Some devils are dragging away the damned by the heels and on
sledges, and above sits the Redeemer and some angelic and sainted people,
looking complacently down upon the scene!
We saw, in one of the rooms, the funeral canopy beneath which the Duke of
Wellington lay in state,--very gorgeous, of black velvet embroidered with
silver and adorned with escutcheons; also, the state bed of Queen Anne,
broad, and of comfortable appearance, though it was a queen's,--the
materials of the curtains, quilt, and furniture, red velvet, still
brilliant in hue; also King William's bed and his queen Mary's, with
enormously tall posts, and a good deal the worse for time and wear.
The last apartment we entered was the gallery containing Raphael's
cartoons, which I shall not pretend to admire nor to understand. I can
conceive, indeed, that there is a great deal of expression in them, and
very probably they may, in every respect, deserve all their fame; but on
this point I can give no testimony. To my perception they were a series
of very much faded pictures, dimly seen (for this part of the palace was
now in shadow), and representing figures neither graceful nor beautiful,
nor, as far as I could discern, particularly grand. But I came to them
with a wearied mind and eye; and also I had a previous distaste to them
through the medium of engravings.
But what a noble palace, nobly enriched, is this Hampton Court! The
English government does well to keep it up, and to admit the people
freely into it, for it is impossible for even a Republican not to feel
something like awe--at least a profound respect--for all this state, and
for the institutions which are here represented, the sovereigns whose
moral magnificence demands such a residence; and its permanence, too,
enduring from age to age, and each royal generation adding new splendors
to those accumulated by their predecessors.
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