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ITS HISTORY AND KOMANG R ■'

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THE LIBRARY

OF

THE UNIVERSITY

OF CALIFORNIA

LOS ANGELES

SIR ROBERT J. BLACK, Bt.

HYDE PARK

ITS HISTORY AND ROMANCE

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WITH ILLUSTRATE

LONDON

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HYDE PARK

ITS HISTORY AND ROMANCE

BY

MRS. ALEC TWEEDIE

{Nte HARLEY)

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS

LONDON

EVELEIGH NASH

FAWSIDE HOUSE

1908

BY THE SAME AUTHOR

Porfirio Diaz, Seven Times President of Mexico

Mexico as I saw It

Sunny Sicily

Behind the Footlights

A Girl's Ride in Iceland

A Winter's Jaunt to Norway

Through Finland in Carts

Danish versus English Butter Making

George Harley, F.R.S. ; or, The Life ok a London Physician

DA

CONTENTS

CHAP.

I. Introduction II. A Royal Hunting-Ground

III. Vagaries of Monarchs

IV. Under the Commonwealth V. Fashion and Frivolity

VI. Masks and Patches VII. In Georgian Days VIII. Early Chronicles of Tyburn IX. Beneath the Triple Tree X. Nineteenth-Century Fragments XL Duels in the Park XII. The People's Park

XIII. Nature in the Park .

XIV. The Evolution of the Carriage

PACK

i

19

47

79

94

119

141

172

200

236

265

288

3ii

325

APPENDIX List of Trees, Shrubs, and Plants in Hyde Park Index ......

367 377

935183

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

The Four-in-Hand Club in Hyde Park .

Execution of Earl Ferrars

Map of Westminster, illustrating Charter of King Edgar, granted to Dunstan .

Bathing Well in Hyde Park

Henry viii. .....

The Cheesecake House, to which the Duke of Hamilton was carried mortally Wounded

Queen Henrietta Maria's Penance at Tyburn

Prostitute Drummed out of Hyde Park

Tyburn Ticket, Preserved in Guildhall

Drinking Well in Hyde Park

Entrance to Hyde Park on a Sunday .

Map, 1725 .....

Molly Lepell, afterwards Lady Hervey

Map, 1746 .....

The Original " Tattersall's," and St. George's Hospital .....

Maria Countess of Coventry, nee Gunning

William Pitt, Earl of Chatham .

Marble Arch at Three o'clock in the Morning

London Bridge ....

Jack Sheppard ....

Frontispiece Facing p. 1

20

32 42

66

70

in

„ 128

I36

142

144 148

152

156 162 167

172

192

214

x LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Jonathan Wild pelted by the Mob on his Way

to Tyburn ..... Facing p. 224

The Execution of Catherine Hayes at Tyburn „ 232

Camp in Hyde Park during Gordon Riots, 1780 ,, 238

Winter Amusements . . . . ,, 244

Jubilee Fair in Hyde Park, 18 14. to Celebrate

the Fall of Napoleon ,, 248

Lady Blessington . . . . ,, 254

Festivities on the Ice, 1857. By John Leech „ 258

Cumberland Gate .....,, 260

A Camp Kitchen ...... 280

An Airing in Hyde Park, 1793 . . . ,,312

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The following books have been consulted in the compilation of this volume : —

Stow's *' Annals."

Hollinshed's " Chronicles."

Baker's " Chronicle."

Whitelock's " Memorials of English Affairs."

Northuek.

Macaulay's " History of England."

Hume's " History of England."

Lingard's " History of England."

Craik and Macfarlane's " Pictorial History of England."

Domesday Book. Translated by Sir Henry James.

" The Chronicle of the Grey friars." (Camden Society.)

Lyttelton's " History of Henry it."

Gilbert Burnett's " History of my Own Times."

State Papers. Public Record Office.

MSS. from Muniment Room. Westminster Abbey.

Strickland's " Queens of England."

Riley's " Memorials of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Centuries."

" Archaeologia."

Stow's " Survey of London." (Strype.)

Dean Stanley's " History and Memorials of Westminster Abbey."

Knight's " London."

Walford's " London Old and New."

Wheatley's " London Past and Present."

Timbs' " Curiosities of London."

Larwood's " The London Parks."

Ash ton's " Hyde Park from Domesday to Date."

Jesse's "London: its Celebrated Characters and Remarkable

Places." Malcolm's " Anecdotes of the Manners and Customs of London." Besant's " London in the Eighteenth Century." Fuller's " Worthies of England."

xii BIBLIOGRAPHY

Drake's " Shakespeare and His Times."

Osborne's " Historical Memories on Reigns of Elizabeth and James I."

Ellis's " Original Letters."

'' Diary of John Evelyn." Edited by Wheatley.

" Diary of Samuel Pepys." Edited by Wheatley.

" Memoirs of the Comte de Gramont." Trans, by M. Boyer.

" Letters of the Earl of Chesterfield " (2nd).

Colley Cibber's " Apology for the Life of C. C."

Defoe's " Narrative of Jack Sheppard."

" Thomas Brown's Amusements, Serious and Comical."

Strutt's " Sports and Pastimes of the People of England."

" Letters and Works of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu."

Mrs. Eliz. Montagu's " Lady of the Last Century."

" Letters of Horace Walpole." Edited by Mrs. Paget Toynbee.

" Letters of Lord Hervey."

" Letters of the Earl of Chesterfield (4th) to Dayrolles."

" George Selwyn and his Contemporaries."

" Some Account of the Military, Political, and Social Life of the

Rt. Hon. John Manners, Marquis of Granby." By W. Granby. Stephen's " Literary and Social Life of the 18th Century." " Autobiography of Madame Piozzi." Hayward. Wraxall's " Historical Memoirs of My Own Times." Thackeray's " Four Georges." Fitzgerald Molloy's " London under the Georges." " Diary of the Hon. William Windham." Edited by Mrs. Baring. " The Two Duchesses of Devonshire." Vere Foster. " Life and Letters of Lady Sarah Lennox." By the Countess of

Ilchester. Rosebery's " Life of Pitt." " William Wilberforce and His Friends." Ashton's " When William iv. was King." Paston's " Sidelights on the Georgian Period." " Journal of Charles C. F. Greville." Cook's " Tyburn Chronicle." Dr. Millinger's " History of Duelling." Mrs. Stone's " Chronicle of Fashion."

" Letters and Memorials of Jane Welsh Carlyle." Thomas Carlyle. Kingston's " Romance of a Hundred Years." " Report of Historical Commission on MSS." D'Avenant.

Wilson's " Memoirs of Wonderful Characters." Richard Davey's " The Pageant of London." " The Letters of Queen Victoria." Edited by A. C. Benson. " Treason and Plot." By Major Martin Hume. ' ' Calendar of Spanish State Papers." By Major Martin Hume.

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HYDE PARK:

ITS HISTORY AND ROMANCE

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Hyde Park. What a world of memories is sug- gested by the name.

Standing right in the heart of London, it is almost the only surviving out-of-door public pleasure resort left in the West-End, wherein fashion may display itself and take exercise, since St. James's Park has now no social life, and Spring Gardens, Vauxhall, Old Ranelagh, and Cremorne are long since dead.

Gay as it is now in the season with its well-dressed saunterers, its beautiful equipages, its noble trees, and its wide expanse of water, it conjures up dark and evil memories, for the Park has been the scene of stirring events in our national history. Nor is its romantic mystery entirely of the past, even now.

Surrounded by the palaces of the rich, the resort of the favoured ones of the earth, for whose wealth and ostentation it provides a fitting back- A i

HYDE PARK

ground ; it forms also the refuge of the vicious and the destitute, and, alas, its green sward serves as the dormitory of filthy vagrants, whose very existence in this city of boundless wealth is an eyesore and a reproach. There, vice and virtue still jostle each other, poverty and riches, greed and simplicity : there, every creed is expounded, every grievance aired, every nostrum advocated with violent vociferation hard by the spot where, upon the fatal Triple Tree of Tyburn, scores of miserable martyrs went to their doom for daring to put into words the thoughts that were their own.

The Park now extends from Park Lane to Ken- sington Gardens, and from the Bayswater Road to Knightsbridge ; but the creation of Kensington Gardens in the reign of George II. — sheltering the Royal Palace where Queen Victoria was born in 1819 — robbed Hyde Park of 300 acres of land. Queen Caroline devoted much time and thought to the formation of the Serpentine and the beautifying of the surroundings of her Palace.

Roughly speaking, Hyde Park is about 3^ miles round, or covers an extent of 360 acres. This is by no means enormous, not as large as the Bois de Boulogne in Paris, nor as wild as Thier gaarten in Berlin, but there are trees in Hyde Park and Ken- sington Gardens which far surpass in bulk and beauty the trees of either of these Continental rivals. We have in Hyde Park none of the " ancestral statues " such as Berlin has to represent the noble army of the Kaiser's forebears. Our Park is not quite like the Castellana in Madrid, where fashion drives from the Prado during the dusk,

2

INTRODUCTION

shut up in truly Spanish fashion in closed carriages, or the Prater in Vienna, where so many beautiful women may be seen ; nor is it nearly as large as the Fairmount Park in Philadelphia, which, however, is more of wild common than cultivated land.

Hyde Park differs from all these ; and Hyde Park stands within a huge city, and not a mile or two outside. It is not newly planted or freshly made, and some of the trees within its railings, dating back through many centuries, would be hard to rival in any land. So interesting, indeed, are the trees and shrubs and plants, the birds and beasts, that a list will be found in an appendix.

At an early period in the history of Great Britain, this district must have been part of the vast forest that lay inland from the little British settlement, founded on the banks of the Thames before the Romans landed. These early inhabitants of London lived in rude huts, probably stretching from where the Tower now stands to Dowgate, their simple tenements forming the beginning of the present great throbbing heart of the Empire.

It is probably true that at the time of the Saxons, parts of the Park of to-day were cultivated in the primitive fashion of the race ; while the forests afforded good feeding-ground for the hogs which later formed such an important item in the farming operations of our ancestors.

It must be remembered that a forest in ancient times meant not only a thickly wooded area, but also wide open glades and spaces, in which simple homesteads nestled and cattle grazed. In these the Saxons, according to the sparse records of the

3

HYDE PARK

period, turned their attention to their " wyrt-tun " (plant-enclosure) or " wyrt-geard " (plant-yard), from which probably originated the modern kitchen garden. The leek seems to have been the favourite object of culture as a vegetable, the name leac being a pure Anglo-Saxon word, and in the old MSS. the terms " leac-tun " and " leac-ward" are equivalent to the modern designations " kitchen garden " and " gardener." The rose and the lily are men- tioned ; but whether cultivated or not is a matter of uncertainty, for probably the only plants cherished and propagated were those which pro- vided material for food, or had medicinal qualities of value.

Later, as will be seen, an orchard stood in Hyde Park, and in due course many other queer institutions and customs within that field will be disclosed, for Hyde Park has, indeed, had a curious history ; so curious that it reads more like fiction than fact.

As Hyde Park, however, its importance really began under Henry viii., who seized it from the Church. Then it became Hyde Park for the first time ; before that it was merely grazing land and ditches of no particular interest, known as " The Manor of Hyde."

Crown hunting lands were called Forests, Chases, and Parks.

Forests were portions of land consisting both of woodland and pasture circumscribed by certain bounds, within which the right of hunting was reserved exclusively for the King, and subject to a code of special laws, often of great severity, and

4

INTRODUCTION

a special staff of officers — Verderers, Regarders, Agistors, Foresters, and Woodwards.

A Chase was, like a Forest, unenclosed, but it had no special code of laws, offenders being subject to the Civil Law, and its custodians were only keepers and woodwards.

A Park was like a Chase, as to laws and custodians, but was always enclosed by a wall or paling. Later, Parks and Chases could be held by private in- dividuals, but a Forest could only belong to a King.

Situated as Hyde Park now is, right in the heart of the great city, with its seven million in- habitants, it seems well-nigh impossible to picture the same place even half a century ago, standing as it then did on the border of market gardens. Yet such was the case. The Memoirs of a modern artist like William Frith, R.A., painter of the once famous " Derby Day," and only published at the end of the nineteenth century, speak of the writer's youthful rambles through the market gardens on which now stands Cromwell Road, adjacent to the Park.

A perfect storehouse of such recollection is Frederic Harrison, historian, essayist, Positivist, and man of letters. In 1907, referring to Hyde Park, he wrote me the following :

" I am more of a boy at seventy-five than I was at fifteen" ; and then he goes on to say how well he remembers the neighbourhood where Tyburn formerly stood.

" When I came to London in 1840, Connaught Place was nearly the farthest western extension of regular houses along the Bayswater Road.

5

HYDE PARK

From Albion Street, westwards and northwards, there were open market gardens. Hyde Park Gardens and Square, Oxford and Cambridge Squares, Gloucester and Sussex Squares were just beginning to emerge, and I have played cricket on the site of Westbourne Terrace. At that time a long brick wall ran along the north side of Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens beside the Bayswater Road, and very dismal and dirty it was. There was no Marble Arch then, and the burial-ground was used daily. Notting Hill Gate, of course, was a ''pike." Working people, servants in livery, and dogs were not allowed in Kensington Gardens. On the occasion of a storm the rule was relaxed, and footmen for once were allowed to bring in the umbrellas !

" My father, who was born in the eighteenth century, as a boy lived in No. 9 Berkeley Street, opposite to the garden of Devonshire House, in the house which my aunt ultimately sold to Prince Louis Napoleon. About the year 1810, the boys would often spend a holiday in Hyde Park, which was then a deer-park, as rural and solitary as Windsor Forest now. Of course, there was neither bridge over the Serpentine nor Powder Magazine. The corner of the Park between Kensington Gardens and the Serpentine was a solitude, where the boys would bring their baskets and picnic.

" Sixty years ago I can remember magnificent forest trees, chestnuts, oaks, and elms, in Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, as fine as any in this island. They are nearly all gone. I have seen about a thousand swept away.

6

INTRODUCTION

<<

The rows of carriages, often two deep, con- tinued in Hyde Park down to about i860, as thick as shown in Doyle's sketches for Pip's Diary in Punch. Ten or twenty thousand ' bucks ' or 1 dandies ' hung over the rails on the footpath to look on. And the carriages were so closely packed in line that they could only just walk. On one occasion, about 1856, the throng of carriages to see the muster of the Four-in-Hand Club Drags was so great that the carriages could not be extricated from the line. Many had to remain into the night, and the fine ladies were obliged to descend and walk home in the dusk.

" The famous tearing down of the railings of the Park in 1866 was an accident, and almost a joke. A good-humoured crowd had gathered to see what Mr. Edmond Beales and the Reform League would do when the police stopped them from entering the Park. Mr. Beales turned back and went home, and never knew what happened, as he told me himself, till he reached his home at night. The crowd, seeing no fun, began to amuse themselves with singing and climbing up on the railing, which was hardly strong enough, or high enough, to stop a flock of sheep. Suddenly, with shouts of laughter, the rail fell inwards, and the crowd naturally followed, but without a thought of any concerted action. The people got hot and angry on the following days. But the famous Hyde Park Riot of 1866 was a mere street scramble owing to the rotten state of the old railing."

These are the words of a living writer, and yet how much is changed. Cricket on the site of

7

HYDE PARK

Westbourne Terrace seems almost as remote as the hundreds, aye, thousands, of hangings that took place near where the Marble Arch now stands. There stood Tyburn, probably the most gruesome, gory spot in the whole of the British Isles.

The brick wall has long since disappeared, and even the inner railings between the side-walks and the road have almost all gone.

Wisely Tyburn has been swept away by its later rulers. Not a vestige of the name survives to remind the passers-by that it once existed, except on the iron tablet which marks the site of the old turnpike gate, and bears the following inscription :

HERE STOOD

TYBURN GATE

1829

ir«*:< >«<«*'

8

INTRODUCTION

This iron plate is about 4 feet high, and is a little to the west of the clock-house at the Marble Arch, just opposite Edgware Road. So it was well within the last hundred years that Tyburn Gate disappeared.

Hyde Park, as a place for intrigue, strongly appealed to the dramatist of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and has been immortalised by many poets. Ben Jonson speaks of it in the Prologue of The Staple News, and in The World in the Moon (1620). An old ballad in the Roxburgh Collection sings :

" Of all parts of England, Hyde Park hath the name For coaches and horses and persons of Fame."

Shirley, too, named one of his plays Hyde Park, and laid his plot within its boundaries. Pepys went to see the performance of the play, and formed a poor opinion of it. Other authors have written of the Park in this sense, as a background for dramatic tales of intrigue ; such as Etherage in The Man of Mode (1676), Howard in The English Monsieur (1674), Southerne in The Maid's Last Prayer (1693), Farquhar in The Constant Couple (1700), and Congreve in The Way of the World (1760).

From those far distant days to the present Hyde Park has never lost its prestige as a meeting- place for all classes of English Society; and the present volume is an attempt to depict its story in a more or less connected form.

Nor must the grim records of Tyburn, so closely

9

HYDE PARK

associated with the Park, be forgotten. From the date of the first public hanging on the outskirts of the Park in 1196, right down to late in the eighteenth century, a constant succession of un- happy beings were done to death here, sometimes for crimes which in our more merciful days would be hardly punished by a forty-shilling fine ; and in the dread days of the religious persecution in the times of the Tudors, this place of heroic martyrdom saw some of the sublimest deaths in the history of our land. Upon hurdles, bound in ignominy, down Snow Hill and along the Oxford Road, just stopping for a last stirrup-cup to speed them upon their way at St. Giles's Spital, were drawn martyrs and malefactors innumerable.

The doomed Carthusians, the Maid of Kent, heroic Campion, the miserable Dr. Lopez and his Portuguese confederates ; priests, protestants, patriots, and rogues, for ages all such took their last look on earth at Hyde Park ; first from the rise behind Connaught Terrace, and later from the open space at the corner of the Edgware Road.

Sporting ground, shambles, dwelling-place, scene of intrigue, theatre of Royal magnificence and military displa}/, the Park through the centuries may be said almost to epitomise the history of England, and to the present day it has never ceased to be interesting.

The enormous crowds that frequent the place even now is seen by the fact that it contains about 35,000 chairs, and even that number is often in- sufficient in the height of the season. Hundreds of long wooden benches, too, are scattered all over the

10

INTRODUCTION

Park, where " Love's young dream " continues from morn till eve, year in year out. Soldiers from the barracks hard by at Knightsbridge make love to pretty nursemaids ; young men from the shops in Bayswater or Kensington whisper sweet nothings into the ears of handsome girls, and, according to the practice favoured by them, sit with their arm round one another's neck or waist.

Various classes are to be found in Hyde Park. For instance, the elite drive on summer afternoons from five to seven, when four or five rows of motors and carriages moving along at crawling pace is quite a common sight. The fashionable drive used to be from Hyde Park Corner to Knightsbridge Barracks, but every few years fashions change, and during the last two seasons far more carriages were to be found between Hyde Park Corner and the Marble Arch.

Every afternoon when she is in town, the Queen drives round the Park between six and seven. There is no pomp or show. A mounted policeman goes in front to clear the way, and at a distance of fifty yards follows the royal carriage, just an ordinary, high C-spring barouche with red wheels, and a couple of men-servants in black livery with black cockades. Behind the coachman sits the Queen of England. She often has guests with her, but if not, drives alone with a Lady- in -Waiting, generally the Hon. Charlotte Knollys, one of that faithful family attached to the Court, and a Gentle- man-in-Waiting opposite.

The carriage passes along at an ordinary trot, and every one bows, the gentlemen raising their

ii

HYDE PARK

hats, in fact keeping them off until the Queen has passed. No woman in Europe knows how to bow more graciously than Queen Alexandra. She is blessed with a long swan-like neck, exquisitely set upon her shoulders, and whether in her carriage or in a decolletee gown at Buckingham Palace, the gracious inclination of her head is a form of queenly bow to be admired.

