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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