MS. copy of Cavendish's _Life of Wolsey_, in the British Museum, and
afford the reader some idea of the magnificent taste of the prelate in
matters of state and show. The Cardinal was commanded to receive the
ambassadors with surpassing splendour; then "my Lord Cardinal sent
me (Mr. Cavendish) being his gentleman usher, with two other of my
fellows thither, to foresee all things touching our rooms to be nobly
garnished"--"accordingly our pains were not small nor light, but daily
travelling up and down from chamber to chamber; then wrought the
carpenters, joiners, masons, and all other artificers necessary to be
had to glorify this noble feast." He tells us of "expert cookes, and
connyng persons in the art of cookerie; the cookes wrought both day
and night with suttleties and many crafty devices, where lacked
neither gold, silver, nor other costly things meet for their
purpose"--"280 beds furnished with all manner of furniture to
them, too long particularly to be rehearsed, but all wise men do
sufficiently know what belongeth to the furniture thereof, and that is
sufficient at this time to be said." Wolsey's arrival during the feast
is described quaintly enough: "Before the second course my lord came
in booted and spurred, all sodainely amongst them _proface_;[1] at
whose coming there was great joy, with rising every man from his
place, whom my lord caused to sit still, and keep their roomes, and
being in his apparel as he rode, called for a chayre and sat down in
the middest of the high paradise, laughing and being as merry as ever
I saw him in all my lyff." The whole party drank long and strong, some
of the Frenchmen were led off to bed, and in the chambers of all was
placed abundance of "wine and beere."

Henry VIII. added considerably to Wolsey's building, and in the latter
part of his reign, it became one of his principal residences. Among
the events connected with the palace are the following:--