Her Majesty is always very quietly dressed, never wearing anything outre in fashion. When huge sleeves are worn, hers are of medium size. She is probably the best-gowned woman in Europe, and is certainly one of the most simply dressed. Since the death of her eldest son, in 1892, she has never worn bright colours, — black, white, grey, dark blue, purple, or heliotrope being her favourites.

When the King or Queen is in town, the centre gate of the Marble Arch is thrown open for them to pass through, and the ground is neatly sanded. This rule is also observed at the entrance to Con- stitution Hill.

Probably the Park is at its fullest in this year of grace 1908 on Sunday between twelve and two ; there are practically no carriages ; it is the hour of the Prayer-Book Brigade. Everybody has been to Church, and those who have not are said to carry small books in their hands, so that their friends may imagine they have freshly returned from a service. On hot days in May, June, and July, it is delightfully cool beneath the trees from the Achilles Statue to Stanhope Gate, and literally thousands of people sit and chat to their friends at that time. Some walk up and down while looking

12

INTRODUCTION

for acquaintances or waiting for a chair ; others go early and pay for their seat, determined to occupy it until it is time to go home to luncheon. Some of the most beautiful women in Europe may be seen in the Park on Sunday.

Of course the place is public, and the crowd is therefore mixed. It is not as aristocratic, for in- stance, as the Royal Enclosure at Ascot, or the lawn for the Eclipse Stakes at Sandown ; but then it is not one day in the year, but any and every Sunday during the warmer months, that these people may be found congregated together. Two o'clock being the ordinary luncheon hour, there is a general exodus a little before that time, and it was amusing in 1906 to notice the people all endeavouring to engage the smart public motor landaulettes and hansoms which plied for hire at Hyde Park Corner for the first time. They were a new invasion — one that quickly found favour in the eyes of the public, followed a year later by taximeter cabs.

After tea on Sundays in the summer the Park fills again. People stroll in to have chats with their friends or rest in the cool shade ; and again those thousands of chairs are occupied.

It is curious how the classes divide themselves. Between the Achilles Monument and the Serpentine is a bandstand, round which a certain proportion of the seats are railed off. In the summer evenings excellent music is given, but very few of the upper- ten avail themselves of the privilege which the middle classes so eagerly enjoy. It is a great occa- sion for shop people and servants, who seem to

13

i

HYDE PARK

thoroughly revel in those Sunday Concerts, which each year prove more and more successful.

The year passes in Hyde Park like the figures in a kaleidoscope.

In January, when it is dark in the mornings and cold in the evenings, the riders come out about ten, and the drivers, dwindled in numbers, mostly vacate their vehicles and take a quiet walk before luncheon. All is cold and damp and drear.

Then come the early spring flowers. Yellow, white, or purple crocuses raise their heads in the Park. They are not planted in beds or in stiff rows ; but come up in patches of colour in the grass. Here a mass of yellow, there a mass of heliotrope, filling the air with the early cry of spring. These crocuses, in themselves a joy, are quickly followed by daffodils, narcissi, and groups of gorse and broom. Then the leaves unfold upon the trees, laburnum fights pinky-brown copper beech, horse-chestnuts raise their blooms, hawthorn scents the air, and lilac abounds. Then it is that the hyacinth beds become a dream along the pre- cincts of Park Lane, giving forth sweet scents and glorious masses of colour. Flower beds were first instituted in Hyde Park in i860.

Rhododendrons burst into flower, quickly fol- lowed by those gorgeous beds of yellow azalea that we, who love the Park, know so well.

The bedding plants for Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, and St. James's Park are largely supplied from the nursery gardens near the Ranger's Lodge in the centre of the Park itself, and not from Kew, as is ordinarily supposed.

14

INTRODUCTION

In the autumn these plants are given away to the poor of the parishes who care to apply for them.

People have returned to town. The hunting is over ; the Riviera has ceased to attract. Egypt is too hot. The Academy and Opera are open, and the London Season has begun.

Certain hours are given up to certain things, and the first occupants of the Park in the early morning are the members of the Liver Brigade. As a child at the age of seven, and for ten years after that, I rode with my father every morning at half- past seven in Rotten Row, returning to breakfast, to change my habit, and go to school ; and for nearly ten years more I did the same with my husband, going — instead of to school, on my return — to the kitchen to order the dinner. My acquaint- ance with Hyde Park is, therefore, not imaginary, but real — very real.

The Liver Brigade in the Park is a regular London institution. Judges, barristers, surgeons, physicians, actors, writers, African millionaires, and German Jews all ride in the morning between half-past seven and ten o'clock. Many of them are known to each other, consequently friendly greetings and pleasant chats are exchanged while the Liver Brigade take exercise, knowing well that on their return home to bath and breakfast they will have to settle down to the Law Courts, Chambers, or the Consulting-room for the rest of the day. That hour's ride in the morning has been the salvation of many a brain-weary man and woman.

In the eighties and nineties the people dressed most smartly. I well remember my tight-fitting

15

HYDE PARK

habit and tall silk hat, my white stock in winter, or high collar and white tie in summer. The men- folk wore silk hats and black hunting coats, smart breeches and high patent boots. All this is changed ; a go-as-you-please air has overtaken the riders. The women wear loose coats with sack backs, cotton shirts, sailor hats, "billycocks — anything and every- things that brings comfort, even if it deprives them of grace. The men don caps and tweeds, brown boots and putties, in fact, any rough-and-tumble country kit.

No sooner has the Liver Brigade departed than the Park is given over to the babies and nurses. In the summer these women are entirely dressed in white pique, and in winter in grey cloth or flannel. There are literally hundreds — one might say thousands — of nurses and aristocratic babies dis- porting themselves every day in Hyde Park. The infants go home fairly early to their midday sleep, at which hour the governesses and bigger children, having accomplished their morning's work, come out to the Park, which by twelve o'clock is given over to older childhood.

These are the regular habitues, but there are others who are constant visitors to Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. There are men and women who, year in year out, come daily with their little bags of crumbs to feed the birds, — people who are followed by whole flocks of sparrows and pigeons, or, nearer the Serpentine, by ducks and swans.

Except in the height of the season, men and women no longer dress smartly in the Park. The

16

INTRODUCTION

magnificent horses, high-steppers with well-arched necks and splendid paces, are rapidly being super- seded by the motor-car. Instead of beautifully dressed ladies and smartly groomed men in silk hats and frock coats, sitting in carriages, women smothered in veils and hideous goggles, and men looking more like cut-throat villains than gentle- men, are seen dashing through the Park in motors. No more unbecoming attire was ever invented for men and women than the modern motor get-up.

Ten weeks complete the great social event known as the London season. No sooner has July dawned than palms and canes, semi-tropical flowers and plants, appear upon the scene. Their pots are so cleverly planted that the date palm, the sugar- cane, and the sweet corn of the Indies really look as if they were growing out of the grass itself, and convert Hyde Park into a semi-tropical botanical garden for a couple of months. Then station- omnibuses laden with babies and bundles begin to ply our streets, and day by day the crowd grows thinner in the Park. By August only foreigners with Baedekers are to be found where Society fluttered but a short time before. Then come autumn tints, winter fogs, and utter desolation.

And thus from generation to generation Hyde Park has been the playground of London's rich and poor, the wide theatre upon which their tragedies and comedies have been enacted, the forum in which many public liberties have been demanded, the scene where national triumphs have been celebrated.

To write fully the history of a space so crowded B 17

HYDE PARK

with pregnant memories would be too great a task for any one pen, nor could a single book hope to hold one tithe of the interesting memories which throng these precincts ; but I trust that the rapid survey given in the following pages, of some of the famous happenings and curious traditions con- nected with the place, may not be unwelcome to those who now adorn Hyde Park.

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CHAPTER II

A ROYAL HUNTING-GROUND

Hyde Park in its present guise is essentially modern. It preserves nothing of that old-world air which makes the lawn of Hampton Court and the formal gardens of Windsor Castle so delightful.

Rotten Row as a tan ride has been laid out in the memory of people still living. The Marble Arch on its present site is Victorian. Burton's Arch, and the screen at Hyde Park Corner, are but a little earlier. Queen Caroline, consort of George II., formed the Serpentine. Queen Anne planted avenues of stately elms. Charles I. made " The Ring," though few now-a-days will identify the spot which for so long was the meeting-place of the fashion of the town. With all this the Park is very old, and as open land left to nature undisturbed, its history may be traced back in an unbroken record to the time when it was part of the wild forest that originally surrounded London.

The earliest record of any definite facts con- cerning this locality dates from the year 960 a.d., when St. Dunstan, zealous to establish monasteries under the strict rule of the Benedictine Order, received a grant of land from the Saxon King Edgar for the purpose of forming a religious house

x9

HYDE PARK

at Westminster. The Charter conferring this grant clearly defined the area allotted to the monastery, the boundary on the west being the course of the river Tyburn, traced from the Thames to the Via Trinobantia — the military way of the Romans from their fortified settlement on the Thames to the coast of the Solent. Later, this part of the Roman highway out of London became known as Tyburn Road, and to-day is Oxford Street.

The original name of London was almost the same as it is to-day. Londinium is described by the earliest historian Tacitus, on the right bank of the Thames, forty years before Christ. A little Roman colony — a very rude affair, and yet advanced enough to have a bath in almost every house — was all there was of London two thousand years ago, and this was on the site of the still ruder huts of the Trinobantes, whose name was per- petuated by the Romans in linking up their colonies in their newly acquired possession.

The Tyburn — it is spelt indifferently Tyburn, Ty-burne, Tibourne, and in other ways — was a very little stream to figure so largely in history. Surely no rivulet of its size has borne a name more feared or written about, unless it be the Styx itself. From the northern heights of Hampstead and Highgate the waters drained off into many brooks. Of these the most important was Tyburn, which ran from Hampstead across the district now known as Regent's Park to Tyburn Road, which it crossed somewhere near Stratford Place. Thence the stream made its way through the modern Brook Street, Hay Hill, Lansdowne Gardens, Half Moon

20

Map of Westminster, showing the course of the Tyburn,

From Ma

ie Western boundary of the land granted by King Edgar to Dunstan. londcn in Archaslogia.

A ROYAL HUNTING-GROUND

Street, and along the valley in Piccadilly, where it was crossed by a bridge.

How few of us realise what a hill there is in Piccadilly, or that a bridge over a stream there could ever have been necessary. When Piccadilly is full of traffic the steep dip is scarcely noticeable, but at night, when the lamps are lighted, one dis- covers by the ups and downs in the rows of twinkling lights that there is a veritable hill and vale, along which some of the most famous clubs in London are now built.

In the Green Park the Tyburn widened into a large pond, from which it ran past the spot where Buckingham Palace now stands, and fell into the Thames in three branches, the main stream empty- ing itself at Chelsea. The burn spread into a marsh as it neared the river, and finally surrounded the wooded Thorney, or Isle of Thorns, on which Westminster Abbey was built.

Running nearly parallel with the little Tyburn was another rivulet, which flowed through our present Park, namely, the West-bourne. This, too, rose in the high lands near Hampstead, fought its way down hill to Bayswater, where Westbourne Terrace now stands, and crossed Hyde Park, taking a southerly course near the present site of Albert Gate, where a foot-bridge was built. It passed thence through Lowndes Square and Chesham Street, finally discharging into the Thames by two mouths near the grounds of the Royal Hospital at Chelsea.

The accompanying map will illustrate this description and give interest to the above details.

21

HYDE PARK

These two little rivulets practically watered that part of the forest, while London for centuries afterwards was confined to the walled town ending at Blackfriars. Both are lost to sight to-day. They can no longer be seen above ground, although their springs help to flood our drains and keep them fresh and clean. As Dean Stanley says : " There is a quaint humour in the fact that the great arteries of our crowded streets, the vast sewers which cleanse our habitations, are fed by the lifeblood of those old and living streams ; that underneath our tread the Tyburn, and the Holborn, and the Fleet, and the Wall Brook, are still pursuing their course, still ministering to the good of man." The identical course of the Tyburn given in the Charter of King Edgar is followed by the " King's Pond Sewer."

It will be seen that the land lying between the Tyburn and the Westbourne was practically an island. It was known as the Manor of Eia — the Ey-land — and included all the district between Westminster and Chelsea to the extent of some 890 acres. Hence in the words Hyde and Hay may be seen the corruption of the Anglo-Saxon "ey" or "ei," an island; in Ty-bourne, of " Ey- bourne." Anyone familiar with Cockney dialect will easily account for the "H" in Hyde and Hay. The " T " in Ty-bourne is probably an abbreviation of the Saxon word " aet," the road near j the word thus signifying " the-road-near-the-island-stream."

This Manor of Eia was, after the completion of Domesday Book (1086), in accordance with the custom of Feudal times, divided into three Manors, namely, Neyt, Eubery, and Hide, and here again

22

A ROYAL HUNTING-GROUND

is found the corruption of the word " ey " in " Neyt " and " Eubery " (Ebury). There seems to be some doubt as to the origin of Knightsbridge, but it most probably took its name from the bridge over the West-bourne, near the site of the Albert Gate, which apparently was held as a military post, to control the outlaws who infested the morass to the south.

The land had, before the Norman Conquest, been one of the emoluments of the Saxon Master of the Horse, and was probably a Royal hunting- ground, for Edward the Confessor, who, historians agree, was more of a monk than a ruler, had a passion for hawking and hunting. The chase fol- lowed his morning prayers with curious regularity. More than that, he pursued his game to the death, and was as hard-hearted in watching their struggles as he was severe in his forest laws, or angry at any contretemps that marred his sport. Through the thick forests which surrounded London he rode forth, hawk on wrist, watchful for bird or hound to give sign of the hidden quarry. Bull and boar, deer, wolf, and hare were all victims of the Saxon's sport. Harold is depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry hawk on hand, his hounds round him, ready for the chase, which, like his predecessor, he may have enjoyed within the precincts of Hyde Park.

If we could see again our present Park lands with the eyes which saw them eight or nine cen- turies ago, we should doubtless find them sheltering game in abundance. Owls screeched among the gnarled trunks of the old trees which grew in the

HYDE PARK

undisturbed forest, foxes and squirrels played at hide-and-seek, deer abounded, wild boars and wolves were plentiful, flocks of wild fowl stayed their flight at the marshes ; in fact, all the wild animals known in Britain at that time were to be found in those forest lands, protected by the strictest game laws.

After his coronation in London, William the Conqueror gave a wide extent of land, including the Manor of Eia, to Geoffrey de Mandeville, a Norman knight who had distinguished himself in the battle of Hastings. When Geoffrey and his wife found age creeping upon them, they wished to secure the right of being buried in West- minster Abbey, and as a bribe the old knight handed over the Manor of Eia to the monks of West- minster. Thus, what is now Hyde Park, throughout its wide extent, became Church land.

In the Domesday Book the area of modern Hyde Park is thus described :

" OSVLVESTANE HUNDRED.

" Geoffrey de Manneville holds Eia. It was assessed for ten hides. The land is eight carucates. In the demesne there are five hides and there are two ploughs there. The villanes have five ploughs, and a sixth can be made. One villane (has) half a hide there, and there are four villanes each with one virgate, and fourteen others each with half a virgate, and four bordars with one virgate, and one cottager. Meadow for eight ploughs ; and sixty shillings for hay. For the pasture, seven shillings. With all its profits it is worth eight

24

A ROYAL HUNTING-GROUND

pounds ; when received, six pounds : in the time of King Edward, twelve pounds. Harold the son of Earl Ralph held this manor ; whom Queen Editha had charge of with the manor on the very day in which King Edward was alive and dead. Afterwards William the Chamberlain held it of the Queen in fee to farm for three pounds yearly, and after the death of the Queen he held it of the King in the same manner. There are now four years since William lost the Manor, and the King's farm has not been rendered therefrom, that is twelve pounds."

Some explanation of the terms used is desirable.

" Villeins " were the serfs, and were divided into classes, namely, those who were sold with the land on which they dwelt and worked, and those who were the absolute property of their master, and could be bought and sold at his will. The former class, known as villeins regardant, often rented small holdings from their master, and paid rent by produce, amongst these being the " bordars."

A " hide " of land was of different sizes in different localities, but probably contained about ioo acres, and apparently four vir gates formed a hide. The carucate was rather larger than a hide. The assessment referred to was Danegelt, a tax of twelve pence on every hide of land, first imposed by Ethelred the Unready as a means of raising money to keep the Danes out of England.

" Meadows for eight ploughs " meant feeding capacity for teams of eight ploughs. The woods

25

HYDE PARK

were estimated in like manner. " Pannage and woods for swine " was the mode of expressing the extent of the coppices and forest land, where the Saxon pigs were given their due, and allowed to roam in cleanliness and comfort, routing up the roots and munching the berries. They were a very different kind of animal from the poor degraded beast that wallows in the mire nowadays, which we call a pig.

There is a record extant of our Tudor Oueen Mary, after a day's hunting in one of the forests in the neighbourhood of London, sending a command to a farmer who held land there, that he must not allow his swine to roam in the woods and grub holes, in which the horses stumbled, thus endangering the life of the Royal lady ; and, in terms brooking no delay, she demanded that the holes already made should be filled up.

After its mention in Domesday Book, and the subsequent gift by Geoffrey de Mandeville of the Manor of Eia, Hyde Park remained Church land for close on four and a half centuries, during which period it had little history. It was the lardour of the monks. Lying remote from the town, chroniclers of the mediaeval ages would probably have passed it over with barely a word of notice but for two associations, one grim and dreadful, the other pleasant enough. The former, at least, has carried the name of Tyburn down through centuries as a word of blackest omen.

By the side of the burn where it trickled down into the Park, stood the common gallows, of which much more will be said in another

26

A ROYAL HUNTING-GROUND

chapter. From springs feeding the burn, London obtained its first systematised water supply, which served the needs of a portion of the town for two or three centuries.

A few remote cottages were placed about the burn, and a little village grew up, but at the close of the fourteenth century it was deserted. Small wonder ! The setting up of the gallows in its neighbourhood was sufficient cause for abandon- ment, within hearing, as the hamlet was, of the shrieks of the dying, and in sight of the processions that wended their way from the City to the gibbet. It was an age steeped in superstition, when people of high and low degree were staunch believers in witchcraft. Many a simple countryman must have been chilled with horror at the weird sounds he heard when the wind swept over the scaffold at night, or in his disordered imagination he saw, amid the darkness, the ghosts of victims return to visit the scenes where a violent death had ended their tortures and sufferings.

So complete was the demoralisation of the district, that the church built near Tyburn was the constant scene of robberies. Bells, vestments, books, images, and other ornaments were stolen, and in consequence, in the year 1400, Robert Bray- brooke, Bishop of London, granted a licence to pull down the edifice. This was done, and a new one was erected farther back from Tyburn Road, and dedicated to the Virgin Mary, the words " le- bourne " being added to the name of Mary to distinguish it from other churches dedicated to the Virgin, hence Marylebone.

27

HYDE PARK

Pepys writes of the district as " Marrow-bones," and this appears to have been the corruption in use in his day, as the form is often to be found in the early eighteenth-century newspapers, at which time " Marrow-bone-Fields " seems to have been a popular pleasure resort.

From Tyburn the famous Great Conduit was fed. This remarkable enterprise is of more than passing interest, as it is among the earliest examples in this country of which record survives of a municipal water supply. The story of its origin is quaintly given by Stow, who used such authorities as were at hand or traditions which he could himself pick up in Queen Elizabeth's reign :

" The said River of Wels, the running water of Walbrooke, the Boornes afore named, and other the fresh waters that were in and about this Citie, being in process of time by incroachment for build- ings, and heightnings of grounds mightily increased ; they were forced to seeke fresh waters abroad, whereof some, at the request of King Henrie the third, in the 21 yeere of his reigne, were (for the profit of the Citie, and good of the whole Realme thither repairing ; to wit for the poore to drink, and the rich to dresse their meat) granted to the Citizens, and their Successors, by one Gilbert Sandford, with liberty to convey water from the towne of Teybourne, by pipes of lead into their Citie."

