Old and New London, A Narrative of its History, its People and its Places. Illustrated with Numerous Engravings from the Most Authentic Sources. vol 4
Thornbury, Walter
1872-78
Hyde Park.
Hyde Park.
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Having travelled to the northern end of , and exhausted our store of information respecting the fashionable district which lies on our right hand, we must now retrace our steps as far as Apsley House and , and ask our readers to accompany us into that most famous of recreation-grounds, and chief of the which all the world, to this day, persists in calling as if we had no other park in our metropolis--no doubt because, in the Stuart times, and even later, it was the only park really open to the people at large. We shall find that, in spite of the absence of houses and mansions, and, therefore, of actual inhabitants, it is almost as rich in historical recollections as any other part of London. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In the days of the Roman occupation of England, as Mr. Larwood remarks, in his
If May Fair had any other inhabitants at that time, it is probable that they were painted savages. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In remote ages the tract of land now enclosed as the Park was bounded on the north by the Via Trinobantina- of the great military roads--now identified with and the . On the east ran another , the old , which crossed the other at Tyburn, and sloped off to the south-east, in the direction of . On the west and south its limits were not equally well defined. Under the Saxon kings, it would appear that the Manor of Eia, of which it formed a part, belonged to the Master of the Horse; and Mr. Larwood most appropriately observes,
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About the time of Domesday Book, the manor of Eia was divided into smaller manors, called, respectively, Neyte, Eabury, and Hyde. The latter still lives and flourishes as a royal park, under its ancient name, no doubt of Saxon origin. The manor of Neyte became the property of the Abbey of , as did also that of Hyde, which remained in the hands of the monks until seized upon by King Henry, at the time of the Reformation. Of the manor of Hyde we know that its woods afforded to the monks both fire-wood and shelter for their game and water-fowl; and there is extant a document, in which William Boston, the abbot, and the rest of the Convent of , with their entire assent, consent, and agreement, handed over to his Majesty
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observes Mr. Larwood,
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As soon as the church manor was thus turned into a royal park, it was a matter of course for the king to appoint a ranger. The who held the post was George Roper-perhaps of the same family with William Roper, the worthy husband of good Sir Thomas More's daughter. On his death, rangers or keepers were appointed, and a lodge assigned to each; the lived not far from what now is ; and the other near the centre of the park, --if Mr. Larwood's surmise is correct- Queen Elizabeth gave of the rangerships to her friend and favourite, Nicholas, Lord Hunsdon, with the handsome salary of In Peck's is the following account, which may, perhaps, cause a smile, particularly if we notice that men are paid for the same office, the for holding it and the other for it-in another word, for discharging its duties :--
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, as in the time of Henry VIII., | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
p.377 | says the author above quoted, In we find the boy-king, Edward VI., hunting in it with the French ambassadors. In , John Casimir, Count Palatine of the Rhine, Duke of Bavaria, and a general in the service of the Dutch, paid a visit to Queen Elizabeth, lodged in , and was by her Majesty made Knight of the Garter. Amongst the entertainments given to this princely visitor was that of hunting at , and shooting in , on which last occasion the old chroniclers relate that the duke Again, an entry in the accounts of the Board of Works for the year contains a payment No doubt, these were the to which Norden alludes, in his mention of in , in his
[extra_illustrations.4.377.1] [extra_illustrations.4.377.2] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Before the end of Elizabeth's reign the rangership was given to Lord Hunsdon's son, Sir Edward Carey. He was a brother of the Countess of Nottingham, whose name is so well known to history in connection with the romantic episode of Lord Essex and the ring. In his time, some acres of land on the southern side, not far from , were added to the park, and fenced in with rails. writes Mr. Larwood, he adds,
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Mr. Larwood writes:
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The next keeper of whom we read, under James I., was Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, with whom, years later, we find associated Sir Walter Cope, the same person who built the centre and the turrets of Holland House. During their joint keepership various improvements were made in the Park; grants of money were made for planting trees and repairing lodges, fences, palings, pond-heads, &c.; which show that it was then quite a rural park. In Sir Walter Cope resigned his rangership in favour of his son-in-law, Henry Rich, subsequently created Earl of Holland. This nobleman, it may be remarked, cut but a poor figure in history. In early life he was employed abroad to negotiate the marriage of Charles I. with Henrietta Maria; but after the outbreak of the Civil War he fought at time on the side of the Parliament, and then again for the King, | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
