THE ROYAL PALACE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20152, 12 January 1929, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE ROYAL PALACE.

BY MATANGA.

FOCUS OF A PEOPLE'S LOVE.

On the authority of holy writ, to dwell in " kings' palaces" is a privilege. The dictum has common endorsement. An agelong instinct is in the idea. It look root, doubtless, when the leaders of nomadic tribes had each his separate tent, to be pitched in a selected spot amid the temporary encampment, and to be specially decorated, guarded, and revered. The notion of a privileged seat is akm. It takes unusual courage—defiant of established usage —to proclaim that " where the MacGregor sits is the head of the table." So tho monarch must have his throne, the judge his bench, and the bishop his chair from which to speak ex cathedra. And this notion has been revealingly extended to tho habitual dwell-ing-places of the great ; even a country squire's home, in token of ancient feudal right, is called his " seat." Thus the custom runs. In the pomp and circumstance of life, dwellings play their part, and when he wants to affirm his liberties unchallengeable 7 won an Englishman does not forget to assert that his house is his castle.

During the sadly anxious weeks of King George's illness there has been reawakened throughout the Empire an interest in the Royal palace, that central rallying-place of the nation's affection for its beloved head. Not of his grandeur of state, but of his shadowed home, our thought has been full. Outside its gates the London crowds have lingered through days and nights, and with them, in sympathy as deep, British hearts everywhere have thronged. Buckingham Palace has been the focus of a people's solicitude. In itself, apart from its associations, it is not enough to call for special note, perhaps. It is not a building of any great age as Royal residences go. It dates only from 1825. But the ground on which it stands has been celebrated for a very long time. Various Occupants.

In the reign of James 1. a certain plot of land was purchased and planted with mulberry trees, the idea being to grow food for silkworms in the hope that silk production would become a British industry. The plan failed and the mulberry orchard was sold to a syndicate. This syndicate started there a place of popular, open-air entertainment, the "Mulberry Gardens," forerunner of the more famous "Vauxhall," but the venture did not succeed. Very early in the 18th century the gardens were bought by the Duke of Buckingham, who built amid them a mansion for his own use and called it Buckingham House —the house Defoe compared to that of Marlborough. In 1792 Buckingham House was bought by the Crown as a residence for the Queen Consort, who up to that time had been given Somerset House as her official home. Somerset House was then in a bad state of repair; it was rebuilt for Government offices, the Queen being provided with new quarters in the ducal residence. This residence then became known as the Queen's House, old Queen Charlotte, wife of George 111., taking possession. The next King George, finding St. James' Palace far too small for the requirements of his day, decided to change the Queen's House into the chief Royal residence under the name of Buckingham Palace. The famous architect Nash was employed to convert it to its new use. which practically meant to rebuild it. Half a million of money was spent on the work, which was unfinished when George IV. died, and his brother, William IV., ascending the throne, made it known that ho did not like the new Royal residence and would not live in it. Early Discomforts. Queen Victoria did not share his prejudice and within a month of her accession she moved from her quarters in Kensington Palace to take up her residence in what has become as a result the official London home of the British monarch since that time. In the earliest days of Queen Victoria's occupation Buckingham Palace was not the most comfortable of homes, owing to the red tape in its arrangements and the envy manifested by each department of control toward the rest. It 's gravely put on record, for instance, that many ot the rooms were improperly warmed and that the young Queen was sometimes left shivering for hours—because it was the duty of the Lord Steward's department to Jay the fires, but that of the Lord Chamberlain's to light them. If the departments happened to be at loggerheads, as seems then usually to have been the case, the fires were either laid but not lighted or the servant sent to light them found they had not been laid. With his sound common sense, Prince Albert brought a more comfortable state of things. During Queen Victoria's married life the Palace saw many brilliant gatherings, and her "drawing rooms" were transferred to the Throne Room there from St. James' in the latter half of her reign. • King Edward made Buckingham Palace still more serviceable. Its arrangements were modernised, and the dull "drawing rooms" gave place to "Courts" held in the ballroom, which was considerably beautified. In the reign of King George the Palace was refronted to give the appearance now familiar. Uninvited Visitors. A strange happening in the Palace early in Queen Victoria's married life is given interest by its approximate repetition in recent years. There was a great stir because a lad named Jones, quite unknown in the Palace, was found hiding in one of the I'ooms. He was quite ready to explain how he came there: ho had just wandered in, apparently unchallenged, and for a time no one had troubled to ask his business. He said he had hidden in the private apartments and had overheard the Queen and Prince Albert conversing. He was not punished, but regulations were made intended to prevent any recurrence of the incident; yet in 1914 the memory of it was revived by the fact that a strange man was found walking about in the private apartments of Queen Mary. His story was more remarkable. He had been sitting in a public-house when he heard two other men talking; they said that anyone could get right into the heart of the Palace through a ventilation pipe opening into the adjacent park. Startled at overhearing this, he resolved, in a spirit of adventure, to try —and succeeded. He proved to be quite a respectable working man, and there was no doubt of cither his honesty or his patriotism. Indeed, he was evidently determined to prove the existence of possible danger to the Royal household. To have told the servants of what he had heard, he said —at least the underlings whom he would have had to approach—would have brought him nothing but ridicule for his pains; so he made up his mind to take a risk and demonstrate what could bo done. Of course, he was arrested and charged before a magistrate; but King George made a special request, convinced that he was well-intentioned, for his discharge without a conviction. He was rather a hero for a time, as he deserved to be if his story were true. There was no good reason to disbelieve it, and the ventilation pipe thereafter got due attention. It is of less diverting things that Buckingham Palace now reminds British folk throughout the world. There, iu May of 1910, King Edward died, the first monarch to pass away within those walls: Queen Victoria had died at Osborne House in the Isle of Wight, and the Prince Consort at Windsor. In the critical illness of King Edward's son and successor this Royal Palace has acquired a further sombre memory for the British people.