in this light, for though she had been baptized at Kensington, she had been
confirmed at St. James's. She had attended her first Drawing-rooms, and
celebrated her coming-of-age ball there. St. James's is a brick building,
like Kensington Palace, but is far older, and full of more stirring and
tragic associations. It has an air of antiquity about it, if it has few
architectural claims on the world's interest; but at least one front, that
which includes the turreted gateway into St. James's Street, is not without
picturesque beauty. The situation of the palace, considering that it is in
the middle of a great city, is agreeable. It has its park, with a stretch
of pleasant water on one side, and commands the leafy avenue of the Mall
and the sweep of Constitution Hill. As a royal residence it dates as far
back as Henry VIII., whose daughter Mary ended her sad life here. Both of
the sons of James I. received it as a dwelling, and were connected with it
in troubled days. Prince Henry fell into his pining sickness and died here.
Charles, after bringing Henrietta Maria under its roof, and owning its
shelter till three of his children were born, was carried to St. James's as
a prisoner. He was taken from it in a sedan-chair to undergo his trial at
his new palace of Whitehall. He was conveyed back under sentence of death.
Here Bishop Juxon preached the last sermon to which the King listened, and
administered to him the Sacrament; and here Charles took leave of his
children--the little Duke of Gloucester and the girl-Princess Elizabeth.
From St. James's the King went to the scaffold on the bitter January
morning, followed by the snowy night in which "the white King" was borne to
his dishonoured burial. Other and less tragic scenes were enacted within
its bounds. A familiar figure in connection with Kensington
Palace--Caroline of Anspach, wife of George II.--died like herself here.
Her King had fallen into a stupor of sorrow across the bed where she lay in
her last agony, and she forbade his being disturbed. She told those who
were praying to pray aloud, that she might hear them; then raising herself
up and uttering the single German word of acquiescence, "_So_," her