly, though 

 he carried on all the business of the state as usual, 

 and even continued to hunt in the parks, but 

 when he returned he had often to be carried up- 

 stairs to his own apartments. 7 " When Parliament 

 met he was obliged to return to London, and the 

 night of Monday, 22 December 1701, was the last 

 that he spent at the palace. He afterwards came 

 down on Saturdays to hunt, and on 2 1 February 

 (1701-2), though he had not been well that 

 morning, he came as usual, and met with the 

 accident which no doubt accelerated, if it did not 

 cause, his death. 715 He was riding a favourite horse 

 called Sorrel, who appears to have stumbled on a 

 mole-hill, and the king was thrown on his right 

 shoulder. His collar-bone was broken, but was 

 immediately set by Ronjat, his Serjeant surgeon, 

 who happened to be at Hampton Court. In the 

 evening, William, contrary to the doctor's advice, 

 insisted on returning to Kensington, and it seems 

 that the broken bone had to be set again. 726 



Even the date and time of the accident are 

 recorded differently in contemporary accounts. 

 The newspapers described it as having happened 

 ' near Hampton Court,' but the exact locality has 

 not been preserved even by tradition, 717 though 

 twenty or thirty years ago a spot was still pointed 

 out in the Home Park, near the cork-trees at the 

 end of the Long Water, 728 as being the scene of the 



HAMPTON 



machinations of the ' little gentleman in black 

 velvet,' as the Jacobites called the mole which was 

 said to be the cause of the horse's stumble. 729 No 

 serious alarm concerning the king's fall seems to 

 have been felt at the time, but unfavourable 

 symptoms appeared later, and he died at Kensing- 

 ton Palace on Sunday, 8 March 1701-2. 



Hampton Court was left to Queen Anne with 

 accumulated arrears of debts against the Crown 

 amounting to thousands of pounds. 730 Her associa- 

 tion with the palace is accurately summed up in 

 Pope's lines : 



Here thou, Great Anna ! whom three realms 



obey, 



Dost sometimes Counsel take and some- 

 times tea. 



In the early part of her reign Anne used often 

 to preside over meetings of the Privy Council in 

 the Cartoon Gallery, otherwise known as ' The 

 Great Council Chamber ' or ' King's Gallery,' 

 where the seven great cartoons of Raphael hung in 

 the room built for their reception. 731 In 1702 

 councils were held there twice in July, three times 

 in August ; in 1703, once in June, once in July, 

 and once in August ; in 1704 on I June, and 

 ' generally in the summers of succeeding years.' 7 " 

 After 1707 the queen does not seem to have been 

 at Hampton Court till 1710, at a time when she 

 had quarrelled with the Duchess of Marlborough, 

 and wrote to Harley for help in her troubles and 

 perplexities. She appears to have been afraid that 

 the letter might fall into the hands of Godolphin 

 or the Marlboroughs, so that she sent it by ' one 

 of the under-labourers in Hampton Court Gardens,' 

 and it was eventually delivered in a very grimy 

 condition. 733 



On 4 May 1710 Queen Anne entertained 

 ' some Indian kings ' in the palace, 734 in June she 

 came down twice a week ' for the air,' and on 

 26 September arrived with the whole court for a 

 fortnight, the longest time she had spent there 

 since her accession. 734 On 26 October a curious 

 episode took place when the newly-appointed 

 ' Lieutenancy ' dined at the palace. Lord Halifax 

 wrote to the Duke of Newcastle that ' the prepara- 

 tions were very great and magnificent, there were 

 a hundred and fifty covers and a hundred and fifty 

 dishes, but the day did not pass very cheerfully, for 

 the Lord Mayor offered the names of five persons 

 to be knighted . . . but the Queen remained fixt 

 and would not knight any of them ; 736 . . this 

 resolution in the Queen was so great a mortification 



7M Cit. Macaulay, tint. Engl. (ed. 

 1861), T, 300. 



7" Luttrell, op. cit. v, 107-8. 



7 M Macaulay, Hist. Engl. loc. cit. 



7 Luttrell, op. cit. v, io8;Z.<W.Cuz. 



7M Boyne, Hiit. Will III, iii ; White 

 ICennet, op. cit. iii, 826 ; The Royal 

 Diurx(i75)> 87; Luttrell, op. cit.v,i 10; 

 Grimblot, Letters of Will. ///,i,327,352. 



7>* Luttrell, op. cit. v, 145, 147, 150 ; 

 Vernon, Corresp. iii, 164 ; White Ken- 

 nel, op. cit. vol. for 1702. 



' Ibid. ; Ranke, Hiu. of Engl. v, 



7*7 Law, op. cit. iii, 168. 



7 E. V. Boyle, Seven Gar Jens and a 

 Palace, 286. 



"* Miss Strickland, in her life of 

 Queen Anne, has drawn a vivid but 

 quite unauthenticated picture of the 

 occurrence ; vide Law, op. cit. iii, 168, 

 n. 2. It is notable that there are no 

 moles in the park now. 



780 The Treasury Papers are full of 

 these claims ; Cal. Treat. Papers, 

 1702-7, pp. 38, 50, 143, 168, 169, 172, 

 216, 230, 343, 365, 438, 526. Verrio 



297 ; Burnet, Hist, of His Own Times ; was among the creditors : he died at 



Did. Nat. Biog. 



Hampton Court in 1707 ; Walpole, 



Anecdotes of Painting (ed. 1849), ii, 

 471. 



81 Law, op. cit. iii, 171. They are 

 now in the South Kensington Museum. 



7 >a Luttrelt,op.cit,v,i 92,202,205,207, 

 303,333,430,470; vide also Land. Gax. 



7 Swift, Works (ed. 1824), iii, 182, 

 * Memoirs relating to the change of 

 Ministry in 1710.' 



7M Luttrell, op. cit. vi, 599. 



7 Add. MSS. B.M. 100, 101, fol. 

 73 ; Luttrell, op. cit. vi, 633. 



"' It was apparently thought that 

 one of them Carse had been con- 

 cerned in some plot. 



