COLONEL NORTHsaid, he wished to ask the First Commissioner of Works, whether any payments, annual or other wise, are required from those occupying apartments at Hampton Court Palace; and, if so, the nature and amount of such payments.
§ SIR BENJAMIN HALLsaid, there were certainly some payments made, by the occupants of apartments in Hampton Court Palace, but to a small amount and under these circumstances. In the year 1849 an arrangement was entered into between the Treasury and the parish of Hampton for the payment of a sum of £450 a year by the former in lieu of rates 1010 but without interfering with the privilege of the exemption of the Royal Palaces from rates. It was arranged that that sum of £150 should be paid by the occupants of the Palace, and the Lord Chamberlain determined the proportions in which it should be paid, and which varied from £4 to £20 a year. The sum charged to the occupants of the Palace was £450, but occasionally a larger sum was collected, and if there was any overplus beyond £450, it was paid into the Exchequer. Those were the only payments which the occupants of the Palace were bound to render in return for the accommodation afforded them there. There were some other payments; those, for instance, to the clergyman and the housekeeper, but they were purely voluntary on the part of the occupants of the Palace.