p.378 | and being taken prisoner by the Roundheads, was executed. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In the year of Charles's reign a strange scene was witnessed in the Park. The young queen, Henrietta Maria, just wedded, went through it barefoot, and clad in sackcloth, to Tyburn gallows, an event of which we shall have to speak more fully in our account of Tyburnia. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In the reigns of our early Stuart kings there was in a large number of pools or ponds, all communicating with each other, and variously given as , , and . They were fed by a small stream, the West Bourne, which, rising on the western slope of Hampstead, passed through Kilburn and Bayswater, and then intersected the Park, which it quitted at on its way to join the Thames at and . These pools used to supply the western parts of London with water, until a complaint was made that they were drained so much that there was no water for the deer. This at least, was stoutly asserted by the keepers, and as stoutly denied by the citizens, who petitioned the king to allow the supply to continue. But Charles I. preferred the word of his keepers to the petition of his loyal and faithful subjects; he chose rather to see his subjects than his favourite deer lacking water, and so he rejected the petition--a step which much increased his unpopularity at the time. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
During the early part of the Civil Wars in the time of Charles I., was largely used for exercising the as the regular forces of the City were called. This body of men was enrolled-or, as the phrase went, --on the side of the monarch; yet, subsequently, the citizens supported the popular cause, and it was principally by their aid that the obtained its decided preponderancy. So early as , within months after Charles had set up his standard at Nottingham, the were marched | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
out to join the Earl of Essex, on the heath near Brentford, says Clarendon, In the further progress of the war, several auxiliary regiments, both of foot and horse, were raised by the City; and to a part of these forces, joined to regiments of the
remarks the historian just quoted, the Parliament army was indebted for its preservation in the battle of Newbury, that Prince Rupert himself, who charged them at the head of the choice royal horse, The same historian designates London as of the Commons, and their
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says Mr. Allen, in his
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The Act of Parliament which ordered the sale of the Crown lands, after the execution of Charles I., excepted from its provisions, and it became the subject of a special resolution of the , The Park at that time contained about acres, and the sale realised The purchasers of the lots were Richard Wilson, John Lacey, and Anthony Deane. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
As soon as the king was brought back to , very naturally again became what it had been before the Puritan episode-the rendezvous of fashion and pleasure. The sales of the Park to individuals, which we have mentioned, were treated as null and void; became again royal property, and was open to the public once more. The king appointed his brother, the Duke of Gloucester, to the office of keeper; he, however, held it only months, and after his death it was granted to James Hamilton, of the Grooms of the Bedchamber, whose name, as we have already seen, survives in . This place, and other houses about , had been erected during the Protectorate by the then proprietors, and it is uncertain what compensation or tenant-right they obtained for the outlay. Mr. Hamilton was killed in battle, in ; and as Charles II. had thrown open to the public, and it was rightly judged that Ranger could superintend both parks, it is scarcely a matter of surprise to find that his successor, Mr. Harbord, an ancestor of Lord Suffield, was styled Ranger of , the latter taking precedence, as being not only royal property, but the residence of the merry king and his court. It was by Mr. Hamilton's advice that the Park was enclosed with a brick wall, and re-stocked with deer, the enclosure of the herd being on Buckdean Hill, on the side farthest from the City, and, therefore, the most quiet and retired. This wall stood till the reign of George II., when it was replaced by a more substantial , feet and a half high on the inside, and feet high on the outside. A horse belonging to a Mr. Bingham leaped this wall in ; this feat, it appears, was done for a wager. The wall was removed in the time of George IV., and an iron railing was substituted. Colonel Hamilton also made a speculation in the growth of apples for cider on an enclosure at the north-west corner, but with what result we are not informed. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
But to return to the time of Charles II. The Park was then open ground, with the exception of such fences as were put up for the purposes of pasturage; but in the Surveyor-General observes in a report that years after, a portion of it was so well fenced in as to be replenished with deer. In , a large fort, with bastions, had been erected at , and another to the south, called Oliver's Mount, the memory of which remains in . This latter work was erected by popular enthusiasm, the ladies of rank not only encouraging the men, but, as we have had occasion to remark in a previous chapter, carrying the materials with their own hands. In a note by Nash to the canto of the part of Lady Middlesex, Lady Foster, Lady Anne Waller, and others, are celebrated for their patriotic exertions as serious volunteers in this emergency. Since that period, the military performances in have been of a mimetic character. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In Evelyn's under date the , we read :-- And in the published in the year , it is described as The writer adds that It was, therefore, the Restoration which gave the people the free entrance to the Park, but with the entire reservation of the | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
