On June 2nd, 1780, broke out the fanatical riots generally known as the
“Lord George Gordon Riots,” with which we have nothing to do, other than
to chronicle the fact that the troops in and near London being
considered insufficient to cope with the rioters, others were summoned
from different parts of the country. Lodging must be found for these on
their arrival, and we read in _The London Chronicle_, June 6-8, 1780,
that “Orders are given from the War Office for a Camp to be formed in
Hyde Park, and the several regiments that are to compose the same are
now on their march; and, yesterday, the Hampshire Militia pitched their
tents there for that purpose.” Also, later on in the same paper (p.
552), “Seven battalions of militia marched into Hyde-Park yesterday
afternoon, where they immediately encamped. A large detachment of the
Hampshire militia are doing duty at the President Lord Bathurst’s house
in Piccadilly. The Park Gates are all shut, and no person suffered to
pass through on any account whatever.”
_The Morning Chronicle_ of June 10 says: “Thursday (June 8), six
regiments of Militia were encamped in Hyde Park; they are to be joined
by several other regiments, which will make their number 10,000 men”:
and the same journal, June 13, tells us that, “The Grand Camp in Hyde
Park consists of the nine following regiments: the Queen’s, the Royal
Irish, the Twenty-second, Cambridge, South Hants, North Hants, Oxford,
Northumberland, One of York.” On the 14th June, the King, Prince of
Wales, and “the Bishop of Osnaburgh” (Duke of York) visited the
Camp--and so he did on several other occasions. But the riots came to an
end, and
[Illustration: THE SOLDIERS’ TOILET, 1780.
Page 145.
]
the news of the taking of Charlestown drove everything else out of
people’s heads, so that we do not hear much more of this Camp; but Paul
Sandby painted a series of views of the Camp, and exhibited them at the
next Royal Academy. He also engraved them. “_The Great Encampment in
Hyde Park._” “_The Encampment in Hyde Park_--_The Filbert Merchant_.”
“Ditto--_Marshall Sax’s Tent_.” “Ditto--_The Soldier’s Toilet_” (which
is here reproduced), and several others. In “_The Soldier’s Toilet_” we
get rather more than a peep into the domestic life of the Camp, and in
the background we see St. George’s Row, and the chapel attached to the
burial ground in the Bayswater Road, now rebuilt. After the scare was
over, and martial law in London was abolished, the Camp was much
visited; but when it had fulfilled its needs it had to come to an end,
and on the 10th of August the Camp broke up, after having earned golden
opinions from the Londoners.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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