[Illustration: _Frontispiece_ THE TOWER OF LONDON. The Bloody Tower and the Wakefield Tower, in which the Crown Jewels are kept.] PEEPS AT ROYAL PALACES OF GREAT BRITAIN BY BEATRICE HOME CONTAINING 8 FULL PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR AND 21 LINE DRAWINGS IN THE TEXT LONDON ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK 1913 PREFACE 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. 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. Within the compass of this small book, it would have been impossible to detail every castle in which a monarch ever resided, so that it has been thought better to confine attention to those palaces which were owned, and most constantly used by the Kings and Queens of England and Scotland. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. WESTMINSTER PALACE 5 II. WINDSOR CASTLE 11 III. THE TOWER OF LONDON 19 IV. KENNINGTON PALACE 22 V. ELTHAM PALACE 24 VI. GREENWICH PALACE 27 VII. WHITEHALL PALACE 31 VIII. HAMPTON COURT PALACE 39 IX. ST. JAMES'S PALACE 48 X. KENSINGTON PALACE 53 XI. KEW PALACE 59 XII. BUCKINGHAM PALACE 63 XIII. VANISHED PALACES 67 XIV. EDINBURGH CASTLE 72 XV. DUNFERMLINE CASTLE 76 XVI. STIRLING CASTLE 78 XVII. HOLYROOD PALACE 82 XVIII. LINLITHGOW PALACE 87 XIX. FALKLAND PALACE 91 XX. BALMORAL CASTLE 94 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR THE TOWER OF LONDON _Frontispiece_ FACING PAGE WINDSOR CASTLE 17 HAMPTON COURT PALACE 24 EDINBURGH CASTLE 73 STIRLING CASTLE 80 LINLITHGOW PALACE 91 BALMORAL CASTLE 94 ST. JAMES'S PALACE _On the cover_ ROYAL PALACES OF GREAT BRITAIN CHAPTER I WESTMINSTER PALACE