November 23, 1876. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



449 



bodies, and further punishment at His Majesty's will and 

 pleasure, is to presume to hunt or hawk, from the palace of 

 Westminster to St. Giles-in-the-Fields, and from thence to 

 Islington, to Our Lady of the Oak, to Highgate, to Hornsey 

 Park, and to Hampstead Heath.' It was, probably, also about 

 this period that the manor of Hyde was made into a park — 

 that is, enclosed with a fence or paling, and thus became still 

 better adapted for the rearing and preserving of game. And 

 here it may be fit to observe that its extent at that time and 

 for long after was much greater than it is at present, reaching 

 as far as Park Lane to the east and almost up to the site of 

 Kensington Palace to the west." 



Cunningham observes that to the passionate fondness of the 

 early English sovereigns for the chase we owe in all probability 

 the parks of London. What was a passion in our Williams 

 and Edwards became in their successors a fashion also. Even 

 the awkward and timid James deemed it a part of his king- 



craft to affect a love of the chase. Hence the formation of 

 St. James's Park by Henry YIII. , and the retention of Hyde 

 Park and Marybourne Park by that king and his succes- 

 sors, when other lands appropriated by the Crown at the dis- 

 solution of the monasteries were squandered away as lavishly 

 as they were covetously grasped in the first instance. There 

 are circumstances which would lead us to attribute to Henry VIII. 

 a more extensive project than that of merely studding the 

 country in the vicinity of the royal residence with deer parks. 



Hyde Park occupies nearly 400 acres. The sheet of water 

 ironically called the Serpentine, being nearly straight, was 

 formed in 1770-3 according to the order of Queen Caroline ; 

 but the waterfall at its eastern end was not constructed until 

 1817. The angle which Apsley House occupies and a large 

 portion of Kensington Gardens have been subtracted from 

 the park. 



Hyde Park was a favourite plaoe of resort for those who 



Fig. 68.— Hide pass— The deli. 



brought in the 1st of May with the reverence once paid to it. 

 Pepys breathes a sigh in his ' Diary ' on the evening of the 

 30th April, 1661 (he was then on a pleasure jaunt), to this 

 effect : — " I am sorry I am not in London to be at Hide Park 

 to-morrow morning, among the great gallants and ladies, which 

 will be very fine." It was very fine, for Evelyn has entered 

 in his ' Diary,' under the date of the identical 1st of May re- 

 ferred to by Pepys : — " I went to Hide Park to take the air, 

 where was His Majesty and an innumerable appearance of 

 gallants and rich ooaches, being now at time of universal 

 festivity and joy." But even during the sway of the Puritans 

 the Londoners assembled here " to do observance to May," as 

 we learn from " Several Proceedings of State Affairs, 27th April 

 to 4th May, 1654."—" Monday, 1st May. This day was more 

 observed by people going a-maying than for divers years past, 

 and indeed much sin committed by wicked meetings with 

 fiddlers, drunkenness, ribaldry, and the like ; great resort came 

 to Hyde Park, many hundreds of ooaches and gallants in 

 attire, bnt most shamefnl powdered-hair men, and painted and 

 spotted women. Some men played with a silver ball, and 

 some took other recreation. But His Highness the Lord Pro- 

 tector went not thither nor any of the Lords of the Common- 

 wealth, but were busy about the great affairs of the Common- 

 wealth." 

 A resident has observed in a local periodical that a map 



of Hyde Park about the year 1736 or 1737 shows the turn- 

 pike and gallows at Tyburn, and a double row of Walnut 

 trees, with a wide gravel walk between, running from north to 

 south parallel to the Park Lane. In the centre of this avenue 

 is a circular reservoir belonging to the Chelsea Waterworks, 

 and from whioh not only Kensington Palaoe and the suburb 

 were supplied, but also "the new buildings about Oliver's 

 Mount" (now Mount Street) " and the northern parts of West- 

 minster." Mr. Larwood tells us that the machinery used for 

 forcing the supply was at that time so primitive that the water 

 had to be conveyed to the houses on the high ground near 

 Grosvenor Square by means of a mill turned by horses. 



This avenue of Walnut trees was standing till about the year 

 1310, when most of the trees, being much decayed and in 

 danger of being blown down whenever the wind was high, were 

 cut down, their wood being designed to make stocks for the 

 muskets of our infantry. 



In the map the " Ring " is marked with a large circle, ap- 

 parently about 150 yards to the north of the east end of the 

 Serpentine. Round the " Ring " stands a square of large 

 trees, a few of which may, perhaps, still be standing. There 

 is a small brook which runs into the Serpentine near the 

 present boathouse from the neighbourhood of the Uxbridge 

 Road, and two small ponds of water are marked towards the 

 south-east corner— one nearly where the statue of Achilles 



