Monography

Richard Jefferies moved his family to Eltham in June 1884. They moved on nine months later. During their stay Jefferies wrote and published his book The Open Air, which contains this description of the ruined Tudor palace at Eltham, the ‘nursery palace’ where the future Henry VIII and his sisters (queens of Scotland and France) were brought up.

“The lane has been slowly descending; and now, on looking through a gateway, and ancient building stands up on the hill, sharply defined against the sky. It is the banqueting-hall of a palace of old time, in which kings and princes once sat at their meat after the chase. This is the centre of those dim stories which float like a haze over the meadows around. Many a wild red stag has been carried hither after the hunt, and many a wild boar slain in the glades of the forest.”