p.381 | royal rights, as shown in several ways; not the least curious being the obligation of Mr. Hamilton, the Ranger, to deliver to the Lord Steward, or to the Treasurer of the Household,
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Pepys' is invaluable for the minuteness with which he describes London life during the years of the reign of Charles II., and from him we learn much incidentally about the Park and its frequenters. it has been well observed, A crowd of gay dissolute people still move through them with the same restless flutter which animated them when in the flesh, years ago and more. By his help we get peep after peep into that bygone world, and obtain a full view of the manners, fashions, and pleasures of those past generations; and we cannot do better than follow him whenever he shows his merry face in the Park. Early in , within a few days after the Restoration, Pepys hears from friends that the royal Dukes of York and Gloucester but he has not as yet seen them there with his own eyes. It is not until the of the month that the little Clerk of the Admiralty has had the happiness of seeing his Majesty there face to face, a sight which, he tells us, was Again, on the , Pepys records his sight of the king's presence there, to which Evelyn adds,
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Both Evelyn and Pepys, in their bear frequent witness to the gay appearance which the Park presented after the Restoration, especially on May Day. The former tells us that on the , he went to the Park to take the air, and that Our friend Pepys, however, was not a spectator of these gay doings in the Park, he having been ordered away, on his official duties to Portsmouth; much to his personal regret, as he does not forget to tell us. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
When Pepys and Evelyn speak thus of the Park, they must not be understood to mean its whole circumference, but simply an inner circle in the centre of its northern half, generally known as round which it was the fashion to ride and drive. It was on account of this circular movement that Lady Malapert, in the old comedy of , calls the a
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Sometimes this was called ; and in this sense Pepys uses the word. Thus we have the following entry in his under date of the :--
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In the above reign, it seems, horse and footraces were of frequent occurrence here. Evelyn, under date , even tells us that he and Pepys, in his , records how that he went This was followed by a horse-race, and in the interval which occurred between the performances a milk-maid went about, crying which the humbler spectators partook of--the meanwhile sipping The ladies, we are further told, wagered scarlet stockings and Spanish scented gloves on their favourite studs. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
says Pennant, This large space was also, very suitably, the place in which coaches were displayed when introduced by persons of fashion and Taylor, the water-poet, tells us that William Boonen, a Dutchman, was the who introduced the use of such vehicles into England. The said Boonen was Queen Elizabeth's coachman, and the date of their appearance in London may be fixed at about . Taylor quaintly observes, The introduction of is fixed by the published in .
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The railed-off space above mentioned was called the and is often spoken of by the poets of | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
p.382 | the eighteenth century as the central resort of fashion. It was probably on his way hither that Cromwell once had a most narrow escape from sudden death. He was, as the story has been often told, driving his own coach in the Park; his horses ran away and were uncontrollable; the stern Protector, much to the delight of any Royalist who might have been present on the occasion, was thrown off the coach-box, and fell upon the pole between the wheelers, and his feet becoming entangled in the harness, he was dragged along for a considerable distance. He does not, however, appear to have suffered much beyond the necessary fright and a few bruises. On this accident the following lines were written by the old rhyming cavalier, Cleveland:--
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It would be interesting, as Mr. Thomas Miller remarks, in his to know whether the Lord Protector remembered the uncomplimentary wish contained in the last couplet when the old royalist afterwards had to petition Cromwell for his release from Yarmouth Gaol. If he remembered it, and yet released the writer, he must have had, at all events, a forgiving disposition. Cromwell's fall from his coach-box is likewise commemorated in of the poems of Sir John Birkenhead, entitled Cromwell had received from the German Count of Oldenburg a present of German horses, which he attempted to drive, with his own hands, in , when met with the accident above mentioned. Sir John Birkenhead was not slow to perceive the benefit of such an event, and more than hints how unfortunate for the country it was that the fall was not a fatal . During the dominion of Cromwell, Sir John was forced to which meant nearly to starve. On the Restoration, he was made of the Masters of Requests, with a handsome salary. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
But to pass on to the Restoration and the times of Charles II. writes Mr. Larwood, | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The following description of is from | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
