[Illustration: OSLER’S GLASS FOUNTAIN AND THE TRANSEPT.
THE GREAT EXHIBITION.
_Frontispiece._
]
HYDE PARK
FROM
_DOMESDAY-BOOK TO DATE_
BY
JOHN ASHTON
AUTHOR OF “SOCIAL LIFE IN THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE,” ETC., ETC.
_ONE MAP AND TWENTY-ONE ILLUSTRATIONS_
London
DOWNEY & CO.
YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON
1896
[_All rights reserved_]
LONDON:
GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, LIMITED,
ST. JOHN’S HOUSE, CLERKENWELL ROAD, E.C.
PREFACE.
The only History of Hyde Park, at all worthy of the name, is Vol. I. of
“The Story of the London Parks,” by Jacob Larwood. But, its author says,
definitely, “What happened in Hyde Park subsequently to 1825, approaches
too near to contemporary history to be told in these pages.” This (for
Hyde Park has a history since then), added to the inaccuracies and
imperfections of the book, has induced me to write a History of Hyde
Park from Domesday Book to Date.
JOHN ASHTON.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
The forests round London--The Manor of Eia in Domesday Book--Its
subdivision--The Manor of Hyde--The Manor of Ebury--The Manor of
Neate--The Neat houses--Henry VIII. and Hyde Park--Queen Elizabeth
and Hyde Park--James I.--The deer in the Park--Last shooting
therein--Foxes--The badger 1
CHAPTER II.
Hyde Park in the early Commonwealth--Its sale--Toll on horses and
carriages--A hurling match--Cromwell’s accident--Attempts to shoot
him in the Park--Notices against trespassers--The Park at the
Restoration 14
CHAPTER III.
The camp in Hyde Park during the Plague of 1665--Boscobel Oaks in the
Park--When first opened to the public--What it was then like--The
Cheesecake House--Its homely refections--Orange girls 24
CHAPTER IV.
Foot and horse racing in the Park--Prize fighting--Duelling--The duel
between Lord Mohun and the Duke of Hamilton 32
CHAPTER V.
Duelling in Hyde Park 39
CHAPTER VI.
Skating on the ponds and Serpentine--The Ring--Many notices
thereof--Fireworks in the Park--Bad roads therein, and accidents
caused thereby--Regulations in the time of Queen Anne--Making the
drive--Riding in the Park 49
CHAPTER VII.
Rotten Row, the King’s Old Road--The New King’s Road made and
lighted--The Allied Sovereigns in the Park--The Park after the
Peninsular War--The Duke of Wellington in the Park--The Queen and
Royal Family in the Park 61
CHAPTER VIII.
The springs in Hyde Park--Used as water supply for Westminster--Horses
in the Park--The Westbourne--Making the Serpentine--The “Naumachia”
thereon--Satires about it--The Jubilee Fair 65
CHAPTER IX.
Coronation of George IV.--Boat-racing on the Serpentine--Illumination
of the Park--Fireworks--Coronation of Queen Victoria--Fair in the
Park--Fireworks in Hyde Park, at “Peace rejoicing,” May, 1856 75
CHAPTER X.
The Great Exhibition of 1851 94
CHAPTER XI.
Royal Humane Society’s Receiving House--Boats
and bathing--The Dell--Chelsea Water Works
reservoir--Walnut-trees--Flower-walk--Military executions--The
Magazine, Whip, Four-in-hand and Coaching Clubs--Their dress--Satire
on Coaching--The Park as a military centre--The first review--Fort
at Hyde Park Corner--Guard-house--Camp in Hyde Park--Insubordinate
troops 120
CHAPTER XII.
Grand Reviews in 1660-1661-1668, 1682-1695-1699--Camps in
1715-1716-1722--Poem on the latter--Reviews in 1755-1759-1760 132
CHAPTER XIII.
Reviews in 1763-1764--Shooting-butts in 1778--Camp in 1780--Severe
sentence of a Court-martial--Volunteer Reviews, 1799-1800--The rain at
the latter 142
CHAPTER XIV.
Volunteer Reviews of 1803--Review in honour of the Allied Sovereigns,
1814--Popularity of Blücher--Review by the Queen in 1838--Volunteer
Review, 1860 152
CHAPTER XV.
Volunteer Reviews, 1864, 1876--Mobs in the Park--Funeral of Queen
Caroline 163
CHAPTER XVI.
