Hyde Park, Its History and RomanceAlec-Tweedie, Mrs. (Ethel)
History
Hyde Park, Its History and Romance
Alec-Tweedie, Mrs. (Ethel)
Hyde Park (London, England); London (England) -- Social life and customs
Hearts seemed light and Society gay, for the Diarist makes mention
of several visits to the Park during that year; of the King and his
mistress Lady Castlemaine, who finally died in poverty, greeting one
another from their respective coaches “at every tour”; of a drive with
Mrs. Pepys, wherein there was little pleasure on account of the dust,
and one of the horses falling down and getting his leg over the pole;
and another occasion when the worthy couple enjoyed the sight of a
“store of coaches and good faces.” Only when Charles II. pulled up
to speak to his friends—chiefly ladies—was the continuous string of
carriages allowed to stop.
But the day of that season seems to have been a great Review held in
Hyde Park on 4th July. Both Diarists write of this event, and as the
entries are truly characteristic of the different style of the two
journals, I give them both. First Evelyn:
“I saw his Majesty’s Guards, being of horse and foot 4000, led by the
General, the Duke of Albemarle [General Monk, who had done so much to
bring about the Restoration], in extraordinary equipage and gallantry,
consisting of gentlemen of quality and veteran soldiers, excellently
clad, mounted and ordered, drawn up in battalia before their Majesties
in Hyde Park, where the old Earl of Cleveland trailed a pike, and led
the right-hand file in a foot-company, commanded by Lord Wentworth,
his son: as worthy spectacle and example, being both of them old and
valiant soldiers. This was to show the French Ambassador, Monsieur
Comminges; there being a great assembly of coaches etc. in the Park.”
It is left to Pepys to pourtray the lighter side:
“Thence with Creed to hire a coach to carry us to Hide Park, to-day
there being a general muster of the King’s Guards, horse and foot; but
the demand so high, that I, spying Mr. Cutler the marchant, did take
notice of him, and he going into his coach, and telling me that he was
going to shew a couple of Swedish strangers the muster, I asked and
went along with him; where a goodly sight to see so many fine horses
and officers, and the King, Duke, and others come by a-horseback, and
the two Queens in the Queen-Mother’s coach, my Lady Castlemayne not
being there, I ’light and walked to the place where the King, Duke,
etc., did stand to see the horse and foot march by and discharge their
guns, to show a French Marquisse (for whom the muster was caused) the
goodness of our firemen; which indeed was very good, though not without
a slip now and then; and one broadside so close to our coach we had
going out of the Park, even to the nearness to be ready to burn our
hairs.”
A few days later Pepys describes another visit to Hyde Park:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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