p.383 | the Memoirs of Count Grammont in the reign of Charles II. :-- [extra_illustrations.4.383.1] [extra_illustrations.4.383.2] [extra_illustrations.4.383.3] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Our portrait of the (page ) of the middle of the century, the greater part of whose time probably was spent in the Park, shows the exact dress of the fashionable young men of the time; the long locks of hair, hanging down from the temples on either side the face, with tasty bows of ribbon tied at the ends, were called by the ladies and Prynne, in his zeal, thought this so prominent a folly that he wrote a quarto volume to prove Prynne, however, himself did not kill the fashion, which died a natural death at the end of the reign of Charles I. The stars and halfmoons seen on the young man's face are ornamental patches of dark sticking plaster, a mode of embellishment which is in favour with the ladies occasionally, even in the reign of Victoria, as serving to show off a fair white skin. Among the absurdities of the age to which our illustration refers, it would be difficult to find more ridiculous than that of gentlemen who are not riders wearing spurs on their boots, as part of their walking dress. The spur forms a conspicuous object in the dress of the dandy of ; and we learn that it was considered the very height of fashion to have the spurs made so as to rattle or jingle as the wearer walked along, like Apollo, with his rattling arrows, in the book of Homer's
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The of that period, however, did not have it all their own way, or assert an entire monopoly to the Park, as a place intended only for promenading and flirtations, for we read that during the plague of August and , a large number of the poorer inhabitants of London, who could not escape into the country, brought thither their household goods, and setting up tents, formed in the Park a sort of camp, which is described to the life in a ballad or broadside of the day, preserved in a volume of London songs in the . But in spite of all these precautions for safety, the plague pursued them thither, and those who died were buried as quickly as possible upon the spot :
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It must have been with great satisfaction that the poor creatures thus encamped in learned that, by the end of October, the plague had disappeared, and that they were able to return to their homes in London. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The gay circle of being shorn of its old frequenters, in the year of the great plague, no doubt the grass grew where the horsemen and carriages had stirred the dust as often as spring and summer came round. During part of that fatal and fearful summer, however, a regiment of the Guards was quartered in the Park, under the command of Monk, Duke of Albemarle, who, like Lord Craven, refused wholly to quit the doomed city. years later, on Day, the Merry Monarch and the Knights of the Garter, we are told by Mr. Larwood, had the of keeping on their robes all the day, and in the evening made their appearance in still wearing their insignia-cloaks, coronets, and all. The Duke of Monmouth and another noble lord indulged even in a further freak, for thus apparelled they drove about the Park in a hackney coach. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
On the re-appearance of the company in the Park, after the plague and the we soon come again across the lively figure of Pepys, who, on the , writes :-- In the reign of Charles II. the Lodge here spoken of by Pepys stood in the middle of the Park, and was used for the sale of refreshments; it was sometimes called Price's Lodge, from the name of Gervase Price, the chief under-keeper. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
writes Mr. Larwood, | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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As far back as the reign of Elizabeth we find that cheesecakes were to be had at a house near the Serpentine, while branch establishments existed at Hackney and Holloway for the retail of these dainties, and, from the northern heights, persons were employed to cry them in the streets. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Our friend Pepys, in his under date , describes a visit, with his wife and some friends, to the Park, where, doubtless, they ate cheesecakes before going thence to the a noted drinking-house, which we shall have occasion to mention hereafter, when we reach the neighbourhood of . The | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| worthy diarist was a frequent stroller in the Park, and his pages, therefore, contain numerous indications of the doings of the fashionable world in his time; he not only brings before us, in brilliant colours, some of the most famous beauties and court gallants, but also gives us an account of the gentle flirtations of the king himself and his more favoured dames. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mr. Harrison Ainsworth is but recording the actual state of things in the reign of Queen Anne, when he writes, in his historical romance of --
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As far back as the year , the author of the chalking out a plan of London improvements, pointed to as In , a Mr. John Gwynne proposed to build in the Park a palace with a circuit round it of mile in circumference. In , a correspondent of the , writing under the of enumerates several large buildings which he considered ought to be erected in London; he observes, Towards the end of the last century, the subject was again broached by Sir John Soane, writes Mr. Larwood,
