Henry the Eighth -- His Person and Character -- Modern Qualifications of it considered -- Passages respecting him from Lingard, Sir Thomas Wyatt, and others -- His additions to Whitehall -- A Retrospect at Elizabeth -- Court of James resumed -- Its gross Habits -- Letter of Sir John Harrington respecting them -- James's Drunkenness -- Testimonies of Welldon, Sully, and Roger Coke -- Curious Omission in the Invective of Churchill the Poet -- Welldon's Portrait of James -- Buckingham, the Favourite -- Frightful Story of Somerset -- Masques -- Banqueting House -- Inigo Jones and Ben Jonson -- Court of Charles the First -- Cromwell -- Charles the Second -- James the Second 395 CHAPTER XII. St. James's Park and its Associations -- Unhealthiness of the Place and Neighbourhood -- Leper Hospital of St. James -- Henry the Eighth builds St. James's Palace and the Tilt-Yard -- Original State and Progressive Character of the Park -- Charles the First -- Cromwell -- Charles the Second; his Walks, Amusements, and Mistresses -- The Mulberry Gardens -- Swift, Prior, Richardson, Beau Tibbs, Soldiers, and Syllabubs -- Character of the Park at present -- St. James's Palace during the Reigns of the Stuarts and two first Georges -- Anecdotes of Lord Craven and Prince George of Denmark -- Characters of Queen Anne and of George the First and Second -- George the First and his Carp -- Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and the Sack of Wheat -- Horace Walpole's Portrait of George the First -- The Mistresses of that King and of his Son -- Mistake of Lord Chesterfield -- Queen Caroline's Ladies in Waiting -- Miss Bellenden and the Guineas -- George the Second's Rupture with his Father and with his Son -- Character of that Son -- Buckingham House -- Sheffield and his Duchess -- Character of Queen Charlotte -- Advantages of Queen Victoria over her Predecessors 431 ILLUSTRATIONS. ENGRAVED BY C. THURSTON THOMPSON, FROM DRAWINGS BY J. W. ARCHER AND C. T. THOMPSON. PAGE London from Southwark, before the Great Fire. From a Print by Hollar (_Frontispiece_) West Front of Old St. Paul's, with Inigo Jones's Portico 26 "Paul's Cross and Preaching there" 51 Ludgate 69 Baynard's Castle, from the River, 1640 78 Stone in Panyer Alley, marking the highest Ground in the City 83 Interior of the Round Part of the Temple Church, previous to the recent Restorations 101