Today we visited Ham House in London. The grand house, built in 1610, was gifted by King Charles I to his old school friend Scotsman William Murray. The house came to prominence in the 1670s, under William Murray's daughter, Elizabeth, Duchess of Lauderdale, when the house was lavished with fine artwork, tapestries and furniture. Ham House was protected during turbulent times by Elizabeth's friendships with Oliver Cromwell and Charles II. What an opulent palace. It is huge, with countless rooms including a chapel, one of the country's first purposely-built home libraries and one of the first bathtubs in the United Kingdom. Unbelievably, Ham House's rich interior has hardly changed in the last 350 years.
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The original front door from 1610
It is engraved with the words VIVAT REX (God Save the King) |
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| Elizabeth's husband depicted as the Roman God Mars |
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| Elizabeth depicted as the Roman Goddess Minerva |
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| Ceiling Painting |
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Grace Carteret, Countess of Dysart, and a black servant
by John Vanderbank, circa 1700 |
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Henrietta Maria
Wife of King Charles I
The province of Maryland in the US was named in her honor |
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King Charles I
Beheaded in 1649
He caused a scandal when he married a Catholic |
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| Chinoiseries was very popular in the UK in the 1700s |
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A tapestry depicting the story of Pyrrhus, the Greek king who opposed Rome
From where we get the phrase 'Pyrrhic victory' |
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| Window in the Dutchess's Bathing Room |
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| The duchess's slippers? |