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Mr. Larwood also gives a map of , about the year or . It shows the turnpike and gallows at Tyburn, and a double row of walnut-trees, with a wide gravel-walk between, runs from north to south, parallel to the . In the centre of this avenue is a circular reservoir, belonging to the , and from which not only Kensington Palace and the suburb were supplied, but also (now ) Mr. Larwood tells us that the machinery used for forcing the supply was at that time so primitive, that the water had to be conveyed to the houses on the high ground near by means of a mill turned by horses. It may interest our readers to learn that this avenue was standing till about the | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
p.386 | year , when most of the trees, being much decayed, and in danger of being blown down whenever the wind was high, were cut down, their wood being destined to make stocks for the muskets of our infantry. In this map the is marked with a large circle, apparently about yards to the north of the east end of the Serpentine. Round the stands a square of large trees, a few of which may, perhaps, still be standing. There is a small brook, which runs into the Serpentine, near the present boat-house, from the neighbourhood of the ; and small ponds of water are marked towards the southeast corner- nearly where the statue of Achilles now stands, and the other nearer to the rear of Apsley House. The map shows also the roads running parallel to the Serpentine on the south, marked respectively as and the former corresponding nearly with the of our time, and the latter running, as now, inside the to the Road and . On the north of the Serpentine there is, apparently, no regular road, except for about a yards from the eastern end, where it bends to the north, away from the water, towards the
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The cutting down of trees needlessly, in the neighbourhood of London, is a sin. Evelyn, in his as Dr. Johnson more than once reminds us in his tells us of wicked men who cut down trees, and never prospered afterwards. It is to be hoped that a like fate awaited those persons who caused the destruction of the walnut-tree avenue mentioned in the preceding paragraph. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The of which we have already spoken, was a place of fashionable resort down to the reign of George II., when it was partly destroyed in the formation of the . It is often alluded to in old plays and novels, and is described by a French traveller, in , as being Another foreigner, who lived in England at the end of the century, in speaking of the says:
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Pepys, in his under date of , writes how that he
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The origin of this is unknown; Mr. Larwood suggests that Remnants of it were still traceable at the beginning of this century, on the high ground directly behind the farm-house. A few very old trees are even now to be found on that spot. Some of these are indeed ancient enough to have formed part of the identical trees round which the wits and beauties drove in their carriages, and, as Pennant says, Plain as it was, it must have been a pleasant spot on a summer's afternoon. Situated on an upland space of ground, may imagine the pleasurable prospect from hence when all around was open country, and nothing intercepted the view from the Surrey hills to the high grounds of Hampstead and Highgate. can easily imagine how delightful it must have been for the ladies who
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Walker, in in , speaks of the as being still traceable round a clump of trees near the foot-barracks, and inclosing an area of about yards in diameter, and about yards wide. he adds,
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In the merry days of our later Stuart sovereigns | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
p.387 | no equipage in the was thought complete unless drawn by grey Flanders mares, and the owner's coat-of-arms emblazoned conspicuously on the panels. Thus we read in professedly a satire on the --
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Mr. Larwood, who quotes these lines, adds his own opinion that the, here intended was none other than who pretended to be a cadet of the noble house of the Earl of Denbigh, which is sprung, as every reader of the knows, from the Hapsburgs, cousins to the ancient Emperors of Germany. He gives the following version of the story to which allusion is made in the above verses:-- From this same satire we may glean a few other illustrations of the way in which the frequenters of the Park, towards the end of the century, conducted themselves. For instance, it appears that the beaux bought fruit in the Park:, and there, as in the theatres, amused themselves with breaking coarse jests with the orange and nosegay-women, and other female hawkers. Thus we read in the same poem: The same practice is also alluded to in another satire, Mrs. Manley's where a Mrs. Hammond is represented buying a basket of cherries and receiving a from the Again, in Southerne's play of the (), Lady Malapert says, But her airy husband is of a different opinion: says he, It was with such refined amusements, such a delicate way of displaying their wit, that the beaux of that period, like Sir Harry Wildair, acquired the reputation of being
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During the reign of Queen Anne, the held its place as the resort of all the fashion and nobility, even in winter. writes the , in , In the , and in the plays of the period, there are constant allusions to the brilliant crowds who frequented the around which a full tide of gaudily dressed ladies were whirled day by day. As Mr. Larwood happily remarks:--
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It was in the that a curious incident occurred in the life of Wycherley, which Pope related to Spence.
