WILLIAM AND MAKY.

55

coughing till the tears ran down his cheeks.* His mind, strongas itw r as, sympathized with his body. His judgment was in-deed as clear as ever. But there was, during some months, aperceptible relaxation of that energy by which he had beendistinguished. Even his Dutch friends whispered that he wasnot the man that he had been at the Hague.** It w-as absolutelynecessary that he should quit London. He accordingly tookup his residence in the purer air of Hampton Court. Thatmansion, begun by the magnificent Wolsey, was a fine specimenof the architecture which flourished in England under the firstTudors; but the apartments were not, according to the notionsof the seventeenth century, well fitted for purposes of state.Our princes therefore had, since the Itestoration, repairedthither seldom, and only when they wished to live for a timein retirement. As William pm-posed to make the desertededifice his chief palace, it was necessary for him to build andto plant; nor was the necessity disagreeable to him. For hehad, like most of his countrymen, a pleasure in decorating acountry house; and next to hunting, though at a great interval,his favourite amusements were architecture and gardening.He had already created on a sandy heath in Guelders a paradise,which attracted multitudes of the curious from Holland andWestphalia. Mary had laid the first stone of the house. Ben-tinck had superintended the digging of the fishponds. Therewere cascades and grottoes, a spacious orangery, and an aviary

* Burnet, ii. 2.; Burnet, MS. Ilarl. 6584. But Eonquillo’s account is* much more circumstantial. “Nada sc ha visto mas desfigurado; y, quantasveccs he ostado con cl, le he visto toser tanto que se le saltabaq laslagrimas, y se ponia moxado y arrancando; y conficsan los medicos que esuna nsma incurable,” Mar. ^ 368D. Avaux wrote to the same effect fromIreland. “Lasantd do l’usurpatcur est fort mauvaise. L’on no croit pasqu'il vive un an.” April -fa,

** “Ilasta decir los mismos Ilollandeses que lo desconozcan,” saysRonquillo. “II est absolument mal propre pour le r61c qu’il a h jouerh l’heure qu’il est,” says Avaux. “Slothful and sickly,” says Evelyn.March 29. 1689.

CHAP.

XI.

16SS.