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YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

IN MEMORY OF SAMUEL AMOS YORK
YALE 1863
FROM THE FUND ESTABLISHED IN 1924
BY HIS SON SAMUEL ALBERT YORK
YALE 1890

THE ROYAL MANOR

OF

RICHMOND

RICHMOND PARK, WITH PEN PONDS AND THE
WHITE LODGE,

THE ROYAL MANOR
OF
RICHMOND
With Petersham, Ham and Kew

BY

Mrs. ARTHUR G. BELL
Author of "Nuremberg," "Picturesque Brittany,"
"The Saints in Christian Art," " Pierre," &c.

With Ten Illustrations in Colour
BY
ARTHUR G. BELL
Member of the Institute of Oil Painters

London :
GEORGE BELL AND -SONS
J907

E-Aea, 507

To
SIR MAX WAECHTER, D.L., J.P.,
IN RECOGNITION OF
HIS GENEROSITY TO RICHMOND,
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED
BY
THE AUTHOR AND ARTIST.

ERRATA

Page 30, line 6— for "who" read "whose son was."
„ 82 „ 24— for "mililary" read "bolanical,"
,. 82 „ 25-for "Demetrius Charles" read "George SimondS:'
„ 82 „ 26— after " Charles Dickens" read "junior,"

AUTHOR'S NOTE.

The following are among the books which have been
consulted in the preparation of the "Royal Manor of
Richmond, with Petersham, Ham and Kew '' : —
" The Victoria History of the County of Surrey," edited by H, G.
Maiden.
" Old Court Customs and Modern Court Rule," by the Honourable
Mrs. Armytage.
" Debrett's Dictionary of the Coronation."
" Ham House, its History and Art Treasures," by Mrs. Charles
Roundell,
" The History and Antiquities of Richmond, Kew, Petersham and
Ham," by E, Beresford Chancellor, B,A,, F,R,H.S., F,C,S,
" Richmond and Its Inhabitants from the Olden Time," by Richard
Crisp.
" Architectural Remains of Richmond, Twickenham, Kew, Peter
sham and Mortlake," by Thomas R, Way, with Notes by
Frederick Chapman.
" Handbook to the Environs of London," by James Thorne, F.S.A.
" A Short History of Renaissance Architecture in England," by
Reginald Blomfield, A.R.A,, M,A,, F,S,A,
" Richmond Park : Extracts from the Records of Parliament and
of the Corporation of London," by Sir Thomas J. Nelson
Knight,
" Richmond," by Dr. Garnett, C,B,, LL,D.
" Recollections of Richmond," by Somers T, Gascoyne, J,P.
" Richmond and its Vicinity," by John Evans, LL.D.
"The Illustrated Guide to Richmond and the Thames," by
Democritus Dart.
"The Richmond Vestry: Notes on its History and Operations
from 1614 to 1890," by Charles Burt,
" Reports made in 1894 by order ofthe House of Commons to the
Charity Commissioners on the Endowments in Kew, Petersham
and Richmond,"
Nancy Bell,
St. George's, Richmond,
December, 1907,

CONTENTS. PAGE
Chapter I, The Ancient Manor House of Sheen, and
the Palace of Henry VII  i— 13
„ II. The Later History of Richmond Palace . . 14—37
„ III, The Religious Houses of Sheen, the Royal
Lodge, and the Old Deer Park . . 3^—49
„ IV. Riverside Richmond, the Ferry, and the
Bridge  5°— 65
„ V. Richmond Green, Town, and Hill . . . . 66 — 89
„ VI. The Churches, Cemeteries, and Charities
of Richmond  90 — loi
„ VII. The Great Park and its Inhabitants ,, 102 — 117
„ VIII. Petersham, Ham House, and Ham ,, 118 — 128
„ IX, Kew and its Memories  129 — 136

ILLUSTRATIONS.
TO FACE
page
Frontispiece. Richmond Park, with Pen Ponds, and White
Lodge.

Wardrobe Court, Richmond Palace
Maids of Honour Row
Richmond from Cholmondeley Walk
Richmond from Twickenham Ferry
Red Lion Inn 
Richmond Gardens in the Spring
A Winter Sunrise in Richmond Park
Ham House 
St. Peter's Church, Petersham . .

10
26
48 58
76 84
L04 122 128

CHAPTER I,
The Ancient Manor House of Sheen and the
Palace of Henry VII.
10 much has already been written in praise of
Richmond on the Hill that it would at first
sight appear almost impossible to say any
thing fresh on a subject so hackneyed, yet it
is none the less true that volumes would be
needed to voice but a portion of the beautiful thoughts
its glorious views, its fine reach of the river and the sylvan
scenery of its park have inspired in the inarticulate, or to
interpret in words the rest, the refreshment and the
healing its varied charms have brought to many a worn
and weary spirit. For it is not only those who love
Richmond for the sake of its thrilling memories of days
gone by, and who reco'gnise, in spite of all the changes
time has wrought, the continuity of the present with the
past ; not only the wealthy leisured classes who in the
summer flock from far and near to enjoy the prospect from
the hill and to disport themselves in pleasure craft on the
river, bringing with them their own atmosphere of luxury ;
or the unnumbered crowds of humbler folk who on Bank
holidays risk their lives in boats they cannot manage, or
picnic on the towing-path and in the park, to whom the
lovely neighbourhood is an unfailing source of delight, but
also to the endless succession of more or less permanent
residents, the very poorest of whom take a personal pride
in its beauties, the consciousness of which forms a kind of
luminous background to the often dreary routine of their
daily lives.
It is those who live in or near Richmond all the year
B

2 ROYAL MANOR OF RICHMOND.
round who fall most completely under its spell, for they
leajrn to love the river in its sombre as well as its cheerful
moods ; they are never weary of watching the happy
children playing on the terrace and in the meadows by
the water, nor does the pleasure ever pall on them of
wandering in the peaceful park, the calm of the outlying
portions of which, only broken now and then by the swift
passage of a few riders, is but intensified by the occasional
rush of traffic along the main roads. The inhabitants
who know how to turn their opportunities to account may
study nature there as undisturbed as in many remote
country districts ; they may learn the ways of the beautiful
red and fallow deer, noting the selfish absorption of the
bucks in their own ease, and the noble devotion to their
young of the does, who, timid though they be, wiU
sometimes combine to do to death an intruder in
their nurseries. Lovers of flowers can gather quite
a variety of specimens, such as the bedstraw, poten
tilla, eyebright, harebell, hyacinth and bell heather;
whilst those who delight in birds can listen to the harsh
cry of the heron, the yaffle of the woodpecker, and in
the spring to the resonant call of the cuckoo, the soft cooing
of the wood-pigeon, the reedy love notes of the nightingale,
the reiterated prelude of the missel thrush, and the
cheerful twitter of many other songsters, for to all of them
the park is a paradise of security, though now and then a
hint of tragedy is given by the appearance of a kestrel
poised in the air above, ready to claim a victim from
amongst the unwary.
It was, of course inevitable, that during the growth of
the picturesque riverside village of Sheen into the thriving,
populous town of Richmond, many fair landmarks and
noteworthy ancient buildings should be swept away, but
in spite of all that it has lost, it still retains and will keep
for all time, a very distinct individuality of its own, for,
thanks to the enlightened liberality of certain generous
residents, there is no longer any fear of the glorious view
from the terrace, which is its chief pride, being shut out.

