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 concerning 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 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 perpetuated by the Romans in linking up their colonies in
their newly acquired possession.
[Illustration: Map of Westminster, showing the course of the Tyburn,
and the Western boundary of the land granted by King Edgar to Dunstan.
_From Map of London in Archælogia._]
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 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 discovers 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 emptying 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.
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; 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 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 followed
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 centuries ago, we should doubtless find them
sheltering game in abundance. Owls screeched among the gnarled trunks
of the old trees which grew in the 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 Westminster Abbey, and
as a bribe the old knight handed over the Manor of Eia to the monks of
Westminster. 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 Mandeville 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 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 100 acres, and apparently four _virgates_
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 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 Queen 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 mediæval 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 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 abandonment, 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 Braybrooke, 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.
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 buildings, 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 Chepe—modern Cheapside. The expense of
the works seem to have been heavy. Not only were various specific sums
set aside, but foreign merchants 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 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 fête, 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 visitations 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; 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 Conduit 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
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 Hornes: 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, between the Victoria and the Alexandra Gates, 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 subterraneum” running through them. This is the first of
many references to the springs in Hyde Park which for long supplied
the surrounding districts 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 Westminster_ 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.
[Illustration:
Bathing Well in Hyde Park.
_From a Print in the Crace Collection, British Museum._]
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 interfered 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 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 III. 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 III.), 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 Littlington,
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 VIII. renamed it Whitehall, and various
additions were planned. Grasping as he was by nature, Wolsey had not
encompassed 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 100 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 Whitehall, 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 VIII. 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 Eton School. In 1532, Henry VIII.
exchanged certain lands in Suffolk for those adjoining his Palace at
Whitehall. He suppressed the Brotherhood 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 cockpit 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 VIII. 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.
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 remained 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 Kensington 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.
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 accomplish.
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 headlong 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 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 1517,
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. Queen
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 conventionality. 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 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 gorgeousness 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
VIII. 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 Elizabethe with divers other lordes and ladies ... Thursdaye
the xxvj the daye ... (xx )xv° regis Henrici VIIJᵛⁱ 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 surroundings, crowned by the advent of a well-cooked dinner;
of guests with dainty manners and charming 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! there 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 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
unfavourably, 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!”
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 VIII.’s Court were prodigious, 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.
[Illustration: HENRY VIII.]
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 carrying 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. André, 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
Androwes 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 Anᵒ vᵗᵒ RRs Edward vjᵗⁱ as yt Apperith by
the bookes of particulers for the same.”
Hide
Parke
Imprimis the banketing howse in
hid parke conteynyng in length
lxij foote in wydeth xxj foote/ the
Stayers cont one waye lx foote
and thother waye xxxᵗⁱ 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
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.
Charges
The hole charges of the sad banketing
house and standynged in bothe
the said parkes wᵗʰ all thinges to
them belongyng Amontith to cccclˡⁱ
ixˢ viiᵈ wherof Recevyd the vijth
of Julie ij dayes before the procly
macyon uppon preste after the
Rate then cxxxiijˡⁱ vj viijᵈ, which
wase sence payd at sondrye tymes
for cxiiijˡⁱ xvjˢ xᵈ And so Remaynith
to be Recevid.
cccxxxvˡⁱ xijˢ ixᵈ.
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 premisses/ 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 conjecture) I shuld put my handes to
their doinges (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
Bleachingly 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.