FULHAM PALACE 



walking, and other innocent recreations ; and that he only followed 

 what, in his travels abroad, he had seen practised. 



After Aylmer's return from exile, his career was comparatively 

 uneventful, and it is chiefly interesting as showing the manner of 

 the domestic life of a highly-placed ecclesiastic of that day. He 

 appears to have resided much at Fulham during his episcopal reign 

 of nearly thirty years, and we may associate his idiosyncrasies, his 

 virtues, and his failings, with the older portions of the Manor 

 House, as it exists at the present day. I do not know the exact 

 position of the bowling-green to which he was so much attached, 

 but it was probably the one part of the gardens that was never 

 neglected, and very possibly it may have been on the site of the 

 well-kept tennis lawn of to-day. We know pretty well how the 

 house itself looked, for in Aylmer's time the quadrangle built by 

 Bishop Fitzjames was but fifty years old, and it has undergone 

 no change in style. Also, the quaint and picturesque Henry VII. 

 gateway of brick, separating the lawns and flower plots proper, 

 from the great walled fruit and vegetable garden, though it has been 

 restored, is unaltered. The bishop had a family of seven sons and 

 two or three daughters. His wife, " Judith," was a lady of good 

 family, and we are told that "as he came into his bishopric in 

 good circumstances, so he died very rich." One would have 

 preferred to know that he died somewhat poor. In private life 

 ''he was economical, though fond of magnificence," but we can 

 forgive his ostentation, and even excuse his violence of speech, 

 when we remember his good deeds during the severe visitation of 

 the plague in 1578 or thereabouts. It was a visitation occurring 

 soon after his appointment to the See of London, and he seems 

 at that time to have acted with great discretion and humanity. 

 We are told that the sick were visited by the clergy, every possible 

 comfort was liberally administered, and that books containing 

 directions for preventing the spreading of the contagion, were 

 freely circulated at his expense. In all these arrangements Aylmer 

 was certainly in advance of his age. 



His tenure of office was, on the whole, very peaceful ; and he 

 seems to have lived the life of a great seigneur. He was wealthy, 

 and appears to have kept up great state, for his household consisted 

 of eighty persons an establishment more suited to an archbishop 

 than a bishop. He preached often in the Cathedral of his diocese, 



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