SHEEN MANOR. 3
nor is it at all likely that the King or his future successors
will use the right as owners of the park of excluding the
public from it. So long as these two unique features, with
the scarcely less characteristic Green, Old Deer Park and
remains of the Royal Palace, are preserved, Richmond will
hold unchallenged her proud position of being alike the
most beautifully situated and historically interesting of
all the once independent settlements, that have during
the last half century, become indissolubly linked with the
ever-growing, all-absorbing metropolis.
It is impossible to determine exactly why the hamlet
that was the predecessor of Richmond should have been
called Sheen, for the long-accepted theory that it was
because of its exceptional beauty, the Anglo-Saxon word
Syenes from which it is derived, signifying shining or
gleaming, being quite untenable. The group of huts at
Sheen, inhabited by poor fishermen who got a precarious
living from selling the spoils of the river, and ferrying
occasional passengers across to the Middlesex side, can
have differed but little from similar settlements up and
down stream, which at high tide were often almost under
water, and at other times were surrounded by mud flats
with nothing specially attractive about them. Neither
can the date of the foundation of Sheen be fixed
with any certainty, although the discovery some fifty
years ago of the remains of piles, bronze spear
heads and fragments of pottery in the river bed a
little below the Old Deer Park, points to the conclu
sion that there was a riverine village near the site of
Richmond in ecirly Saxon, perhaps even in Roman, times.
However that may be. Sheen did not emerge from
obscurity until long after the Conquest, There is no
mention of it in Doomsday book, so far as can be ascer
tained it took no part in the long struggle between the
invaders and invaded, and for several centuries it remained
a dependency of the more important Kingston-on-Thames,
which had enjoyed the distinction of belonging to the
Crown from the days of Alfred the Great. That there was

4 ROYAL MANOR OF RICHMOND.
a manor house at Sheen, on the banks of the river, where
the Palace afterwards stood, at the beginning of the
twelfth century is, however, proved by the fact that
Henry I, resided there for a short time about 1126, and it
may possibly have been there that he welcomed home his
widowed daughter Matilda, who, on the death of her
husband, Henry V. of Germany, had returned to England
to take up the position of heiress-apparent of her father's
kingdom, her only brother having been drowned at sea
in 1 1 20,
Before his death Henry I, granted the Manor of Sheen
to Michael Belet, the then holder of the hereditary office
of chief cup-bearer to the King, and except for a brief
interval when it was confiscated in punishment for some
offence committed by its owner, it appears to have
remained in the possession of the same family for more
than a century. About 1230, however, the estate was
divided between two sisters, Emma and Alice Belet, joint
heiresses of their uncle, John Belet, the elder of whom
parted with her share to Gilbert de Clare, Eaxl of
Gloucester, from whom it was purchased by Robert
Bumell, Bishop of Bath and Wells, who later acquired the
remainder from John de Valletort who had married Alice
Belet. At the time of the division the property was valued
at about sixteen pounds, Emma's portion comprising 200
acres of arable and 16 of meadow land, with a pasture
worth three shillings and a free fishery, whilst that of Alice
contained 220 acres of arable and 13 of meadow land,
with a pasture on an islet of the Thames called the
Winyard, worth one shilling, which may possibly have been
that later known as Lot Ait, but long since submerged,
one of a number of islands, such as the one between
Petersham Ait and the Surrey shore, which have also
totally disappeared and must have added greatly to the
picturesqueness, though they somewhat impeded the
navigation, of the river.
Both of the Belet sisters had also many rent-paying
tenants, an incidental proof that by that time Sheen had

SHEEN MANOR. 5
become an important settlement, and they also enjoyed
various privileges as landowners. The reunited property
was granted to a certain Otto Grandison, but apparently
when Henry I. gave the manor to Michael Belet in the
first instance, he retained a lien on it, for a document is
extant in which it is stated that when the owner returned
to England in 1274, after four years' absence in the Holy
Land, the possession of the Sheen Estate was secured to
him by letters patent from Edward I. on condition that he
and his heirs after him should pay an annual rent of four
shillings and supply two silver cups for use at the Corona
tion banquet on the accession of a new ruler to the throne
of England. The occasion for the fulfilment of the latter
clause of the agreement, however, never arose, for about
1320, for what reason it is impossible to ascertain, the
Manor of Sheen reverted entirely to the Crown, to which
it has ever since belonged, justifying the modern town
which has replaced the ancient feudal village, in calling
itself Royal Richmond.
During the latter years of his troubled, strenuous life,
Edward I. was more than once at Sheen, and it may
possibly have been in the comparative peace of his retreat
there, that he came to the wise decision of meeting his
rebellious barons half way by granting the more important
of their demands. However that may be, it was certainly
in the old Manor House that he received the Commissioners
from Scotland, in 1305, after the execution in London of
the noble patriot. Sir William Wallace, whose death will
ever be a blot on his memory ; and he probably began at
Sheen the drawing up of the abortive Constitution of the
land he flattered himself he had finally subdued and looked
upon as a mere province of England, proving his prophetic
astuteness by providing for the representation of his
northern subjects in the English Parliament.
There is no positive proof that Edward II. was ever
at Sheen, but Edward III, took a great fancy to it, and
spent large sums of money in converting the imosten-
tatious residence which had sufficed for his grandfather.

