to hint this, but was silenced by a few words which admitted of
no reply. "Do you wish," said William peevishly, "to see me
dead?"64

In a short time it was found that Hampton Court was too far from
the Houses of Lords and Commons, and from the public offices, to
be the ordinary abode of the Sovereign. Instead, however, of
returning to Whitehall, William determined to have another
dwelling, near enough to his capital for the transaction of
business, but not near enough to be within that atmosphere in
which he could not pass a night without risk of suffocation. At
one time he thought of Holland House, the villa of the noble
family of Rich; and he actually resided there some weeks.65 But
he at length fixed his choice on Kensington House, the suburban
residence of the Earl of Nottingham. The purchase was made for
eighteen thousand guineas, and was followed by more building,
more planting, more expense, and more discontent.66 At present
Kensington House is considered as a part of London. It was then a
rural mansion, and could not, in those days of highwaymen and
scourers, of roads deep in mire and nights without lamps, be the
rallying point of fashionable society.

It was well known that the King, who treated the English nobility
and gentry so ungraciously, could, in a small circle of his own
countrymen, be easy, friendly, even jovial, could pour out his
feelings garrulously, could fill his glass, perhaps too often;
and this was, in the view of our forefathers, an aggravation of
his offences. Yet our forefathers should have had the sense and
the justice to acknowledge that the patriotism which they
considered as a virtue in themselves, could not be a fault in