The Palace of Hampton Court is a building to which even the most unimaginative person cannot be indifferent. Built by one of the greatest and most splendid of English statesmen, and completed by one of the most magnificent of our kings, it has always been a royal pleasure-house, recalling rather the intimate private life of our sovereigns than their formal acts of state. In four years' time it will complete its fourth century of existence, and though much of its first splendour has long perished, it remains essentially a royal building; no one could take it for anything but a palace. This being so, its careful preservation is a matter of public interest, and needs no urging in this room, but for this very reason it has been thought well to lay before the Society an account of an important piece of work now being carried out there, namely, the excavation and repair of the moat and the stone bridge which spans it at the west or entrance front of the palace