Home Park and the Long Water

Home Park and the Long Water. . , Henry VIII’s hunting park and Charles II’s formal canal. , , Hunting at Hampton Court Hampton Court’s great attraction for Henry VIII (r 1509-1547) and later monarchs was its hunting. Henry enclosed this 750 acre (300 hectare) park to keep his deer. , , William III’s (r 1689-1702) horse Sorrel is famously believed to have stumbled on a molehill in Home Park which led to his untimely death in 1702. Queen Anne (r 1702-1714), who was not very mobile still loved to hunt ‘like jehu’ – an ancient biblical warrior-king – in a single horse carriage. The 300 fallow deer in Home Park today are descended from Henry VIII’s original herd. , , ‘… formerly a naked piece of ground, now planted with sweet rows of lime trees, and the canal for water near perfected.’ John Evelyn, 1662 , , The Long Water In 1660 King Charles II began to create a formal baroque garden, digging this great three-quarter mile long canal in celebration of his marriage. He even had a Venetian gondola as a wedding gift. Either side of the Long Water are avenues of over 2,000 lime trees. , , William III and Mary II continued their uncle Charles’s plan by adding three more avenues to make the fashionable ‘goose foot’ design you see today. , , Nearby are two richly carved pedestals made for the magnificent marble vases you can now find in the palace entrance hall behind you.