Commencement of the reign of King Mob--Sunday Trading Bill,
1855--Riots--Withdrawal of the Bill--Meetings about high price of
food, 1855--Rough play and window smashing 177
CHAPTER XVII.
Sympathy with Italy, 1859--Garibaldi riots, 1862--Reform League
Meeting, 23rd July, 1866--Police proclamation against it--Attempt to
hold it--Hyde Park railings destroyed 187
CHAPTER XVIII.
Reform League Meeting of 25th July, 1866--Burning a
tree--Stone-throwing--Temporizing policy of the Government--Special
constables sworn in--Meeting abandoned--Return of police
injured--Meeting of “Working Men’s Rights Association,”
1867--Reform League Meeting of 6th May, 1867--Police warning--Legal
opinions--Meeting held--Meeting on 5th August, 1867 200
CHAPTER XIX.
Demonstrations against the Irish Church, 1868--In favour of
Fenians, 1869--Regulations made by Commissioners of Works--Fenian
Demonstration, 1872--A speaker sentenced--Meeting about the
Eastern Question, 1878--Fight--Preaching in the Park--Modern
instances--May-Day and May 6, 1894--Against the House of Lords, Aug.
26, 1894 212
CHAPTER XX.
The Children’s Fête in Hyde Park, 1887 224
CHAPTER XXI.
List of Rangers--A horse jumping the wall--Highwaymen--Horace Walpole
robbed--Other robberies--Assaults, offences, etc., in the present
reign--A very recent case 235
CHAPTER XXII.
The Gates--That into Kensington Gardens--Improvements in the
Park--Encroachments--The case of Ann Hicks and the other
fruit-sellers--Seats in the Park--New house in ditto 253
CHAPTER XXIII.
Works of art in the Park--Drinking fountain--Marble Arch--Hyde
Park Corner--Achilles statue--Walk round the park--Cemetery of St.
George’s, Hanover Square--Sterne’s tomb and burial--Tyburn tree--The
Tybourne--People executed--Henrietta Maria’s penance--Locality
of the gallows--Princess Charlotte--Gloucester House--Dorchester
House--Londonderry House--Apsley House--Allen’s apple stall--The
Wellington Arch--Statues of the Duke--St. George’s Hospital,
Knightsbridge--A fight on the bridge--Albert Gate and George
Hudson--Knightsbridge Barracks 265
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
Exhibition of 1851: Osier’s Glass Fountain and the Transept _Frontispiece_
Boscobel Oaks, 1804 27
Cheesecake House, 1826 30
Duel between Lord Mohun and the Duke of Hamilton 37
Duel between George Garrick and Mr. Baddeley, 1770 42
Winter Amusement, 1787 50
The Row, 1793 62
“ “ 1814. The Allied Sovereigns 62
“ “ 1834 62
The Duke of Wellington 64
A Spring in the Park, 1794 65
Houses in the Park, 1794 66
A Man of War, 1814 73
“Albert, spare those trees!” 103
Tailpiece: Col. Sibthorpe and Exhibition of 1851 119
Map of Hyde Park from “Roque’s Survey,” 1741-1745 120
Volunteer Review by George III., 1799 143
The Soldiers’ Toilet, 1780 145
Returning from the Review, 1800 150
Popularity of Blücher, 1814 157
The Broken Windows at Apsley House, 1831 280
[Illustration: decorative bar]
HYDE PARK.
CHAPTER I.
The forests round London--The manor of Eia in Domesday Book--Its
subdivision--The Manor of Hyde--The Manor of Ebury--The Manor of
Neate--The Neat houses--Henry VIII. and Hyde Park--Queen Elizabeth
and Hyde Park--James I.--The deer in the park--Last shooting
therein--Foxes--The badger.
In old times London was surrounded by forests, of which the only traces
now remaining are at Bishop’s Wood, between Hampstead and Highgate, and
the Chase at Enfield. FitzStephen, who lived in the reign of Henry II.,
tells us, in his Description of London, that beyond the fields to the
north of London was an immense forest, beautified with woods and
groves--or in other words, park land--full of the lairs and coverts of
beasts and game, stags, bucks, boars and wild bulls. Contrary to what
one might expect, these forests were not reserved for the sole hunting
of the King and his favourites; but, as we are informed by the same
writer, many of the citizens took great delight in fowling, with
merlins, hawks, etc. (which showed how wealthy they were at that time),
and they had the right and privilege of hunting in Middlesex,
Hertfordshire, in all the Chiltern country, and in Kent, as far as the
River Cray. And this forest of Middlesex was only disforested in 1218 (2
Henry III.).
