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Ghostly grandeur

The history of the magnificent Thames-side palace, with its outrageous shenanigans spanning five centuries, is vividly brought to life by Gareth Russell

12 August 2023

9:00 AM

12 August 2023

9:00 AM

The Palace: From the Tudors to the Windsors, 500 Years of History at Hampton Court Gareth Russell

William Collins, pp.480, 25

The Dowager Countess of Deloraine, who was governess to the children of George II at Hampton Court and other royal homes, was a notorious bore – so much so that her ‘every word’ made one ‘sick’, according to the courtier Lord Hervey. When she naively asked him why everyone was avoiding her, he replied with exquisite irony that ‘envy kept the women at a distance, despair the men’.

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