Hampton Court appears as a court setting where a garden conversation gives Barkilphedro an opportunity to listen closely to Queen Anne and Duchess Josiana. The scene makes the place significant not through a description of its architecture, but through the access its courtly arrangement permits—and the quiet surveillance Barkilphedro practices there.

Setting and Courtly Access

Barkilphedro had moved close to Queen Anne, sometimes imagining that he could hear her private monologues. He was also present, unnoticed, during conversations between the queen and her sister, and they did not prevent him from adding a word. He made himself seem insignificant, using apparent self-effacement to inspire confidence. Hampton Court belongs to this pattern of proximity: its garden becomes a place where he can remain near those whose conversation matters without attracting notice.

The Garden Conversation

One day, Barkilphedro stood behind Duchess Josiana, who in turn stood behind Queen Anne in the garden at Hampton Court. He heard the sisters exchange remarks about animals and the risk of going to hell: Anne observed that animals were happy because they ran no such risk, and Josiana replied that they were already there. The nested positions of the three figures give the brief exchange a second function: the queen and duchess speak to one another, while Barkilphedro silently gathers the words from just behind them.

Narrative Significance

The scene presents Hampton Court as a space of informal access within the court, where physical closeness can become political and personal knowledge. Barkilphedro’s unobtrusive presence is not incidental; it is part of his method of watching for useful circumstances and exploiting what he overhears. The garden exchange also sets the sisters’ voices against one another in a compact contrast: Anne offers an awkwardly expressed reflection, while Josiana answers with a darker, sharper turn. Hampton Court thus frames both the intimacy of their conversation and Barkilphedro’s position at its concealed edge.