Hyde Park.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13608, 30 May 1908, Page 2 (Supplement)

Hyde Park.

SOME REMINISCENCES,

It is curious that Hyde Park is the ■ iilv opt-u space in West London that attracts fashion, frivolity, faddists, fanatics,

:ind demonstrators of all sorts. Opposite the Green Park istrctclus, and .St. James's Park; but tliey arc desolate, though in Ihe very heart of fashionable London. Mrs Tweedie. sitting upon her chair/ reflects upon the ancient history of the park, in tin? "time of the Saxons." She adds:

"The forests afforded good feeding grounds for the liogf." And after many centuries the. feeding ground of the hog-.-., has brought a generation of " Pigs in Clover," with an ndrimtf in Park-lane.

It was onct a Royal hunting ground ; it stood at- the very end of London, for you will remember that Apvley House. *at Hyde Park comer, was called Xo. 1, London. Hut. on her chair in the park. Mrs. Tweed it- reflects upon a letter from Mr. Frederick Harrison. When he came to London in 1840. Connaught-place wa* nearly the fartlu.vt western extension of lvguiar housib along the Bavswater-road. Tltere were market gardens and cricket fields, But the fashionables* came to the park. T> a or twenty-thousand " dandies hung over the rai/s," on the footpath to look 011. And the carriages- ■ w.are 61> vlosvly {Kicked in Una tlinl they cuu'.d only juM walk. The Marble Arch did n>t (Xiht then, and Hyde Park, though only on the circumference of London, and leib in area than the lsoit> de Boulogne, or tin* Prater of Vienna, or the TJiiergnrteii of Berlin, w;is the favoured open space.

Sitting Up: II her chair. Mrs. Tweedie recalls the horrors that are suggested by Hyde Park, honoris that th« babies now wheeled in perambulator# in Kensngton (Jardeiw will never ».«.>. For near by the Marble Arch the jeering wayfarer may t>>v tlk- .slab that records Tyburn, and just by the entrance to Hy'de Park we strung up many murderers, and many boys who might have been patted into honesty. 1 Ik*v went to their doom gailv. sitting on their coffin,-. Jack Sheppard,* Jonathan \V ild, and the rest of them, past the place where the omnibus now stops, and they stepped out—this way, please! Hyde Park is no longer Tyburn. There U scarcely a religion in the world that the young people cannot sample as t-liev stroll on a fine Sunday evening in Hrdo Park. And the memories of tk- criminals vho dressed themeeHt.; in Jieir best clothes for the gallow.v are forgotten amid the sh'Jiit.s of the men who stand upon chairs and invito to righteoiisne-.j bv various rouUy. Hyde J'ark. fashionable for ten weeks in the ..-arly part of the dav. is democratic at all other times. And Mrs. Twe*die from h.-r chair, ha.s listened to the klioiils. the tumult, seen the crowdHyde Park is- the democratic meeting place, ancl Mik. Tweodie has got the right title with "The People'* Park," in the chapter wherein she looks quietlv around.

And now a day in Hyde Park Mould give you some sort- of notion of flu? central beat of London s lirart, for it is no longer on thr edge. but. . . . well, Mrs. Jweedie has seen t lie Liver Brigade. in the earlv morning. You may no longer play cricket in Hyde Park." as in tlio day* < f William *lll.. when matches graced by Royalty were played, though you may ill skate on the verv artificial Serpentine, and the writer bathed in it, if you please. on Christmas morning (Mrs! Tweedie tolls you all about the %'crpcntine). When the Liver Brigade has finished its ride (and it dresses at random. unlike the fashions, of twenty ream a"o). then mines, on .Sunday, the Prayer-book Brigade. You unwt be very careful to get, into stop with that brigiide, since vour note-book may be mistaken for a Prayerbook. but headquarter* change from the stotne of Achilles to other point*. For a few moments the park is emptied of people whcjtfe ditirc is Sunday dinner. Butill tlic afternoon the park (ills il«elf again. -Mrs. Two •die resuming her chair, and rising occasionally to observe and think, finds that Hyde J'ark is the democratic of placid (though "in the reign of Janus 1. the nobility alone were allowed to dri\v four horses") It was in Hyde Park on a certain occasion that Cromwell very nearly lost his life. " Some beautiful Frifsland horses had Ik en presented to him by the Duke i f Holtt-ein. and when taking the air in the park, accompanied merely by his secretary and a Mnall guard of janissaries. he became to infuriated at the slowness of the pace that he exchanged placets with the coachman, and with great impatience thrashed the animals soundly

to make them quicken their speed. Highspirited, and not, undenstiinding .such rough usage, they promptly bolted, mid, tearing along at a frantic pace, threw- tlie Protector off flic box. And as he fell his pistol went off in his pocket, and his legs became so entangled in the harness that tin: poor man was dangling from the pole for 'some seconds. However, he received no sub.-.lantial injuries beyond a good shaking and some bruises."

On the accession of Charles 11. the Royal park became the centre of gaiety and fashion. As De Graminont wrote:

" Nothing was then so much in fashion during the fair Season as the taking the Air ot the King, which was the ordinary rendezvous of Magnificience and Beauty. Whoever had bright Eyes and a fine Equipage never failed to repair (hither, and the King was Extremely delighted with the place." It continued to be the resort of the fashionable to the exclusion "of the riff-raff and the ordinary person until far into the Georgian era. In the eighteenth century the beaux fivquented Hyde Park in their chairs, "to lounge, chaff the orange-girls and flower-sellers, and exchange comments with tlH* fair -occupants of the coaches and caleches." An amusing incident occurred to Beau Fielding, who was one of the frequenteis of the King, where the splendour of chariots was daily exhibited. lie desired to figure as a descendant of the House of Hapsburg, from which lie claimed descent. " Appearing in a carriage of unparalleled gorgeousness, with the Hapsburg arms upon it, he excited the ire of Lord Denbigh, who had the undisputed right to the arms. This nobleman engaged a house painter to await Fielding's arrival at the Ring, and at the fir.vt opportunity this individual, taking the brush from a huge can of yellow paint which lie carried, proceeded no cover the splendid coach of the aspirant with daubs, entirely obliterating the offending arms." Under George 11. Hyde Park became " beautified." It- was the period when national gardening was in vogue. Kensington Gardens was under the special care of Queen Caroline, the \ King's Consort, who. besides improving ill is portion of Hyde Park, added the Serpentine, still the finest sheet of water in any of the Loudon parks. But why " Serpentine" ? " Perhaps five pfersons out of six. if asked to give the reason why this particular name was applied to the newly-fash-ioned lake, would not be able to guo-.s correctly. In fact, the bend is very small, barely noticeable, yet in its day it marked a revolt from the existing order of things. Hitherto no one in laying out ornamental water in a landscape garden had dared to depart from the perfectly straight line msquare form which had hc j cn brought ov:>r from Holland, and was considered the acme of good taste. Queen Caroline was wise enough to break away from these absurd limitations, and the example she was among the first to .vet has been followed with the happiest results." In the nineteenth century Hyde Park became a national resort.