[60] It was absolutely necessary that he should quit London.

He accordingly took up his residence in the purer air of Hampton Court.

That mansion, begun by the magnificent Wolsey, was a fine specimen of the architecture which flourished in England under the first Tudors; but the apartments were not, according to the notions of the seventeenth century, well fitted for purposes of state.

Our princes therefore had, since the Restoration, repaired thither seldom, and only when they wished to live for a time in retirement.

As William purposed to make the deserted edifice his chief palace, it was necessary for him to build and to plant; nor was the necessity disagreeable to him.