If, however, Hyde Park was, primævally, a forest, it must have been
cleared and brought into cultivation in the Saxon times, for there is no
mention of a forest, or even woodland, in the Domesday Book account of
the Manor of Eia--in which Hyde Park was situate: on the contrary, it
seems as if it was highly cultivated, as is evidenced by the following
translation of that portion of the book relating to this manor:--
“Ossulton Hundred. The land of Geoffrey Mannevile.[1] Geoffrey de
Mannevile holds the Manor of Eia. It was assessed for 10 hides[2]/. The
land is 8 carucates/[3]. In demesne 5 hides, and there are 2
ploughs/[4]. The villans[5] have 5 ploughs, and a 6th might be made.
There is 1 villan with half a hide/ and 4 villans each with 1
virgate,[6] and other 14 each with half a virgate/ and 4 bordars[7] with
one virgate, and 1 cottager. Meadow for 8 ploughs’ teams, and of hay/
60_s._ of pasture 7_s._ In all the profits it is worth £8/ when received
£6. In the time of King Edward £12/. Harold, son of Earl Radulf, held
this manor, whom Queen/ Editha had the custody of with this manor, on
the day that King Edward was alive and dead./ Afterwards, William, the
Chamberlain, held it of the Queen in fee for £3,/ yearly to farm. And
after the death of the Queen, he now holds it/ of the King, in the same
manner. It is now 4 years since William lost the manor, and nothing has
been received from the King’s farm, that is £12.”
This Manor of Eia was bounded on the north by the _Via Trinobantina_, a
road which crossed England from the coast of Suffolk to that of
Hampshire, and we now call that portion by Hyde Park the Uxbridge Road:
and on the east ran the _Watling Street_, a road from Chester to Dover
(of which the Edgware Road is a portion), which crossed the _Via
Trinobantina_, and continued down Park Lane to the Thames--which was the
southern boundary of the manor.
About the compilation of Domesday Book the Manor of Eia (we know not
why) was divided into three manors, named severally Hyde, Ebury (or
Eubery), and Neate (or Neyt), and was given by Geoffrey de Manneville to
the Monastery of St. Peter in Westminster, where his wife Athelais was
interred, and it was in the possession of this monastery till 1536. The
Manor of Neate was nearest the river, about Chelsea, and there it was
that the abbots of Westminster had a pleasure house. We read[8] how
Nicholas Littlington, who was prior of the Monastery, was made Abbot on
the elevation of Abbot Simon Langham to the See of Ely in 1362, and how
“he improved the estate of the convent at Hyde”--and also how he died,
November 29th, 1386, “at the Manor house of Neyte near Westminster, at
that time thought a good building; for the Duke of Lancaster,[9] styling
himself King of Castile, desired leave of the Abbot to reside there
during a sitting of parliament at Westminster.” And here also was born
John, the fifth son of Richard, Duke of York, on November 7th, 1448.
Here died (May 12th, 1532) John Islip, who was elected Abbot of
Westminster October 27th, 1500, and was buried in a chapel in the Abbey,
which he built and which is still called by his name. In his abbacy
(1502-3) the building of Henry VII.’s Chapel was begun, and in 1532 he
negotiated an exchange between the Abbey and the King; the latter had
from the Abbey about one hundred acres of land, part of which was made
into St. James’s Park, and the former received in exchange the priory of
Poughley, in Berks, of which Cardinal Wolsey had procured the
dissolution, to help him endow the colleges he designed at Oxford and
Ipswich.
Islip’s successor was William Boston, and, in 1536, an Act of Parliament
was passed (28 Henry VIII., c. 49) and confirmed by a conveyance dated
July 1, 1537, granting the King the lands belonging to the Abbey of
“Nete, within the towne and paryshes of Westmynster and Seynt Martyn’s
in the Felde,” as also the manors of Neyte, Ebery, and Todington, of the
advowson of Chelsea rectory, of some lands at Greenwich, and of several
meadows and closes near the Horseferry: in return for which the Abbey
was to receive the site of the newly dissolved Priory of Hurley, in
Berkshire; which, somewhat singularly, formerly belonged to the same
Geoffrey de Manneville who gave the Abbey the Manor of Eia.