6 ROYAL MANOR OF RICHMOND.
into a palace in which he often held his Court,
entertaining many distinguished foreigners with great
magnificence. His wife Philippa of Hainault was also
much attached to the beautiful riverside home, and
there, maybe, were spent the happiest years of the
Hfe of the beloved Black Prince, the news of whose
death reached his widowed father at Sheen just one year
before Edward himself passed away. It was also at Sheen
that the King first fell under the baneful influence of Alice
Perrers, the unworthy successor in his affections of his
noble wife, and there that in 1377, a few days after he had
received the French Commissioners who had come to treat
for peace, he died, deserted by all his courtiers and attended
by but a single priest, whose presence did not deter his
rapacious mistress from robbing her dying lover even of
the rings upon his fingers.
The dead body of the long-neglected King was taken to
London, whether by road or river there is no evidence to
prove, to be interred with great pomp in Westminster
Abbey, and soon after the funeral a deputation of the
leading citizens of the capital went down to Sheen to
announce to the young King Richard IL, then only ten
years old, his accession to the throne, on which occasion
he is said to have forgotten his dignity in his delight,
running round the great hall to embrace his guests and
kissing them on both cheeks instead of waiting for them
to do homage to him. The next day he went forth robed
in white, and riding on a white horse, to make his formal
entry into his capital, attended by his four uncles and a
great retinue of nobles. During his minority Richard was
often at Sheen, where his charming manners won all hearts,
and it remained his favourite home after his marriage in
1382 to Anne of Bohemia, to whom he was devotedly
attached Emd for whose sake he made many additions to
the Palace, entrusting the superintendence of the work to
no less a person than Geoffrey Chaucer, who, though he
held several similar appointments elsewhere, does not
appear to have been a very successful architect. Already

SHEEN MANOR. 7
in the prime of life and engaged in the composition of his
masterpiece, the "Prologue to the Canterbury Tales," the
great genius could ill spare the time to give the necessary
attention to details of construction, and he did not long
retain his position at Sheen, Exactly when he was
dismissed cannot be determined, nor is the name of his
successor known, but during his brief connection with the
neighbourhood he learned to love it well, and the fact of
that cormection must ever be a source of pride to
Richmond. Even before the death at Sheen of Queen Anne, in 1 394,
the clouds that were to darken the remaining years of her
husband's life had begun to gather, he had lost his popu
larity with the people, and the lavish hospitality he
dispensed failed to win back for him the confidence and
affection he had wantonly thrown away. Again and again,
as when on the eve of her last illness she persuaded him
to ride with her in procession from Sheen to Westminster
to conciliate the angry citizens of London, did his peace-
loving consort save him from disaster, but when her
restraining influence was gone his doom was practically
sealed. Directly Anne's funeral, to attend which he summoned all
the nobles of the land, was over, Richard severed all connec
tion with the Palace at Sheen where he had been so happy
with her, and ordered that it should be at once completely
destroyed, but he was apparently only partially obeyed, for
though the once-loved home was left unoccupied during the
rest of his reign and part of that of his successor, falling
into decay through neglect, Henry V. Hved there for some
time when Prince of Wales, and on his accession to the
throne he had the old buildings restored and supplemented
by new ones, converting the Palace once more into a
worthy residence for a King. At Sheen he found rest and
refreshment for mind and body in the intervals between
his campaigns in France, and there he spent a brief but
happy time with his young bride Catherine of France,
whom he Brought to England to be crowned in 1421, soon

8 ROYAL MANOR OF RICHMOND.
after the signing of the "Treaty of Perpetual Peace," at
Troyes, which was to be broken before he had been
married two years. Recalled to France by the ill-success
of his brother and representative, the Duke of Clarence,
Henry V. died at Vincennes in 1422, leaving behind him
an infant son of eight months old as heir to a sorely-
troubled heritage.
During the long minority of Henry VI, nearly all that
his gallant father had gained by his brilliant feats of
arms and astute statesmanship was lost, and but for an
occasional visit from the boy king the Palace at Sheen
was once more deserted. In 1441, however, the Court
was in residence there for some weeks, as proved by
various documents dated from it, including a warrant to
certain sheriffs to give every attention to His Majesty's
aunt, Eleanor Duchess of Gloucester, during her progress
through the counties under their care, and in 1445 great
rejoicings took place at Sheen in honour of the marriage
of Henry VI, to Margaret of Anjou, The royal pair were
more than once at the Palace together before their troubles
began, and it seemed likely that it would be restored to
the important position it had held in the reigns of
Edward III, and Henry V., but ere long the weakness of
purpose which from the first had distinguished Henry VI.
increased into absolute inability to manage his own affairs.
He became a mere tool in the hands of his strong-minded
wife, and was unable to offer any effective resistance to the
insidious policy of the rival claimant to the throne, Richard
Duke of York.
It was practically as a prisoner that the unfortunate
King, who had been declared insane by his physicians,
was taken to Sheen in 1454, and it was from that
compulsory retreat that he went forth in 1455, after
his partial recovery, to the fatal field of St. Albans. A
year later he was again at Sheen, a broken-hearted and
disappointed man, alienated from his wife, who had taken
their infant son to Chester, and powerless to keep the
peace between her party and that of the duke. Exactly

SHEEN MANOR. g
when the doomed monarch finally left his riverside home it
is impossible to say, but it was probably early in 1457, if
not before, and it must have added something to the
anguish of his durance in the Tower tO' know that the
residence so full of happy and tragic memories to him,
had passed into the possession of his supplanter Edward IV.
The latter was there for some months in the year that he
was proclaimed King, and again in 1465 when the Palace
was the scene of much merrymaking, the young monarch
being exceedingly fond of pleasure and anxious to appease
by his lavish hospitality the anger of his adherents at his
secret marriage with Elizabeth Woodville, whose father,
the Earl of RiverSj was a staunch Lancastrian.
Many are the stories told of the gay doings at Sheen
in celebration of the wedding, when the ladies-in-
waiting proved their condonence of Edward's unpopular
match by giving his brother-in-law a golden garter
embroidered with forget-me-nots, and the bridegroom him
self curried favour with his lady guests by his gallant
compliments to their charms. Although there is no actual
evidence that Edward IV, again held his Court at
Sheen, he was probably there occasionally with his wife,
for in 1467 he gave the estate to her for her life, and it
became her favourite home as well as the nursery of her
children. There she more than once received the powerful
Earl of Warwick before the reckless conduct of her
husband finally alienated the man to whom he owed his
throne. There, too, rumours must often have reached her
of the wrongs done to her as a wife, and it may possibly
have been at Sheen that she heard of the victories of
Barnet and Tewkesbury, which apparently made her
position as mother of the heir-apparent of England secure,
but were really the prelude to the great tragedy of her life.
On the death of Edward, whom Elizabeth had long ceased
to love, she hoped to regain something of her old influence
at Court during the minority of her eldest son, then a boy
of thirteen, but she was still at Sheen waiting for the
summons to the capital when he and his brother were

