'
Walpole compares the age of Charles II. to that of Aristophanes--'which
called its own grossness polite.' How bitterly he decries the stale
poems of the time as 'a heap of senseless ribaldry;' how truly he shows
that licentiousness weakens as well as depraves the judgment. 'When
Satyrs are brought to court,' he observes, 'no wonder the Graces would
not trust themselves there.'
The Cabal is said, however, to have been concocted, not at Wallingford
House, but at Ham House, near Kingston-on-Thames.
In this stately old manor-house, the abode of the Tollemache family, the
memory of Charles II. and of his court seems to linger still. Ham House
was intended for the residence of Henry, Prince of Wales, and was built
in 1610. It stands near the river Thames; and is flanked by noble
avenues of elm and of chestnut trees, down which one may almost, as it
were, hear the king's talk with his courtiers; see Arlington approach
with the well-known patch across his nose; or spy out the lovely,
childish Miss Stuart and her future husband, the Duke of Richmond,
slipping behind into the garden, lest the jealous mortified king should
catch a sight of the 'conscious lovers.'
This stately structure was given by Charles II.
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