WALK THIS WAY

Want to go for walkies with me somewhere interesting? It's only a five minute walk up the road from where the 2 leggeds live with me. Follow my wag. . .



This is my side of the river near my house. Be on your guard as you walk around. There is an Enormously Tall Fiecely Ferocious Fox Terrier that lives round here.



Come on, this way, along the bank of the River Thames. See the building on the other side of with the golden gates? That's where we're going, over there.



This is what we came to see. Wow. A real palace. Hampton Court Palace, home to many Kings and Queens of the Realm.



If you.SIT.Beside me I'll tell you the history of the palace.

Long ago there was an ordinary old manor house on this land but in 1514 Cardinal Thomas Wolsey of Olde Tudor England, advisor of the King, decided to covert the house into a grand palace for himself. Now he was pals with King Henry V111, but in 1529 crafty Henry got one over on old Wolsey and deciding the palace suited him better, he executed his kingdomly powers and took the palace for himself. Henry rebuilt the palace stuffing it full of Majesty and Magnificence! An Excess of Extravagance! Fit for a King for Kissing and a-Canoodling with Six Wives! Not six at once, though I think one or two wives might have overlapped a bit if you get my drift. Henry was a very impatient man, tiring of his wives quickly so he divorced them or ruled "off with their heads" And they did. Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived, that's how the rhyme goes. Let that be a warning to you ladies after your Aristocratic Titles.

By 1540 King Henry had added goodness knows what to the palace plus these things too. A Royal Chapel. 36,000 sq ft of Kitchens. (yumm, imagine the bounty of bones from there) The Tilt Yard for jousting,wrestling and general showing off by men wearing tights (or panty hose as our far away cousins say). Tennis Courts. A Great Hall for banquets and bawdiness. Wild Meadow Gardens. "The Great House of Easement" which could sit 28 people at once! Oh, how we would like to sniff around that. And of course he lavished luxury on his own and the Queen's Right Royal Apartments. Henry really went for it.

He also added two Palatial Parks adjoining the palace and filled them with dear little deers. The deer in the parks today are direct descendants of the the ones Henry put in the park. Isn't that dog-a-blogging amazing? I take the two leggeds for walks in Home Park and Royal Bushy Park every week. I'll take you too sometime, the're the most waggalicious walks us pups could go on.

All the hard work of feasting and festivity took it's toll on King Henry and he popped his clogs in 1547. All at the palace remained as it was until 1689 when Sir Christopher Wren, did a bit of a Grand Design job and then way later on a new wing was added in Georgian style.That's why the palace looks like a bit like, well a dog's dinner. I'm only allowed to walk around the outside of the palace but I'll send Mom to sneak photos of the interior of the pawlace and especially the Glorious Gardens in the summer if you would like to see them? Come on then. UP. Follow my tail and try not to dawdle. The place is full of old ghosties and spookies.



The middle section is Tudor, the side sections were built by Wren, and rear of the palace you see in the river photos is Georgian.



Check this dog statue out, he's at least 450 hooman years old.



Hello,here's my new pal.I met him last time I was here. He's from Denver,Colorado. He stopped to talk to me and asked me my name. And guess what his name was? ERIC! Ha, ha! I'm really not making that up am I Mom? (Mom - no, that's the truth Eric, he was called ERIK) I gave him a few kisses as he was smittenkitten with me.His family sensibly took photos of us two together instead of the piles of old bricks.



Pretty flowers for practising your aim on boys? Let's head off to the maze.I tell you though, it's kind of hard to find you way in.



Let's dally around the daffy- dillies in the Wild Meadow Garden.



Now if we nip through this door we can get to the front of the palace again.

Getting late and kind of spooky... let's skeedale.

Wooooooo - see you soooooooooon pals.