[Illustration: decorative bar] 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. If we look at the old map of Hyde Park, we shall find that what is now called _Rotten Row_ was then termed _The King’s Old Road_ and _The King’s New Road_, whence the generally accepted derivation of _Rotten Row_, from _Route du Roi_. Soon after the accession of William III., and his purchase of Kensington Palace, his route from St. James’s Palace to his residence lay through the Green Park and the King’s Road in Hyde Park, and, finding it dark at night, he had it lit by three hundred lamps, which, for the time, rendered it a fairyland of brilliancy; so much so, that Thoresby, in his diary (June 15, 1712), “could not but observe that all the way, quite through Hyde Park to the Queen’s Palace at Kensington, has lanterns for illuminating the road in the dark nights, for the Coaches.” As we see, the New King’s Road was a trifle more direct than the old one, and skirted the Park. It was finished in 1737, as we find in _The London Spy Revived_ (No. 183, September 23, 1737). “The King’s Road in Hyde Park is almost gravell’d and finished, and the Lamp Posts are fixed up; it will soon be open’d, and the old Road level’d with the Park.” The original intention was to do so, returf it, and once again make it a portion of the Park, but it was never carried out. It would be absurd to chronicle even a portion of the people who have appeared in the Row and Ring: the list would simply consist of every person of note that lived in or visited London. It was used as a place for exercise and social intercourse, as we see in the two accompanying illustrations of the Row in 1793. Another social group, date 1834, may also be given, but although they were well-known dandies of their day, they are unknown now, and their names are not worth recapitulating. But never-to-be-forgotten visitors were the Allied Sovereigns, the Emperor of Russia and the King of Prussia, who were present at a grand review of all the regular troops, and most of the volunteers who resided in or near the metropolis, in Hyde Park on 20th June, 1814. With them were their brilliant staffs, while the Prince Regent, attended by the Duke of York, etc., acted as host to his Royal and Imperial guests. Captain Gronow, in his _Anecdotes and Reminiscences_,[31] gives the following description of “Hyde Park after the Peninsular War. That extensive district of park land, the entrances of which are in Piccadilly and Oxford Street, was far more rural in appearance in 1815 than at the present day. Under the trees cows and deer were grazing; the paths were fewer, and none told of that perpetual tread of human feet which now destroys all idea of [Illustration: THE ROW, 1793. Page 62. ] [Illustration: THE ROW, 1793.