The date thus ascribed to the origin of the Great Conduit was 1237-8.

Near the close of the fourteenth century there was a large cistern, castellated with stone, in the

28

A ROYAL HUNTING-GROUND

Chepe — modern Cheapside. The expense of the works seem to have been heavy. Not only were various specific sums set aside, but foreign mer- chants visiting our shores were actually made to share the cost of the enterprise. Northouck says, writing of the year 1236 :

" The foreign merchants, who were prohibited to land their goods in London, and were obliged to sell their merchandise on board a ship, purchased this year the privilege of landing and housing their commodities, at the expence of fifty marks per annum and a fine of one hundred pounds, towards supplying the City of London with water from Tyburn. This project was put in execution by bringing water from six fountains or wells in the town of Tyburn, by leaden pipes of 6-inch bore ; which emptied themselves into stone cisterns or conduits lined with lead."

This conduit was largely an open channel, exposed to all the vicissitudes of weather and accident, and partly piped. Its course was by Tyburn to St. James's Hill (now Constitution Hill) ; thence to the Royal Mews, which occupied the present site of the National Gallery, and on through the Strand and Fleet Street to the Chepe. The pipes were a great source of annoyance to the inhabitants of Fleet Street and thereabouts, as they frequently burst and caused inundations. So much so, indeed, that in 1388 the residents requested that they might make a penthouse at their own cost ; the request was granted, and it was erected where Salisbury Square now stands.

In the accounts of the Keepers of the Great

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HYDE PARK

Conduit for 1350, is the following interesting little item : " For bringing the pipes of the said Conduit into the King's Mews, three men working for three days, each man receiving 8d. per day." A little later the poet Chaucer was Clerk of the Works at these Royal Mews, so called because the King's hawks were kept there, the word mews originating from the hawks " mewing," or changing their feathers.

The Mayor (which title was substituted for that of " Port-Reeve " at Richard i.'s accession) and Aldermen made periodical inspections of these important Conduits ; the 18th of September seems to have been an especially festive day in connection with these visits. Waggons brought the ladies in grand fettle to the scene, while the gentlemen rode. It was a great fete, a sort of country outing from the City, when all made merry. They had a picnic and a feast in the Banqueting House, which then stood near Hyde Park.

Stow gives an account of one of these visita- tions in his quaint language, when he politely speaks of a hare as " she " and a fox as " he."

" These conduits used to be in former times visited j and particularly, on the 18th of September 1562, the Lord Maior [Harper], Aldermen, and many Worshipful Persons, and divers Masters and Wardens of the Twelve Companies, rid to the Con- duit Heads for to see them after the old Custom ; And afore Dinner they hunted the Hare, and killed her, and thence to Dinner at the Head of the Conduit. There was a good number entertained with good Cheer by the Chamberlain. And after Dinner they

30

A ROYAL HUNTING-GROUND

went to hunting the Fox. There was a great Cry for a mile ; and at length the Hounds killed him at the end of St. Giles's. Great Hallowing (hallooing) at his Death, and blowing of Homes : And thence the Lord Maior, with all his Company, rode through London to his Place in Lombard Street."

Fancy anyone being put to bed at eight o'clock !

At eight the bell of St. Martin's-le-Grand — where the General Post Office now stands — tolled the Curfew, and every other church in the Metropolis took up the note and rang forth the knell of day. It was supposed that all lights and fires should be immediately put out, and the city being in darkness everyone would retire to bed. Any way, it may be reasonably supposed that the larger bulk of the population did as they were bid, and only very exalted personages dared appear at night, and then escorted by a retinue of servants bearing torches and lanterns, and followed by armed men. London must indeed have been a city of the dead by a few minutes past eight.

What a running, hustling, and scuttling there must have been once Curfew had started, just as there is in Regent's Park to-day when at sundown the Keeper calls forth that all gates must be closed. Surely this must be a remnant of Curfew.

The principal gates of the Parks are now closed at midnight, although some of the foot-gates are shut at sundown, so that even after all these hundreds of years the parks are practically shut at night, except the main thoroughfare which crosses from the Bayswater Road to Knightsbridge, be- tween the Victoria and the Alexandra Gates,

3i

HYDE PARK

which is also the only part of the park where public vehicles, such as cabs, are allowed at any time, and no carts or vans have permission to pass.

In the Muniment Room at Westminster lies a paper (to which, through the courtesy of Dean Armitage Robinson, I have been able to refer) that records in 1285 the granting of parcels of land in the Manor of Hide to a tenant, reserving the right to enter and repair the " aqueductum sub- terraneum " running through them. This is the first of many references to the springs in Hyde Park which for long supplied the surrounding dis- tricts with water. When the Manor of Hide became a Royal hunting-ground, the "original fountain" and all the watercourses leading from it to the site of St. Peter's, and the right of entering to repair them, were restored to the Dean and Chapter.

Dean Stanley notes in his History of West- minster how the Tyburn water was considered especially good on account of its having run through a bed of gravel somewhere near the present site of Buckingham Palace. There was in his time an ancient and well-worn pump standing in Dean's Yard, under the shadow of the Abbey.

Speaking the other day to an old inhabitant of Westminster who remembered this pump, I learnt that it was in existence until about twenty-five years ago, when the underground railway inter- fered with the spring, and although water was laid on from another source to provide passers-by with refreshment, the new supply was so little used that the pump was removed. In my informant's

32

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A ROYAL HUNTING-GROUND

remembrance an old woman used to sit there, with a glass, to dole out the pure liquid from the spring ; and in his youth (1835) old people told him that numbers of halt, sick, and lame came to Dean's Yard, under the shadow of the Abbey, and pumped the water on to their ailing limbs, or bathed their sores, while other visitors carried away buckets full to sick folk at home, just as they do at Lourdes to-day.

But to return to the Manor of Hide. Some writers think that about the time of Edward m. it passed from the control of the monks, doubtless because there exists a document recording that Edward III. granted parcels of land in the Manor of Hide to his Barber, Adam de Thorpe. But probably the King held the land in some way from the Abbot. It was in this reign, too, that John of Gaunt (son of Edward in.), styling himself " King of Leon and Castille," begged the Abbot of Westminster to grant him the use of the Neyte Manor House during the sitting of Parliament ; while about the same time Abbot Nicholas Litt- lington, who did much good work for Westminster, and improved the Hide ground vastly, lived and died in the Neyte House.

Hyde Park as a Royal enclosure, as we have seen, is a Tudor creation. Like much else that has altered the appearance of this western area of London, its origin is traced back to the fall of Wolsey in 1530, when the Cardinal's magnificent Palace of York Place was promptly seized by his imperious master. Henry vm. renamed it White- hall, and various additions were planned. Grasp- ing as he was by nature, Wolsey had not encom- c 33

HYDE PARK

passed his home with any great extent of land. The river front was the best part, and on the interior he had lavished his wealth.

Henry had other ideas of a palace which he intended should be befitting a King. To his larger ambitions is due the whole range of parks which now extend from Westminster right across West London to Kensington. His actions, however, show that he was entirely selfish, and he had at no time contemplated sharing his enjoyment with the people. Before he had been twelve months in possession of Whitehall, the monarch had exchanged the Priory of Poughley, in Berkshire, for about ioo acres of land forming part of St. James's Park and Spring Gardens, and of this he made a convenient enclosure for the use of the Court.

The next extension of the Royal domain was on a much larger scale.

Henry had evidently quite a reasonable desire to improve the surroundings of his Palace at White- hall, and no wonder. A Leper Hospital and a swamp were neither desirable nor healthy adjuncts to a Royal dwelling. Some kindly citizens of London had in the early days of the city endowed a hospital for the accommodation of fourteen sisters suffering from this cruel disease. They gave two hides of land, and dedicated the charity to St. James. With various later gifts, the hospital had acquired by the reign of Henry vm. over 480 acres of land, and a Brotherhood had been established in connection with it. By a grant of Henry VI. the control of the Hospital and Brotherhood had been given to the authorities of

34

A ROYAL HUNTING-GROUND

Eton School. In 1532, Henry vm. exchanged certain lands in Suffolk for those adjoining his Palace at Whitehall. He suppressed the Brother- hood and pensioned off the inmates of the Hospital ; and thus, with the 100 acres secured from the monks of Westminster in the previous year, the area that stretched from Whitehall to the Manor of Hyde came into his possession.

On the site of the Hospital the King built the " Manor House of St. James," afterwards known as St. James's Palace. It did not become a Royal residence, however, until long afterwards. A new tilt-yard was laid out close by the palace at the Mall, and bowling alleys, tennis courts, and a cock- pit between St. James's and Whitehall added to the attractions of this Royal quarter of the town.

As time and events ripened for the dissolution of the monasteries, the enclosure of yet more of the Church lands became an easy matter. But a few years had passed before Henry vm. made a still greater enlargement of his Park and hunting-ground by crossing the little Tyburn stream, which had hitherto formed its boundary, and taking in the whole of the Manor of Hide which lay beyond.

Westminster was one of the few religious houses that the Tudor monarch treated with a light hand, possibly inspired by some superstitious dread, as his father was buried in the Abbey. Instead of waiting a convenient opportunity to seize all that the monks possessed, giving nothing in return, as was his habit, he granted in exchange for Hide, lands that had previously belonged to the Priory of St. Mary, Hurley, Berks.

35

HYDE PARK

The charter of 1537 granting the Manor to the King is printed in the Calendars of State Papers and Letters of Henry VIII. It describes the area surrendered to the Sovereign by the Abbot of Westminster, as "the manor of Neyte within the precinct of the water called the mote . . . the site of the manor of Hyde, Midd. and all lands etc. belonging to the said manor . . . the Manor of Eybery, Midd. with all lands etc. reputed parts or parcels thereof. ..." Three years later the Monastery at Westminster was itself surrendered to the Crown, and the Abbey converted into a Cathedral church under the governance of a Dean and twelve Prebendaries.

So Hyde Park by successive bargainings, in which no doubt the monarch, and not the monks, had much the best of the deal, became a personal possession of the King, and in a measure has re- mained so ever since, though the public have the free enjoyment of its glorious spaces. It was far otherwise at the outset. Once in possession of his new domain, now extended by successive additions from Whitehall to the modern Kensing- ton Gardens, Henry viii. took effective steps to secure its privacy. A wooden paling was raised to keep in the deer and keep out intruders, thereby making it a park. The cotters who had tilled patches of land amidst the swamps and woodland while it belonged to the Church were turned adrift. The whole area was given over to the chase. Officials were appointed to the estates of Hide and Neyte. The cruel laws of the time were applied with uncompromising vigour to preserve the game.

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A ROYAL HUNTING-GROUND

In his soaring ambitions, flattered by the growth of absolute power, Henry contemplated a great Royal hunting-ground, encircling the capital away to Hampstead. It would have gratified his selfish craving for enjoyment, at whatever expense to others, and at the same time served the yet more important purpose of curtailing the growth of the capital to dimensions he could rule by his personal will. But this gigantic encroachment on the rights of the people proved too much even for Henry viii. and his self-willed daughter Elizabeth to accom- plish.

Hyde Park and the adjoining lands, denuded of their few human inhabitants, must rapidly have returned to the condition of primeval forest. The streams feeding the numerous marshes doubtless attracted numbers of wild fowl, and hawking was a popular sport. It was practised on foot with a long hawking pole. King Henry loved the sport, which required even more energy than following the falcon's course on horseback. He was addicted, in spite of his size, to taking immense leaps on his pole, and there is a quaint record of an accident on one of these occasions when following the hawk over swampy ground. His pole broke, and, failing to clear a muddy brook, the king fell head- long into the oozy slush, where he would have been suffocated but for the aid of his attendants. What an amusing spectacle this pompous monarch must have made, mud-besmeared, being hauled out of the mire by his servants.

More cheerful things than hunting and death appear in the days of Henry VIII. Sometimes

37

HYDE PARK

romance steps in. May Day games begun in early Plantagenet times were a national festival.

One can only hope that May Day in the sixteenth century was warmer than it is in the twentieth, for light muslin frocks with bare arms, and flower head-dresses, to say nothing of dancing-shoes, would be somewhat cold on modern English May Days, when we sit huddled over fires in Mayfair.

These May Day festivals were more like the Carnivals des Fleurs now annually held in the south of France. Cars almost smothered in flowers were drawn by white horses. According to an account of May Day in 15 17, the Royal party had gone to Greenwich Palace to join the festivities. The entertainment finished with the first recorded English horse-race. The King raced his brother- in-law, the Duke of Suffolk, who — respecting his head — wisely allowed his opponent to win : their steeds were not thoroughbreds, oh dear, no ! they were Flemish dray-horses. Oueen Katharine was much chagrined that she lost £2 over her wager, as she had backed the Duke of Suffolk.

Bluff King Hal and his beautiful spouse Anne Boleyn passed many hours in Hyde Park. There, they disported themselves in the sunshine, and enjoyed freedom from public show and convention- ality. There, they played at boy and girl, forgot affairs of State, and enjoyed themselves as heartily, romping along the sylvan glades, as Napoleon I. and the beautiful Josephine on the sands at Biarritz.

Anne Boleyn appears to have been a somewhat extravagant lady, for, in spite of all the gorgeous presents he showered upon her, the King paid her

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A ROYAL HUNTING-GROUND

debts, and in 1531 still had to redeem the jewels which she had pawned. Her betting propensities were enormous, and gambling parties were her chief joy ; but, after lavishing wealth upon her, Henry tired of her as he did of others.

These few words give some idea of the gorgeous- ness of the time, from which we can picture the scenes in Hyde Park :

" The Queen went to the Abbey," says Hall, "in a chariot upholstered in white and gold, and drawn by white palfreys. Her long black hair streamed down her back and was wreathed with a diadem of rubies. She wore a surtout of silver tissue, and a mantle of the same lined with ermine. A canopy of cloth-of-gold was borne over her by four knights on foot. After came seven great ladies, riding on palfreys, in crimson velvet trimmed with cloth-of-gold. In the first of these was the old Duchess of Norfolk and the Dowager Marchioness of Dorset, and in the other chariot were four Ladies of the Bedchamber. Fourteen other Court ladies followed, with thirty of their waiting-maids on horseback."

In order that he might refresh himself when tired with the chase, Henry vm. had a banqueting- house built at Hyde. A family supper party was once given there, of which some scant particulars are contained in a MS. preserved at Belvoir Castle.

" The Royal Household.

" An ordinance for the kynges Majesty my lorde Princes grace, the Ladies Mary and Eliza- bethe with divers other lordes and ladies . . .

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HYDE PARK

Thursdaye the xxvj the daye . . . (xx )xv° regis Henrici VII J vi with the Duke of ... of Lynes before his going to Bullen. List of dishes for five courses and ' the voyde.'

" Sooper at Hyde Parke the same daie. List of dishes for five courses.

" Supper ibidem. List of dishes."

In contemplating the luxury of these banquets, one must try to realise the incongruities of the functions of that time. Our British mind is apt, when we read of such events, to conjure up a vision of spotless damask, glittering plate, and shining glass ; beautiful flowers, set in harmonious surround- ings, crowned by the advent of a well-cooked dinner ; of guests with dainty manners and charm- ing personalities.

A rough, hand-woven cloth in the early sixteenth century was certainly forthcoming, and was laid on the wooden board, while the first thing that was placed upon it was the salt-cellar — this in accordance with a prevailing superstition. Plate abounded on the Royal tables, and pewter on those of the nobility. Knives and spoons were used. The guests arrived in gorgeous array. The greatest delicacies appeared in wild extravagance. The walls were sometimes hung with tapestry ; but instead of velvet pile carpets the shoes of these gentlefolk rested on rushes, often not too clean. And, alas ! chere were no forks.

Although several forks were given to Queen Elizabeth, it is an accepted fact that she ate with her fingers. The introduction of these pronged articles was looked on as a great innovation, and

40

A ROYAL HUNTING-GROUND

one clergyman preached against them as "an insult to Providence not to touch one's meat with one's fingers." Forks were brought from Italy, and the prejudice seems to have arisen from the word " furcifer " having been applied to slaves who bore a fork, or cross of torture.

Writers of the day, Ben Jonson included, held up these new-fangled implements to ridicule, and they did not come into general use for well-nigh a hundred years. As fingers were so much in favour the Ewerer attended to the provision of water and towels before and after each meal. The office came into prominence in the reign of Edward iv., and so important had it become in that of Elizabeth that she employed a sergeant, three yeomen, two grooms, two pages, and three clerks in her Ewrie. The custom was kept up to the middle of the seventeenth century.

In his curious Essays On Behaviour at Meals, Erasmus reminds his readers that it is " very rude to blow your nose on the table-cloth," or "to wipe your fingers on your neighbour's coat." And then he goes on to remark :

" Never praise the results of your cook's labours or press your guests to eat whether they like or not. Never criticise your host's dinner un- favourably, even if it be badly cooked. Pass all these things over in silence. Do not give dogs your bones to crack under the table, or feed the cat, or encourage animals to jump on the table. This may offend your host, or lead to the soiling of his carpet," and, above all, "do not lick your plate ; it is an act that ill becomes a cat, let alone a gentleman ! "

41

HYDE PARK

Some writers aver that until Elizabeth's reign stews and hashes were the chief dishes. She it was who adopted the use of large joints, and the advent of the fork followed. Stews were eaten with spoons, but lumps of meat required other handling. Still, this theory scarcely stands against the records of feasts in earlier days, when the Saxons and Normans each had his knife and hacked from the roast itself.

Hyde Park, the cradle of manners, shared the favour of Henry in conjunction with similar pleasure- lands. Around London lay the parks of Richmond, Windsor, Hanworth, Hampton Court (after the death of Wolsey), and, farther afield, Oatlands, besides other Royal demesnes, while Greenwich had been a Royal Palace from the time of Edward I. — and Greenwich, his birthplace, he loved best of all.

The expenses of Henry vm.'s Court were pro- digious, including the salaries and expenses of such people as the officers of State, prelates, esquires, physicians, astrologers, astronomers, secretaries, ushers, cupbearers, carvers, servers, madrigal singers, and choir boys, virginal players, Italian singers, and a complete orchestra of musicians who played upon the rebeck, the lute, the sackbut, and all manners of musical instruments. There were three battalions of pages, all dressed in the most gorgeous costumes ; in fact, it is said that Henry's retinue numbered over a thousand persons, for which the State paid £56,000 per annum, a sum equivalent to a much larger amount in these days.

All this sounds rather appalling, but still the beauty of the costumes and gorgeous pageantry must have added to the beautification of London.

42

HENRY YIII.

A ROYAL HUNTING-GROUND

Henry stopped at nothing. His Yeomen of the Guard were even more magnificent than the rest. They rode immediately behind the King, and their horse-cloths, made of cloth-of-gold, cost £5 a yard.

One of the prettiest sights in London to-day is that of the Guards riding through Hyde Park to Buckingham Palace for a Court, or some other grand festival. The sunlight on their clothes looks almost as if their uniforms were made of gold as they glint in the rays ; and I well remember as a child being puzzled as to how the golden men carry- ing the big drums ever managed to guide their horses with the reins attached to their feet.

The wild freedom of the Park continued under Henry's youthful son, Edward vi., who there entertained foreigners of distinction with hunts and banquets. A special banqueting house was erected for the French Ambassador, Marshal St. Andre, who was received with Royal distinction. Through the kindness of the Marquis of Salisbury, I am able to give the description of this building, preserved in the MSS. at Hatfield:

" The Charges and the proporcyon as well of the banketing howse newlye erected in hyde parcke agaynste the commyng of marchiall Sainte An- drowes wth all thinges longynge to the same as also for the makyng of dyvers Stondynges in the said hide parcke and also in Marybone parke as it shall appere here after begynnyng the vjth Daye of Julie and endyng the xxviiith of the same in An° vto RRs Edward vjti as yt Apperith by the bookes of particulers for the same."

