Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub

"2 April, 1661. To St. James's Park, where I saw the Duke of York playing at pall-mall, the first time that I ever saw the sport."-Pepys. Cibber tells us that here he had often seen Charles playing with his dogs and feeding his ducks, which made the common people adore him.

The Bird-cage Walk, on the south side of the Park, nearly in the same line as the road which still retains the name, had in Charles II.'s time the cages of an aviary disposed among the trees which bordered it. The keeper of the Volary, or Aviary, was Edward Storey, from whom or his house is named Storey's Gate. The carriage-road between this and Buckingham Gate was, until 1828, only open to the Royal Family, and the Hereditary Grand Falconer, the Duke of St. Albans.

In the "inward park" was made a formal Canal, 2800 feet in length and 100 feet broad, running from the Parade to Buckingham House. On the south of this canal, near its east end, was the Decoy, a triangular nexus of smaller canals, where water-fowl were kept. Within the channels of the Decoy was Duck Island, of which Sir John Flock and St. Evremond were, in succession, appointed governors (with a salary) by Charles II.; and Queen Caroline is said to have given the sinecure to the thresher-poet, Stephen Duck: "the island itself," says Pennant, "is lost in the late improvements."

66

The Park, as well as the Palace, sheltered persons from arrest; for, in 1632, John Perkins, a constable, was imprisoned for serving the Lord Chief-Justice's warrant upon John Beard in St. James's Park. To draw a sword in the Park was also a very serious offence. Congreve, in his Old Bachelor, makes Bluffe say, My blood rises at that fellow. I can't stay where he is; and I must not draw in the Park." Traitorous expressions, when uttered in St. James's Park, were punished more severely. Francis Heat was whipped, in 1717, from Charing Cross to the upper end of the Haymarket, fined ten groats, and ordered a month's imprisonment, for saying aloud in St. James's Park, "God save King James III., and send him a long and prosperous reign!" and, in 1718, a soldier was whipped in the Park for drinking a health to the Duke of Ormond and Dr. Sacheverel, and for saying " he hoped soon to wear his right master's cloth." The Duke of Wharton, too, was seized by the guard in St. James's Park for singing the Jacobite air, "The king shall have his own again." See Cunningham's Handbook, p. 260; where are printed, from the Letter-book of the Lord Steward's Office, two letters, dated 1677, sent with two lunatics to Bethlehem: Deborah Lyddal, for offering to throw a stone at the queen; and Richard Harris, for throwing an orange at the king, in St. James's Park.

"Dec. 1, 1662. Having seene the strange and wonderful dexterity of the sliders on the new canal in St. James's Park, performed before their Majesties by divers gentlemen and others, with scheets after the manner of the Hollanders, with what swiftness as they pass, how suddainly they stop in full career upon the ice, I went home."-Evelyn.

Some of the cavaliers had, probably, acquired the art when seeking to while away a Dutch winter; and but for the temporary overthrow of the monarchy, we should not thus early have had skating in England. The Park soon became a resort for all classes, since, in 1683, the Duke of York records, Dec. 4 (a very hard frost), "this morning the boys began to slide upon the canal in the Park."

Evelyn, in 1664, went to "the Physique Garden in St. James's," where he first saw "orange-trees and other fine trees." He enumerates in the menagerie, "an ornocratylus, or pelican, a fowle between a storke and a swan; a melancholy water-fowl, brought from Astracan by the Russian ambassador; a milk-white raven; two Balearian cranes," one of which had a wooden leg "made by a soulder:" there were also "deere of severall countries, white, spotted like leopards; an

telopes, an elk, red deer, roebucks, staggs, Guinea goates, Arabian sheepe," &c. There were "withy-potts, or nests, for the wild fewe to lay their eggs in, a little above ye surface of ye water.”

"25 Feb. 1654. This night I walk'd into St. James his Parke, where I saw many strange creatures, as divers sorts of outlandish deer, Guiny sheep, a race raven, a great parrot, a storke. Here are very stately wilkes set with lime-trees on both sides, and a fine pallmall."-Journal of Mr. E. Breg xe, 200 of Sir Thomas Browne.

