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“ Unless equipped with a good knowledge of Scottish history, the average tourist wandering through Fife will come upon Falkland Palace with surprise. Its situation is so remote from any centre of importance, it stands upon no great river affording an outlet to the sea, and never being a stronghold of any sort it remains at the base instead of the top of the hills among which it is built. ”

“ Scarcely anything remains to-day to remind us of the vast size and the magnificence of the Palace of Westminster, the royal residence of the English Kings from the time of Edward the Confessor until the reign of Henry VIII. For five centuries the monarchs of England kept their Court on the island of Thorney, within the sound of the bells of the great minster raised by the piety of the saintly Edward. ”

“ Yet, in spite of its uninspiring exterior, it is full of interest, for present-day life throbs within its walls, the nation's history is bound up with it, and it pulsates with memories of the Queen who won the hearts of her people as a young girl and kept them all through her long and honoured life. As a palace, its life-story is just beginning ”

“ Henry was delighted with his new residence, and proceeded to add new buildings, and to enclose nearly all St. James's Park up to the site of Buckingham Palace. Covering a vast extent of ground, the palace rambled from Scotland Yard along the riverside, to where Downing Street now stands, and spread across the roadway by means of a long gallery. Never so beautiful as Westminster, the Whitehall of the Tudors was a mass of brick buildings, erected without any particular scheme just as occasion required, resulting, as Besant declares, in a building "without dignity and without nobility." ”

“ Buckingham Palace, the London residence of the monarch, is the most familiar of all the royal palaces to the general British public, in so far as everyone, sooner or later, migrates to London. Unfortunately the spectator sees only a somewhat depressing and stereotyped building, lacking the majestic proportions of Windsor and the stately beauty of Hampton Court, representing, indeed, the very lowest ebb of English architecture. ”

“ Though suffering from a variety of ailments, among which were ague and dropsy, Wolsey never rested, but, having bought Hampton Court in 1514, pushed on the building, so that it was finished and ready for occupation two years afterwards. No word concerning any architect has come down to us, so that we may presume that the palace was erected according to the Cardinal's own plans, and that he is responsible for the romantic charm of the Tudor work, with its clustered chimneys, gabled roofs, mullioned windows, and all the picturesque dignity of the red-brick courtyards. ”

“ A strongly-fortified wall ran all round the palace, for medieval Kings needed their royal residences to be places of defence as well as of regal splendour. There were gates leading to the Abbey, to Whitehall, and to the river, where the King's barges lay to take him down to the Tower of London in the city, or up the river towards Windsor. Immediately beyond the busy throng of the palace and the monastic buildings of the Abbey, lay green fields and pleasant rural scenes. ”

“ The first King to be born at Windsor was Edward III., who spent great sums upon his palace, practically rebuilding the whole castle. Being a great warrior, loving war and glory, he became enamoured with the idea of founding an Order of Knighthood that should become as illustrious as that of King Arthur, who was believed to have some connection with Windsor. ”

“ After the Wars of the Roses had crushed the power of the great nobles, it was no longer necessary for the monarch to dwell within a fortress, and it was then that the gracious and commodious palaces of Whitehall, Hampton Court, and Greenwich, arose in England. The Scottish Kings, having at the same time reached a greater control over their headstrong nobles, also began transforming their castles into palaces, and to erect Holyrood and Falkland to gratify their desire for more luxurious residences. ”

“ If a palace be a royal residence, as the dictionary defines it, then nearly all the famous castles of England would come under that title, for the Norman and Plantagenet Kings were constantly moving from one stronghold to another during the unsettled period of the Middle Ages. Until the fifteenth century, both the English and Scottish Kings resided in impregnable castles or fortified houses, but their sojourn was never long in one place. ”

“ The whim of royal fancy was the cause of the complete obliteration of the palace, other royal houses pleasing the later Kings more than the one upon Lambeth Marsh. Low-lying ground, only redeemed from complete marshland by the embankment of the river, lay between it and the City of London on the north. As it was not until quite the end of the eighteenth century that houses began to be built upon this district, the land being up till then used as market-gardens, it is not surprising that when the palace was destroyed it soon passed from men's minds, no one living in the neighbourhood. ”

“ There is an old-world dignity about the neighbourhood of the palace, locally known as King John's Palace, through some confusion with John of Eltham, the second son of Edward II., who [pg 26] was born there. King John himself never resided in the palace, for it was not a royal house until the reign of his son. Some charming old houses, with red-tiled roofs and overhung upper stories, standing among gardens gay with flowers, border the avenue. It is probable that Wolsey and other Lord Chancellors stayed in these houses when in attendance upon the monarch. ”

“ The first monarch to reside at Dunfermline was Malcolm Canmore, who built a castle on Tower Hill, a little distance away from the later palace. Its site is still to be seen, though the slight remains of the walls are probably those of its Norman successor. Queen Margaret lived the greater part of her reign there, spending her days in pious devotion, giving food and garments to the poor, or sitting with her maidens working at rich embroideries to adorn the abbey which she had founded. ”

“ The architect had to join on the Renaissance style of architecture in vogue at that time, to the late Perpendicular of the original builders, and by adhering to red-brick with stone facings and copings, he made a combination which is both restful and dignified. Queen Mary took an intense interest in the new building which she was never destined to see finished, her early death causing King William to lose all pleasure in the palace, which they had both loved. ”

“ During the reign of Queen Elizabeth no very important events occurred, for though the Queen constantly visited the palace, she came for periods of rest and amusement, away from all political cares. When her successor came to Hampton Court, he was delighted with it, as he was with most of the English royal palaces, which were so much more rich and luxurious than those of Holyrood or Falkland. The park allowed him opportunity for his much-loved occupation of hunting, when, his ungainly figure clad in a vivid [pg 44] green hunting suit, he would follow the stag with great keenness. ”