The Manor of Ebury lay between the other two manors, and comprised the
district now known as Belgravia and Pimlico. It never was historically
famous, but it helped to swell the coffers of the Grosvenors, especially
that of the present Duke of Westminster and his father, for the manor
(of 430 acres) then called Eabury or Ebury Farm came into the
possession, in 1656, of Sir Thomas Grosvenor, who married the daughter
and sole heiress of Alexander Davies, Esq., of Ebury Farm, who never
could have contemplated the princely fortune he was leaving to her
descendants.
Once only do we hear anything particular of the Manor of Ebury, and that
is in connection with Queen Elizabeth.[10] “That _Ebery Farm_,
containing 430 Acres, Meadow and Pasture, which was holden of her
Majesty by lease, was granted to one _Whashe_, who paid £21 _per Ann._
And the same was let to divers Persons, who, for their private
Commodity, did enclose the same, and had made Pastures of Errable Land;
thereby not only annoying her Majesty in her Walks and Passages, but to
the hindrance to her Game, and great Injury to the Common, which, at
_Lammas_, was wont to be laid open, for the most Part; as by ancient
Precedents thereof made, do particularly appear, both in the Time of
_Henry the Eighth_, _Edward the Sixth_, and _Queen Mary_. And by the
Grant made from her Majesty to the new tenants, it appeareth, that they
are to enjoy the same lands in such sort as their predecessors did,
which was then always _Lammas_ ground, and now enclosed about 20 years
past.”
At least this was the plea of those who broke down the fences, etc., in
1592. “The Parishioners, having, as they supposed, that Lord’s[11]
Countenance, sent divers Persons on the 1 of _August_, being _Lammas
day_, who, with Pickaxes, and such like Instruments, pulled down the
Fences, and brake the Gates, having with them the Bailiffs and
Constables, to keep the Peace.”
The Manor of Neate lay alongside the river Thames, and although we have
seen that the old moated mansion was of some importance, still, at the
time of the above dispute (in which it shared with the neighbouring
manor), it was only termed _a farm_, the house and all the ground around
it having been granted by Edward VI. to Sir Anthony Brown; still the
name of the manor was perpetuated in the “Neat Houses”--which were
places of rural entertainment, and which Strype (Book vi. p. 67)
describes: “The _Neat Houses_ are a Parcel of Houses, most seated on the
Banks of the River _Thames_, and inhabited by Gardiners; for which it is
of Note, for the supplying _London_ and _Westminster_ Markets with
_Asparagus_, _Artichoaks_, _Cauliflowers_, _Musmelons_, and the like
useful Things that the Earth produceth; which, by reason of their
keeping the Ground so rich by dunging it (and through the nearness to
_London_, they have the Soil cheap), doth make their crops very forward,
to their great Profit in coming to such good Markets.”
There are no traces of these “Neat Houses” now; they disappeared
entirely before the destructive builder, but they were in existence
during this century, and stood where now is St. George’s Row, Warwick
Street, Pimlico. Yet it is evident that before it sunk wholly into
market gardens, the “Neat Houses” was a place of amusement where people
of good standing in society might attend without prejudice. In those
days people’s tastes were much simpler than in our time, and drinking
syllabubs, and playing at an imaginary Arcadian life with imaginary
Chloes and Strephons was fashionable.
It would be hard, indeed, if Pepys had nothing to say about this
suburban place of entertainment, where he takes his wife and Mistress
Knipp, an actress, of whom his wife was jealous. “Aug. 1, 1667. After
the Play, we went into the House, and spoke with _Knipp_, who went
abroad with us, by coach, to the _Neat Houses_, in the way to _Chelsy_;
and there, in a Box in a Tree, we sat and sang, and talked and eat; my
wife out of humour, as she always is, when this women is by.” And again,
“May 28, 1668. Met _Mercer_[12] and _Gayet_, and took them by water,
first to one of the _Neat Houses_, where walked in the Gardens, but
nothing but a Bottle of Wine to be had, though pleased with seeing the
garden; and so to Fox Hall, where with great pleasure we walked, and
then to the upper end of the retired walk, and there sat and sang, and
brought a great many gallants and fine people about us; and, upon the
bench, we did by and by eat and drink what we had, and very merry.”
