As this road is the central great thoroughfare through Chelsea, some early particulars respecting it cannot be otherwise than interesting. It was originally only a footway through the fields, for the use of the farmers and gardeners to get access to their lands; but soon after the restoration of Charles II. it was found a convenient way for his Majesty to go to Hampton Court Palace, and thus it was, after some discussion between the Government and the parishioners of Chelsea, converted into a coach road. The following extracts from the petition of Sir Hans Sloane, Bart., Lord of the Manor, and other freeholders, will give a sufficient detail of its history and origin, and from which it appears that disputes had arisen concerning the right of way; and after the claims of the inhabitants had been considered by the Lords Commissioners of his Majesty’s Treasury, the matter was finally decided in their favour in the year 1719, the 5th of George I.:— TO THE RT. HON. THE LORDS OF HIS MAJESTY’S TREASURY, &c. {153a} “That before the restoration of King Charles the Second, and some time after, the fields of Chelsea were open fields; and that the bridge, called Bloody Bridge, {153b} was only a foot-bridge, with a plank or board; and the way leading thence to the lane facing Blackland House, {153c} was then only a foot-path of about five feet wide, and the lands on each side were plowed and sowed close up to the same; and that from the said lane to the town gate was only a baulk, or head land, of about ten or twelve feet broad, or thereabouts; and the lands on each side of the said head-lands were also ploughed up to the edges thereof; and that the said head-land was used by the owners and occupiers of the said lands for a way, egress and regress, to their lands, with ploughs and other utensils of husbandry, and to carry off their crops from their lands, time out of mind. That some time after the restoration, King Charles II. built Bloody Bridge, as it now stands; and, as we are informed, agreed with the then Lord of the Manor, and others concerned, for the said head-land, for his Majesty’s private road, allowing the freeholders their ancient way through the same. Whereupon the king made the road with gravel, and the landowners ditched out their lands on each side of the same; and the king took upon him the repair of the gate at the town end (which before was maintained by the parishioners), and as soon as the fields were sown, was hung up and shut, and, after harvest, was always open until seed time returned again, as many yet alive well remember. And ever since the landholders of the said parish have been in possession of a free way and passage to their lands through the said road, (some persons having no other way,) and were never denied it during the reigns of