IO ROYAL MANOR OF RICHMOND.
murdered in the Tower. Richard III. seems tO' have
allowed the widowed queen to remain immolested at
Sheen, and she was still there when he met the just reward
of his many crimes at the Battle of Bosworth, but to her
great surprise and discomfiture Henry VIL, who was
already betrothed to her eldest daughter, so that she felt
she had a special claim on him, was no sooner safely estab
lished on the throne, than he confiscated her property and
ordered her to withdraw to a convent at Bermondsey where
she remained until her death. With this high-handed
measure the first period of the history of Sheen may be
said to have closed, for the King, who was the second Earl
of Richmond, in Yorkshire, at once determined to change
its name to that of his hereditary estate, and set to work to
add to the already extensive buildings of the Palace several
lavishly-decorated suites of apartments, filling in the moat
that had surrounded Henry V.'s residence tO' make room
for them, and adding considerably to the royal pleasure
grounds. Henceforth the fortunes of Richmond were closely
bound up with those of the Tudor Dynasty, its name
appearing constantly in State documents, so that its
history can be very clearly traced. It was at Richmond
that Henry VII. held a Council of War when the insur
rection, headed by Lambert Simnel, who pretended that he
was the son of the murdered Duke of Clarence, broke out
in Ireland in 1487, and there a little later the young Earl
of Warwick, whom Simnel had personated, was brought
a prisoner to be cross-examined as to his supposed
complicity in the plot. In 1488 the king's sister-in-law,
Anne, the youngest daughter of Edward IV., was for some
months a guest in Richmond Palace, and it was perhaps in
it that she became betrothed to her future husband,
Thomas Lord Howard, eldest son of the Earl of Surrey.
During the next few years many grand tournaments were
held in the Palace grounds and on the Green adjoining
them, at one of which, that of 1492, an unfortunate knight.
Sir James Parker, jvas slain by his adversary, Hugh

WARDROBE COURT, RICHMOND PAI.ACE.

RICHMOND PALACE. ii
Vaughan, a gentleman usher, because, according to the
sixteenth century chronicler, John Stow, who was probably
quoting an eye-witness, he wore "a false helmet which, by
force of ye Cronacle fayled and so he was striken into the
mouth, that his tongue was borne into the hinder part of
his head and so he died incontinently," proving that the
single combats in which the nobility and gentry of the time
delighted were no mere child's play.
In 1497 or 1499, historians differ as to the exact date,
Richmond Palace was almost entirely destroyed by fire, but
the king lost no time in having it rebuilt in a far grander
style than before, taking as his model, it is said, the recent
additions to Westminster Abbey, and including in the new
structure the somewhat unusual feature of a spacious
library. The latest phase of Gothic architecture was then
at the very zenith of its popularity, and the restored Palace,
with its high-pitched roofs, finely grouped stacks of
chimneys and numerous bay-windows which were first
extensively used in it, must have been one of the
very finest examples of the style in existence, before
it was surpassed by Cardinal Wolsey's grand creation
at Hampton Court Only twO' years after the fire
Henry VII. was back again at Richmond, and there
in 1 501 the contract of marriage between his eldest son
Prince Arthur and Katherine of Aragon, that was later
to have such disastrous results for the bride, was solemnly
signed in the presence of a distinguished assembly
of guests. The wedding took place in November of the
same year, in St. Paul's Cathedral, and great festivities
were held in honour of it on Richmond Green, a certain
acrobat specially distinguishing himself by his agility,
delighting the King's grace and the noble company who,
after the departure of the newly-wedded pair, had betaken
themselves to the royal residence by the river, which even
at that inclement season evidently retained its fascination
for them.
In 1502 another contract of marriage took place at
Richmond, that between the young King James IV.,

12 ROYAL MANOR OF RICHMOND.
of Scotland, and Henry's eldest daughter Margaret, which
was ultimately to lead to the peaceful union between
the two countries that had been so long at war. Unfor
tunately the rejoicings over this happy event were
soon cut short by the untimely death of Prince Arthur,
soon after which, to everyone's surprise, the King
lent his beloved palace at Richmond to his widowed
daughter-in-law, for whom unkind Court gossip whispered
he cherished a stronger affection than was altogether
fitting, an aspersion that was apparently to some extent
justified when, a few months after the death of his wife, he
made proposals of marriage to Katherine, though her very
large dowry was probably the real attraction.
In the privy purse accounts of the King's and Queen's
expenditure at Richmond, the year before they withdrew
in favour of Katherine of Aragon, are a number of items
that throw a significant side light on their tastes and
habits. Henry, for instance, paid on one occasion no less
than fifty-six pounds to a Frenchman for certain books
and six pounds for two volumes called the " Gardyn of
Health " ; whilst Elizabeth gave a shilling to my Lord of
York's fool, appropriately called John Goose ; three shillings
and fourpence to William Cromer, gentleman usher, to be
offered on her behalf after High Mass on Easter Day ;
eightpence to each of twenty-one rowers who conveyed
Her Grace from Richmond to Greenwich; five shillings
as an offering to Our Lady of Plewe ; eightpence to a
certain Edmund Calvert for fetching bonnets from London ;
thirteen and fourpence to a surgeon for coming from
London to see her ; and one and fourpence to a needle
woman, being eightpence a day for making a gown of
criinson satin, the last two fees contrasting indeed greatly
with what would nowadays be exacted by a fashionable
doctor or dressmaker.
Henry VII. does not appear to have left Katherine long
in undisturbed possession of her retreat at Richmond, for
during the few remaining years of his life he was constantly
there with his Court. The position of the young widow

RICHMOND PALACE. 13
seems indeed to have been a very melancholy one, for it
was her fate to be courted not for her own sake, but for
that of her dowry, and even from it no personal advantage
accrued to her, as proved by the fact that in letters to her
father that have been preserved, she complained bitterly
of the straits to which she was put for want of money,
declaring that she had had to sell some of her jewellery to
buy a new dress. In 1504 high revel was held at Rich
mond to celebrate her betrothal to her thirteen years old
brother-in-law, the future Henry VIIL, a union against
which she protested in vain, pleading that she did not want
to marry another Englishman. The actual ceremony was
performed in London at the Bishop of Salisbury's
residence, but Katherine returned to Richmond soon after
it, and resided there until the death of Henry VII.
In 1506 a second fire occurred in the Palace, originating
in the bedroom of the King, from which he is said to have
escaped only just in time to save his life. Fortunately,
very little damage was done to the rest of the building,
but the accident was made the excuse for fresh expendi
ture, so that when, after making his will, in which he
several times referred to Richmond, Henry VII. passed
peacefully away in the home for which he had done so
much, that home with its long, irregular fagade, its many
turrets and cupolas, its massive archways and lancet-headed
windows must have presented a very imposing, if not an
altogether harmonious, appecirance.
Very impressive must have been the scene when the
body of the King, clad in royal robes and followed by a
long retinue of nobles, was carried first to the Great Hall,
there to rest for three days, and thence to the richly-
decorated Chapel to lie in state for another three days
before the high altar, after which it was taken by land to
the beautiful but still unfinished Chantry in Westminster
Abbey bearing the name of Henry VIL, though it did not
assume its present appearance until long after his death.

