England's Versailles!

This is the Long Water at Hampton Court Palace.

Originally built by Cardinal Wolsey in the early 16th Century, Hampton Court was taken over and extended by Henry VIII.

By the second half of the 17th Century, the old Tudor Palace was distinctly old-fashioned and uncomfortable. So Charles II had the great canal known as the Long Water excavated as a gift for his bride Catherine of Braganza from Portugal, to provide the kind of landscaping now fashionable in France at Versailles. It is 3/4 mile long and was planted with 544 lime trees. Its designers were pupils of Andre Le Notre, Louis XIV's great landscape gardener.

Charles did not redevelop the palace, this was done by William III and Mary II determined on their accession in 1688 who wanted a Palace to rival their great rival Louis XIV of France.

They commissioned Sir Christopher Wren to design a rival to Versailles, and it his work that can be seen in the distance at the end of the Long Water.

By the end of the 20th Century the lime trees were in a sorry state and a major conservation and replanting project was completed in 2004, when the Prince of Wales replanted to last of the new trees. The Golden Jubilee Fountain was opened in 2002 by HM the Queen and consists of 5 water jets that fire from the front of the photo, where the swans are swimming!