“ Eltham has never been anything but a small village amid fertile country, so that the problem of feeding the Court when resident in the palace must have been a serious one. Two thousand people to be fed daily must have absorbed the energies of all the farmers round.
In plan the palace was a quadrangular castle protected by a strong battlemented wall, surrounded by a deep moat, with a drawbridge and portcullis. ”

“ The last monarch to reside and to die in the palace was George II., the "petty German autocrat" who scorned England and delighted in snubbing his English courtiers, declaring, according to Lord Hervey, that no Englishman knew how to enter a room, nor any Englishwoman how to dress, nor English cooks how to prepare a dinner, nor English coachman how to drive, nor, indeed, were there any English horses fit to ride or drive. Queen Caroline, his much-enduring wife, devoted herself to the planning out of the gardens, which she laid out practically as we now see them. ”

“ For many years James VI. remained carefully guarded within the castle walls, never allowed to roam without first getting permission, until he had grown to man's estate. Yet he bore no ill-will to Stirling, to which he brought his wife, Anne of Denmark, and where his eldest son, Prince Henry, was born. After the desire of his life had been achieved, and he had become King of Great Britain, he paid one visit to Stirling in 1617, after which the castle was only used on one other occasion as a palace, when Charles I. came there in 1633. ”

“ It was the presence of the abbey adjoining the palace which made Dunfermline so dear to Queen Margaret. She was never tired of enriching her foundation with every gift that saintly enthusiasm could suggest, and when she died she was naturally buried in the Lady Chapel. The abbey buildings were destroyed by Edward I., but were restored by Bruce, who erected the palace near by, deserting the castle on the hilltop. ”

“ At the time when these great building schemes were in progress, there were two captive Kings within the castle, for Edward did not entirely devote his energy to palace [pg 14] building, which merely formed a pleasing interlude to the long and ambitious wars which occupied his life. David II. of Scotland had been captured at Neville's Cross in 1346, and ten years later John, the King of France, joined him at Windsor, having fallen to the Black Prince at Poitiers. It is said that Edward, while walking with his prisoners, discussed with them the building of his new palace. ”

“ Though no vestige of the palace now remains, it is reasonable to conjecture, from the analogy of contemporary palaces which still exist, that Kennington Palace was a fortified building, with a strongly embattled wall and deep moat. Deserted by Henry VIII., who found Eltham and Greenwich more to his taste, the building materials were all sold and the palace razed to the ground. Some kind of Tudor manor-house was built upon the site, for a survey taken about the middle of the seventeenth century describes a building of some fair size. ”

“ During the minority of James II., a time when several parties in the State were endeavouring to capture their young monarch and to rule in his name, a great tragedy took place within the castle. William, Earl of Douglas, a lad of about eighteen, was then the head of the most wealthy and powerful family in Scotland, and being of royal descent, might even make a claim to the throne. ”

“ Plans were drawn up by Sir Christopher Wren for a new palace, but William III., who, suffering from habitual asthma, found the smoke of Whitehall almost intolerable, was not likely to be anxious to restore a palace in which he could not live. As he wrote to one of his friends, "the loss is less to me than it would be to another person, for I cannot live there." But though he made little effort to rebuild the palace, being already busy at altering Hampton Court, there is no truth in the statement of his enemies, that William had partly inspired the fire. ”

“ In order to erect a flamboyant palace, Kew House was pulled down by royal command in 1802, and a new "castellated structure of carpenters' Gothic" put up under the direction of Wyatt, the architect who was responsible for the alterations and repairs of Windsor Castle. Fortunately it was never finished, owing to the poor King's illness, and it has been said that George IV. never did a better deed in his life than when he demolished the ridiculous palace perpetrated by his father. While the building was in progress the Royal Family moved into the Dutch House. ”

“ George's Chapel, under a plain stone slab, having been brought thither from Chertsey Abbey by Richard III., who did not care for miracles to be performed at his victim's grave, and preferred to have the body under his own observation.
As a form of penitence for having waded "through slaughter to a throne," Edward IV. is said to have erected the beautiful chapel dedicated to St. George, which replaced the one built by Edward III. One of the finest specimens of pure Perpendicular architecture in England, it is the most impressive and stately building enclosed within the walls of Windsor Castle. ”

“ Another Queen Margaret, also an English Princess, a century and a half later, came as a girl-wife to the grim castle on the rock. She was the daughter of Henry III. of England, and had been married to Alexander III., a mere boy, with great splendour at York, her father hoping by the marriage to gain more influence over Scotland.
All the troubles of the War of Independence during the fourteenth century arose from King Alexander III. leaving no male heir. ”

“ Before the palace was erected a castle stood close to the site of the present building. It had long been a possession of the Earls of Fife, till in the fourteenth century it descended to an heiress who had no children. She bestowed the castle upon Robert Duke of Albany, the brother of the inefficient King Robert III. Upon Albany rests the dreadful charge of murdering his young nephew, the Duke of Rothesay, by starving him to death in the castle at Falkland. Rothesay was young and wild, and had annoyed his uncle by getting himself made Guardian of the Realm, a post desired by Albany. ”

“ Eight years later, King William himself expired in the same palace, a man still in the prime of life, but worn out with illness and hard work to which his vigorous intellect had driven him. He was already far from well when he was thrown from his horse while riding in Hampton Court Park, and broke his collar bone. The bone was set at once, after which the King insisted upon returning to Kensington, against the advice of his doctors. Upon arriving at the palace it was found that the bone required resetting owing to the jolting caused by the bad roads. ”