CHAPTER IL
The Later History of Richmond Palace
JHE funeral of his father over, Henry VIII, lost
no time in taking possession of Richmond
Palace, where his -fiancee was awaiting him, full,
no doubt, of anxiety as to the treatment she
would receive from him now that his position
was so much altered. On this interesting subject, how
ever, historians are silent, though they dwell much on the
quantities of treasure the young King found in the vaults
beneath the royal residence, accumulated there by his
predecessor, who had jealously kept the keys of his under
ground storehouse on his own person. Possibly this
unexpected discovery of wealth may have paved the way
for Henry's early marriage with Katherine, the second half
of whose dowry of 200,000 crowns had not yet been paid.
In any case, the bridegroom's haste in consummating his
union with his first wife gives the lie to the oft-repeated
assertion that he never really cared for her, for young
though he was, his self-will was already too strong for him
to have done anything he did not fancy.
Part of the honeymoon of the newly-married pair was
spent at Richmond, and on New Year's Day, 151 1,
their first child, a boy, was born there, who, had he
lived, would probably have saved his mother from
the mortification of being repudiated, and have altered
the whole course of the future history of his native
land. All England hailed with wild enthusiasm the
birth of an heir to the throne, and at Richmond
the excitement over the happy event knew no bounds,
making the reaction all the greater when six weeks
later the child on whom so much depended died. The

RICHMOND PALACE. 15
disappointed father is said to have looked upon the sad
event as a judgment from Heaven for his marriage to his
brother's widow, but the probability is that this view of
the matter was a much later afterthought, for he had then
no reason to doubt that Katherine might bear him another
son, which, as a matter of fact she did in 15 14, though he,
too, lived but a short time.
After the interment of their first-born child in
Westminster Abbey, Henry and Katherine were for
some years seldom at Richmond, but when the memory
of their bereavement there became less vivid, they
often held their Court in the Palace, receiving there
in 1523 the handsome and generous, but extravagant,
young Emperor, Charles V. of Germany, who had come to
England, ostensibly for his betrothal to their little daughter
Mary, then only seven years old, but really to strengthen
his alliance with the King against France, The betrothal,
which was celebrated with great pomp at Windsor, never
came to anything, nor does it appear that Charles ever
paid the 500,000 crowns he undertook to forfeit if he failed
to carry out his engagement. The people of Richmond
long remembered his visit, for so great was the number of
his retainers that the Palace could not accommodate them,
and they were quartered wherever room could be found for
them in the neighbourhood. That same year the King,
evidently with a view to making a little money out of his
riverside estate, leased it to Massey Villiard and Thomas
Brampton for a term of thirty years, at a rent of twenty-
three pounds eight shillings per annum, but for all that he
seems to have looked upon it as still entirely his own, for
in 1526 he lent it to Cardinal Wolsey, whom he had
compelled, much fo that minister's disgust, to give to him
his newly-completed mansion at Hampton Court.
Wolsey was not long allowed to enjoy the rest he
so much needed and to secure which he had spent so
much money on his beloved Middlesex home. The
common people, it is said, bitterly resented his
occupation of the Palacd, and a saj^ng went the

1 6 ROYAL MANOR OF RICHMOND.
round, "Soe a butcher's dogge doth lie in the Mannor
of Richmond," proving that the now discredited story,
that the great Cardinal was the son of a butcher, was
current during his life-time. The resentment increased
when Wolsey, whose fall was now near at hand, celebrated
Christmas with greater pomp at Richmond than his master
did at Eltham, but for all that Hemry was his minister's
guest at the former place in 1528, on which occasion a
magnificent fete was held on St, George's Day, when all
the Companions of the Order of the Garter met in the
Chapel, A year later, although his doom was already
sealed, and he had been deprived of all his offices, Wolsey
once more repaired to Richmond Palace, hoping, perhaps,
that he would be allowed to end his days there in peace ;
but he soon received an angry message from the King
ordering him to leave at once, and he sadly withdrew to the
Lodge in what is now known as the Old Deer Park, but
was then within the precincts of the Monastery of Jesus
of Bethlehem, the history of which is given below.
During the struggle with Rome which succeeded
Wolsey's death, Henry VIIL was several times at Rich
mond, as proved by various details of his privy purse
expenditure, such as fees paid to watermen, ferrymen and
gardeners, but the Court was not in residence there for any
length of time whilst Anne Boleyn was Queen, The
doomed wife seems, however, to have been there in 1535,
a letter from her to a certain Dr. Crome "given," she says,
"under our signet at my Lord's Manor of Richmond,"
having been preserved ; but whether her husband and
infant daughter Elizabeth were with her does not appear.
On the fatal 19th of May in the foUowing year, her rival
Jane Seymour is said to have awaited at Richmond in the
house, the site of which cannot be determined, of Sir
George and Lady Carew, the news that her rival's death
had set the King free to avow his secret marriage with her,
which had taken place the day before. The newly- wedded
pair spent their first and last Christmas together in the
Palace, for in October, 1537, Henr/s third wife died at

RICHMOND PALACE. 17
Hampton Court, twelve days after the birth of her son
Edward VI.
The King, who really seems to have loved Jane Seymour,
though had she lived he would probably soon have tired of
her, avoided both Richmond and Hampton Court Palaces
during his brief interval of widowhood, and after his
divorce from Anne of Cleves he granted her the former
for her life. The "Dutch Cow," as her unwilling bride
groom had called her, was very pleased with her new
abode and settled down in it with great content, relieved,
probably, that all danger of her sharing the fate of Anne
Boleyn had been averted from the first. More than once
she entertained the King at Richmond with lavish
hospitality, pandering to his weaknesses with such success
that a rumour spread abroad that he had fallen in love with
her and was the father of a boy born to her at Richmond ;
but his marriage to Catherine Howard in 1540 soon
dissipated this absurd report, though two of Anne's servants
were punished for aiding in starting it by being sent to
the Tower.
Neither Catherine Howard nor Catherine Parr were
ever at Richmond, both of them having preferred
Hampton Court as a residence, and Anne of Cleves was
left in undisturbed possession of the Palace until the
accession of Edward VI., who at once gave instructions that
she should vacate it for him ; but very much to his
disappointment his doctors would not allow him to live
there long at a time, declaring that Hampton Court was
healthier. Certain letters from the self-elected Protector,
the Duke of Somerset, are' dated from Richmond, and
on July 8th, 1549, Edward himself wrote from the Palace
there promising pardon under certain conditions to the
Catholic rebels of Devon and Cornwall. In June, 1550, the
King was at Richmond for a short time, witnessing there
the marriage of Somerset's daughter, the Lady Anne
Seymour, to Lord Lisle, and of the unfortunate Amy
Robsart to Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. In July of
the same year, as noted in his diary, Edward made the
C