43

HYDE PARK

Hide Parke

Imprimis the banketing howse in v hid parke conteynyng in length lxij foote in wydeth xxj foote/ the Stayers cont one waye lx foote and thother waye xxx4i wth a greate towrett over the halpase.

Item made there three Ranges if bryke for Rosting and Furneces for boylyng.

Item All kynde of Tabulles formes Trestelles dressers Russhis Flors wth suche lyke for the Furnyshing of the banketyng howse and bankett.

Item in the said parke were made three small standynges of a foote thone waye and viij foote thother waye of every of them.

Maribon Parke

Charges

Item made in Marybone parke one standing conteynyng in Length xl foote and in bredth xviij foote/ The flowre is jestide and boorded and the Reste is Skaffold poles.

Item in the said park three small standinges of x foote long and viij \ foote wyde every of them.

Thehole charges of the sadbanket- ing house and standynged in bothe the said parkes wth all thinges to them belongyng Amontith to ccccl11 ixs viid wherof Recevyd the vijth of Julie ij dayes before the procly macyon uppon preste after the Rate then cxxxiij11 vj viijd, which wase sence payd at sondrye tymes for cxiiij11 xvjs xd And so Remay- nith to be Recevid. '

X

X

'%

X

X X o o o

44

A ROYAL HUNTING-GROUND

Sir Thomas Camerden to Sir William Cecil.

" After most hertie Comendacons It may like you to understande/ that the same tyme the Marshall of Saint Andrewes was here, I was willed by the Counsaill to se a Banketting howse and sondry standinges wth all the furniture requisite therunto prepared at hyde and Maryboon parkes/ wch were doon accordingly/ And the Surveior wth the Comptroller of the Kinges Mates workes to furnishe me wth men and all other necessaryes for the same/ at wch time the Surveior Laurence brodshawe (noiated [nominated] by the Lord Winchester)

was then appointed to se the Solucons of the pre- misses/ wherunto he Receyved (as I understande) by a warrant from the said Lordes) the Summe of twoo hundreth Markes/ in the bestowing wherof I was not pryvey/ nor yet to the making of their bookes/ but by a Docket of a grosse Summe/ wch doth not agree wth the particulars taken to the Clercke of the Tentes and Revelles (as by him I understande) by the summe of nyne poundes and more by what meanes I knowe not/ for that I have not seen/ nor can gett their booke of particulars to peruse/ wherby having perfytt notice of all thinges doon to Hyde Parke I might conferre the bookes together/ and subscrybe the same/ that the poore artificers were discharged wch verely I thought had been fully paide or thir tyme/ for that the Surveior was fully appointed thereunto/ and I but only to se the same doon and furnished accordinglye. And whereas they looke (as I con- jecture) I shuld put my handes to their doinges

45

HYDE PARK

(wherunto I can not be made pryyve) I thinke it for diverse respectes not convenyent/ of one thinge I assure you/ I never receyved one peny for the same hytherto/ and yet was it chargeable besydes my paynes unto me/ Sr if any things be in these partes/ wherein I may do you pleasr I shall want of my good will, then you therfor. Thus most hertely fare you wel. Scrybelyd in hast From Bleach- ingly the xxvjth of October 1551.

" Yor assueryd to hys power

"Th. Cawerden."

But of Edward vi.'s short reign there is really little to be said.

46

CHAPTER III

VAGARIES OF MONARCHS

Queen Mary has not come down to us in a social light. The very idea of her as a Society personage seems grotesque.

" Bloody Mary " she was in her own time, and as such she will probably always be known. She rarely went far afield, and her only association with Hyde Park seems to have been the unusual number of people she hanged at Tyburn.

The park was still far remote from the town. Streets did not creep up to its precincts until quite a century and a half later. When Sir Thomas Wyatt marched with his rebels upon London, his ordnance was planted at Hyde Park Corner, and his men occupied the fields where now stand Grosvenor Square and the neighbourhood to the south.

It must be recollected that Sir Thomas Wyatt had raised his standard in Kent to protest against the Spanish marriage of Queen Mary. He had travelled slowly towards London after defeating the Queen's forces at Rochester Bridge. He had wasted much time at Blackheath ; and when at last (3rd February 1554) Wyatt and his army appeared in Southwark, they found the Queen and the citizens of London prepared, and London Bridge

47

HYDE PARK

closed and fortified. He remained at Southwark shooting impotently and trying to get into London, until the 5th, when he started to march to the next bridge up the river (Kingston-on-Thames). The weather was wet and miry, Wyatt's men dis- heartened, and he inept as a commander. They found Kingston Bridge broken and had to ferry across. They then marched all night through the rain without food, and, tired and wet, reached Hyde Park Corner early in the morning of the 7th. He posted his main body across the road at Hyde Park Corner, whilst the Queen's forces were set at the top of the opposite hill where Devonshire House now stands. Wyatt himself, with five companies of men, seems to have turned down what is now Grosvenor Place, and to have gone along the Mall towards Charing Cross, a part of his men under Vaughan dividing from them and going towards Westminster, the object apparently being to attack Whitehall on both sides, from Charing Cross and from Westminster.

In an extract from the Diary of a Courtier (Sir E. Peckham, probably), published by the Camden Society, the following passage occurs :

" Here was no small ado in London, and like- wise the Tower made great preparation of defence. By 10 of the clocke or somewhat more, the Earle of Pembroke had set his troopp of horsemen on the hill in the highway above the new bridge, over against St. James, his footemen was set in 2 battailes somewhat lower and nearer Charing X . . . his ordnance being posted on the hill side. In the mean season Wyatt and his company planted his ord-

48

VAGARIES OF MONARCHS

nance upon the hill beyond St. James over against the Park Corner ; and himself after a few words spoken to his soldiers came down the olde Lane on foot, hard by the Court Gate of St. James, with 4 or 5 ensigns, Cuthbert Vaughan and about 2 ensigns turned down towards Westminster. The Earle of Pembroke hovered all this while without moving, until all was passed by, saving the tayle, upon which they dyd sett and cut off. The other marched forward and never stayed or returned to the ayde of their tayle. The great ordnance shott off freshly on bothe sydes. Wyatt's ordnance over shott the troope of horsemen. The Queen's ord- nance one piece struck three of Wyatt's Company in a rank upon their heads and slaying them, struck through the wall into the (Hyde) Park. More harm was not done by the great shott of neither partie. The Queen's hole battaile of footmen standing stille, Wyatt passed along the wall towards Charing X, and here the said horsemen that were there, set upon part of them but were soone forced back."

An account of this is also given in an extract from Brit. Mus. MSS. Add. 15215 :

"And so came (Wyatt) that day toward St. James felde where was the Earle of Pembroke the Queen's lieutenant, and my lord Privy Seal (the Earl of Bedford) and my Lord Paget, and my Lord Clynton which was Lord Marshal of the camp, with dyvers other Lords on horsebacke — which Lord Clynton gave the charge with the horsemen by the Park Corner about 12 of the clocke that day, and Wyatt so passed himself with a small company towards Charing X."

d 49

HYDE PARK

Machyn's Diary (Camden Society) records this battle of Hyde Park as well :

" The 7th day of February in the forenoon Wyatt with his army and ordnance were at Hyde Park Corner. There the Queen's host met him with a great number of men at arms on horseback besides foot. By one of the clock the Queen's men and Wyatt's had a skirmish ; there were many slain, but Master Wyatt took the way down by St. James's with a great company and so to Charing Cross."

Hyde Park saw brighter scenes under Elizabeth. Splendour and pageantry marked the age. The Parks, like everything else, were used for purposes of ostentatious display, with greater frequency than had been the case under Henry vm. Hyde Park remained a close Royal preserve, but the general public began to see more of it.

Among other traits of her father, the Queen inherited his love of hunting, and herself killed deer in the Royal parks, as also on her stately progresses through the country when visiting her favourite nobles. Sometimes she stayed at West- minster, and made hunting expeditions from there to Hanworth and Oatlands. Lord Hunsdon, her cousin, she appointed Keeper of Hyde Park, in which office he received an allowance of fourpence a day, with the " herbage, pannage, and browse wood for deer." During his tenure, 1596, the first review was held in the Park.

Of course, the visits to England of Elizabeth's many admirers were made occasions for grand doings, hunts being enjoyed at the outlying parks of Hampton Court, Windsor, and also in Hyde

50 ■

VAGARIES OF MONARCHS

Park. When John Casimir, Count Palatine of the Rhine and Duke of Bavaria, came over, he was entertained right royally, and Hyde Park was the scene of a great hunting party. It is related that the favoured guest " killed a barren doe with his piece, amongst three hundred other deer."

Indeed, the confines of Hyde Park were kept pretty busy with hunts and executions, sometimes one, sometimes the other ; for the great Queen had the Tudor abruptness of method in dealing with undesirable busybodies. There must have been many days, indeed, when Elizabeth rode with courtly grace along the paths, listening to the flatterer's tongue, coquetting with one of her many suitors, her courtiers thronging around their Royal mistress, while just through field and wood some fellow-creature was ending his earthly career by her decree at Tyburn.

When, in 1581, Count John of Emden and Count Waldeck came to see the Royal lady, Elizabeth demanded from Lord Hunsdon a report respecting the game in Hyde Park, and was not at all pleased with the result. Whether birds and beasts increased thereafter is not told. A year later stands were erected in Marybone and Hyde Park for the Queen and her visitor and suitor, the Duke of Anjou, with his train, to view the chase. Probably, how- ever, the results of the various hunting parties were unsatisfactory, for a record still exists among the State Papers of a command by Queen Eliza- beth to the cooks of London as to the buying and selling of venison, forbidding them to purchase from unauthorised people in the city.

5i

HYDE PARK

It was evidently supposed that the cooks were the chief offenders in the matter, and ordered their venison at a cheap rate purloined from her Majesty's preserves. On' nth June 1585 we find Sir Thomas Pullyson, Lord Mayor of London, writing to Walsingham :

" Right Honourable, " Here yesterday I received this from Her Majesty's most honorable prime [minister] advertis- ing me that her Highness was informed that venison that was ordinarily sold by ye cookes of London was often stole — To the great destruction of the game — Commanding me thereby to take severall

bondes of the yeere of all the cookes in London

not to buy or sell any venison hereafter uppon payne of forfayture of the same bondes j neither to receive any venison to bake without keeping note of their names that shall deliver the same unto them. Whereupon presently I called the wardens of the Cookes before me, advertising them each. Requiring them to raise their whole company to appeare befor me to the end I might take bondes."

The bond was a surety of £40 each — an enor- mous sum in those days — given by each cook not to sell any manner of venison in or outside of the City. It is rather amusing to find that the theft of venison from the Royal Park was so highly punished in Elizabethan times, but the bond did not do away with poaching. How those old cooks would smile if they could see the pheasants, grouse, and partridges on sale in the best London shops, almost before there has been time for the cart-

52

VAGARIES OF MONARCHS

ridges to be fired on the opening days appointed by law, still less for the game to reach the London market.

Coaches came in with Elizabeth. There was no fashionable chronicler of the day to tell us exactly which were the favourite resorts of Society, but it would not be surprising if the rough roads cut in the spacious parks which extended so far from Whitehall were first put to use for carriage exercise by Elizabeth's courtiers. Hyde Park has been the fashionable drive for centuries. One likes to think of those bumpy old contrivances, of colossal weight and build, with the stoutness of a farmer's cart, as setting the fashion of driving in the park which has come down unbroken to the present year of grace. These vehicles afforded Elizabeth's beruffed gallants and gorgeously attired dames an opportunity of airing themselves, and probably gave them as much pleasure, lumber- some though they were, as smart-horsed victorias and electric landaulettes give their occupants to-day.

That Hyde Park was looked upon as a rural resort for the courtiers and others who wished for greater seclusion than was to be found in St. James's Park, is shown in Major Martin Hume's Calendar of Spanish State Papers of Elizabeth (Record Office).

" Count de Feria writes to Philip n. from London, 19th March 1559 :

" Since I wrote on the 6th instant I have had a long conversation with the Treasurer of the House- hold (i.e. Sir Thomas Parry) about religious affairs, and the obligations that the Queen and the country

53

HYDE PARK

owe to your Majesty. He is not so good a Catholic as he should be, but he is the most reasonable of those near the Queen. She knew that he was coming to St. James's Park on that day to speak with me ; and she told him to ask me to go with him to another Park higher up nearer the execu- tion place, so that the Earl of Pembroke and other gentlemen would be walking in St. James's Park might not see us together. The Earl and the others who were walking there would have been just as shy of being seen with me, by the Queen or the Treasurer. I say this to show how suspicious and distrustful they are."

It was easy enough to take a drive in Hyde Park, but when the Queen moved farther afield, even for such a short distance as the seven or eight miles from Chelsea to Richmond, the arrangements required more attention. Preserved in the Records of the Stationers' Company is the following letter :

" By the Mayor, " To the Wardens of the Companye of Stationers. " Where the Quene's most excellente Majestie intendith in her Royal psonne to repair to her Princelie Palace of Whitehall, on Thursdaie next, in thafternoone ; and for that I and my brethren thaldermen are commanded to attend on her Majesties psonne from Chelsey to the Whitehall ; Theis therefore in her Majestie's name to require you, that yourselfes, with six of the comliest psonages of your said Companye, be readie at the Parke Corner above Sainte James, on horseback, apparelled in velvette coats with chaynes of gold

54

VAGARIES OF MONARCHS

on Thursdaie by twoo of the clocke, in the after- noone, to waite upon me and my brethren the Aldermen to Chelsey for the recreating her Majestie accordinglie. And also that you provide sixe staffe torches lighth as need shall be required. Not failinge hereof, as you will answere the contrarie at your perill.

" From the Guyldhall, this 28th of Januarie, 1588-9. " Sebrighte."

Accordingly, on 30th "January 1588-9" (one may learn from Nichols) the Queen " travelled from Richmond to Chelsea and so to Westminster, and the Mayor, Aldermen, and Commoners of her Citie of London, in coates of velvet and chaines of golde, all on horsebacke, with the Captaines of the Cittie, to the number of fortie, betwixt five or six of the clock at torchlight."

Foreigners say we English take our pleasures sadly ; and so we do in this rushing age. It is well, therefore, that we are being made to realise what the pageantry of ancient times really meant when our land was known as " Merrie England."

Latterly, our so-called " pageants " have been very tame — a few Venetian masts, some tawdry paper flowers, a little stained bunting, a multitude of dirty flags of all descriptions, and the route is ready.

This tinsel display reached such a pitch in America, that a few years ago an order was made forbidding tawdry decorations, and nothing is allowed but flags — a perfect sea of flags. It so chanced that I was in America during the last two

55

HYDE PARK

Presidential campaigns, and both in New York and Chicago there were thousands, yes, tens of thousands of flags arranged most beautifully and producing a wonderful effect : nothing more majestic could be imagined, even sky-scrapers looked less hideous. The appearance of our quaint old English streets on such occasions could be much improved by such a systematic arrangement, instead of festoons of damp and draggled pink and green tissue paper we call decoration.

In olden times the houses along the route of a pageant were hung with silks, brocades, and costly cloths. The City Companies marched in gorgeous array along the ill-kept roads, which at an early date were gravelled for the honoured one to pass, just as they are sanded to-day for a Royal pro- cession. The Tyburn waters were checked at the Conduits, and wine — red and white — flowed from them as the goodly company paced by with stately mien. At every landmark along the route were stationed groups of citizens in symbolic costumes. Each forming in itself a picture.

Every movement of Royalty was accompanied by pageantry, a very different state of affairs from these modern days, when the King of England hires a hansom off the rank, or the Prince of Wales strolls through the streets alone shopping. Edward vn. steps into his motor at Buckingham Palace absolutely unheeded by anyone, and starts for Newmarket. His life, except for public functions, is that of a private gentleman j big displays are few and far between, and even then seldom, if ever, reach the gorgeousness of olden

56

VAGARIES OF MONARCHS

times. Maybe our ancestors would be surprised at the great length of route traversed by present- day Royal personages in their Progresses, for it must be borne in mind that the pageants of old relate to a very limited London.

Apart from coronations, many records remain of mediaeval pageantry. Edward I., on his return from Palestine in 1274, found wine pouring from the Conduits, and handfuls of gold and silver were showered upon him as he passed. A little girl, dressed as an angel in spotless white, handed wine from the Conduit in Chepe to Richard 11. and his Queen ; Henry v., after his victory at Agincourt, was greeted at the north end of London Bridge by an " angelic host," and another " heavenly choir " was stationed in Chepe, while virgins blew golden leaves upon him. When the child-king Henry vi. arrived in London from France in 1432, Enoch and Elias addressed him, while Nature, Grace, and Fortune, each attended by fourteen Virgins, showered gifts upon him.

But to Elizabeth belongs the crowning point of perfection in pageantry. She loved the pomp, the show, the acclamations of her people ; she encouraged her subjects to vie with each other in the conception and execution of symbolic groups, asking the meaning of, and bestowing admiration on, the symbolic groups formed to do her honour. Charles 1., after a sojourn in Scotland, was the hero of a pageant through London ; Charles II. attended the Lord Mayor's Show for many years, and as time passed this display was the chief remnant of those old Progresses our forbears so enjoyed.

57

HYDE PARK

It is strange that the outcome of the Pageant Revival at Sherborne, 1904, by Louis N. Parker, the Master of Pageantry, should have heralded the " Pageant of London " to be held in 1909. No sooner was the idea mooted than ten, nay, twenty, thousand people came forward to take the parts selected.

The love of display is inherent in human nature. The Chinese, the Greeks, the Romans, and the savage of to-day all in turn have enjoyed beating drums, flaring torches, and " dressing up." A revival such as we are having in London is of the greatest value. The man in the street at Sherborne, Warwick, St. Albans, Oxford, Bury St. Edmund's, all learnt something of the history of their own towns through the pageants which have lately taken place in their midst.

These revivals in pageantry are a great history lesson, and as improving to the adult mind as the picture-book is to the child. We realise so much quicker what we see than what we hear or read.

Poor Elizabeth. Stout-hearted as any man when large matters of State called for her decision, and yet essentially feminine in her love of dress, her vanity, and coquetry. Dress became a truly serious burden of expense in her day, and she wisely regulated it by sumptuary laws to encourage thrift and common-sense among the masses. Costumes were ill-adapted for outdoor use, and if we could see again any of those splendid fetes in the Royal Park of which the Queen was the central figure, surrounded by her gallants and grand dames, we should probably smile at the preposterous awkwardness of every-

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body in that brilliant company, despite their magnificence. There is a wonderful picture of Elizabeth at the Lodge of Trinity College, Cam- bridge, the residence of the Master (Dr. Butler), wherein she appears so tightly laced as to have no interior organs at all, and her voluminous hoops, ruff, and sleeves cover all the canvas.

Largely it was outward show. Elizabeth has come down to us as a Queen possessing three thousand silken gowns and one chemise. She did not own a pair of silk stockings until 1560, when, after receiving some as a gift, she insisted on always wearing silken hose, and they became universal. Both ladies and gentlemen wore high- heeled shoes, and sometimes the heels measured over four inches. Fans were much used, people of rank having the handles inlaid with diamonds and precious stones, while those of the middle class adopted silver and ivory handles. Perfume was in great vogue.

Here is a vision of the Queen as we may imagine her at one of the fashionable crushes of the time :

" The ruff was profusely laced, plaited, and apparently divergent from a centre on the back of her neck ; it was very broad, extending on each side of her face, with the extremities reposing on her bosom, from which rose two wings of lawn edged with jewels, stiffened with wire, and reaching to the top of her hair, which was moulded in the shape of a cushion and richly covered with gems. The stomacher was strait and broad, and though leaving the bosom bare, still formed a long waist by ex- tending downwards ; it was loaded with jewels

59

HYDE PARK

and embossed gold, and was preposterously stiff and formal."