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In the days of George II., the machinery used for watering the fashionable drive in was very primitive indeed. observes a German writer, Z. Conrad von Uffenbach, in his
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From the time of Cromwell down to the present day the history of is little more than a record of events, of which from time to time it has been the scene-[extra_illustrations.4.388.1] , encampments, duels, highway robberies, and executions. For a full catalogue of these matters, equally minute and monotonous, we must be content to refer our readers to the pages of Mr. Jacob Larwood's It will be enough for our purpose to enumerate here a few of the principal occurrences. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The earliest occasion on which the Park was used for a review, so far as we can learn, was in , when the Ranger, Lord Hunsdon, caused Elizabeth's pensioners to muster before the Virgin Queen, his men all the Tudor livery, as may be learnt from sundry pictures in the galleries at Windsor Castle and Palace. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Commencing then with the year of the reign of Charles II., Stow tells us how, only a few months after his accession, the king here reviewed his strong and upwards, in the presence of and how in the following March () the Park witnessed a muster of archers shooting with the long bow. This exercise had always been a favourite with the English people; and a writer named Wood, in his especially mentions the fact, that so great was the delight, and so pleasing the exercise, that regiments of foot soldiery laid down their arms to come and see it. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Again in , Charles reviewed here his troops, including the handsome Life Guards, whom he had formed in Holland. Their array was picturesque, and their gallant appearance pleased the people, who were sick of the dull Puritanical troopers. The thus describes the scene:
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Again, in , we read in Pepys' of another grand review of the Guards in the Park, the troops, horse and foot, being ; but the diarist, in the honesty of his heart, speaks rather doubtfully of their real value as troops. In there was a similar display, in order to do honour to the Duke of Monmouth, who had been appointed Colonel of the Life Guards. Pepys was present on this occasion too, and gives us a picture of the duke in but he saw no reason to change his former opinion of the men, though he owned, that he
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In , there was another review of the Guards in the Park, in the presence of Charles, and of the ambassadors of the Sultan of Morocco. says Mr. Larwood,
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An encampment, it would appear from of Pope's letters, was formed in about the year . At all events, he writes from the Westend to a lady friend, probably Martha Blount:-- [extra_illustrations.4.389.1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In another letter to the Hon. Robert Digby, he thus describes the effect produced by the encampment on West-end society :--
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In [extra_illustrations.4.389.2] volunteers. Of those reviewed on that day, at all events, survived to take an active part, to the extent, at least, of shouldering a musket and attending drill, in the volunteer movement on its revival in -the late Mr. C. T. Tower, of Weald Hall, Essex, and Mr. James Anderton, of Dulwich, Surrey. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
At these reviews there was always a goodly concourse of spectators present, of whom the larger half were ladies, true then, as now, to Ovid's wellknown line If we may believe Lord Lansdowne, there was among these lady frequenters of the Park on such occasions whose name is now forgotten, though she was doubtless the in her day. He calls her only Mira, and we have, alas! no clue to the secret of Mira's parentage. Was she the daughter of a duke or a marquis? or was she of the maids of honour who attended in the train of royalty? Alas! we cannot tell. But we can quote Lord Lansdowne's lines entitled as certainly not out of place:--
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The following anecdote is vouched for by Lady C. Davies, in her --
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On the , George II. held his last review. The king, we are told, where were also present the Prince and Princess of Wales, the Duke of York, Princess Augusta, and some other of the young princesses, besides a host of noblemen. As soon as the review was over, says of , The brave old king had been in bad health for some days previously, and within hours after the review he was dead. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
We must say a few words respecting some of the duels-many bloody and fatal ones--that have been fought in . The barbarous practice of duelling, no doubt, came down by tradition from the era of the Normans, if not from that of our Anglo-Saxon forefathers. From whatever race it came, it was a national stain and disgrace for centuries. In the reigns of Charles II. and James II. the mania for duelling was at its height, and, indeed, it could scarcely pass away as long as gentlemen wore their swords in every-day life as part of their costume. John Evelyn remarks, in : he adds,
