ROYAL RESIDENCES 3 



destroyed. Henry IV. left it in ruins, and is 

 said to have had a house at Isleworth across the 

 river ; but by his son Sheen was restored to 

 royal state. While Henry VII. occupied it, 

 the palace was destroyed by fire ; then in re- 

 building it, this king changed its name to Rich- 

 mond after his Yorkshire earldom, itself another 

 of the beauty-spots of the kingdom. Yet the 

 old name, probably a cousin of the German 

 scJuJn, long fitly lingered in poetry " Thy hill, 

 delightful Sheen ! " is Thomson's invocation 

 and it still survives in East Sheen, which, once 

 a hamlet of Richmond, like Kew, now begins to 

 count rather as a suburb of London. Sheen 

 House here had a later connection with quasi- 

 royalty, as it was for a time occupied by the 

 Count de Paris, heir of the Orleans family, that 

 has hereabouts found other temporary refuges. 



In Henry VIII. 's reign, the Crown gained a 

 new seat in this neighbourhood, Hampton Court, 

 too pretentious monument of Wolsey's pride. 

 At the first signs of the storm that was to 

 wreck him, the swelling Churchman took in sail 

 by giving up his palace to the king, who in re- 

 turn allowed him quarters in one of the royal 

 lodges at Richmond, from which, as the king's 



