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| The Tudor portion of Hampton Court Palace |
The LIS class had a free day today so Lindsay, Jessica, Ashley, Kayla, and I decided to take the 30-minute train ride to
Hampton Court Palace.
Words cannot describe how awesome the experience was. There were so
many beautiful rooms, items, and gardens that my camera battery couldn't
withstand the sheer amount of pictures I felt it necessary to take.
Seven hours and over 350 pictures later, I had finished one of the best
experiences I've had in the UK so far.
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| Henry VIII's Great Hall |
We started the day in Henry VIII's Great Hall, where
the most impressive items were the stained glass windows showing the
family trees of each of his six wives. These were closely followed by
some of the largest tapestries I have ever seen that enveloped the room
from wall to wall. This Tudor flair is a simpler type of grandeur than
shown by later kings, but the hall has the feel of a glorified hunting
lodge and completely fits Henry's personality. Unfortunately this is one
of the few Tudor-era rooms that remain because William and Mary decided
to renovate the palace when they came into power.
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| Chapel Royal ceiling |
Following Henry's hall is an area covered in portraits of Henry and his family that leads into the
Chapel Royal,
where the king would have attended services while staying at Hampton
Court. Henry's son, later King Edward VI, was baptized in this chapel in
his youth. A replica of the Tudor crown worn by Henry and his
descendants can be seen in the royal pew. The original crown was
destroyed by Oliver Cromwell, and the reproduction was made in the early
2000s using a contemporary painting as a guide. While the crown was
interesting, the chapel itself was much more stunning. I'd wager that
the ceiling is one of the finest in the world and has been painstakingly
preserved and restored to maintain its Tudor glory. Unfortunately
cameras were not allowed in the chapel, so the photograph is from their
web site (linked above).
After such an amazing start to
the day, I didn't think anything else in the palace could compete with
the morning. Our lunch break in the Privy Cafe quickly proved me wrong.
This cafe was modified from the privy kitchens of Queen Elizabeth I, so I
found myself eating a sandwich in the same place that QE1 would sit and
take her private meals. This was a completely surreal experience
because I have looked up to Elizabeth for many years. It could be
because we share the same name or because she was the first female
monarch who proved that maybe, just maybe, a woman
could do a man's job.
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| Cutting a quill pen |
After lunch, we walked through the final part of the
Tudor experience called "Henry VIII's Kitchens." These rooms are
reproductions of Tudor-era kitchens complete with dishes and food (some
of it real) and costumed staff who are on hand to discuss Tudor cooking
with tourists. One of the most surprisingly entertaining experiences was
also taking place in the kitchens. A man was sitting at one of the
tables carving quill pens out of goose feathers, talking visitors
through the process as he worked. When he was finished, he allowed all
of us to try out his creation by using it to write our names in a book.
He says the books stay at Hampton Court, so we could have left our mark
for hundreds of years to come.
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| Superior maze navigators |
One of the fun outdoors
attractions at Hampton Court is the hedge maze. It was one of the first
mazes in the UK that didn't have just one path, so now people would
encounter dead ends and potentially become lost which adds suspense and
tons of fun! Naturally, this was a big hit and people came from all over
England to try their luck when the maze opened to the public. The
signage mentioned an average journey of 20 minutes to reach the center,
but being the infinitely clever and resourceful library students that we
are, we made it to the center in about 5 minutes. The signs in the
center urged us to take a "Georgian selfie" with the decorative frame in
the center (and of course you have to obey the signs).
The
maze is right next to the gardens at the rear of the house, and those
are spectacular. There are several gardens around the palace, and each
has its own personality. Some are entirely green, some have an
occasional pop of color, and some are a riot of hues and flowers. In
this case I believe pictures would speak more eloquently than any words I
could come up with to describe them, as I have a brown thumb and know
nothing about horticulture.
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