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The story of the duel between Lord Mohun and the Duke of Hamilton, which was fought here on the ith of , is thus told by Sir Bernard Burke, in his -- | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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In now in the , there is a small drawing of the above duel; and there is also engraved in facsimile, in Smith's a letter of Dean Swift to Mrs. Dingley, describing it. The Dean thus writes concerning this duel: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Lord Mohun was a notorious profligate; he had frequently been engaged in duels and midnight brawls, and had been twice tried for murder. The only remark made by his widow, when his corpse was brought home, was an expression of high displeasure that the men had laid the body on her state-bed, thereby staining with blood the rich and costly furniture! The Duchess of Hamilton, who was a daughter of Digby, Lord Gerard of , continued a widow until her death, in . We have some scanty notices of this lady in Swift's The dean visited her on the morning of the fatal occurrence, and remained with her hours. he says. months afterwards, he was again on a visit to the duchess, but the tables were turned. She never grieved, but raged, and stormed, and railed: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
p.393 |
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A noteworthy duel took place in , in , between John Wilkes, the witty agitator, and Samuel Martin, a rather truculent member of Parliament. Martin, in his place in the , had alluded to Wilkes as a Wilkes prided himself as much upon his gallantry as upon his wit and disloyalty, and lost no time in calling Martin out. The challenge was given as soon as the House adjourned, and the parties repaired at once to a copse in with a brace of pistols. They fired times, when Wilkes fell, wounded in the abdomen. His antagonist, relenting, hastened up and insisted on helping him off the ground; but Wilkes, with comparative courtesy, as strenuously urged Martin to hurry away, so as to escape arrest. It afterwards appeared that Martin had been practising in a shooting gallery for months before making the obnoxious speech in the House; and soon after, instead of being arrested, he received a valuable appointment from the ministry. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wilkes was the cause of another rather amusing than tragical duel in this park several years later. Captain Douglas, discussing the great demagogue's merits and demerits in a coffee-house, spoke of him as a scoundrel and a coward; and, turning to the company, he added that these epithets equally applied to Wilkes's adherents. A Rev. Mr. Green took up Wilkes's cause, and pulled Captain Douglas's nose, saying he would back Wilkes against a Scot any day. They at once repaired to the Park, though it was late in the evening. The duel was fought with swords, and finally the parson militant ran the captain through the doublet, whereupon the honour of both gentlemen was asserted to be saved, and they left the field of combat, satisfied. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Richard Brinsley Sheridan, in , repaired to with Captain Matthews to fight a duel; but finding the crowd too great, they went to the Castle Tavern, Covent Garden, instead, and there fought with swords. The quarrel was about the beautiful Miss Linley, the singer, to whom Sheridan was already secretly married. Both were severely cut, but neither was seriously wounded. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In a duel was fought here between the Earl of Shelburne and Colonel Fullarton; and years later Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas and Colonel Gordon met here in deadly combat, when the former was killed. In Colonel King and Colonel Fitzgerald fought, the cause of dispute being a lady, a near relation of the former, who had been wronged by his antagonist; Fitzgerald was killed. It will scarcely be credited, that as recently as a duel was fought here between the Dukes of Bedford and Buckingham. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mr. Harrison Ainsworth, in his historical romance of describes of the duels which were fought in in the reign of Queen Anne. He pictures the parties as striking off in the direction of Kensington Gardens, and keeping on the higher ground till they reach a natural avenue of fine trees, chiefly elms, sweeping down to the edge of a sheet of water which has since been amplified into the Serpentine. He states that and that he adds, We shall have occasion to mention these springs again. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
It is pleasant to pass from these records of bloodshed to the more enlivening accounts of the festivities and rejoicings that took place here in consequence of the Peace in , and the visit of the Allied Sovereigns. Mr. Cyrus Redding describes, with the pen of an eye-witness, the review of the Scots Greys in in the presence of their Majesties. he writes, He describes the Emperor Alexander of Russia as the King of Prussia as being and the King of Belgium (then simply aide-de-camp to of their Majesties), as
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Again, after the battle of Waterloo, the Park was made the centre of the rejoicings for the peace. Mr. Redding tells us how | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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We may conclude this chapter by remarking that the fresh air of the neighbourhood of a century ago was proverbial; for Boswell writes to thank of his friends for the offer of the use of his apartments in London, but to decline them on the ground that
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Footnotes: [extra_illustrations.4.377.1] The Eclipse in Hyde Park [extra_illustrations.4.377.2] Battle of the Hyde Park [] Strype's Stow, ii., p. 572. [extra_illustrations.4.383.1] Curds and Whey [extra_illustrations.4.383.2] Macaronies drinking asses milk [extra_illustrations.4.383.3] Cheese-cake House [] Misson's Memoirs and Observations in his Travels through England. 1719. [] Lettres sur les Anglais et les Francais. Cologne, 1727. [extra_illustrations.4.388.1] reviews of the troops and volunteers [extra_illustrations.4.389.1] Official Program of Grand Review [extra_illustrations.4.389.2] King George III. here reviewed [] See Vol. III., p. 161. |
