The old stone bridge, with its buttressed arches, built at the same time as the hall, still stands over the moat, which at one time ran all round the palace. Standing on the bridge, across which must have trod Edward IV., its builder, Henry VIII. in his buoyant youth, Cardinal Wolsey in the early days of his greatness, and Queen Elizabeth when visiting the palace to meet her Scottish suitor the Earl of Arran, one looks down to-day upon smooth green water, overshadowed by willows and sycamores, and edged with smooth-shaven grass borders, with a glimpse of a rose-filled garden. [Illustration: The Banqueting Hall, Eltham Palace.] For Eltham, though only eight miles from London on the Maidstone road, retains much of its rural charm. As one approaches the palace along a tree-shaded avenue between old red-brick walls, one forgets the nearness to the great city and the fact that tram-lines now run up to the quiet little High Street. There is an old-world dignity about the neighbourhood of the palace, locally known as King John's Palace, through some confusion with John of Eltham, the second son of Edward II., who was born there. King John himself never resided in the palace, for it was not a royal house until the reign of his son. Some charming old houses, with red-tiled roofs and overhung upper stories, standing among gardens gay with flowers, border the avenue. It is probable that Wolsey and other Lord Chancellors stayed in these houses when in attendance upon the monarch. Eltham has never been anything but a small village amid fertile country, so that the problem of feeding the Court when resident in the palace must have been a serious one. Two thousand people to be fed daily must have absorbed the energies of all the farmers round. In plan the palace was a quadrangular castle protected by a strong battlemented wall, surrounded by a deep moat, with a drawbridge and portcullis. Camden claims that the original palace was built by Anthony Bec, Bishop of Durham, who presented it to Eleanor, the beloved wife of Edward I.