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5 unusual facts about Hampton Court Palace


1606 in literature

August 7 – Possible first performance of Shakespeare's Macbeth amongst a series of plays presented by the King's Men before Kings James I of England and Christian IV of Denmark (his brother-in-law) at Hampton Court Palace in England.

Buxus sempervirens

The scent is not to everyone's liking: the herbalist John Gerard found it "evill and lothsome" and at Hampton Court Palace Queen Anne had box hedging grubbed up because the odor was offensive, Daniel Defoe tells.

Pax Hill

The following year, due to World War II, Pax Hill was occupied by Canadian military troops and by way of recompense, Olave Baden-Powell was awarded a 'grace and favour' apartment in Hampton Court Palace.

River Ember

The two rivers then flow side by side approximately north east and merge 400 metres before joining the River Thames at the eastern end of East Molesey opposite Hampton Court Palace on the south side of the last non-tidal reach, which is above Teddington Lock.

The Calling of Saints Peter and Andrew

Kept in Hampton Court Palace, it was long believed to be a virtually worthless copy of a lost original, but after six years of restoration and examination the Royal Collection declared on 10 November 2006, that this was, in fact, an authentic Caravaggio.


Charles Mayne Young

Julian took holy orders, serving as Chaplain at Hampton Court Palace and Rector of Ilmington, Warwickshire, and married, on 26 April 1832, Elizabeth Anne Georgiana, daughter of James Willis (of that family of Atherfield, Isle of Wight), Consul-General- later Governor- of Senegambia.

Gerard van Honthorst

There he painted several portraits, and a vast allegory, now at Hampton Court, of Charles and his queen as Diana and Apollo in the clouds receiving the Duke of Buckingham as Mercury and guardian of the King of Bohemia's children.

Roman triumph

Andrea Mantegna's series of large paintings on the Triumphs of Caesar (1484–92, now Hampton Court Palace) became immediately famous and was endlessly copied in print form.

William Kent

His stately furniture designs complemented his interiors: he designed furnishings for Hampton Court Palace (1732), Lord Burlington's Chiswick House (1729), London, Thomas Coke's Holkham Hall, Norfolk, Robert Walpole's pile at Houghton, for Devonshire House in London, and at Rousham.


see also

Antonio Verrio

Verrio influenced younger artists such as Louis Laguerre and James Thornhill, and his Hampton Court Palace frescoes (now under the care of Historic Royal Palaces) constitute a priceless legacy.