Evelyn, on March 2, 1671, attended Charles through St. James'i Park, where he saw and heard "a familiar discourse between the King and Mrs. Nelly, as they called an impudent comedian; she looking: of her garden on a terrace at the top, and the King standing on the green walk under it." (See page 394.) "Of the mount, or raised terrac on which Nelly stood, a portion may still be seen under the park-wall of Marlborough House." (Cunningham's Nell Gwyn, p. 118.) In th royal garden where Charles stood, and which was then the norther boundary of the Park, we find Master Pepys, in his Diary, stealing apples like a schoolboy. Pepys also portrays a court cavalcade in the Park, all flaunting with feathers, in which Charles appears betwe the Countess of Castlemaine and the Queen, and Mrs. Stewart.

While Charles was walking in the Mall, he first received intimation of Titus Oates's pretended Popish plot. On Aug. 12, 1678, Kirby, the chemist, accosted the King as he walked in the Park: "Sir," said he, "keep within the company your enemies have a design upon your lie and you may be shot in this very walk." Charles was an early riser and a fast walker. Burnet complained that the King walked so fast he could not keep up with him. When Prince George of Denmark said that he was growing too fat, "Walk with me," said Charles, “and hunt with my brother, and you will not long be distressed with growing fat."

Aubrey relates that Avise Evans had a fungous nose; and it being told to him that the King's hand would cure him, he awaited Charles in the Park, kissed the royal hand, and rubbed his nose with it, which disturbed the King, but cured Evans.

Succeeding kings allowed the people the privilege of walking in the Mall; and the passage from Spring Gardens was opened in 1699 by permission of King William. Queen Caroline, however, talked of shutting up the Park, and converting it into a noble garden for St. James's Palace: she asked Walpole what it might probably cost; who replied, "Only three crowns.'

Dean Swift, who often walked here with the poets Prior and Rowe, writes of skating as a novelty to Stella, in 1711: "Delicious walking weather," says he;" and the Canal and Rosamond's Pond full of rabble sliding, and with skaitts, if you know what it is."

This Park was a favourite resort of Goldsmith:

"If a man be splenetic, he may every day meet companions on the seats in St. James's Park, with whose groans he may mix his own, and pathetically talk of the weather." (Essays.) The strolling player takes a walk in St. James's Park, "about the hour at which company leave it to go to dinner. There were but few in the walks; and those who stayed, seemed by their looks rather more willing to forget that they had an appetite, than gain one." (Essays.) And dinnerless, Jack Spindle mends his appetite by a walk in the Park.

On the south-west side of the Park, connected with the Canal by a sluice, was the gloomy Rosamond's Pond, of oblong shape, and overhung by the trees of the Long Avenue: it is mentioned in a grant of Henry VIII. It occurs as a place of assignation in the comedies of Otway, Congreve, Farquhar, Southerne, and Colley Cibber; and Pope calls it "Rosamonda's Lake." Its name is referred to the frequency of love-suicides committed here. The Pond was filled up in 1770, when

he gate into Petty France was opened for bringing in the soil to fill p the Pond and the upper part of the Canal.

About 1740, Hogarth painted a large view of Rosamond's Pond, now in the ollection of Mr. H. R. Willett, at Merly House, Dorset. This picture has been ngraved, but the impressions (100) have not been published; it was copied by Jeorge Cruikshank, in 1842, in his illustrations of Ainsworth's Miser's Daughter. Hogarth also painted a cabinet view of Rosamond's Pond, likewise in the possesion of Mr. Willett, who has the receipt for 1. 78. (the sum charged by the >ainter) in the handwriting of Mrs. Hogarth. The Pond has been engraved by I. T. Smith and W. H. Toms.

In a house belonging to the Crown, at the south-east corner of Rosamond's Pond, was born George Colman the Younger, who describes the snow-white tents of the Guards, who were encamped in the Park during the Riots of 1780.

The trees have been thinned by various means. Dryden records, by a violent wind, February 7, 1698-9: "The great trees in St. James's Park are many of them torn up from the roots, as they were before Oliver Cromwell's death, and the late queen's." In 1833 were thus lost two fine trees, said to have been planted by Charles II. with acorns from Boscobel. The uniformity of Bird-cage Walk has been spoiled by the new road. Samouelle, in his Compendium of Entomology, figures a destructive moth "found in July, in St. James's Park, against trees."

After the death of Charles II., St. James's Park ceased to be the favourite haunt of the sovereign, but it continued to be the promenade of the people; and here, in the summer, till early in the present century, gay company walked for one or two hours after dinner; but the evening dinner has robbed the Park of this charm, and the Mall is principally a thoroughfare for busy passengers.