1 8 ROYAL MANOR OF RICHMOND.
raging of the sweating sickness in London the excuse for
withdrawing "with a great band of gentlemen" to Rich
mond, remaining there apparently until the autumn, when
he received in the Great Hall the French Ambassador,
Marshal St. Andre, sent by Henri II. to invest him with
the Order of St. Michael, for which service the envoy
received the princely reward of a purse containing ;£'3,ooo
and a diamond ring worth another ;£"iSO, which his host
took off his own finger to present to him.
A significant light is thrown upon the customs of the
Court in the reign of the gentle monarch, whose courteous
manners are said to have won all hearts, by the description
in his Journal of the hanging of a live goose' on two cross
posts for the courtiers to strive who should be the first to
cut off the unfortimate bird's head ; whilst certain entries in
the account book of the Princess Mary when she was her
brother's guest at Richmond, prove that gambling was a
winter amusement, for one December she lost no less than
eight pounds at cards in a single week, a large sum for
those days. Other items of an earlier date in the same
record of expenditure reveal that even during her father's
life-time, and when she was heiress-apparent of the
kingdom in Edward's reign, the princess was expected to
meet her own expenses at Richmond, for on one occasion
she paid two pounds to a certain William Allen for two
sheep killed by her pet greyhounds, and on another two
shillings and sixpence to a fisherman named Perys for
some roach.
The last three years of the young King's troubled life
were spent entirely away from his beloved home at Rich
mond, but his sister Mary was at the Palace soon after her
accession, as proved by letters written by her in August,
1553, to the Chancellors of Oxford and Cambridge, and it
was there in February, 1554, that the news reached her of
Sir Thomas Wyatt's threatened attack on London, when
she at once hastened to the capital. Her courage and
decision soon quelled the rebellion ; its leader was taken
prisoner and executed on April nth of the same year, and

RICHMOND PALACE. 19
it seemed likely that the victory would win for the Queen
permanent popularity, but unfortunately she stained her
triumph by making it the excuse for the judicial murder of
the innocent but unfortunate Lady Jane Grey and her
husband Lord Guildford Dudley, who with the father of
the former, who had really been involved in the plot, were
beheaded on Tower Hill. Soon after this triple tragedy
Mary still further alienated her subjects by imprisoning her
sister Elizabeth in the Tower and by her engagement to
the bigoted Roman Catholic Philip IL of Spain, making
the final arrangements for the marriage at Richmond,
where she also passed part of her honeymoon, doing her
best by all manner of sumptuous entertainments to win
the approbation of her gloomy husband, who from the first
made no secret of his want of affection for her. The next
few months were perhaps the happiest of Mary's life : she
was united to the man she loved, and she had won for
her country reconciliation with the Pope, whose devoted
adherent she was. As time went on, however, and she
realised that Philip did not care for her, and that she was
not likely to become a mother, she became embittered, the
beautiful home at Richmond was converted into a prison
for the Princess Elizabeth, and the savage persecution of
the Protestants which won for the Queen the name of
Bloody Mary began. Bishops Ridley and Latimer, Arch
bishop Cranmer and many others less celebrated, were
burnt at the stake, and though there were no executions in
Richmond itself, a gloom was thrown over the once bright
and merry village by the awful scenes that took place in
the neighbourhood, no less than thirty victims having
perished in the flames in Surrey alone, during the second,
third and fourth years of the disastrous reign.
In spite of the restrictions to which she was subjected by
her stern gaoler Sir Henry Bedingfield, the Princess Eliza
beth found Richmond Palace a very pleasant change from
the Tower, She had come to her new prison by water, and
when she alighted fom her barge she expressed herself
delighted with the general aspect of the place. She would.

20 ROYAL MANOR OF RICHMOND.
she declared, gladly remain there till her sister should
choose to restore her freedom, but for this very reason,
perhaps, she was soon removed to Woodstock, Mary
hoping by rigorous measures to indiuce her to renounce
her religion. It is said that Elizabeth was promised,
whilst at Richmond, liberty and a liberal dowry if she would
give up all claim to the throne and marry the Duke of
Suffolk, but she remained firm in her refusal, though when
she reahsed from certain hints thrown out by her attendants
at Woodstock, that her very Hfe was in danger, she
temporised by pretending to have become a Catholic.
This deception restored her for a time to Mary's fickle
favour, and in 1557 she was the Queen's guest at Richmond,
when a magnificent open-air fete was given in her honour.
A richly-decorated State barge was sent to fetch
the Princess from London, and in it, seated beneath
an embroidered awning with her ladies-in-waiting and
the officers of her household grouped behind her,
she made a slow and dignified progress up streemi,
escorted by a whole fleet of boats containing her
servants, Mary herself went down the river steps to meet
her guest, and the sisters walked up through the gardens,
chatting amicably together, as if there had never been any
quarrel between them, A grand banquet, of which the
central feature was a pomegranate tree worked in confec
tionery, was served, not as usual in the Great HaU of the
Palace, but in a pavilion of the form of a castle, made of
cloth of gold and violet velvet, embroidered in gold and
silver with the arms of England and Spain. Possibly
Queen Mary may even then have had a presentiment of
her approaching end, and have felt that as there was no
longer any hope of her leaving a son to succeed her on the
throne, she might as well die in peace with her heir. How
ever that may be, Elizabeth returned to London in the
evening greatly charmed with the reception that had been
accorded her, the long procession of brilliantly lighted boats
forming her escort presenting a charming picture as it
gradually receded from view.

RICHMOND PALACE. 21
Only once more, in August, 1558, was Queen Mary at
Richmond, and this time there were no gay doings, for
already the illness which was to prove fatal in
November of the same year had begun. Several
letters written during this last visit, including one
to the Fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford,
have a pathetic interest, and in Dulwich College is
treasured up an interesting memorandum of the salaries
enjoyed by the officers of the Queen's household at Rich
mond, showing that the Keeper of the Library received
ten pounds, the Keeper of the Wardrobe nine pounds
two shillings and sixpence, and the Keeper of the House
the same sum, the last named, however, combining with
his domestic duties the charge of the garden and pcirk,
being paid for his care of them a further sum of eight
pounds two shillings and fourpence, no very liberal rewcurd
for the onerous duties connected with the keeping up of
the extensive estate.
Nowhere was the relief at the death of Mary and the
accession of Elizabeth greater than at Richmond, which,
with the rest of England, had suffered terribly from the
gloomy bigotry of the suffering and disappointed Queen
during the last few months of her life. From the first the
new ruler showed a great predilection for the Palace
there, preferring it even to Hampton Court, which held
the second place in her affections. The Thames between
the two royal residences and between Richmond and
London became the scene of a succession of gorgeous
pageants, and a new era of prosperity set in for riverside
Surrey, the whole population sharing in the benefits
accruing from the constant passing to and fro of the
Court, Elizabeth was now only twenty-five years old, and
the chief desire of her subjects was that she should marry
and give tfiem an heir to the throne. She herself appeared
nothing loath to meet their wishes, and a constant state
of excitement and expectation was kept up by her
successive receptions of the suitors for her hand. For
these receptions, and also for what may be called her

