'Father of Light and Life! Thou God supreme, O teach me what is good, teach me Thyself! Save me from folly, vanity, and vice, From every low pursuit, and feed my soul With knowledge, conscious Peace and Virtue prove Sacred, substantial, never-fading Bliss!' {259} [Sidenote: Richmond Park] Next to its fine position on a very beautiful reach of the Thames, the chief glory of Richmond--a glory shared, however, by five other parishes, Petersham, Ham, Kingston, Putney, and Mortlake--is its noble park, known as the New or Great Park, to distinguish it from the one that was connected with the palace. It comprises two thousand acres of charming undulating scenery, grand oak woods and plantations of other trees alternating with fern-clad dells and dales, in the midst of which are the picturesque Pen Ponds, so called because they are near the enclosures for the deer. From certain points, especially from the terrace between the Richmond Hill gate and the entrance to the grounds of Pembroke Lodge, just within which is a memorial to Thomson, grand views are obtained of the Thames valley with the river winding through it, whilst from the rising ground on the other side of the park the buildings of London and the twin heights of Highgate and Hampstead can be distinctly seen. Originally part of a vast tract of uncultivated land known as Sheen Chase, of which Ham and Sheen Commons are relics, the Great Park was first enclosed in 1637 by Charles I., who had a lofty wall, ten miles in circumference, built round it, and stocked it with the red and fallow deer the descendants of which add so greatly to its attractions, thus converting it without any legal justification into a new hunting-ground for his own pleasure. This high-handed proceeding, involving as it did the appropriation of much private property, aroused {260} bitter opposition at the time, not only from the actual owners of the confiscated estates, but also from Archbishop Laud, Bishop Juxon, and Lord Cottington, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, who espoused the cause of the common people, their privileges of collecting firewood and turning their cattle out to graze having been interfered with. The result of the remonstrances of this powerful trio was that the king, though he would not yield up a yard of the ground he had so unfairly seized, ordered the provision, for the use of foot-passengers, of small gates and step-ladders, the latter of which was situated where the Coombe entrance, still known as the Ladder Gate, now is. Moreover, Charles granted to his ranger, in addition to the use of a house called Harleton Lodge, the site of which has not been identified, the right of pasturage for four horses, and allowed owners of carriages to drive through the park on payment of certain fees. [Illustration: RICHMOND PARK WITH THE WHITE LODGE]