"My spirits sunk, and a tear started into my eyes, as I brought to mind those crowds of beauty, rank, and fashion, which, till within these few years, used to be displayed in the centre Mall of this Park on Sunday evenings during the spring and summer. How often in my youth had I been a delighted spectator of the enchanted and enchanting assemblage! Here used to promenade, for one or two hours after dinner, the whole British world of gaiety, beauty, and splendour. Here could be seen in one moving mass, extending the whole length of the Mall, 5000 of the most lovely women in this country of female beauty, all splendidly attired, and accompanied by as many well-dressed men. What a change. I exclaimed, has a few years wrought in these once happy and cheerful personages! How many of those who on this very spot then delighted my eyes, are now mouldering in the silent grave!"-Sir R. Phillips's Walk to Kew, 1817.

For the Peace Commemoration Fête, on August 1, 1814, the Mall and Bird-cage Walk were lighted with Chinese lanterns; a Chinese bridge and seven-storied pagoda were erected across the canal: they were illuminated with lamps, and fireworks were discharged from them, which set fire to the pagoda, and burnt its three upper stories, when two persons lost their lives.

Canova, when asked what struck him most forcibly during his visit to England, is said to have replied, "that the trumpery Chinese bridge in St. James's Park should be the production of the government, whilst that of Waterloo was the work of a private company."-Quarterly Rev. The hints for supplanting the forest-trees which skirt the Park, by flowering shrubs, and dressing the ground in a gaver style, so as to

The two old railed-in oaks on the north side of the Serpentine, in Hyde Park, where the road turns to Kensington Gardens, are said to have been planted by Charles II. from acorns of the Boscobel Oak. (See HYDE PARK: at page 585, for "Lake House" read "Cake House.")

Here were elms planted by the late Mr. Rench, of Fulham, from trees reared in his own nursery. He married two wives, had 35 children, and died in 1783, aged 101 years, in the room wherein he was born.

૨૨

convert even the gloomy alleys of St. James's Park into a lively and agreeable promenade, were first published in "A Letter to the Rt. Hon. Sir Charles Long," &c. 1825.

In 1827 was commenced the relaying out of the inner park. The straight canal was altered and extended to a winding lake, with islands of evergreens; at the west end is a fountain. The borders of the principal walk are planted with evergreens, which are scientifically labelled; some of the fine old elms remain. The glimpses of grand architectural objects from this Park are very striking, and include the towers of Westminster Abbey and the new Houses of Parliament; the extensive front of Buckingham Palace; the York Column, rising from between terraces of mansions; and the Horse Guards, terminating the picturesque vista of the lake. Upon the eastern island is the Swiss cottage of the Ornithological Society, built in 1841 with a grant of 3001. from the Lords of the Treasury: the design is by J. B. Watson, and contains a council-room, keeper's apartments, steam-hatching ap paratus; contiguous are feeding-places and decoys; and the aquatic fowl breed on the island, making their own nests among the shrubs and grasses. In 1849 an experimental crop of Forty-day Maize (from the Pyrenees) was successfully grown and ripened in this Park. For the privilege of farming the chairs, 251. is paid annually to the office of Woods and Forests.

The fine old trees of the grounds of Carlton House formerly overhung the road by the Park-wall, now the site of the Pastum-Dorie substructure of Carlton-House-terrace; the opening in which to the York Column (see page 226) was formed by command of William IV., as had been the Spring-Garden gate by William III. Milk Fair, leftward of this gate, is described at page 251. The vista of the Mall, which consists of elms, limes, and planes, is terminated by the grand front of Buckingham Palace.

In 1854 were found in the roof of the house of the late Mr. B. L. Vulliamy, No. 68 Pall Mall, a box containing four pairs of the mailes, or mallets, and one ball, such as were formerly used for playing the game of pall-mall upon the site of the above house, or in the Mall of St. James's Park. Each maile is 4 feet in length, and is made of lance-wood; the head is slightly curved, and measures outwardly 5 inches, the inner curve being 4 inches; the diameter of the maile-ends is 2 inches, each shod with a thin iron hoop; the handle, which is very elastic, is bound with white leather to the breadth of two hands, and terminated with a collar of jagged leather. The ball is of box-wood, 2 inches in diameter. The pair of mailes and a ball, here engraved, have been presented to the British Museum by Mr. George Vulliamy. The game was played by striking the ball (palla, Ital.) with the mallet or maile (maglia, Ital.) through a ring of iron upon a lofty pole at each end of the alley as described at page 590.