22 ROYAL MANOR OF RICHMOND.
unofficial flirtations, she evidently considered Richmond an
excellent field, for throughout her long reign she was con
stantly there, playing off her lovers against each other, to
the great entertainment of the lookers-on, like any village
coquette to the very end of her life. To Richmond in the
early part of her rule came the gallant but flighty young
King Eric XIV. of Sweden, to whom, though she never
meant to marry him, she was so gracious that he is said to
have fallen madly in love with her. She even introduced
him to her favourite astrologer. Dr. Dee, who was then
living at Mortlake, and the story goes that that astute
soothsayer was in the pay of the ardent lover as well as of
the Queen, privately prophesying smooth things for each,
the realisation of which was quite impossible.
The Earl of Leicester and his stepson, the Earl of
Essex, to both of whom Elizabeth seems to have been
really attached, were constantly in attendance on her at
Richmond, and were probably present at the various
tournaments held in honour of their royal rivals and of the
ambassadors from foreign Courts, to whom for one reason
or another the Queen wished to show special favour. In
1564, for instance, she twice received an envoy from her
brother-in-law, Philip II, of Spain, who is said to have been in
love with her before he married Mary, and in 1581 she
accorded a magnificent reception to the representative of the
Due d' Anjou, who came to ask her hand on behalf of his
master. By this time her ministers and people were alike
becoming weary of the constant negotiations for marriages
that never came off ; EUzabeth was now forty-eight years
of age, and the question of who should be her husband
was no longer of vital importance to the realm, but for all
that she kept up the farce, behaving as if she were still
an attractive young woman, and indulging in her favourite
pastime of dancing on every possible occasion, A chief
feature of the fete of 1581 was the siege of the so-caUed
" Castele Fortress of Perfect Beauty," supposed to symbolise
Her Majesty, which was assailed by a warrior personifying
passionate love and his four offspring ; and, writing some-

RICHMOND PALACE. 23
what later. Sir Roger Aston, who had come to Richmond
with letters from James VI, of Scotland, declared that when
ever he sought an interview with the Queen he was sure to
find her dancing merrily, probably, he suggests, with a view
to his telling his master that he need not hope to ascend
the throne of England yet awhile.
In January, 1587, came an Embassy from Henri of
Navarre, the future Henri IV. of France, who would gladly
have strengthened his cause by a union with the ruler of
England, and in the following month Richmond was the
scene of the final act of Elizabeth's long course of cruelty
to her ill-fated cousin Mary Stuart, whose death warrant
is said to have been signed in the Great Hall of the Palace.
Thence, too, were issued in 1588 the Queen's first spirited
directions to her fleet and army, when the Spanish Armada
was threatening the safety of her kingdom, and to Rich
mond she withdrew in 1589 to recruit her strength when
all danger was over. Again and again during the last few
years of her life she was at her beloved Palace by the river,
keeping up all her old traditions. Her favourite Essex was
hopelessly estranged from her, and the only other two men
for whom she had ever really cared — the Earl of Leicester
and the Due d'Alengon — -had both passed away ; but to the
very last she continued to amuse herself by writing love-
letters, some of which, including those to Lord Mountjoy,
were dated from Richmond. The grave courtiers, whO' no
doubt were laughing in their sleeves at her, gladly feU in
with her humour, and the story goes that when she was
in her sixty-ninth year she gave a certain William Sydney a
kiss as a reward for the grace with which he danced a
coranto before her in the Great Hall at Richmond,
In 1 593 the Queen halted for some time at Richmond on
a progress through Surrey, because the measles and small
pox were raging at Weybridge and Chertsey, and it may
perhaps have been on this occasion that Dr, Rudd, Bishop
of St. David's, incurred her severe displeasure by a sermon
preached in her presence in the private Chapel on the
description of old age in Ecclesiastes xii., in which, with

24 ROYAL MANOR OF RICHMOND.
extraordinary want of tact, he pointed the moral by
observing that " time had even furrowed Her Majesty's face
and besprinkled her hair with meal." Elizabeth is said
to have listened to this remarkable discourse with com
posure, but as soon as it was over she got up, opened a
window with her own hands, as if to dispel the impression
made on her, and muttering "that the bishop might have
kept his arithmetic to himself, and that the greatest of
clerks were not always the wisest of men," she withdrew in
high dudgeon to her own apartments. A few days later
the Queen took occasion to prove that the good bishop, as
she ironically called Dr. Rudd, was deceived in supposing
her to be decayed in her limbs and senses as others of her
age were wont to be, by challenging certain of her courtiers
to read an inscription in very small letters on a jewel she
produced. As a matter of course they all declared their
inability to do so, when Elizabeth told them what the words
were, claiming that she could make them out easily, an
assertion all present applauded vigorously, none having the
courage to suggest that a good memory might have had
something to do with her success.
It is said by some authorities to have been at Richmond
that Elizabeth received the news of the execution of the
Earl of Essex, a tragedy she is popularly supposed to have
guarded against by promising him she would forgive him,
whatever his guilt, if he sent back to her a ring she had
given to him in the happy days before his fall. Although
there appears to be really no truth in this tradition, or in
the supplementary story that the ring was entrusted to the
Countess of Nottingham to be taken to the Queen, but
withheld until the former was on her deathbed, when she
confessed her crime, the death of the Earl is generally
said to have hastened that of his broken-hearted mistress,
who survived him for thirteen months only. The last few
weeks of her life were spent at Richmond where, on March
24th, 1603, she passed away after great suffering, having
before the end caused the ring which had been placed on
her finger at her Coronation to be filed off. She was

RICHMOND PALACE. 25
attended on her death bed by the Archbishop of Canter
bury, who tried to cheer her by telling her that she had
deserved well of Heaven for her devotion to the Protestant
cause, but she seems to have taken little comfort from this
assurance. The truth appears at last to have dawned upon
her that she was but an erring mortal after all, and greatly
as the accounts of her last moments differ, all agree in
picturing her as a sincere penitent, trusting rather to the
mercy of God than to her own merits.
The people of Richmond cherish a belief for which,
unfortunately, there is absolutely no foundation, that Queen
Elizabeth died in one of the few still existing rooms of
Henry VIL's Palace, that above the only remaining arch
way, which bears the arms of the Tudor family carved in
stone. The story goes that she was taken ill in that room
on her way from her private apartments to the chapel, and
that cushions were brought for her on which she lay until
the end. She refused to allow her attendants to carry her
to bed, even when Sir Robert Cecil, who had succeeded his
father as Secretary of State, told her she must do so for
the sake of her people. The use of the word must, which at
any other time might have cost the speaker his life, is said
on this melancholy occasion only to have amused the dying
autocrat, for she replied with a pathetic smile : " Little man,
little man ! if your father had lived you durst not have said
as much, but you know that I must die and that makes you
so presumptuous,"
Although it was certainly not, as the legend further
asserts, from the window of this ancient apartment, which
is really little more than a passage, that Lady Scrope, who
was one of the Queen's maids-of-honour, dropped the ring
which was the preconcerted signal to her brother who was
waiting below on horseback that he might lose not a
moment in carrying the news of Elizabeth's death to her
successor, James VL, the gateway it surmounts was
evidently one of the principal entrances to the Palace of
Henry VII. Through it that monarch and his Queen, his
son Ilenry VIII. and Cardinal Wolsey, Edward VI. and the