Men's ruffs never reached the extravagant size of the ladies' attire, but they grew to such an extent that Elizabeth considered it necessary to order that any beyond " a nayle of a yard in depth " should be clipped. The edge of the ruff was called a " piccadilly," as may be seen in several of the earlier dictionaries, hence the name of the fashion- able street abutting on Hyde Park to-day. When there were practically no houses there, a ruff shop kept by a man named Higgins existed, and was called a " piccadilly." Higgins is said to have made money, and built a row of houses to which he handed on the name. The term " Pickadilla " is applied to this district in Gerarde's Herbal, where it is mentioned that " the small wild bug- losse " was growing on the banks of the dry ditches " about Pickadilla."

Queen Elizabeth was so anxious that she should not be surpassed in the beauty of her own dress, that in addition to her sumptuary laws regulating the clothes worn by the different classes of society, young and old alike, she personally snubbed anyone who she thought wore too rich a gown or too high a ruff. It is told of Lady Mary Howard that she appeared at Court in a velvet suit richly trimmed, Her Majesty looked at it carefully, and the next day sent privately for the robe, and, donning it herself, entered the room where Lady Mary and her other ladies were sitting. She then asked what they thought of her " new-fancied suit," further inquiring of the owner if it were not too short.

60

VAGARIES OF MONARCHS

That chagrined lady delightedly answered in the affirmative. Whereupon the Sovereign gave a sharp retort that if it was too short for her, it was certainly too fine for Lady Mary, and she must never wear it more.

Of course, as Queen Elizabeth had sandy- coloured hair, that also became the fashion, and ladies dyed their tresses and painted their faces. This curious old Queen, with her enamelled com- plexion and darkened eyes, her love of dress, her endless admirers, her hard-hearted and level- headed administration, is reported to have danced an Irish jig only a few days before her death.

Pinched and old, and yet rouged to the eyes — for she was vain to the last — Elizabeth disappears from the scene she had so adorned, and James vi. of Scotland rides into London — in hunting costume, " a doublet, green as the grass he stood on, with a feather in his cap, and horn by his side " — to claim the English throne. On the way he had delayed his progress to make two or three sporting expeditions from the great houses at which he stayed. Clearly this was a type of monarch under whom Hyde Park would be put to other uses than the shows and f£tes and fashionable dallyings of Elizabeth. So it quickly proved. His first act of authority over the Royal demesne was to appoint Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, Keeper of Hyde Park for life, with significant instructions. The Queen, his predecessor, being a woman, had been too lenient ; he now wished closer supervision, more careful preservation of the game, and a smart eye to be kept on poachers.

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Hyde Park again became the closest of Royal preserves, maintained for hunting alone. An occasional passage met with in contemporary letters shows how strictly the forest laws were enforced. Osborne, writing of this time in 1658, long after James's death, says of the game laws instituted by that monarch :

" Nay, I dare boldly say one Man might with more safety have killed another than a raskall- Deare ; but if a Stagge had been knowne to have miscarried, and the authour fled, a Proclamation with a description of the party had been presently penned by the Attourney-generall, and the penalty of His Majesty's displeasure (by which was under- stood the Star-Chamber) threatened against all that did abet comfort or relieve him. Thus satyricall, or if you please Tragicall, was this sylvan Prince, against Dear - Killers and indulgent to man-slayers."

A deer was of more value than a man, and a mole was apparently of importance. Among the State Papers is a Warrant issued the day after Christmas, 1603, authorising the Vice-Chamberlain to pay Richard Hampton, official Mole-taker in St. James's Park, and the gardens and grounds at Westminster, Greenwich, Richmond, and Hampton Court, the fee of fourpence a day and twenty shillings yearly for livery. A man had just re- signed the post, which was evidently considered a lucrative one, as there were several applications for it.

James 1. was a good sportsman, even down to cock-fighting, for he restored the cockpit which

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VAGARIES OF MONARCHS

Elizabeth had been at particular pains to abolish, and appointed a Cockmaster for breeding, feeding, and managing the King's game-cocks. But this was an occasional pastime. He enjoyed many a manlier diversion in the excitement of the hunt, refreshing himself between times at the Banqueting House erected in the middle of Hyde Park, with a deep draught of good sack ere he returned to the Palace of Whitehall. When his Queen was visited by her brother, the King of Denmark, a series of Royal entertainments were arranged for him. In an old MS. preserved in the Harleian Miscellany a full description of some of these occasions is given, and it may be read that :

" . . . In the morning very early, being Satur- day (Aug. 2nd, 1606), they hunted in the park of St. James, and killed a buck. Then passed they on to Hyde Park, where they hunted with great delight, spending the rest of the forenoon in follow- ing their pastime ; and about the time of dinner they returned and there dined ; and about four o'clock, their barges being by commandment ready at the privy stairs, they went by water to Green- wich."

To the sporting proclivities of James 1. we owe a Book of Sports, in which the Royal writer author- ised all those who had been to their own parish church, to indulge in " sports on the Lord's Day," including dancing, archery, leaping, vaulting, May games, morrice dances, and setting up of May- poles ; though bull and bear baiting, interludes, and bowls, were prohibited. The King ordered the book to be read in the churches, but the

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Primate absolutely refused to do so. About twenty years later, news of deer escaping from the Old Park at Wimbledon, and having been killed, reached Charles I. He therefore forbade any person to go into his woods carrying a gun, or engine, to take, or destroy the game, and if any presumed after notice given in the churches, to come thus provided, the King would have them punished.

Is it not a bit of delightful irony that the Lord's Day Observance Act, abolishing all these revels, and under which even now tradesmen are occasionally fined for opening their shops on Sundays, was a gift to our generation from that austere monarch Charles n. ?

Owing, no doubt, to the strict laws for its pre- servation made by James i., game seems to have much increased in the forest glades and about the marshes and rivulets in Hyde Park. Still the cooks appear to have been playing their old trick of trying to get venison cheap, for in 1619 the State Papers have a record that two men were found shooting deer in Hyde Park. They were captured by the keepers, and were hanged at Hyde Park Corner, as well as an unfortunate labourer whom they had employed to hold their dogs. One wet season played havoc with the deer in " Marybone " Park — known to-day as Regent's Park — and a warrant was issued to the Keeper of Hyde Park to send three brace of bucks to help make up the deficiency.

A quaint manuscript is in existence, recording an outlay for the upkeep of Hyde Park at this period.

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" An account of monneys disbursed by Sr Walter Cope, Knight, in his Majesties Parke called Hide Parke, from October 1611 until October 1612 :

" Imprimis laid out for two hundred of lime trees brought out of the Lowe Countries at ten shillings the peece amounts unto twentie poundes ; wch were planted along the walkes in the places of those that were decaied. Also for mending the pondheads and gravelling them, being spoiled by the floudes in the winter. Also for reparacions about the lodges, the Parke pale, the standinges, and charges for making the haie for the deere twentie marks. All wch amounts unto 33 li.

(Signed) " Walter Cope."

An order for the payment of these moneys follows in the handwriting of the Earl of Suffolk of the day.

With all his usurpations and vagaries and the pedantry of a narrow mind, one retains a lingering fondness for James 1. He was the last of the line of British monarchs, going back to the earliest feudal times, with whom the love of hunting the wild animal in his native glades remained an absorbing passion. When he passed the way of all men Hyde Park underwent a great change. It ceased to be a close game preserve, and became for the first time a real centre of social enjoyment, such as we still find it. In the wilder parts hunting was practised, but Charles I. seems to have thrown the park — or at least a large part of it — open to all comers, with few limitations.

With the ill-fated Stuart King, rather than with E 65

HYDE PARK

Henry VIII., the park as a place of popular resort really begins.

Life out of doors became more safe, people took more pleasure in going about, locomotion became easier and money circulated more freely. As the fashionable world began to take the air farther afield than St. James's Park and Pall Mall, more keepers, more lodges, and more accommodation were required in Hyde Park. Mention is made in the State Papers that on 20th November 1635, £800 was paid for building a new lodge in Hyde Park ; and three years later there was a payment of £1123, 5s. 5d. for further work done at the new lodge, according to the estimate of the famous architect, Inigo Jones.

The area of the Park in which the fashion and beauty of Stuart London mostly foregathered was that which in after years became famous as " The Ring," the precursor of modern racing.

From before the Restoration until far into the Georgian period it remained the great resort of all the beau monde. The site lay to the north of the present Serpentine, close by the ground now enclosed in the Ranger's private gardens. Such a space — only 300 yards in diameter — seems too limited to be the rendezvous for the votaries of fashion, when we think of the crowds in Hyde Park to-day. But Society was then but a fraction of what the- term represents in our time, and it will be seen that this was the case even after the Ring had long disappeared. The new tea- house to be opened about 1908, under the auspices of Mr. L. Harcourt, will stand upon the south-

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western corner of the " Ring." It seems a pity that part of Crosby Hall, anyway the old banquetting hall, could not have been utilised for this obj ect . By such means one of the most historical spots in London would have been kept in our midst. It would be curious should fashion again migrate to the spot which to Pepys and other gossips, two and a half centuries ago, was the centre of all the town's attractions.

A lodge, built of timber and plaster and probably erected in the reign of James I., stood near by the Ring. It was first known as " Grave Maurice's Head," and there the people frequenting the Park obtained refreshment. It figures as " The Lodge " in Pepys' accounts of his outings, but later was known as the Cheesecake House, probably from the fact of that special viand being sold there ; another name was the " Lake House."

There, amid the greenery, the gay world thronged. Cavaliers with waving plumes, some riding with spurs and swords, others in their new equipages, while bright-eyed ladies accompanied them to watch the races and the crowd. Gay gallants courted pretty wenches, smart diplomatists dropped secrets in the ears of beautiful women. Love- making and court intrigues were hatched in Hyde Park, and many a romance, many a comedy, was unfolded under the shade of the trees.

Of the social life of the times in which Hyde Park now began to play an important part, there is a delightful picture in a letter from one Mrs. Mer- ricke to Mrs. Lydall, written on 21st January 1638. It is very modern in sentiment, although written nearly three hundred years ago. The

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poor lady was most anxious about her personal appearance, even in bed, and equally distressed that her library consisted of only two books. The letter runs :

Letter from Mrs. Merricke to Mrs. Lydall, 21st January 1638.

" Faire Mrs. Lydall,

" For soe my owne eyes bid mee call you, whilst others happie in a neerer familiaritie intitle you wife, sister, sweetehart, chayce conceite or the like : give me leave in this rude paper to present my ser- vice, and humblie to begg a boone of you : 'Tis the felicitie of your place to bee neere the person of my honourable Lady ; and 'tis not unknowne how lovelie and solitarie the countrie at this tyme is, soe tedious indeede to mee (whoe have ever lived among good companie) that longer than the springe I shall never be able to indur't. My earnest suite to you therefore is, to solicite her honor in my behalfe that her LaP will be pleased to graunte mee her favour to come upp to towne in Hide-park time. For (howe it comes about I cannot tell) I feele in my selfe a strange desire to be satisfied whether I shall injoye my love this yeare or noe ; and I beelive your nightingales there, knowe more in the saye of love then ours at Wrest, by reason they have the advantage of being bred neere the Court. Yet I confesse the feare of war with the Scotts does not a litle trouble mee ; for should all the young gallants goe for souldiers, howe shuld you and I doe for servants ? (which, I take it, is all wee ladyes consider in that businesse) or whoe shuld attend us to that place of pleasure, which both of us soe jealouslie affect, that rather then be absent weele venture to com-

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mitt the absurditie of going with our own hus- bands ! You would not think how I long to see those French ladyes, Madam Mornay and Madam Daray, whose beauty has ariv'd to our eares, and those new starres of our English Court, Mrs. Harri- son and Mrs. Vaughan. I remember when you and I last discourst of hansome woemen wee thought our penny as good silver as the best, nor will wee ever, if rul'd by mee, yeild precedence to anie. Let it not be grievous to enquire of you the newest fashions, whether they weare theire sleeves downe to the wrests still, the mode the Dutchesse of Chevereuse brought over, or whether they weare their neckes up ; a fashion in which I confesse I love not my selfe ; nor doe I hold her worthy of a faire necke, or any other good part, that is not free to showe it. I have a further request unto you, that wou'd bee pleas'd, when your owne occasions invite you to the Exchange, to buy mee halfe a dozen of white night coyfes which tye under the chinn, and as many white hoods to weare over um a dayes, when I'm not well ; for truelie I endeavour as much to looke well by night as by daye ; in the house as abroade ; and (for I dare tell you any thing) I constantly dresse my selfe by my glasse when I goe to bed, least shou'd a gentleman peepe in my Chamber in the morning (and gentlemen, you knowe, some- tymes will bee uncivill) I shou'd appeare to him, though not ill-favoured, yet lesse pleaseing. I cou'd wish my selfe with you, to ease you of this trouble, and with all to see the Alchymist, which I heare this tearme is reviv'd, and the newe playe a friend of mine sent to Sr John Sucklyn and Tom Carew (the best witts of the time) to correct. But for want of these gentile recreations, I must content my selfe here with the Studie of Shack- speare, and the historie of Woemen, all my Countrie

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Librarie. Newes have I none to send you, onely at my Lady Mores wee have lately had a ball, where your Company was much wished. I had intended to ha' requited 'urn with another at Wrest, and given 'urn the addition of a small banquet, but they desired it might be put off till you come downe, that your presence maye crowne the meeting. I beseech you at your best leisure honour me with a few lines from your faire hand. " Your most humble and most affectionate servant, " Ann Merricke.

" Wrest, Janua: 21, 1638."

Driving and walking became daily more fashionable at the Piccadilly end of Hyde Park. The gay and frivolous George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, was wont to trip along in all his frills and frippery, or sitting stately in his coach drawn by six horses, joking with King Charles, and urging the monarch to some fresh imprudence. Many looked darkly on the silly intercourse between these two men. Charles, clinging to the ambitions of his powerful minister, with the obstinacy of a weak and incapable nature, was far advanced on the way to the scaffold, when John Fenton, — mixing with the crowds assembled at Portsmouth to witness Buckingham's departure for France, — stabbed the favourite to the heart.

An incident of which much has been made, and which there is little reason to doubt was grossly exaggerated by the religious bigots of the time, associated Charles's Queen, Henrietta Maria, with Hyde Park. The early years of his French marriage were certainly not happy, the meddling

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household of the Queen's French attendants and Catholic priests being responsible for the luckless monarch's domestic broils. His fierce hatred of their interference obtains expression in a letter to Buckingham, by virtue of which the lot were " sent packing." It is addressed to his " faithful, constant, loving friend Steenie " :

" I command you to send all the French away to-morrow out of the towne, if you can by fair meanes (but stike not long in disputing), otherwise force them away, dryving them away lyke so manie wilde beasts, until ye have shipped them, and so the devil goe with them. Let me heare no answer, but of the performance of my com- mand."

Whatever his subsequent weakness, Charles I. was at least in early years of kingship a forceful letter-writer.

Shortly before this missive was dispatched, the King had been moved to intolerable anger by the accounts presented to him of the infamous treatment of his Queen by her Popish entourage. In the early summer of 1626, Henrietta had asked to spend a certain time in retirement and devo- tion. After a quiet day passed in the services of her church at the chapel in St. James's Park, she turned into Hyde Park, directing her walk towards Tyburn, whether by intention or not remains unknown. In any case, it was quite probable that, especially impressed by her religious seclusion, she bethought herself of those who, not so many years before, had suffered as martyrs on that gruesome spot for the very religion she held so dear.

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She knelt to pray for them, and perhaps for strength to bear her own weary lot.

A week or two passed before the tale of her surreptitious visit to Tyburn reached the King. He was told that the Queen had been made to walk thither barefoot as a penance, and to offer up prayers for traitors who had ended their days on Tyburn gallows.

Whitelock's Chronicle gives the Protestant version of the affair :

" Distastes and jealousies were raised about the Government of the Queen's Family ; wherein the King held himself traduced by some of her French servants, who said that the King had nothing to do with them, he being an Heretick.

" The Queen was brought to insist upon it, as part of the Articles, that she should name all her servants, and some unkindness arose upon it. The King was also distasted, that her Priests made the Queen to walk to Tyburn on Penance.

" Upon these Passages the King dismist, and sent back into France all the Queen's French Retinue, acquainting the French King with it, and excusing it to him ; but it was ill resented in France, and by them held contrary to the Articles of Marriage."

That this was the account generally accredited and sedulously fostered by the anti-Romish party in the State, is further shown by a letter preserved in the Harleian MSS., written by Mr. John Pory, a well-known public man, who had been a Member of Parliament in 1610. After relating the dis- missal of the servants and priests, he says :

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" No longer agon then upon St. James his day last, those hippocritical dogges made the pore Queen to walke afoot (some add barefoot) from her house at St. James to the gallowes at Tyborne, thereby to honor the Saint of the day in visiting that holy place, where so many Martyrs (forsooth) had shed their blood in defense of the Catholic cause. Had they not also made her to dable in the durte in a foul morning from Somersett House to St. James, her Luciferian Confessor riding allong by her in his Coach ! Yea, they have made her to go barefoot, to spin, to eat her meat out of tryne dishes (wooden dishes), to waite at the table and serve her servants, with many other ridiculous and absurd penances."

There is a picture of the Queen's penance, of which a reproduction is here given. The Queen is seen kneeling by the triangular scaffold, whither she has been accompanied by her Father Confessor — presumably a Cardinal — in his coach and six.

Of the " triple tree " itself, its origin and use, there is much to be said in later chapters on Tyburn.

Strangely enough, when, in 1628, Charles I. raised the jointure of Henrietta Maria to £28,000, one of the manors assigned to her to produce the additional £6000 was that of Hyde.

As already said, the Park first became under Charles 1. the fashionable society rendezvous. Its greatest attraction, maybe, was the racing in the Ring. The occasions, when organised meetings took place, were special scenes of gaiety, and were evidently thought important events, as even among the State Papers there is preserved

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the agreement for a race that took place there. Though admitting the public so freely, and himself mixing among them, Charles still looked upon the Royal Park as a personal possession, and exercised his full authority within it. It was on one of these occasions that the King, seeing a licentious Berk- shire squire among the company, peremptorily ordered him out of its confines, speaking of him to the courtiers as an " ugly rascal." This expression the squire overheard. He went away quietly ; but vowed vengeance, and gradually embittered the whole of his county against the King. He had, indeed, his revenge, for writ large on Charles i.'s death - warrant was the name of the " ugly rascal."

In the tumultuous years with which the reign closed, Hyde Park saw other scenes. There the Parliamentary troops mustered in stern array ; there Essex lay waiting with a small force the threatened attack on London by King Charles, who was expected to march from Oxford to seize the capital. There came band after band of sturdy patriots to join the Roundhead army, and General Lambert added his men to those of his chief. Raw recruits were drilled into the celebrated train- bands, and in Hyde Park Cromwell reviewed his invincible Ironsides, his own particular force whom he had especially trained to meet the cavalry attacks of Prince Rupert.

In 1642 the inhabitants of the City of London made a large fortress with four bastions south-east of Hyde Park, on the ground now occupied by Hamilton Place. It was from part of this erection,

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which was called " Oliver's Mount," that Mount Street, Park Lane, takes its name.

The following year, as the civil strife was still waging fierce and hot between Royalists and Round- heads, three forts were constructed on Tyburn Road. It is quaint to think of impromptu fortresses built by an alarmed populace near Lancaster Gate and Oxford Street. The Perfect Diurnal, an invalu- able record of the time, states that the anxiety of the citizens was such that thousands of men, women, servants, and children, many members of the Council of the City, well-known public men, and the trained bands from the Camp, together with feltmakers, shoemakers, and other tradesmen, all worked their best in throwing up these fortifications outside the City.

