56

HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CIIAP.

XI.

iliSD.

which furnished Hondekoeter with numerous specimens of• manycoloured plumage.* The King, in his splendid banish-ment, pined for this favourite seat, and found some consolationin creating another Loo on the banks of the Thames. Soon awide extent of ground was laid out in formal walks and par-terres. Much idle ingenuity was employed in forming thatintricate labyrinth of verdure which has puzzled and amusedfive generations of holiday visitors from London. Limes thirtyyears old were transplanted from neighbouring woods to shadethe alleys. Artificial fountains spouted among the flower-beds. A new court, not designed with the purest taste, butstately, spacious, and commodious, rose under the directionof Wren. The wainscots were adorned with the rich anddelicate carvings of Gibbons. The staircases were in a blazewith the glaring frescoes of Verrio. In every corner of themansion appeared a profusion of gewgaws, not yet familiarto English eyes. Mary had acquired at the Hague a tastefor the porcelain of China, and amused herself by forming atHampton a vast collection of hideous images, and of vaseson which houses, trees, bridges, and mandarins were depictedin outrageous defiance of all the laws of perspective. Thefashion, a frivolous and inelegant fashion it must be owned,which was thus set by the amiable Queen, spread fast andwide. In a few years almost every great house in the kingdomcontained a museum of these grotesque baubles. Even states-men and-generals were not ashamed to be renowned as judgesof teapots and dragons; and satirists long continued to repeatthat a fine lady valued her mottled green pottery quite as muchas she valued her monkey, and much more than she valuedher husband.** But the new palace was embellished with

* See Harris’s description of Loo, 1G99.

** Every person who is well acquainted with Pope and Addison willremember tlicir sarcasms on this taste. Lady Mary Wortlcy Montague