"Don't Get Your Hampton Court"
“I’ve often thought I should like to live at Hampton Court. It looks so peaceful and so quiet, and it is such a dear old place to ramble round in the early morning before many people are about. But there, I don’t suppose I should really care for it when it came to actual practice.”~Jerome K. Jerome
Yesterday, I visited Hampton Court. Largely an entertainment palace for the Royal Family and other nobility in England, Hampton Court was primarily famous for housing great names such as King Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn, and King William and Queen Mary. I thought the palace was an extraordinary place. Wonderful architecture, attractive tapestries, and enchanting gardens made me realize how glorious it must have been to be a King and Queen of England.
We were guided through the palace by tour guides acting as Sir Thomas Wyatt, famous English poet, and Catherine Howard, Henry VIII’s fifth wife. They were both hilarious, and knowing a little British history helped me catch many of the jokes and puns used in the tour. It was a rather relaxing day touring the palace, but I think Jerome Jerome said it best, palaces are just too impractical. While strolling through the endless passageways and corridors, I began thinking how I would construct my own palace. It seems that oftentimes royalty would have a room for just one use. This means that I would have an ipod room; one massive room covered in expensive paintings and artwork, just to store my ipod. At another end of the palace would be my Starcraft room. This room would have a number of computers installed with only Starcraft to make Tiddo mad. Another room might just be a room for watching BBC’s The Office, while another room would just contain elaborate portraits of myself (me hunting boar, me surrounded by many women, me just sitting, me playing Xbox, etc.). It seemed to me that life for the nobility existed in much the same way; ridiculous spending on exuberant lifestyles, when the other 90% of the country lived in hovels and ate moldy bread. I guess it made me appreciate 4 bedroom homes with 2 and a half baths.
Whoso List To Hunt
Whoso list to hunt, I know where is an hind,
But as for me, hélas, I may no more.
The vain travail hath wearied me so sore,
I am of them that farthest cometh behind.
Yet may I by no means my wearied mind
Draw from the deer, but as she fleeth afore
Fainting I follow. I leave off therefore,
Sithens in a net I seek to hold the wind.
Who list her hunt, I put him out of doubt,
As well as I may spend his time in vain.
And graven with diamonds in letters plain
There is written, her fair neck round about.
Noli me tangere, for Caesar's I am,
And wild for to hold, though I seem tame.
~Sir Thomas Wyatt
Yesterday, I visited Hampton Court. Largely an entertainment palace for the Royal Family and other nobility in England, Hampton Court was primarily famous for housing great names such as King Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn, and King William and Queen Mary. I thought the palace was an extraordinary place. Wonderful architecture, attractive tapestries, and enchanting gardens made me realize how glorious it must have been to be a King and Queen of England.
We were guided through the palace by tour guides acting as Sir Thomas Wyatt, famous English poet, and Catherine Howard, Henry VIII’s fifth wife. They were both hilarious, and knowing a little British history helped me catch many of the jokes and puns used in the tour. It was a rather relaxing day touring the palace, but I think Jerome Jerome said it best, palaces are just too impractical. While strolling through the endless passageways and corridors, I began thinking how I would construct my own palace. It seems that oftentimes royalty would have a room for just one use. This means that I would have an ipod room; one massive room covered in expensive paintings and artwork, just to store my ipod. At another end of the palace would be my Starcraft room. This room would have a number of computers installed with only Starcraft to make Tiddo mad. Another room might just be a room for watching BBC’s The Office, while another room would just contain elaborate portraits of myself (me hunting boar, me surrounded by many women, me just sitting, me playing Xbox, etc.). It seemed to me that life for the nobility existed in much the same way; ridiculous spending on exuberant lifestyles, when the other 90% of the country lived in hovels and ate moldy bread. I guess it made me appreciate 4 bedroom homes with 2 and a half baths.
Whoso List To Hunt
Whoso list to hunt, I know where is an hind,
But as for me, hélas, I may no more.
The vain travail hath wearied me so sore,
I am of them that farthest cometh behind.
Yet may I by no means my wearied mind
Draw from the deer, but as she fleeth afore
Fainting I follow. I leave off therefore,
Sithens in a net I seek to hold the wind.
Who list her hunt, I put him out of doubt,
As well as I may spend his time in vain.
And graven with diamonds in letters plain
There is written, her fair neck round about.
Noli me tangere, for Caesar's I am,
And wild for to hold, though I seem tame.
~Sir Thomas Wyatt
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