Note 7 — I ELIZABETH AND JAMES

Scaramelli wrote to the Signory in July 1603 (V. P. x. 71) that James had eight palaces on the Thames, of which Hampton Court was the biggest. Each had its own furniture, which was never taken to furnish another. I suppose the eight must be Whitehall, St. James's, Somerset House, the Tower, Greenwich, Richmond, Hampton Court, and Windsor. Letters of 1602, when Elizabeth was at Oatlands, contemplate her return to 'Richmond or some other of her houses of abode' and to 'a standing house' (Hatfield MSS. xii. 385, 448). I suppose that these were the permanently furnished houses.