Samuel Butler, in his Hudibras, refers to this :

" Women, who were our first apostles,

Without whose aid w' had all been lost else ; Women, that left no stone unturned In which the Cause might be concern' d : Brought in their children's spoons and whistles, To purchase swords, carbines, and pistols ; Their husbands, cullies, and sweethearts, To take the saints' and church's parts ; Drew several gifted brethren in, That for the Bishops would have been, And fixed them constant to the Party, With motives powerful and hearty : Their husbands robb'd, and made hard shifts, T' administer unto their gifts

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All they could rap, and rend, and pilfer, To scraps and ends of gold and silver ;

■ •••••

What have they done, or what left undone,

That might advance the Cause at London ?

March'd rank and file, with drum and ensign,

T' entrench the city for defence in ;

Rais'd rampires with their own soft hands,

To put the enemy to stands ;

From ladies down to oyster-wenches

Labour' d like pioneers in trenches,

Fell to their pick-axes and tools,

And help'd the men to dig like moles ? "

The women, and even ladies of rank and fortune, not only encouraged the men, but worked with their own hands. Dr. Nash mentions Lady Middle- sex, Lady Foster, Lady Anne Walker, and Mrs. Dunch as having been particularly celebrated for their activity.

Again in the Perfect Diurnal of 4th January 1643, one reads :

" Collonell Browne the Scotchman, upon some Complaints made against him by his Souldiers, for detaining their pay, was apprehended this day by the Court of Guard at Hide Park, by an order from the Close Committee, and Committed to safe custody to answere the same."

So we may conclude that all was not peace among the troops encamped in the Park.

In the State Papers there are several references to Hyde Park, throwing sidelights on the life of the people of the day. For instance, after the Battle

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of Naseby every person of consequence who had been engaged in the struggle was strictly supervised, and it was necessary for all strangers to have a pass to enter the City of London.

The Earl of Northampton, wishing to cross to Holland, secured a pass to embark from London, and arriving at the fortress at Hyde Park Corner, then so called, but now the Marble Arch, duly handed it to the Captain commanding the Guard. That officer, finding the Earl was accompanied by five servants while his pass only allowed four, seized one of the horses. The Earl, detained much to his annoyance by this incident, petitioned the Committee of both Kingdoms to restore the animal. The Committee, although commending the Captain for close observance of duty, explained that as the Earl of Northampton was going beyond the seas he would need the horse, and therefore they wished it returned.

This examination at Hyde Park must have been very searching, for in the Perfect Diurnal of 5th January 1643, it is recorded that

" Sir Edward Wardner, Doctor Castle of West- minster, Doctor Fuller of the Savoy, Mr. Dinckson of Saint Clements, and some others this day set forward towards Oxford with a Petition to His Majesty for an accommodation (as is pretended) ; and being examined upon the way by the Courts of Guard at Hide Parke, they produced a Warrant from the Lords in Parliament for the free Passage with their Petition to His Majesty without inter- ception. Whereupon the Captaine of the Guard told them that though he was commanded by their

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Warrant to give them free Passage with their Petition, yet he would search them, that they should carry nothing else to his Majesty, which he did accordingly, and found divers Letters about them, especially Doctor Dinckson."

These papers were handed to the Commons, and the Committee found them to be " of a very high and dangerous consequence." The party, after having been stripped of all papers except their petition, had been allowed to proceed to Oxford, but a troop of " Dragouners " was sent to bring them back to Parliament, so back they came, done.

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CHAPTER IV

UNDER THE COMMONWEALTH

As soon as the death of Charles I. upon the scaffold under the windows of Whitehall Banqueting House left the Regicides in undisputed possession of the Royal lands, new difficulties arose.

No one knew what to do with them. Hyde Park entered upon a period of unexampled vicissi- tude. No doubt the sterner section of the Puritans, who had now gained the upper hand, looked upon all the gallantries and follies of which the Park had been a centre as so much devilment, and would gladly have seen the place swept away.

It was a time when bartering was keen, and money sorely needed for the service of the State. The spacious Park grounds must have been a tempting bait to offer for sale. On the other hand, a numerous body of the citizens would have been quite content to seize the Royal Parks for their own unrestricted use, and were strongly adverse to their being handed over for enclosure by the farmer or for destruction by the builder.

For the moment, at least, the parks were saved. About three months after the Royal tragedy the Council took the whole matter under their con- sideration,^with the result that the record of their

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proceedings contains the following important decision :

" To report to the House that the Council think Whitehall House, St. James's Park, St. James's House, Somerset House, Hampton Court, and the Home Park, Theobalds, and the Park, Windsor, and the Little Park next the House, Greenwich House and Park, and Hyde Park, ought to be kept for the public use of the Commonwealth, and not sold."

The Parliament, however, undertook the care of its new acquisitions with bad grace. It was con- tinually selling portions of its patrimony, and where sales could not be effected it freely destroyed. Nothing seems to have been done for Hyde Park while its ultimate fate remained in suspense ; meanwhile the populace used it for their own amusement. Gradually the cover for game became less good as the invasion extended. New areas were converted into grass lands.

The Park lost for ever its characteristics as a game preserve, which for so long it had retained.

Wars and alarms continued to be the public state. Soon great preparations were made for Cromwell's departure for Ireland, and a grant was given to William Yarvell, a carriage master, to put all the horses provided for the campaign which could not be accommodated in Marylebone into Hyde Park to graze. Again, in the following year, a notice appears in the State Papers that Colonel Hammond received two hundred horses, and was told to turn them out to grass, but this permission was withdrawn the same year.

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On Cromwell's return to England, in the spring of 1650, from the scenes of the bloody massacres by which he had subdued Ireland, he entered London in triumph. When passing the old camp where he had reviewed his Ironsides years before, multitudes of citizens came out to greet him. The soldiers stationed there discharged a volley, big guns were fired, and the people shouted and cheered all the way to Whitehall.

The fate of Hyde Park did not remain long undecided.

In spite of much haggling by the Council, the vandals of Parliament succeeded in two or three years in obtaining their own way. London lost its playground. The Park was condemned to be sold by order of Parliament in 1652, and realised about £17,000. The " eligible " property, as an enthusiastic auctioneer of to-day would probably describe it, was divided into three lots, namely :

The Gravel-pit division was bought by Richard Wilcox for £4144.

The Kensington division, bought by a merchant, John Tracy, for £3906 ; and

The Middle, Banqueting, and Old Lodge Divi- sions were purchased by Anthony Deane, of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, for £9020.

Of this sum, £4899, 10s. was realised for the timber, so evidently the Park must have been thickly wooded at that time. There were also sold Tyburn Meadow and the enclosed meadow-land used for the deer, which were numerous. These animals brought in the sum of £765, 6s. 2d., the money being devoted to the Navy. F 81

HYDE PARK

What Richard Wilcox may have done with the Gravel-pit division I have not been able to discover. Possibly he dug more gravel-pits ; if so, they have long since been filled up, and all traces have disappeared. The pits came into the possession of a man named Orme in the nineteenth century, who amassed a fortune by selling gravel from them to Russia, and the money he after- wards invested in building. It is probable that Orme Square, the home of Sir Rowland Hill (father of the penny post) for so many years, was named after him.

John Tracy, the merchant who had secured the Kensington division, was evidently a man of ambitions. We know that he built two houses at Knightsbridge within the Park area, from the fact that after the Restoration he mentions them specifically in his petition to Charles II.

The public purchasers of Hyde Park under the Commonwealth had never received any confirma- tion of their transaction from Parliament. From the Royalist standpoint they were liable to arrest for having acquired Crown lands, and knowing their peril they were only too glad to restore them to the King. The Law Courts declared the pur- chases annulled. Tracy pleaded absence abroad, and consequent ignorance of the condition of things in England when he made the purchase, and begged that he might be allowed to retain the two Knights- bridge houses. King Charles, being an easy-going soul, let him have his way.

Anthony Deane, who took by far the biggest share, set to work on the notion that he could ge.

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his money back by making the people pay for what they had hitherto freely enjoyed. He still kept up his land as a park ; but a charge was made for entrance, whereat there was much discontent. Evelyn in his diary (April 1653) voices the universal grumble :

" I went to take the aire in Hide Park, when every coach was made to pay a shilling and every horse sixpence by the sordid fellow who has purchas'd it of the State, as they were called."

That shilling was worth about four times the present sum, so a drive with a coach and pair was an expensive outing. Nevertheless, the Park seemed fairly popular with the fashionable world, but not so much as formerly, though necessarily more exclusive. A figure-head — a leader of fashion — was sadly needed. Besides, the times were not favourable to festivities. Here and there passages in private letters and extracts from diaries permit us to peep at the social gatherings in Hyde Park in the days of the Commonwealth ; but they seem to have been dull, dismal affairs, entirely lacking the abandon and freedom — not to say licence — which set in after the Restoration.

Long before this a rival promenade had been opened for Society, and, strangely enough, in a church. After the destruction of the Monasteries, the middle aisle of St. Paul's Cathedral became both a market-place and a common walk. When Hyde Park was taxed, and Spring Gardens closed by Act of Parliament, " Paul's Walk" came into still greater vogue, and between the hours of eleven and twelve, and three and six, fashion of all grades

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of Society met there, for the citizens wended their way to the Cathedral for recreation, and to show off their gowns, and chat with their friends instead of going west.

Yet even the Puritans had their moments of rejoicing when the dourest of natures unbent.

The old custom of Maying, which had been abolished by the Puritans, was revived in 1654. May Day was more generally observed than it had been for many years, the people " going a-Maying " to Hyde Park in large numbers.

One can easily conjure up the scene on a warm sunny day, merry, tripping, dancing, laughing maids accompanied by their swains. These young men were 'prentices in the City Companies, and donned their best accordingly to go " a-Maying " with their ladyloves. The same old, old story. Cupid was, and is, as powerful as his gloomy enemy Death, and just as eternal.

There were no Bank Holidays then, but money was saved to buy finery, new gowns were donned for the May games, and the difficulties of transport made an outing to Hyde Park just as great a busi- ness to the worker as a trip from London to the sea is to-day.

The poles were erected ; they were gaily decor- ated with flags, bunting, and flowers ; pretty dances were performed around them, while entanglement of ribbons provoked entanglement of hearts, and all made merry in Hyde Park on May Day.

Maying began early in the morning with a service, and was looked upon as a thanksgiving

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festival to celebrate the advent of spring and dis- appearance of winter.

These May-Day games and rejoicings had their origin in pagan festivals, and from the earliest days of England's history they had probably been a gala day for her people. In the days of Chaucer the King and Queen and their courtiers took part in them, for the poet writes :

" Forth goeth all the Court, both most and least, to fetch the flowers fresh."

In the sixteenth century it was customary for the middle and lower classes to go out at an early hour to gather flowers and hawthorn to bring home at sunrise, with horn and tabor, singing and much merriment ; and the Robin Hood Games, perpetuating the adventures of Robin Hood, formed a great feature in the May-Day pageants, Maid Marian, Friar Tuck, Little John, and other characters disporting themselves among the May garlands. Now that mediaeval pageants are being revived all over England, May-Day fetes and dances may become common again.

Under the early Stuarts May Day continued to be a great national holiday.

London kept it in later days in a fashion of its own. Until within the nineteenth century it con- tinued to be the festival of milkmaids and chimney- sweeps.

A cow, much garlanded with flowers, was led by dairy women in light, fantastic dresses, and wreathed with flowers, who would dance round it, playing on musical instruments. Some of them used to

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polish up their tin cans, others used to hire silver articles from pawnbrokers at so much an hour. These used to be hung upon a frame which went over a man's head and shoulders, only his legs being visible, and as he joined the dance, he was a somewhat comical apparition.

The sweeps were the last to keep up May Day in the Metropolis. A band of them in character dress marched round the streets until the middle of the century, accompanied by a man concealed in a huge flower-be-trimmed frame, with a flag at the top, and known as " Jack-in-the-Green." This march was interrupted at times by dances to a fife-and-drum accompaniment. Of course, the Act forbidding the employment of boys and men for climbing chimneys, reduced the numbers of these chimney-sweepers, and that as much as any- thing led to the abolishment of their festival. During her residence in Portman Square, Mrs. Montagu annually entertained the chimney-sweeps on May Day.

An old superstition that washing the face with dew on May Day was beneficial to the complexion, existed to the end of the eighteenth century. Mrs. Pepys on various occasions rose at four o'clock in the morning — and once at three — to go and wash her face in the renowned May dew — so her husband records.

To the restored May-Day scene in Hyde Park came Cromwell, then Lord Protector, and many of his Privy Councillors — strange figures for such company. It is told of the Protector that he looked on with keen enjoyment at a hurling-match.

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The game is described as " a bowling of a great ball of fifty Cornish gentlemen of one side and fifty of the other j one party with red caps, and the other in white. The ball they played withal was silver, and designed for that party which did win the goal." The ancient game, from which Hurlingham, now famous for its fashion and its sports, takes its name, is still played each year at Newquay, in Cornwall.

In a " Letter from John Barber to Mr. Scuda- more," dated " London, 2 Maij, 1654," the follow- ing account of the scene is given :

" Yesterday each coach (and I believe there were 1500) payed 2 : 6d., and each horse is., but ye benefit accrewes to a brace of citizens who have taken ye herbage of ye parke of Mr. Deane, to wch they adde this excise of beauty : there was a hurlinge in ye paddock-course by Cornish Gentle- men for ye greate solemnity of ye daye, wch indeed (to use my Lord protector's word) was great : when my Lord protector's coach came into ye Parke wth Col. Ingoldsby and my lord's daughters onely (3 of them all in greene-a) the coaches and horses flock'd about them like some miracle, but they gallop' d (after ye mode court-pace now, and wch they all use where ever they goe) round and round ye parke, and all y1 great multitude hunted them and caught them still at ye turne like a hare, and then made a Lane wth all reverent hast for them, and soe after them againe, that I never saw ye like in my life."

Evelyn, still grumbling at the payment to be made, and with all the disgust of a courtier at times so much out of joint, gives a little picture of

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the Park a year before King Charles II. came back to the throne, but he can say nothing good for it.

"... I did frequently in the spring accom- pany my Lord N. into a field near the town, which they call Hyde Park : the place not unpleasant, and which they use as our Course : but with nothing of that order, equipage and splendour : being such an assemblage of wretched jades and hackney- coaches, as, next a regiment of carmen, there is nothing which approaches the resemblance."

" A field near the town which they call Hyde Park." What measureless contempt is contained in that phrase ! But Evelyn lived to enjoy brighter scenes. He proceeds :

" This park was, it seems, used by the late King and nobility, for the freshness of the air and the goodly prospect. But it is that which now, besides all other excises, they pay for here in England ; though it be free in all the world beside : every coach and horse which enters, buying his mouthful, and permission of the publican who has purchased it : for which the entrance is guarded with porters with long staves. The manner is, as the company returns, to alight at the Spring Gardens, so called, in order to the Park, as our Tuilleries is to the Course. The enclosure not disagreeable for the solemnesse of the Grove, warbling of the birds ; and as it opens into the spacious walks at St. James's. But the company walk in at such a rate, as you would think the ladies were so many Atalantas, contending with their wooers : and, my lord, there was no appear- ance that I should prove the Hippomenes ; who

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could, with very much ado, keep pace with them. But as fast as they run, they stay there so long, as if they wanted not time to finish the race ; for it is usual here to find some of the young company till midnight, and the thickets of the garden seem to be contrived to all advantages of gallantry, after they have been refreshed with the collation, which is here seldom omitted, at a certain cabaret in the middle of this paradise, where the forbidden fruits are certain trifling tarts, neat's tongues, salacious meats, and bad Rhenish : for which the gallants pay sauce, as indeed they do at all such houses throughout England. For they think it a piece of frugality beneath them to bargain, or account for, what they eat in any place, however unreason- ably imposed on."

Such feeble effort of would-be gallantry, at which Evelyn, himself a somewhat precise person, so openly flouted, was yet sufficient to cause pain to many good Puritans, though they were no longer able to suppress it. The other day I came across a contemporary pamphlet, by a writer who evidently had been much agitated by these terrible doings. Its full title is :

" The Yellow Book, or a serious letter sent by a private Christian to the Lady Consideration, the first of May 1656, which she is desired to com- municate in Hide-Park to the Gallants of the Times, a little after Sun-set ; also a brief account of the names of some vain persons that intend to be there," whose company the new ladies are desired to forbear. It begins :

" Lady, I am informed fine Mrs. Dust, Madam

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Spot, and my Lady Paint are to meet in Hide- Park this afternoon j much of pride will be there," and so on to considerable length, with many a befitting admonition.

In Hyde Park on one occasion Cromwell very nearly lost his life. Some beautiful Friesland horses had been presented to him by the Duke of Holstein, and when taking the air in the Park, accompanied merely by his Secretary and a small guard of janissaries, he became so infuriated at the slowness of their pace that he exchanged places with the coachman, and with great im- patience thrashed the animals soundly to make them quicken their speed. High-spirited, and not understanding such rough usage, they promptly bolted, and, tearing along at a frantic pace, threw the Protector off the box. As he fell his pistol went off in his pocket, and his legs became so entangled in the harness that the poor man was dangling from the pole for some seconds. However, he received no substantial injury beyond a good shaking and some bruises.

A plot against his life was laid by two men named Syndercombe and Cecill, who meant to assassinate him as he took daily exercise in Hyde Park, as ordered by his physicians. The assassins' fellow-conspirators filed off the hinges of the Park gate in order to facilitate their escape, but their scheme was unsuccessful.

Another experience the Protector had at the entrance to Hyde Park, was an interview with George Fox, the founder of that great and good body of " Friends " or Quakers. This enthusiast

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approached Cromwell's coach in spite of the pro- testations of his attendants, and, riding by the vehicle, Fox rebuked its occupant for the harsh measures he was dealing out to his political enemies. Fox rode thus to "James Park Gate," where, on his taking leave, Cromwell, who had already told his people not to interfere with the Quaker, bade his reprover come and see him again.

It was a bold act to reprove Cromwell.

In spite of the perils with which he met there, Cromwell was very fond of Hyde Park. It must still have been delightfully wild, though less picturesque than before the timber was cut down and the game driven away. A few building sites were marked out and dwelling-houses planned. Either no houses were built, or they have since been removed and all traces obliterated, for no private residences exist in Hyde Park, although there are a few fine ones in Regent's Park, still standing in their own grounds, notably those be- longing to the Marquis of Bute and Lord Aldenham. As late as 1658, land in the park was still being offered for sale. There is an interesting advertise- ment in the Mercurius Politicus of i3-2oth May in that year :

" This is to give notice That if any persons have a minde to imploy their money in Building, they may have Four Acres of Ground, and a con- venient place to build on in Hide Park."

Spring Gardens existed on the site and surround- ings known by that name to-day. It was probably so called in the reign of James I. from a spring of water, which was arranged in order that when a

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certain spot was trodden upon, a jet was thrown up all over the unlucky person. It contained a pheasantry, shooting butts, a bowling green, and a bathing pool, and soon became a popular place of resort, where refreshments were obtainable by the fashionables of the day.

This custom of taking refreshments in Spring Gardens has continued to our own time. It will be remembered that a couple of old dames kept cows behind Carlton House Terrace until 1904, charging one penny for a cup of warm milk direct from their kine. When the new Processional Drive was being planned in memory of Queen Victoria, it was found that their little booth and tethered cattle were in the way, and they were told to move.

This the old dames refused to do, and after much talk, much correspondence, and much fuss, King Edward vn., with his customary kindliness, had a little kiosk built for them. So they are the sole remaining trace of the refreshment booths in Spring Gardens, and proudly print on their little paper bags that they were " Established 1623."

A movement is on foot to reinstate refreshment booths in Hyde Park, as we saw in the last chapter, by placing one on the site of the old horse-racing Ring; but it is to be hoped many more will be opened on the lines of the charming little tea kiosks that have been instituted in Kensington Gardens, — a long-delayed reform that is much needed.

