time, as a visitor reported on 16 August 1766: âthe castle furniture was old and dirty, most of the best pictures removed to the Queenâs Palace and the whole kept so very unneat that it hurts one to see almost the only place in England worthy to be styled our Kingâs Palace, so totally neglectedâ. 5
The same was said of the official London royal residence, St Jamesâs Palace, which George III disliked intensely: he said it was a âdust trapâ, and âtoo near the roadâ. And there were so many disturbing echoes from the past: those âleper maydensâ, the tragic Anne Boleyn whose initials were still there, entwined with Henry VIIIâs in the brickwork. From here Charles I had taken his last walk through the park to his execution in Whitehall. The Palace had been neglected since the death of his grandmother, Queen Caroline; the room in which she had died was still untouched, the dead wood still in the grate. George IIâs mistress, the Hanoverian Countess Walmoden, still lived in the room next to the old Kingâs. This was no home for a young bride.
But it had to serve for the first year. The King pensioned off the Countess, turned her room into his library and refurbished a suite of rooms for Queen Charlotte in delicate blue and white. Their first child, Prince George â later George IV â was born at St Jamesâs Palace (Prince Alfred, their youngest son, and Princess Amelia were born at Windsor, but the rest of their fifteen children were to be born at Buckingham House). Henceforward St Jamesâs Palace was used for official entertaining â for the levees and drawing rooms that were regular features of Court life. Foreign ambassadors are still today accredited to the Court of St James.
Then the King gave all his attention to their new home, the elegant, red-brick Buckingham House at the end of the Mall. He wanted a new home away from his official residence. Buckingham House, he hoped, would be his retreat, his â rus in urbe, â where he could live the life he really wanted â that of a cultured gentleman with books, paintings, music and gardens, amid a large, happy family.
In the first two years of their marriage the King and Queen slipped away as often as possible to supervise the refurbishment of Buckingham House, or âthe Queenâs Houseâ, as it was now called. Horace Walpolewrote to a friend: âThe King & Queen are settled for good & all at Buckingham House: and are stripping the other palaces to furnish it ⦠they have already fetched pictures from Hampton Court, which indicates their never living there.â 6
When George III bought Buckingham House it was much as it had been left by the Duchess of Buckingham. Contemporary illustrations show the elegance of the entrance to the red-brick house. As Buckingham had described:
The Avenues to the house are along St Jamesâs Park, through rows of goodly elms on one hand and gay flourishing limes on the other, that for coaches, this for walking; with the Mall lying between them. This reaches to my iron palisade that encompasses a square court, which has in its midst a great basin with statues and water works.
Two wings enclosed the courtyard, which joined the house by corridors supported on Ionic pillars. These wings were for kitchens and storehouses with rooms above for servants. âOn top of all a leaden cistern holding fifty tuns of water, driven up by an engine from the Thames, supplies all the waterworks in the courts and gardens, which lie quite round the house â¦â The roof of the house, âwhich being covered with smooth millâd lead, and defended by a parapet of ballusters ⦠entertains the eye with a far distant prospect of hills and dales, and a near one of parks and gardensâ.
It was this rural site that Dryden had praised and that so attracted the King. The gardens at the rear were as the Duke had left them: formal in the
The same was said of the official London royal residence, St Jamesâs Palace, which George III disliked intensely: he said it was a âdust trapâ, and âtoo near the roadâ. And there were so many disturbing echoes from the past: those âleper maydensâ, the tragic Anne Boleyn whose initials were still there, entwined with Henry VIIIâs in the brickwork. From here Charles I had taken his last walk through the park to his execution in Whitehall. The Palace had been neglected since the death of his grandmother, Queen Caroline; the room in which she had died was still untouched, the dead wood still in the grate. George IIâs mistress, the Hanoverian Countess Walmoden, still lived in the room next to the old Kingâs. This was no home for a young bride.
But it had to serve for the first year. The King pensioned off the Countess, turned her room into his library and refurbished a suite of rooms for Queen Charlotte in delicate blue and white. Their first child, Prince George â later George IV â was born at St Jamesâs Palace (Prince Alfred, their youngest son, and Princess Amelia were born at Windsor, but the rest of their fifteen children were to be born at Buckingham House). Henceforward St Jamesâs Palace was used for official entertaining â for the levees and drawing rooms that were regular features of Court life. Foreign ambassadors are still today accredited to the Court of St James.
Then the King gave all his attention to their new home, the elegant, red-brick Buckingham House at the end of the Mall. He wanted a new home away from his official residence. Buckingham House, he hoped, would be his retreat, his â rus in urbe, â where he could live the life he really wanted â that of a cultured gentleman with books, paintings, music and gardens, amid a large, happy family.
In the first two years of their marriage the King and Queen slipped away as often as possible to supervise the refurbishment of Buckingham House, or âthe Queenâs Houseâ, as it was now called. Horace Walpolewrote to a friend: âThe King & Queen are settled for good & all at Buckingham House: and are stripping the other palaces to furnish it ⦠they have already fetched pictures from Hampton Court, which indicates their never living there.â 6
When George III bought Buckingham House it was much as it had been left by the Duchess of Buckingham. Contemporary illustrations show the elegance of the entrance to the red-brick house. As Buckingham had described:
The Avenues to the house are along St Jamesâs Park, through rows of goodly elms on one hand and gay flourishing limes on the other, that for coaches, this for walking; with the Mall lying between them. This reaches to my iron palisade that encompasses a square court, which has in its midst a great basin with statues and water works.
Two wings enclosed the courtyard, which joined the house by corridors supported on Ionic pillars. These wings were for kitchens and storehouses with rooms above for servants. âOn top of all a leaden cistern holding fifty tuns of water, driven up by an engine from the Thames, supplies all the waterworks in the courts and gardens, which lie quite round the house â¦â The roof of the house, âwhich being covered with smooth millâd lead, and defended by a parapet of ballusters ⦠entertains the eye with a far distant prospect of hills and dales, and a near one of parks and gardensâ.
It was this rural site that Dryden had praised and that so attracted the King. The gardens at the rear were as the Duke had left them: formal in the
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