It seems a pity after such a merry scene to chronicle a death, but it
was not a common one. _Domestic Intelligencer, August 5th, 1679._ “We
hear that Madam Ellen Gwyn’s mother, sitting lately by the water-side at
her house by the _Neate Houses_, near _Chelsea_, fell accidentally into
the water, and was drowned.”
There seems no reason to doubt but that Henry VIII. wanted these manors
for the purpose of hunting, as they lay so contiguous to the 100 acres
which, in 1532, he had added to St. James’s Park; and that this was his
intention is shown by a proclamation made in 1536, wherein the King, who
was passionately fond of all field sports, and excelled in them, as in
every other manly exercise, says, that being desirous of having hares,
patridges, pheasants and herons preserved round about his Palace of
Westminster, for his own disport and pastime, forbids anyone, under pain
of imprisonment, and further punishment according to his will and
pleasure, either 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.”
Hyde Park was then of much greater extent than it is at present, and
comprised 620 acres; but what with the portion taken to add to
Kensington Gardens, and land taken away at Hyde Park Corner, it now does
not measure 400 acres. There is very little doubt but that when this
manor of Hyde came into the possession of Henry VIII. he fenced it
round, because its northern, southern, and eastern boundaries were all
public roads, and, although in all probability men would not dare to
poach on this Royal manor, yet the _feræ naturæ_ must necessarily have
been kept within bounds if there was to be hunting or any other kind of
sport. And it must have been a high fence, for deer were plentiful, and
they certainly were hunted and shot. In a letter from the Lords of the
Council to Sir John Masone,[13] ambassador from England at the French
Court, dated June 2nd, 1550, and giving an account of the reception and
amusement of the embassy of Messrs. de Chastillon, Mortier and
Bouchetel, who were sent by Henry II. to receive Edward’s ratification
of the treaty by which Boulogne had been ceded to France for the sum of
400,000 crowns, we find that, “Upon Tuesday, the King’s Majesty had them
on hunting in Hyde Park, and that night they supt with his Highness in
the Privy Chamber.”
Queen Elizabeth also hunted in Hyde Park--and, like her brother, offered
sport therein to noble visitors. For instance, she so entertained Count
John Casimir, son of Frederick III., Elector Palatine, and a general in
the Dutch service, as we learn from the Talbot Papers,[14] in a letter
from Gilbert Talbot and his wife to the Earl and Countess of Shrewsbury,
dated February 13th, 1578. “My L. of Lecester also hath geven him dyvers
other thynges, as geldynges, hawks and houndes, woddknyves, falchyones,
hornes, crossebowes, and sondry peces of brode clothe fytte for huntynge
garmentes, bothe for wynter and sumer, for he delyghtethe greatly in
huntynge, and can chouse his wynter deere very well. He kylled a barren
doe w^{th} his pece this other daye in Hyde P’ke from emongst CCC other
deere.” And to show that the Queen herself, if she did not actually join
in the sport, looked on, there is an entry in the accounts (1582) of the
Board of Works, of a payment “for making of two new standings in
Marybone and Hyde Park, for the Queen’s Majesty and the Noblemen of
France[15] to see the hunting.” This is also mentioned by John Norden in
his _Notes on London and Westminster_ (1592). “Hyde Park substancially
impayled with a fayre lodge and princelye standes therein. It is a
stately parke and full of fayre game.”
In the 1575 edition of Geo. Turberville’s “_Noble Art of Venerie or
hunting_” (p. 95) we have a fine picture of Queen Elizabeth on one of
these stands, whilst, kneeling on the ground, and bareheaded, the royal
huntsman presents the “fewmets,” or droppings of the deer, on some
leaves, in a plate, for the Queen’s inspection; and the following is
“The report of a Huntesman upon the sight of an Hart, in pride of
greace.
“‘Before the Queen, I come report to make,
Then husht and peace, for noble _Tristrame’s_ sake.
From out my horne, my fewments first I drawe,
And then present, on leaves, by hunter’s lawe;
And thus I say; my Liege, behold and see
An Hart of tenne, I hope he harbored bee.
For if you mark his fewmets every poynt,
You shall them find long, round and well anoynt,
Knottie and great, without prickes or eares,
The moystness shewes what venison he beares.’”