Tea and light refreshments in our parks would be a great boon to many. Breakfast, luncheon, or tea in the open is very enjoyable, and even in

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our queer climate (which is really the best in the world, God bless it) could be enjoyed for several months every year, especially if wide balconies were added to the little restaurants for shelter.

In 1777 the Marybone Tea Gardens were cele- brated for just this kind of thing. They were on the site of Devonshire Street, Devonshire Place, and Beaumont Street. They were open for public breakfasts and evening concerts to high-class, select company, fireworks being occasionally intro- duced in the evenings. Mighty fashionable they were. Who knows but we may soon have the same again at Hyde Park or Regent's Park, instead of having to go to Ranelagh, or Hurlingham, some miles from town, and where it is necessary either to be, or to accompany, a member ?

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CHAPTER V

FASHION AND FRIVOLITY

Great changes came over Hyde Park with the arrival of Charles II. in England.

All the purchases of Royal Lands were annulled as unlawful and the property was seized for the Crown. As the new King, once he had made his position secure, showed no desire to prevent his subjects sharing with himself the enjoyment of the parks, the step was most popular. Anthony Deane's " porters with long staves " — presumably to trounce intruders who did not pay for entrance — were swept away, and again the public were free to pass in at their own will.

On the very spot where the Parliamentary troops had been massed, and Cromwell had harangued them, enormous crowds assembled to shout a welcome to the returned monarch.

That was a great day.

In order that the reception should be a thoroughly imposing one, all the representatives of the City attended. Troops were poured into the Park, and there was an Order by the new Council of State to the militia of London x " to Rendezvous their Regiments of Trained Bands

1 Mercurins Publius, i9~26th April 1660.

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and Auxiliaries at Hide Park. Major Cox, Quarter Master General of the City, hath since by their order been to view the Ground ; and hath allotted a place to be erected for the reception of the Lord Mayor, the Court of Aldermen, and the Commis- sioners for the Militia. The Lord Mayor intends to appear there with his Collar of Esses, and all the Aldermen in Scarlet Robes, attended with the Mace and Cap of Maintenance as usual at great Ceremonies."

So, amid tumultuous rejoicings, and surrounded by all the glamour and pageantry of the restored Court, King Charles n. came back to England from his exile on the Continent. The breach from the sterner Puritan ideals was complete. The coarse spirit of the age, so long suppressed, broke out afresh in utter abandonment of all restraint, and with Charles II. there came a period of open licentiousness which happily is unexampled in our history — though, truth to tell, the scandals to which the Merry Monarch and his voluptuous courtiers gave rise in such profusion form piquant reading for people of later days.

Charles had no idea of restoring the Park to its original condition as a game preserve. Such liberties as his father had granted to the public he freely extended. The public took full advantage of them. The diaries of the day are packed with references to Hyde and St. James's Parks, which at a bound again became the centre of all the gay and fashionable life of the town. To do him justice, Charles made no pretentions towards a love of sport. A cock-fight amused him, but

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rather he preferred the excitement of his flirtations, his amours, the races in the Ring, his birds, his spaniels, and his passion for gambling.

A few scattered portions of the pasture lands, however, seem to have been let out as farms. The Park was placed in the general care of the Duke of Gloucester, to whom a warrant was made " of the Custody of Hyde Park with all Houses, etc. belonging thereto; fee, 8d. per day." Mr. James Hamilton — after whom Hamilton Place was named — was appointed Ranger. Some one with a money- making turn of mind evidently thought it would be a good plan to utilise land for growing fruit, and Hamilton began negotiations for enclosing a portion of the grounds as an orchard. Later in the reign some of the deer were restored to the Park, and an ornamental path and wall were made round it. A more substantial brick wall, 6J feet high inside and 8 feet outside, was built by George I. to enclose the Park, and remained standing until 1828, when it was replaced by open iron railings.

Hamilton fared by no means badly with his Rangership, for on his retirement he received a pension of £850 a year, and a pension of £500 was granted to his widow to commence on his death, to be paid out of the clergy tenths or tithes in certain dioceses.

The fashion of the period was to resort to Hyde Park for a drive, but St. James's Park, Spring Gardens, the Mulberry Gardens (on the present site of Buckingham Palace, which had been planted by James 1. to encourage the silk industry) were the favourite places of recreation. Sports and games

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abounded in St. James's, which, being close to Whitehall, was always held in the highest favour by the Merry Monarch, who loitered there mornings and afternoons, surrounded by his courtiers and mistresses. He extended its attractions, planting trees, laying out walks, and improving the canal, which, however, still remained straight and un- interesting. Cages with numerous species of birds were placed in the trees of Bird Cage Walk, then known as the Aviary. The King loved to feed and fondle these pets of his, coming with his pockets full of their favourite foods, his dogs following him. So numerous were the pet birds and so carefully tended by their Royal Master, that hemp-seed remained for a long time one of the items of expense in the bills of the Royal Mews.

The Mall was kept in splendid condition for the old game of Paile Maille, from which some say we derive the word Pall Mall, now the name of a neighbouring street, while the Royal Cockpit was again in constant use by the King and his courtiers. Dryden is said to have wandered in the Mulberry Gardens and eaten the fruit while he composed his verses.

" Hyde Park" (writes Count de Grammont) " as every one knows, is to London what the Cours is to Paris. Nothing was then so much in Fashion during the fair Season as the taking the Air at the Ring, which was the ordinary Rendezvous of Magnificence and Beauty. Whoever had bright Eyes or a fine Equipage never failed to repair thither, and the King was extremely delighted with the place."

Those were the days of wigs and velvets and g 97

HYDE PARK

extravagance in men's dress. They wore silk stockings with shoes, or long boots curling over at the top, embroidered coats, lace, frills, and plumed hats. Picturesque and beautiful was their attire. The women's full skirts were made of hand- some stuffs, and rivalry of splendour was still rampant. Verily an age of extravagance. The Ring long remained the chief social centre in the Park. It seems to have been but poorly laid out, judging by Wilson's description, 1679, in ms Memoirs, published many years afterwards :

" Here the people of fashion take the diversion of the Ring. In a pretty high place, which lies very open ; they have surrounded a circumference of two or three hundred paces diameter with a sorry kind of balustrade, or rather with postes placed upon stakes but three feet from the ground ; and the coaches drive round this. When they have turned for some time round one way, they face about and turn tother : so rowls the world ! "

Among the customs of the Stuart and early Hanoverian periods was that of issuing — in the absence of the voluminous Press of our time — " broadsides " and " satyrs " on leaflets, which were distributed through London, and " took off " the leading people and topics of the day. The Ring afforded a rich field for these so long as it lived, and held as important a place in that class of literature as Hyde Park does in our modern Society papers.

So much is said about the Park by the diarists Pepys and Evelyn, that the social life of the place may almost be pictured from their pages alone.

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Pepys is always a delight. One may still see his famous MS. "Diary" in the Library of Magdalene College, Cambridge. It is in four or five volumes of shorthand, neatly written, with tidy margins, and the names of persons and places in well-formed letters in longhand. Presumably he did not intend it for publication, or he would not have written it in shorthand, and that of an extraordin- arily complicated nature. Years elapsed before it was deciphered, and still more years passed before it became a classic in literature.

Samuel Pepys was the son of a tailor ; but he became Secretary of the Admiralty, an appointment he filled most ably for many years. He was also President of the Royal Society. His mind was both as refined and as coarse as the age in which he lived. He jotted down the minutest details of the day. At his death he left his library to his old College, and, strange to relate, the double rows in the shelves were arranged by him according to size, and in no way according to subject, so that a tiny note-book of James I. in this remarkable collection comes number one.

John Evelyn, the contemporary of Pepys, has also left entries of his daily roun$ for a period of about sixty years, made.complete by a slight sketch of his life up to the time his Diary commences. He came from a good Surrey stock, Royalist to their heart's core ; but owing to the Great Rebellion he lived abroad for some years, returning to England in 1652, when he diligently wrote various books. Evelyn was later made a Fellow of the Royal Society, then newly founded, and now the most

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coveted position a man of science and learning can attain. From that time his work embraced various scientific subjects. Amongst them he laid before the Society observations on the growth of trees, which he afterwards fully discussed in Sylva. The early Reports of the Royal Society contain this quaint announcement : "Mr. Evelyn gave some account of the experiment recommended to him, of putting some flesh and blood in a vessel covered with flannel, in order to see what insects it would breed, and he observed that it bred nothing. He was requested by the Society to continue the Experiment."

Bacteriologists who find such wondrous products and germs in blood must smile over his barren result.

As soon as the gaieties of the Park were revived we find Pepys to the fore, anxious to miss nothing. In the autumn of the Restoration year he writes :

" With Mr. Moore and Creed to Hide Park by coach, and saw a fine foot-race three times round the Park between an Irishman and Crow, that was once my Lord Claypole's footman. Crow beat the other by above two miles."

In the following year the Diarists both refer

to the May-Day demonstrations as unsurpassed.

Pepys was obliged to be out of town on business,

and again expresses his regret at not being " among

the great gallants and ladies, which will be very

fine " ; while one detects in Evelyn's note the

Royalist's satisfaction over the Restoration : " I

went to Hide Park " (he says) " to take the air, where

was His Majesty and an innumerable appearance

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FASHION AND FRIVOLITY

of gallants and rich coaches, being now a time of universal festivity."

Pepys was more fortunate in reaching the Park on May Day, 1663, but he was not pleased :

" Turned and rode through the fields and then to Holborn . . . towards Hide Park, whither all the world, I think, are going. ... I saw nothing good, neither the King nor my Lady Castlemaine nor my great ladies or beauties being here, there being more pleasure a great deal at an ordinary day ; or else those few good faces that there were were choked up with the many bad ones, there being people of all sorts in coaches there, to some thou- sands I think. Going thither in the highway, just by the Park gate, I met a boy in a sculler boat, carried by a dozen people at least, rowing as hard as he could drive, it seems upon some wager. By and by, about seven or eight o'clock homeward . . . coaches going in great crowds to the further end of the town almost."

Hearts seemed light and Society gay, for the Diarist makes mention of several visits to the Park during that year ; of the King and his mistress Lady Castlemaine, who finally died in poverty, greeting one another from their respective coaches " at every tour" ; of a drive with Mrs. Pepys, wherein there was little pleasure on account of the dust, and one of the horses falling down and getting his leg over the pole ; and another occasion when the worthy couple enjoyed the sight of a " store of coaches and good faces." Only when Charles 11. pulled up to speak to his friends — chiefly ladies — was the continuous string of carriages allowed to stop.

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But the day of that season seems to have been a great Review held in Hyde Park on 4th July. Both Diarists write of this event, and as the entries are truly characteristic of the different style of the two journals, I give them both. First Evelyn :

" I saw his Majesty's Guards, being of horse and foot 4000, led by the General, the Duke of Albemarle [General Monk, who had done so much to bring about the Restoration], in extraordinary equipage and gallantry, consisting of gentlemen of quality and veteran soldiers, excellently clad, mounted and ordered, drawn up in battalia before their Majesties in Hyde Park, where the old Earl of Cleveland trailed a pike, and led the right-hand file in a foot-company, commanded by Lord Went- worth, his son : as worthy spectacle and example, being both of them old and valiant soldiers. This was to show the French Ambassador, Monsieur Comminges ; there being a great assembly of coaches etc. in the Park."

It is left to Pepys to pourtray the lighter side :

" Thence with Creed to hire a coach to carry us to Hide Park, to-day there being a general muster of the King's Guards, horse and foot ; but the demand so high, that I, spying Mr. Cutler the marchant, did take notice of him, and he going into his coach, and telling me that he was going to shew a couple of Swedish strangers the muster, I asked and went along with him ; where a goodly sight to see so many fine horses and officers, and the King, Duke, and others come by a-horseback, and the two Queens in the Queen-Mother's coach, my Lady Castlemayne not being there, I 'light and walked

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to the place where the King, Duke, etc., did stand to see the horse and foot march by and discharge their guns, to show a French Marquisse (for whom the muster was caused) the goodness of our firemen ; which indeed was very good, though not without a slip now and then ; and one broadside so close to our coach we had going out of the Park, even to the nearness to be ready to burn our hairs."

A few days later Pepys describes another visit to Hyde Park :

" Hearing that the King and Queen are rode abroad with the Ladies of Honour in the Park, and seeing a great crowd of gallants staying here to see their return, I also staid walking up and down. ... By and by the King and Queen, who looked in this dress (a white laced waistcoat and a crimson short petticoat, and her hair dressed a la negligence) mighty pretty ; and the King rode hand in hand with her. Here was also my Lady Castlemaine rode among the rest of the ladies, but the King took, methought, no notice of her."

Pepys was a man of many parts, and one of the most human of his kind. This wonderful Diary of his contains the moralising of a philosopher, mixed with descriptions of the skittish flirtations of the man about town, the deeper amours of the licentious Court, and the coarsest scandal and gossip, prices of various articles, political events, the weather, the servant question, and details of ladies' gowns. He even sent a " poor fellow " to sit at the Duke of York's playhouse to keep a seat for him, as messenger boys are sent to-day to secure seats in the pit.

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When at this time the riding habit for ladies was first displayed in Hyde Park, Pepys writes :

" I saw them with coats and doublets with deep skirts, just like mine, and their doublets buttoned up the breast, with perriwigs and hats, so that only for a long petticoat dragging under the men's coats, nobody would take them for women in any point whatever."

On another occasion we find him discussing ladies' dress with Lady Carteret :

" She tells me the ladies are to go into a new fashion shortly, and that is to wear short coats, above their ancles ; which she and I do not like, but conclude this long trayne to be mighty graceful."

In 1664 he thus speaks of Lady Castlemaine :

" To Hide Parke, where I have not been since last year ; where I saw the King with his periwigg, but not altered at all ; and my Lady Castlemayne in a coach by herself, in yellow satin and a pinner on ; and many brave persons. And myself being in a hackney coach and full of people, was ashamed to be seen of the world, many of them knowing me."

Poor Pepys, what a love of display and dress.

Gloves seem to have been a valued article of dress at this time. De Grammont mentions the fact that they were given as presents, and much store put upon them : " Martial gloves were then very much the fashion." This rather flavours of reviews, but he does not refer to anything military, only to a famous firm of glovers in Paris, Martial by name, whose gloves — like all things French in those days — were in great request.

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Pepys leaves behind him a graphic chronicle of the licentiousness and profligacy of the period, which had best be thrust aside, but his description of the Court generally may be quoted here :

" The Court, as hinted before, was the seat and Fountain of Sports, Pleasures and Enjoyments, and all the polite and magnificent Entertainments, which are generally inspired by the Inclinations of a tender, amorous and indulgent Prince. The Beauties studied to charm, the men to please ; And all, in short, improved their talents the best they could. Some distinguished themselves by Dancing, others by Show and Magnificence, some by their Wit, many by their Amours, but very few by their Constancy."

It was about this time that Lord Arlington erected a house near the Mulberry Gardens, and during the Plague he brought the first pound of tea from Holland, which cost him thirty shillings ; so that probably the first cup of tea drunk in England was enjoyed where Buckingham Palace now stands.

James Hamilton, the Ranger of Hyde Park, and John Birch, the Auditor of Excise, were, after much discussion, successful in the negotiations for their orchard, and in 1664 they received a grant "of 55 acres of land on the borders of the said park, to be planted with trees for eating-apples or cider, reserving a way through Westminster to Kensington, on condition of their enclosing and planting the ground at their own cost, paying a rental of £5, and giving half the apples " (which were to be redstreaks or pippins) " for the use of the King's Household." The State Papers also record that a lease of forty-

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one years of 55 acres in the north-west corner of Hyde Park, for growing apples, was granted on the above conditions.

But in the following year the Great Plague, more virulent and more fatal than ever, broke out and raged in London. Such a visitation, bad as the plagues had been in mediaeval times, had never been known. Panic ensued, and everyone who could do so left London and its suburbs. The Metropolis became a deserted city.

Hyde Park was made a plague camping-ground. Among those quartered within its boundaries were regiments of soldiers from the Tower and else- where. One of these men, evidently an amusing, observant fellow, without any poetical gifts, be- thought himself to write a doggerel account of his experiences. It is an excellent picture of the time, and depicts the horrors of the Plague even as far afield as Hyde Park was at that day :

Hide Park Camp

Limnd out to the Life,

Truly and Impartially, for the Information ana Satisfaction of such as were not Eye Witnesses, of the Souldiers' sad sufferings, In that (never-to-be- forgotten) Year of our Lord God, one thousand six hundred and sixty-five.

Written by a fellow souldier and Sufferer in the said Camp.

Help now (Minerva), stand a Souldier's friend, Direct my Muse, that I may not offend.

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Tis known I write not for to gain applause, My Sword and Pen shall maintain Martial Laws.

• •••••

In July, Sixteen hundred sixty and five, (O happy is the Man that's now alive) When God's destroying Angel sore did smite us, 'Cause he from sin by no means could invite us ; When lovely London was in mourning clad, And not a Countenance appeared but sad ; When the Contagion all about was spread ; And people in the streets did fall down dead ; When Money' d Fugitives away did flee, And took their Heels, in hopes to scape scot-free, Just then we march't away, the more's the pitty, And took our farewell of the Doleful City. With heavy hearts into Hide Park we came, To chuse a Place whereas we might remain. Our ground we viewed, then straight to work did

fall, And build up Houses without any wall. We pitch't our Tents in ridges and in Furrows, And there encamp't, fearing the Almighty's Arrows. But O, Alas ! what did this avail ; Our men (ere long) began to droop and quail. Our lodgings cold, and some not us'd thereto, Fell sick and dy'd, and made no more adoe. At length the Plague amongst us 'gan to spread, When ev'ry morning some were found stark dead. Down to another Field the sick were t'ane ; But few went down, that e'er came up again. For want of comfort, many I observed, Perished and dy'd, which might have been pre- served.

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But that which most of all did grieve my soul

To see poor Christians dragged into a hole.

Tye match about them, as they had been Logs,

And Draw them into Holes, far worse than Dogs.

When each man did expect his turn was next,

O then our Hearts with sorrow was perplext.

Our officers amazed stood, for dread,

To see their men no sooner sick than dead.

But that which most of all did grieve them, why ?

To help the same, there was no remedy.

A Pest house was prepared, and means was us'd,

That none should be excluded, or refused :

Yet all would not avail, they dy'd apace,

As one dy'd out, another took his place.

A sad and dismal time, as ere was known,

When Corps, in the wide fields, about was thrown.

Methinks I hear some say, Friend, Prithee hark, Where got you drink and victuals in the Park ? I, there's the Query ; we shall soon decide it, Why, we had men called Sutlers, provided ; Subtle they were, before they drove this Trade, But by this means they all were subtler made. No wind or weather, ere could make them flinch Yet they would have the Souldiers at a pinch. For my part I know little of their way, But what I heard my fellow-Souldiers say : One said, Their Meat and Pottage was too fat ; Yes, quoth another, we got none of that : Besides, quoth he, they have a cunning sleight, In selling out their meate by pinching weight, To make us pay sixpence a pound for Beefe, To a poor Souldier, is no little grief.

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Their Bread is small, their Cheese is markt by th'

Inch, And to speak the Truth, they're all upon the pinch. As for their Liquor, drink it but at Leazure, And you shall ne're be drunk with over measure.

But leave them now because Tattoo has beat

And fairly to our tents let us retreat,

Where we keep such a coyl, and such a quarter,

And all to make the tedious nights seem shorter.

Then down we lie, until our bones do ake,

First one side, then the other weary make.

When frost did pinch us, then we shake and shiver,

And full as bad we were in stormy weather.

A boisterous blast, when men with sleep were dead,

Would bring their houses down upon their head.

