76 SOLDIER AND SPORTSMAN 



viz. in 1827, 1828 and 1829, with Matilda by 

 Comus, The Colonel by Whisker, and Rowton by 

 Giseau, owned by Mr Petre, who had previously 

 also succeeded in 1822 with Theodore by Woful. 



However, to this famous and most sanguinary 

 duel which took place in Hyde Park and which is 

 linked with a wealth of romance. Henry VIII. 

 was the monarch who, having vested it from the 

 Westminster Abbots, ran a fence round the Park 

 which embraced about six hundred acres, and 

 was used for many years by royalty as a hunting 

 ground and game preserve. However, Cromwell's 

 Parliament, requiring State funds, sold it for 

 ^19,000, but with the Restoration came also the 

 restoration of the Park to the nation, but with 

 a curtailment of the extent by two hundred acres. 

 The name Rotten Row is merely a corruption 

 of Route de Roi ; it originally formed the route 

 followed by royalty from Westminster to the 

 royal forests, and no commoners were admitted, 

 with the exception of the Duke of St Albans. 

 It may, too, not be generally known that the 

 present holder of the title has every year to 

 drive once down the row to maintain his privilege 

 as Hereditary Grand Falconer. 



Near to the Receiving House of the Royal 

 Humane Society, on the north side of the Ser- 

 pentine, is the Field of Blood, so called because 



