Hampton Court, London England
Dressed and garnished in Henry’s Presence
Getting in tune with your inner-self is a grand thing. I am at peace with my illusion that I was a duchess in a past life thanks to the sublime royal experience which is Hampton Court Palace. As a former scullery maid....I mean, “Duchess”… my taste for the extravagant has been satiated.
London boasts an impressive collection of Royal Historic Palaces, each with its own unique character. Kensington Palace is embraced as the home of two powerful royal women, Queen Victoria and Princess Diana.
The Tower of London is engraved in the human psyche as the symbol of England. Kew Palace at Kew Gardens stands out as King George III’s family home. But Hampton Court would please any Texan. It is big country. Hampton Court is huge, opulent, red, spread out, identical to its most legendary inhabitant, King Henry the VIII.
This is an experience where it is pleasant to have a theme in mind. A glance at the official guide illuminated me to the many showcases endowing Hampton Court as the prominent home of many a monarch. Its stately Apartments are veritable art galleries, displaying all manner of exquisite craftsmanship and fine art.
The Courtyard and Cloisters are viewing platforms for the grand architecture of the Tudor sensibility. The endless acres of gardens are paradise for the green of thumb.
Where to start? A duchess would graciously accept the assistance of others to stealthily hide her woeful lack of knowledge. Palaces Group Director, Colonel Hugh Player would assist me and my entourage in that decision. My group consisted of family members both young and seasoned and a British friend with strategic connections, in the employ of one of the other Royal Palaces. He kindly secured the expert attention of Colonel Player for us.
Colonel Player was a most amiable host and presented the children each with a child’s bag containing a Hampton Court Palace activity book and colored pencils. A former Royal Marine, hence the military title, he gave us a history of the Palace.
He stated that much of the Hampton Court we were seeing was a rebuilt version modernized by Sir Christopher Wren under commission to William III and Queen Mary at the end of the 17th century. He did point to the fact that it is still possible to get the feeling and visual aura of what Henry VIII’s original Tudor Hampton Court Palace was like.
This was a perfect introduction to the Tudor Kitchens, our first interior visit and our first “theme”. Food, glorious, food!
The Tudor Kitchens are extensive and accurately depict what food preparation would have been like for a full court in the 16th century. Every whitewashed room with its beamed ceiling, we were instructed, was dedicated to a singular purpose.
The Boiling House is part butchery and containment for the massive copper kettle which was used for the production of stocks and stews. A Spicery and Confectory are also within the Boiling House but the Pastry Kitchen with its large floured tables, wooden mallets and curious implements, toyed with my imagination.
Did the bakers have fun molding questionable subjects out of dough during slower moments? I thought “no”. Anybody working in the Kitchens did not have time to run to the loo let alone goof around with dubious cooking skills, unless of course, His Majesty Henry commanded it. Why do I know this? I pushed the persistent image of me scrubbing bowls, out of my head and thought of fancy frocks instead.
The Great Kitchens are a series of three rooms where food was assembled for the great feasts. The well heeled residents of Hampton Court ate diets which consisted of 75 percent meat and the Great Kitchens are a fitting tribute to this carnivorous dedication.
The showpiece is in the second room; a fireplace large enough to fit my guest bathroom in and is fitted with a spit capable of roasting a yak. Colonel Player alluded to historical records which illustrate that young boys turned the spits by hand but he clearly believes that this would have been a physical impossibility. The weight of meat on the spit would have been so massive it would require the physical prowess of a Highland Games competitor. You know, those large lads in kilts that can launch a telephone pole.
The preparation of kingly dishes did not end once the cooking was complete. A proper dish needed to be fashionably dressed and garnished. It needed to appeal to the royal eye as well as the royal nose. The Dressers is two rooms past the Great Kitchens intended for this purpose. We peered through two hatches and were impressed with the minute detail and loving attention given to the smallest corners of the room.
The smaller kids thought that the peacock reproduction, cooked and waiting to be refit in its feathers, was real. We walked out to a long narrow courtyard known as Fish Court, the center of operations where all of the kitchens are accessible through a system of entrances and passageways. Here our Tudor Kitchens tour concluded.
Colonel Player bids us farewell and invited us to continue exploring all this grand Palace has to offer. My duchess sensibility had me imagining that there would be a table of sumptuous food, ale and delicacies for us to dive in, as Henry would have at this point.
I picked up a piece of trash my young child had dared to throw on the ground and put it swiftly and expertly in a refuse container. Darn that maddening scullery maid!
Author: Maria Merayo
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