The State Apartments

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THE STATE APARTMENTS

These consist of an extensive range of chambers, large and small, opening one on to another, and the provision of which formed the motive of the Wren block of buildings.

Certain adjoining Tudor rooms, some of which have beautiful linen fold panelling, are also shown. Many of the apartments have carving by Grinling Gibbons; the Queen's Drawing Room has the walls and ceiling painted by Verrio, and the ceilings of the King's Bedroom and the King's Dressing Room are by the same artist; whilst the ceiling of the Queen's Bedroom is by Thornhill.

The Grand Staircase leading up to the State Apartments is painted by Verrio in a wonderful extravagance of mythological deities and Roman emperors.

On entering the King's Guard Chamber (the trophies of arms here should be observed) one should turn aside into the Wolsey Rooms, where, among other pictures, is a contemporary portrait of the Cardinal.

The finest of the Wren apartments is the Cartoon Gallery, which contains a set of seven Brussels tapestries after the celebrated cartoons by Raphael that are now in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

The titles are:

Paul and Barnabas at Lystra

The Death of Ananias

Elymas the Sorcerer Struck with Blindness

Peter and John Healing the Lame Man at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple

Christ's Charge to Peter, "Feed My Sheep"

Paul Preaching at Athens

The Miraculous Draught of Fishes

From the Cartoon Gallery one proceeds through the Communication Gallery to Cardinal Wolsey's Closet, a beautiful chamber, the walls painted by an unknown 16th Century artist with scenes in the Passion of our Lord: The Last Supper, The Scourging at the Pillar, The Carrying of the Cross, and The Resurrection.

Next is the Haunted Gallery (so called because the ghost of Catherine Howard, the fifth wife of Henry VIII, is said to appear here), from which access is gained to Henry VIII.'s Holy Day Closet, originally an oratory, in which the king was married to his sixth and last wife, Catherine Parr.

The Closet and the adjacent Royal Pew present views of the interior of the Chapel, in the upper part of which they are situated.

The tour of the State Apartments concludes with two other Tudor rooms, Henry VIII.'s Great Watching Chamber or Guard Chamber, and the Horn Room (formerly adorned with antlers), both of which are hung with tapestries.