Another engraving shows the Queen about to take assay of the deer, the
kneeling huntsman handing her a knife for the purpose. And this is “the
English manner, in breaking up of the Deare.
“First, where hee appointeth the Deares foote to be cut off, and to be
presented to the Queen or chiefe, our order is that the Queen or chiefe
(if so please them) do alight and take assaye of the Deare with a sharpe
knife, the which is done in this maner. The deare being layd upon his
backe, y^{e} Queen, chiefe, or such as they shall appoint, comes to it.
And y^{e} chiefe huntsman (kneeling, if it be to the Queen) doth hold
the Deare by the fore foote, whiles the Queen or chiefe, cut a slit
drawne alongst the brysket of the deare, somewhat lower than the brysket
towards the belly. This is done to see the goodnesse of the fleshe, and
howe thicke it is.”
In the 1611 edition, James I. takes the place of Queen Elizabeth.
James I. no doubt, as he was so fond of hunting, hunted the deer here,
although he had Theobalds and Windsor, with many another hunting ground.
And the deer were kept up in Charles I.’s reign, when Hyde Park was
still an enclosed and private Royal park: and the deer were still
preserved, for, when the Park was sold according to a special Resolution
of the House of Commons of the 1st Dec., 1652, what were left of the
deer, during those troublous times, were sold for the benefit of the
Navy, and they were valued in the specifications at £765 6_s._ 2_d._ I
can find no record of their sale--but they were sold. And soon after the
Restoration, when James Hamilton, Esq. (one of the Grooms of the
Bedchamber), was Ranger--he advised the Park being surrounded by a
brick wall, and restocked with deer, which was done. But the deer no
longer roamed the Park at will; they were confined in an enclosure,
called Buckdean Hill, the Deer Harbour, or the Paddock, close by the
Keepers’ Lodge, admission to which seems to have been obtainable by
payment of a shilling--at least, in 1751, as we see by the following
extract from a poem by W. H. Draper, entitled, “The Morning Walk, or the
City Encompass’d.”
“Behold the ranger[16] there! with gun aslant,
As just now issuing from his cottage[17] fold,
With crew _Cerberian_, prowling o’er the plain
To guard the harmless deer, and range them in
Due order set, to their intended use.
Key he can furnish, but must first receive
One splendid shilling, e’er I can indulge
The pleasing walk, and range the verdant field.”
As far as I can learn, the last Royal shooting of the deer in Hyde Park
was on the 9th Sept., 1768, and it is the more interesting, considering
how intimately we are now allied with the House of Saxe Cobourg Gotha.
In _The Public Advertiser_ of Sept. 12, 1768, we read: “Same day, their
Serene Highnesses the two Princes of Saxe Gotha, and many other
Foreigners of Distinction, together with a great Number of our own
Nobility, and Gentry, attended the Diversion of Deer Shooting in Hyde
Park, which continued all the Evening till Dark, when one was at last
killed, after being shot at ten Times. What rendered it so difficult to
kill him, was the Hardship of getting him from among the Deer, and no
other was allowed to be shot at but this one: Several Wagers were won
and lost upon this Occasion.”
The deer still remained, until early in this century, in this enclosure,
which was in the north-west corner of the Park, bounded on the north by
the Park wall, on the west by Kensington Gardens, on the south by the
Serpentine, and on the east by a fence. Dogs were allowed in the other
parts of the Parks, as our poet says,--
“But lo! a faithful spaniel, there stretch’d out,
Not food for powder meet, relentless gun!”
But the “relentless gun” was evidently necessary against the foxes, for
there is a Minute of the Board of Green Cloth in 1798, by which Sarah
Gray is granted a pension of £18 per annum, to compensate her somewhat
for the loss of her husband, who was accidentally killed by a shot from
the gun of a keeper, who was hunting for foxes in Kensington Gardens. It
would be a thankless task to look for them there at the present time;
but it is not very many years since there was a badger, who took up his
abode in a drain in the Gardens, and could not be dislodged. Strange and
weird legends were told concerning this badger, one of which was that he
had devoured a policeman, clothing and all, with the exception of his
boots and helmet. The badger was ultimately caught, and purchased, I
believe, by the Baroness Burdett-Coutts, who sent it into the country,
and there gave it its liberty.
[Illustration: decorative bar]