Windsor is the only royal palace, still used as such, which remains out of the seven once standing on the banks of the Thames. Few people indeed would be able to recite offhand the names of the others. They are all below Windsor. The nearest to it is Hampton Court, chiefly associated with William III, though it was originally founded by the tactless Wolsey, who dared so to adorn it that it attracted the unenviable notice of Henry VIII. Little was it to be wondered at, since the Court was described by Skelton as-- With turrettes and with toures, With halls and with boures, Stretching to the starres, With glass windows and barres; Hanginge about their walles, Clothes of gold and palles Fresh as floures in May. Skelton also wrote a satire beginning:-- Why come ye not to court? To whyche court? To the Kynge's Court Or Hampton Court? The Kynge's Court Should have the excellence, But Hampton Court Hath the pre-eminence And Yorkes Place, which was like pouring vitriol into the mind of such a man as Henry. When Wolsey entertained the French ambassadors at Hampton, "every chamber had a bason and a ewer of silver, some gilt and some parcel gilt, and some two great pots of silver, in like manner, and one pot at the least with wine or beer, a bowl or goblet, and a silver pot to drink beer in; a silver candlestick or two, with both white lights and yellow lights of three sizes of wax; and a staff torch; a fine manchet, and a cheat loaf of bread". No wonder the King's cupidity was aroused. It was not long before the great Cardinal was forced to make a "voluntary" gift of his beloved toy, as he had also to do with another noble mansion which he "made" by Thames side--Whitehall, formerly known as York Place, because held by the Archbishops of York. When Wolsey was told the King required this, he said with truth: "I know that the King of his own nature is of a royal stomach!" On leaving Hampton the great prelate was allowed to go to the palace at Richmond. One wonders if he rode from Hampton to Richmond, only a mile or two by the river bank, on that "mule trapped altogether in crimson velvet and gilt stirrups". Of the thousands who use that popular towpath does one ever give a thought to the Cardinal thus setting his first step on his tremendous downward descent?