[graphic][merged small]

The Wellington Barracks, built near the site of Rosamond's Pond, were first occupied by troops on March 1, 1814: the Military Chapel was opened May 1, 1838. Eastward was the residence of Lord Milford, fitted up in 1820 as Her Majesty's Stationery Office, for supplying the public departments of the Government with Stationery.

St. James's Park was not lighted with gas until 1822; although

Pall-Mall, adjoining, was the first thoroughfare in London so lighted, and that as early as 1807.

On the north side of the Parade is a piece of Turkish ordnance, of great length: it was taken by the British at Alexandria, and is mounted upon an English-built carriage. Opposite is the immense mortar cast at Seville by order of Napoleon, employed by Marshal Soult at the siege of Cadiz in 1812, and abandoned by the French army in their retreat from Salamanca: it was presented by the Spanish Cortes to the Prince Regent. The gun-metal bed and carriage were cast at Woolwich in 1814, and consist of a crouching dragon, with upraised wings and scorpion-tail, involving the trunnions; it is allegorical of the monster Geryon, destroyed by Hercules. The mortar itself is 8 feet long, 12 inches diameter in bore, and has thrown shells 34 miles: it weighs about 5 tons. On the pedestal are inscriptions in Latin and English. When Soult was in England, in 1838, he good-humouredly recognised his lost gun. Here was also formerly a small piece of artillery which had been taken from Bonaparte at Waterloo.

The State-Paper Office, further south, occupying part of the site of the house of Lord Chancellor Jefferies, was built by Sir John Soane in 1833: it was his latest work, and resembles an Italian palazzo. At No. 17 Duke-street, died in 1849, aged 81, Sir Marc Isambard Brunel, the engineer of the Thames Tunnel.

Upon the south side of the Park is Milton's garden-house, in Petty France. Hazlitt lived in this house in 1813, when Haydon was one of a christening-party of " Charles Lamb and his poor sister, and all sorts of odd clever people, in a large room, wainscoted and ancient, where Milton had meditated." (Haydon's Autobiography, vol. i. p. 211.) In the garden-wall is a doorway, now blocked up, but which once opened into the Park, and was probably that used by Milton in passing from his house to Whitehall. In Queen-Square-place, and looking upon the garden-ground of Milton's house, was the house of Jeremy Bentham, who died here in 1832.

Upon the Parade was marshalled the State Funeral Procession of the great Duke of Wellington, November 18, 1852. The body was removed from Chelsea Hospital on the previous midnight, and deposited in the Audience Chamber at the Horse-Guards. Beneath a tent upon the Parade-ground was stationed the Funeral Car, whereon the coffin being placed, and the command given, the cortége, in slow and solemn splendour, moved down the Mall past Buckingham Palace, whence the procession was seen by Her Majesty and the Royal Family.

The Funeral Car, chiefly designed by Mr. Redgrave, the Art-Superintendent at Marlborough House, consists of the bier, covered with a black velvet pall, diapered with the Duke's crest and field-marshals' batons, fringed with laurel-leaves in silver, and inscribed: "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord." Upon the bier was placed the coffin, upon which lay the Duke's hat and sword, beneath a canopy of rich tissue, supported by halberts, hung with chaplets of real laurel. The platform of the car is gilt, and bears the names of the Duke's great victories; and in the centre part of the sides were groups of modern arms, helmets, guns, flags and drums, furnished by the Board of Ordnance. The carriage, 20 feet by 12, is ornamented in bronze with laurels and figures of Fame; the 12 wheels have massive lions' heads as bosses: and in front were the Duke's arms, superbly emblazoned. The car was drawn by 12 horses, in black velvet housings, decorated with trophies and heraldic achievements; and on each side were borne five superb bannerols. The Car is to be seen at Marlborough House, Pall Mall.

KENNINGTON PARK, formed from Kennington Common in 1852-3, is described at page 430: it comprises 12 acres, enclosed with iron palisading, and laid out in grass-plots, and planted with shrubs and evergreens; and Prince Albert's Model Lodging-house at the principal entrance. Old men remember when the Common was the gallowsground in 1848 it was the scene of Chartist mob-agitation.

« НазадПродовжити »