Six years later, in the summer of 1835, Caen Wood received the honour of a royal visit, in the gaiety and gratulation of which event Hampstead naturally shared. Their Majesties William IV. and his amiable Queen, Adelaide, on whom kindness sat more easily than state, had announced their intention of being present at a garden-party to be given by the Earl and Countess of Mansfield, and forthwith the loyalty of the village, whose church bells had not rung out on such an occasion since the passing by of Queen Mary, wife of William III., in the summer of the year of her death—1694—was put upon its mettle how best to demonstrate itself. Eventually the exultation and excitement of the inhabitants, guided by the good taste of the gentlemen (there were a hundred of them) who had formed themselves into a committee of management, took the pretty form of dressing the houses on the line of route from Rosslyn Hill to the top of Heath Street with green boughs, flowers, and variegated lamps. At the entrance of the Heath, just short of the White Stone Pond, the decorations culminated in a triumphal arch, not quite as large as Temple Bar, but far more ornamental. It spanned the road, and was draped with the royal standard and St. George’s banner, and many other flags, the bright colours of which, mingled with garlands and festoons of flowers and greenery, lent themselves well to picturesque effect.[220] On either side were enclosed recesses for the ladies privileged by rank or courtesy to represent the élite of the neighbourhood; and here their Majesties’ carriage was to pause while Colonel Bosanquet, chairman of the committee, read a loyal address. The rejoicings were to end with a pyrotechnic display upon the Heath and the illumination of the village. The day was radiant, as days will sometimes be even in England in the solstitial season, and Caen Wood, with its fifty acres of flower-garden and pleasure-grounds, its leafy woods and park, and sheet of water, broken by groups of trees, and crossed by an artificial bridge at a distance, looked its very best, especially from the terrace along the south front of the mansion, on which a state sofa had been prepared for their Majesties. On this occasion the whole suite of apartments on the ground-floor had been thrown open to the company, the principal dining-room being reserved for the royal party. If we look back to the _Court Journal_ of that day, we shall find that the six carriages, in the last of which, drawn by four white horses, were the King and Queen, entered the village of Hampstead a little after 4 p.m. The parochial authorities had met them at the boundary of the parish; charity children were drawn up in ranks and had saluted them; and the spectators all along the line of road from Tottenham Court Road to Chalk Farm had made the air resonant with hearty cheers, which were caught up and continued all the way to Caen Wood.