Royal court place. One of the criteria of Norbert Elias' concept of a court society is that it existed in space.. The German word "Hof", meaning an enclosed courtyard, can also apply to a rural farmstead with outbuildings and walls forming the perimeter. It has also been used for the palatial seat where the court was held. Thus "Hof" or "court" can become transferred to the building itself. For example, the grand residence Hampton Court Palace on the River Thames above London was where Thomas Wolsey held court as Catholic cardinal (built after the Italian ideal for a cardinal's palace) until his
Hampton Court Park used annually for the Hampton Court Flower Show and the part nearest to the palace has the Long Water — an early set of hydro-engineered ponds or lakes, fed by water from the distant River Colne, as are the bodies of water in the neighbouring park, Bushy Park. Hampton Court Park is a walled deer park of around (1.1 sq mi), with a herd of fallow deer, and has been open to the public since 1894. Verges by the A308 road lightly scattered with deciduous trees line the northern wall. These trees, with few evergreens, continue across much of the