Thus in extremity we often lay,

Longing to see the dawning of the day,

Which brought us little comfort, for the Air

Was very sharp, and very hard our fare.

Our sufferings were almost beyond belief,

And yet we found small hopes to have relief.

• ••••*

We were as glad when we got to a Cup Of Nappy ale, to take a pretty sup : But durst not go to town, on any cause, For fear the Martial catch us in his claws. About the park to walk for recreation, We might be free, we knew our bounds and station, But not a coach was stirring anywhere, Unless 'twere such as brought us in our Beer. Alass, Hide Park, these are with the sad dayes, The Coaches all are turned to Brewers' Drayes ;

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Instead of Girls with Oranges and Lemons,

The Baker's boys, they brought in Loaves by

dozens ; And by that means, they kept us pretty sober, Until the end of wet October. They proms' d we should march, and then we leapt, But all their promises were broke (or kept). They made us all, for want of Winter Quarters, Ready to hang ourselves in our own Garters.

At last the Dove came with the Olive branch, And told for certain, that we should advance Out of the Field ; O then we leapt for joy, And cried with one accord, Vive le Roy. What did the Sutlers then ? nay, what do ye

think ? For very grief, they gave away their drink. But it's no matter, let them laugh that wins, They were no loosers. (God forgive their sins.)

Upon Gunpowder Treason Day, (at night) We burnt our Bed-straw, to make Bonfire light j And went to bed that night so merry-hearted For joy, we and our Lodgings should be parted : Next morning we were up by break of day, To be in readiness to march away. We bid adue to Hide Park's fruitful Soil, And left the Countrey to divide the spoyl.

• •••««

God bless King Charles, and send him long to Reign, And grant we may never know the like again. (London. Printed by P. L. for J. P.)

People were at their wits' end to know what to do at the time of the Plague, but some laughed at

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a novel proposal made in London while the scourge was raging, that a vessel should be freighted with peeled onions and sail along the Thames to absorb the infection of the air ; after which it should proceed to sea and throw them overboard.

But an unexpected disinfectant followed in the Great Fire, which stamped out the contagion so well that never again has London been visited by the plague. A half-witted Frenchman swung on the gallows at Tyburn on his own confes- sion of having started the conflagration, though when making his final exit from this world he denied it.

This Frenchman was named Robert Hubert. In the opinion of many he was a madman, but in spite of this an inscription was placed on the Monument that the Great Fire was the result of a Papist conspiracy. This was removed by James n., but replaced by William in. and remained until 1830, when it was finally done away with.

In the same year as the Fire, and almost before its flames were quenched, the gay world resumed the daily drive to the Park, and we again find Pepys joining a colleague at the Admiralty and adjourning thither in a coach to secure a quiet ttte- a-tete on some State question. We read of him attending a theatre or conducting his favourite actress or another of his amours, for a drive in the Park, or refreshment at the Lodge. Syllabub was greatly in fashion at Cake House. It was com- posed of milk whipped up with wine andj sugar, or cream whipped with cider.

Pepys took his wife for frequent outings,

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HYDE PARK

enjoying the gossip round the Ring, dining at the " Pillars of Hercules " — an inn near the site of the present Apsley House — or eating a cheese- cake at the Lodge " with a tankard of milk " ; experiencing a sense of shame at being seen in a hackney coach. "To Park in a hackney coach, so would not go into the Tour, but round the Park, and to the House, and there at the door eat and drank."

His criticism of dress was strong to the last, for one of the first entries he makes after the return of " London " to Hyde Park was on 21st April 1666, and runs :

" Thence, with my Lord Brouncke [the first President of the Royal Society] in his coach to Hide Parke, the first time I have been there this year. There the King was ; but I was sorry to see my Lady Castlemaine, for the mourning forceing all the ladies to go in black, with their hair plain, and without any spots [patches] I find her to be a much more ordinary woman than ever I durst have thought she was."

When the effect of the Plague and Fire had worn off, Hyde Park evidently became gayer and gayer. Our old Diarist, who, like all the gossips of the seventeenth century, was gifted with great powers of curiosity and criticism, gives a full account of May Day, 1667.

At this time a most eccentric figure played a conspicuous part in Society, in the person of the Duchess of Newcastle. Her attire and equipage were so peculiar that she never sallied forth without a crowd of boys and girls following to look at the

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quaint display. Such a sight would delight Pepys, who several times mentions, with genuine dis- appointment, the fact of not being able to see her properly on account of the crowd of onlookers who formed her escort. She was a great attraction in the Park on this May Day, for we read :

" Thence Sir W. Pen and I in his coach, Tiburne way, into the Park, where a horrid dust, and number of coaches without pleasure or order. That which we, and almost all went for, was to see my Lady Newcastle ; which we could not, she being followed and crowded upon by coaches all the way she went, that nobody could come near her ; only I could see she was in a large black coach adorned with silver instead of gold, and so white curtains, and every thing black and white, and herself in her cap, but other parts I could not make. But that which I did see, and wonder at with reason, was to find Peggy Penn in a new coach, with only her husband's pretty sister with her, both patched and very fine, and in much the finest coach in the park, and I think that ever I did see one or other, for neatness and richness of gold, and everything that is noble. My lady Castlemayne, the King, my Lord St. Albans, nor Mr. St. Jermyn have so neat a coach that ever I saw. And Lord ! to have them have this, and nothing else that is correspondent, is to me one of the most ridiculous sights that ever I did see, though her present dress was well enough, but to live in the condition they do at home, and be abroad in this coach, astonishes me."

Reviews were held frequently. In the autumn of 1668, Pepys attended one of these : " Colonel h 113

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the Duke of Monmouth in mighty rich clothes, but the well-ordering of the men I understand not," he writes. A " thousand coaches " were present, for it was a gay sight. The soldiers on these occasions made a brave show with their Cavalier hats and bright coats, while even the horses were bedecked with ribbons on their heads, manes, and tails.

The next year saw the fulfilment of a long- deferred hope in Pepys' fashionable life, for he then started his own coach. His words are too quaint to omit :

" Thence to Hyde Park, the first time we were there this year, or ever in our own coach, where with mighty pride rode up and down, and many coaches there ; and I thought our horses and coach as pretty as any there, and observed so to be by others. Here staid till night."

The new coach was put to frequent use. A fortnight later he writes :

" Thence to the Park, my wife and I : and here did Sir W. Coventry first see me and my wife in a coach of our own : and so did also this night the Duke of York, who did eye my wife mightily. But I begin to doubt that my being so much seen in my own coach at this time may be observed to my prejudice : but I must venture now."

This new purchase added much to Mr. and Mrs. Pepys' enjoyment of the May-Day show, although their tempers were none of the best on that occasion, seemingly :

" At noon home to dinner, and there find my wife extraordinary fine, with her flowered tably

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gown that she made two years ago, now laced exceeding pretty ; and indeed was fine all over ; and mighty earnest to go though the day was very lowering ; and she would have me put on my fine suit, which I did. And so anon we went alone through the town with our new liveries of serge, and the horses' manes and tails tied with red ribbons, and the standards there gilt with varnish, and all clean, and green reines, that people did mightily look upon us ; and the truth is, I did not see any coach more pretty though more gay, than ours, all the day. But we set out, out of humour — I because Betty, whom I expected, was not to come to go with us ; and my wife that I would sit on the same seat with her, which she likes not, being so fine : and she then expected to meet Sheres, which we did in Pell Mell, and against my will, I was forced to take him into the coach, but was sullen all day almost, and little complaisant ; the day also being unpleasing, though the Park full of coaches, but dusty and windy and cold, and now and then a little dribbling rain ; and what made it worst there were so many hackney coaches as spoiled the sight of the Gentlemen's; and so we had little pleasure. But here was W. Batelier and his sister in a borrowed coach by themselves, and I took them and we to the Lodge ; and at the door did give them a syllabub and other things cost me 12s. and pretty merry : and so back to the coaches and there till evening."

It was at a Review a few days after that Pepys ' saw more, walking out of my coach as other gentle- men did, of a soldier's trade than ever I did in my

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life ; the men being mighty fine, and their com- manders, particularly the Duke of Monmouth, but methought the trade but very easy as to the muster- ing of their men, but indifferently ready to perform what was commanded, in the handling of arms." This entry is followed up by a bit of gossip such as Pepys dearly loved to retail :

" Here the news first talked of Harry Killi- grew's being wounded in nine places last night by footmen in the highway, going from the Park in a hackney coach towards Hammersmith to his house at Turnham Greene ; they being supposed to be my Lady Shrewsbury's men, she being by, in her coach with six horses, upon an old grudge."

The above quotations are among the closing entries of the old writer. That month of May often brought him to Hyde Park — " in our own coach " as he proudly indites. He drove there on Whit-Sunday, and twice took his wife for refresh- ment to " The World's End," which he describes as a drinking-house by the Park, at Knightsbridge ; and both he and Evelyn mention the wonderful display of fireworks on the King's birthday (29th May 1669).

Records and letters preserved by many of the noble families contain numerous references to the gaieties of Hyde Park under the Restoration.

In the Harley Papers at Welbeck Abbey, and the Rutland Manuscripts at Belvoir Castle, letters exist written by Edward Harley to his father, Sir Edward Harley, and from Lady Mary Bertie to her niece, describing in detail the review that was held in " Hide Parke " in honour of the visit of the

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Prince of Orange (afterwards William in.), then a youth of nineteen. Mr. Harley says : " Yesterday there was a review in Hyde Park of all the Guards, horse, foot, cannon, and pioneers, to entertain the Prince of Orange."

Lady Rachel Russell writes to Lady Granby at Belvoir Castle :

" Lady Salisbury was at Hyde Park a Sunday night, mighty Frenchified in her dresse, as your brother says. . . . Mr. Beaumont was upon the road and met two coaches and six horses, and the lady lifted up a curtain, and in French, spoke to aske how far 'twas to Hatfield."

This was another evidence of the love of every- thing French under the regime of Charles n.

With another letter from the Rutland Papers, delightful and only a trifle scandalous, this chapter may be fitly closed. The little incident, told in such a matter-of-fact way, of her Grace of Sussex and Madame Mazarin going down to St. James's Park with drawn swords under their night-gowns, and making " several fine passes " before an applauding circle of men, tells more of those times than pages of moralising. It is from Lady Chaworth to Lord Ross :

Dec. 25, 1676.

"... I shall send your Lordship the peck of chesnuts, and 5 lb. of vermicelli by the Munday carrier, and hope you will find them all good, 3 lb. of the vermicelli being the same, but made up in new shapes, which Signore Brunetti sends me word the King had 300 lb. of last weeke. . . . Lady

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Sussex is not yet gone, but my Lord is better and holds his resolution of goeing as soone as the weather breakes up to make good travailing. She and Madame Mazarin have privately learnt to fence, and went downe into St. James's Parke the other day with drawne swords under theire night gownes, which they drew out and made severall fine passes with, to the admiration of severall men that was lookers on in the Parke. . . . The Dutchesse [of York, sister-in-law to Charles n.] is much delighted with making and throwing of snowballs, and pelted the Duke soundly with one the other day, and ran away quick into her closet and he after her, but she durst not open the doore. She hath also great pleasure in one of those sledges they call Trainias, and is pulled up and downe the ponds in them every day, as also the King, which are counted dangerous things, and none can drive the horse which draws them about but the Duke of Monmouth, Mr. Griffin, and Mr. Godolphin, and a fourth whose name I have forgot ! "

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CHAPTER VI

MASKS AND PATCHES

A well-known story relates that one day Charles n. was returning from Hyde Park, where he was just as fond of walking as James Duke of York was of riding. He was attended by two courtiers only, and was crossing at Hyde Park Corner when he met James coming home from the hunt on Hounslow Heath. The Duke of York was driving in great style in his coach, with an escort of Royal Horse Guards. He stopped, stepped from his carriage to greet the King, and remonstrated with him for putting himself in danger by walking in the public highway attended by only two gentlemen.

" No kind of danger," said Charles, "for I am sure that no man in England will take away my life to make you King ! "

And King Charles, who knew men and women well, and concealed many a telling truth under his buoyant humour, was quite right. The three years of James n.'s misrule are doubtless full of interest to the historian, but they give little material for this volume, and may be passed over with a bare mention.

Society, however, pursued its way, and the daily drive and lounge survived during all the religious

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and political turmoil. Hyde Park remained the great rendezvous, though James was rarely seen there, and under the trees were discussed, as of old, the affairs of the Court, the plots of the Roman Catholics, precedence of great ladies, rivalries and jealousie, dress and equipage. A new excitement was added to the fashionable walk by a custom which began among the beaux and grandes dames of wearing masks in the Park, and by their means many intrigues were set afoot. Philip 2nd Earl of Chesterfield has left in his Letters a short correspondence with a masked lady with whom he had walked in the Park four times. She remained unknown. It was a point of honour not to attempt to identify a masked person unless the name was guessed outright.

What a curious thing it must have been to see men and women at all hours of the day walking or riding masked. They even went to theatres so disguised. These half-masks were called " visors," and by some people " hide-blushes."

Others found methods of gallantry more daring than this. From Nell G Wynne's time — I do not know whether the Royal favourite's previous and more honourable calling had anything to do with it— it had become the custom to buy oranges and cakes from orange-girls in Hyde Park. This custom lasted for many years. Constant mention is made of these girls in the gossip of the day, and they are reported to have carried more romantic wares than the yellow fruit, for they were often the chosen bearers of billets doux from gallants to their ladies, and vice versd.

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From the half concealment of a mask it was but a step for a great lady of a sportive turn to disguise herself as an orange girl and bear the burden of the basket, the true owner of which, washed, painted and powdered, and dressed out of recognition, mixed among the gay crowd and added to their bewilder- ment. The great figure of Sarah Duchess of Marlborough appears as one of those who found amusement in this very undignified change of station.

King James retired, unlamented, into exile, and his daughter Mary and William of Orange came over to take the English throne. Though great as a Queen, Mary seems to have been a somewhat unfilial daughter, if we accept Evelyn's testimony when saying that she came into Whitehall " laughing and jolly as to a wedding, seeming quite trans- ported," or that other account of her routing about the Queen's apartments, in and out of every room, in her night attire, before the household were astir in the morning.

The fashionable crowd about the Parks seemed less at ease, and no doubt there were numerous absentees. Men pursuing their daily duties, the merchant in the City, or the dandy of the day sauntering in the morning, on whom the slightest suspicion of Jacobitism rested, would be accosted by a gruff individual, shown a Privy Council warrant, and dragged off, ruffle, cravat, embroideries, and wig notwithstanding. An ignominious retreat from a gay scene or a busy world.

Writing in 1690 to her husband, William III., who was in Holland, Queen Mary says: "I was

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only last night in Hyde Park, for the first time since you went : it swarmed with those that are now ordered to be clapt up."

Mary, unfortunately, was not able to convey much of her " jolliness " to the Park, where the lighter side of London life loved to assemble. King William suffered from asthma, and a damp riverside Palace at Westminster did not suit him. He was recommended to migrate to Kensington, near the Gravel Pits. This was far remote from the town ; but possibly the dryness of the gravel soil settled the choice.

Ten years after his reign began, old Whitehall Palace was consumed in flames, and the severance was then complete. The King had bought a house and grounds from the Earl of Notting- ham, and there raised the present building of Kensington Palace, wherein Queen Victoria was born.

Though still so near, Hyde Park saw little of them, for William was occupied in State affairs, and Queen Mary preferred the quietness of their private gardens. Thus whatever little tone and vigour remained in Society, soon disappeared, and a greater laxity made itself apparent. The Park, as it ceased to be a Royal preserve and properly cared for, became infested with undesirable characters, and Knightsbridge, which, as already mentioned, had always been looked on as a locality frequented by robbers, presented many hiding-places for footpads of the most desperate description. Hyde Park sank into a period of degradation unexampled either before or since.

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Still it was an age of romance. It is rather amusing to read of the tax on bachelors. It must be remembered that at the beginning of the reign of William and Mary the [population of England was only five and a half millions, and the revenue amounted to £1,400,000.

No wonder that in 1695 an Act was passed obliging all bachelors and widowers above twenty- five years old to pay a tax of one shilling yearly ; a bachelor or widower duke, £12, 10s. ; a marquis, £10 a year.

While attempting to increase the revenues, the only attempt made at municipal improvement during the reign seems to have been the lighting of the prin- cipal thoroughfares from St. James's. Apparently William had little use for the Park but to pass through it and the Green Park on his way from Kensington to the town, and this he often had to do after sunset. The road was rough and dark ; in fact, was altogether unsafe after nightfall. The King decided that, whatever the cost, it must be lighted. Accordingly he had about three hundred lamps placed along the way. But this was too great an expense in those days to be kept up except in the winter, and the spluttering oil-wick lamps only dimly lighted it for a few months of the year.

This was rather a difference from our present- day lighting arrangements, which many people still consider totally insufficient. Vice flies before illumination. In this year of grace the Park is lighted with electric arc lamps as well as in- candescent gas. The policy is to light up main

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roads and paths, but not the whole surface of the Park. Certain wide spaces, like the " Lecture Ground " near the Marble Arch, the road from the Marble Arch to Hyde Park Corner, and the Band Stand enclosure, are lighted by elec- tricity.

When William and Mary increased the popu- larity of Kensington by going to live at the new Palace, they also improved the prospects of the ever enterprising light-handed fraternity. Social gatherings of all sorts took place, gambling was indulged in for high stakes, and ladies attending Court functions at St. James's and private enter- tainments at Kensington had to pass along this dreary road, laden with jewels or the proceeds of the basset tables. The thieves were so active and daring that at last a guard-house had to be erected within the park, and the place patrolled, while on occasions of any Court functions the Park guard was doubled.

The London Post of 7th December 1699 records that

" On Monday night the Patroul of the Guards was doubled between Kensington and the City, and marched continually to and fro till day to prevent any Robberies being committed upon those that returned from the Basset-tables held there that Evening."

In ill-repute though it had become, " persons of quality " still enjoyed their afternoon drive in Hyde Park. Its worst side was reserved for the night. The gilded coaches, the painted women, and swagger- ing men, with their wigs, their long waistcoats and

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their swords, moving about among the trees, gave an appearance of festivity, even if the times were remarkably dull. Tom Brown's Amusements Serious and Comical, published in 1700, gives a picture of Hyde Park manners near the close of William iii.'s reign which is certainly not edifying. The author is supposed to be showing " an Indian " over London :

" From Spring Garden we set our Faces towards Hide Park, where Horses have their Diversions as well as Men, and Neigh and Court their Mistresses almost in as intelligible a Dialect. Here People Coach it to take the Air, amidst a Cloud of Dust, able to choak a Foot Soldier, and hinder' d us from seeing those that come hither on pur- pose to show themselves. However, we made hard shift to get now and then a glance at some of them.

" Here we saw much to do about nothing : a World of Brave Men, Gilt Coaches, and Rich Liveries. Within some of them were Upstart Courtiers, blown up as big as Pride and Vanity could swell them to ; as if a Stake had been driven through them. It would hurt their Eyes to ex- change a Glance upon anything that's Vulgar, and that's the Reason they are so sparing of their Looks, that they will neither Bow nor move their Hats to anything under a Duke or a Duchess, and yet if you examine some of their Original ; a Covetous, Soul-less Miser, or a great Oppressor, laid the Foundation of their Families, and in their Retinue there are more Creditors than Servants.

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" ' See,' says my Indian, ' what a Bevy of Gallant Ladies are in yonder Coaches ; some are Singing, others Laughing, others Tickling one another, and all of them Toying and devouring Cheese-cakes, March Pane, and China Oranges. See that Lady,' says he ; ' was ever anything so black as her Eye and so clear as her Forehead ? one would swear her face had taken its Tincture from all the Beauties in Nature.' ' And yet perhaps,' answered I to my Fellow-Traveller, ' all this is but Imposture ; she might, for ought we know, got to Bed last night as ugly as a Hagg, tho' she now appears