26 ROYAL MANOR OF RICHMOND.
Protector Somerset, Mary and Philip IL, Elizabeth and her
various suitors, must often have passed, so that the little
room above it must have looked down upon many a
gorgeous scene, and have played a minor part in many of
the interesting historic episodes that took place in the
great building to which it belonged. From it the prepara
tions for Elizabeth's funeral may have been watched, and
in it may have been discussed with bated breath the
gruesome story told by one of the six ladies who had kept
vigil in the death chamber, wherever that may have been,
for the six nights before the great Queen started on her
last voyage down stream to the capital, of how the coffin
had burst open after it had been nailed down, as if even in
death its inmate resented interference with her liberty.
In spite of all her faults, which were but venial after
all, the great Queen appears to have been truly and
justly mourned by her subjects, and when the State barge
bearing her mortal remains started from the river steps
of the Palace, it was followed not only by a long
procession of boats bearing the official mourners, but also
by hundreds of weeping foot passengers, who kept up
with it on the towing paths, their numbers constantly
swelling as village after village poured forth its contingent.
When all was over and the last boat had passed out of sight,
an impressive gloom must have fallen upon Richmond,
which had for so many years been intimately associated
with the fortunes of the Tudors. Never again was it the
scene of a great historic pageant, for the Stuart sovereigns,
who had no pleasant memories connected with it, cared
little for it. James I. greatly preferred Windsor Castle and
Hampton Court, but his eldest son. Prince Henry, who,
had he lived, might have saved England from the guilt of
regicide, seems to have become much attached to the
Palace at Richmond, in which he took up his abode when
he was practically banished from Court by his father, who
was bitterly jealous of him and suspected him of wishing
to hasten his death.
Prince Henry, who seems to have been a man of

MAIDS OF HONOUR ROW.

RICHMOND PALACE. 27
wide culture, spent large sums of money at Richmond,
adding to the Palace a picture gallery, that was designed
by Sir Inigo Jones, and forming in it the nucleus of
the fine collection of pictures which, though many
of its greatest treasures were dispersed during the Revolu
tion, is still one of the most valuable possessions of the
Royal Family. Nearly three thousand pounds were
expended on building operations alone during Prince
Henry's tenancy of the Palace, and various entries in his
account books prove that he was equally lavish in other
directions, giving for instance, one hundred and twenty
pounds to the owners of land that he added to the Park
and paying over sixty pounds for new palings, the
timber for which was felled on the Royal property. The
untimely death of the Prince, which took place in St.
James's Palace in 161 2, the result, it is said, of a chill
caught when bathing in the Thames, was a great grief
to the people of Richmond, to whom he had endeared him
self by his courteous manners. He had left his coUection
of pictures to his brother Charles, who was also a great
lover of art and who added to it many very valuable works,
but it was not until 16 15 that the latter lived in the Palace,
and it did not become his property until 161 7, when his
father granted to him the Manors of Richmond, Ham and
Petersham. During the eight years before the death of his father,
Richmond Padace was the headquarters of Prince Charles,
and there he often made merry with his beloved friend
and evil genius, George ViUiers, Duke of Buckingham,
starting thence with him in 1623 on the journey to
Spain to court the Infanta incognito, an enterprise which,
wild as it was, might perhaps have succeeded but for the
haughty insolence of the young prince's companion, who
was not content with playing the secondary rdle assigned
to him, but made love to the ladies of the Court on his own
account. In spite of this failure, however, Buckingham
was chosen a little later to go to France and arrange for
the marriage of Charles to Henrietta Maria, when he again

28 ROYAL MANOR OF RICHMOND.
distinguished himself by daring to pay his addresses to
the widowed Queen, Marie de Medici, This time, to the
misfortune of England, he was successful in his main
mission, and on his return home he was eagerly welcomed
by Charles, to whom he described the charms of the
bride-elect with great enthusiasm. Possibly the two may
have discussed at Richmond the situation created by the
clause in the marriage settlement, giving tO' the future
Queen and her retinue the privilege of practising the
rites of the Roman Catholic religion, and more fatal
concession still, secured to Henrietta Maria the right of
educating her children in her own faith up to the age of
thirteen. Charles and Buckingham were at the Palace together
shortly before the death of James I. in 1625, and
although after his accession to the throne the new
King was seldom in residence at Richmond, he was
often in the neighbourhood superintending the laying
out of his new Park there. He also turned the Palace,
which, by the way, he had settled on his wife as part of
her marriage portion, to account, by lending it at different
times to distinguished guests, amongst whom was the
beautiful Duchesse de Chevreuse, who had come to
England ostensibly as one of the Queen's ladies in waiting,
but really because her intrigues had rendered her further
residence in the French capital impossible. Soon after
her arrival at Richmond she gave birth tO' a child — some
say a son, others a daughter — whose baptism was
solemnised with great pomp in the private Chapel. The
mother, who quickly recovered her health and spirits, restored
something of its old gaiety to the Palace, gathering a
little court about her and showing a special predilection
for the river, in which she used to swim about with her
attendant ladies, winning for herself the nickname of the
"female Leander." How long she remained in her comfort
able quarters is not known, but she had probably left
when, in May, 1628, Charles I. was at the Palace for a
few days, as proved by the issue of a warrant dated from

RICHMOND PALACE. 29
it instructing Sir Robert Douglas, Steward of the Manors
of Richmond, Petersham and Ham, to call together a
Court Leet to deal with certain local matters.
The murder of Buckingham in August of the same year
seems to have given the King a fresh distaste for the
place in which he and the friend of his youth had
been so happy together, and for the next nine years,
though the Royal children were often at Richmond, he
avoided it altogether. In 1636, however, he and the
Queen halted there on their way from Oxford to London,
and were present at a masque got up in their honour, it is
said, by their eldest son, Charles, then only six years old,
and the young Duke of Buckingham, who since his father's
death had been brought up by the King, The entertain
ment, in which the chief actors were Prince Charles, who
delighted every one by his brightness and grace. Lord
Buckhurst, and Mr. Edward Sackville, appears to have
been of a very feeble description, ill-fitted to cheer the
harassed monarch, whose arbitrary measures of taxation
and weakness in yielding to his wife, had already alienated
the affections of his people and paved the way for his
downfall. This seems to have been the last visit paid by Charles I,
to the Palace at Richmond, and there is something pathetic
in the coincidence that it was whilst he was there that
the future Colonel Hutchinson, the conscientious Puritan
who was to be one of the Commissioners who signed his
death-warrant, was stopping in a house in the neighbour
hood, the site of which cannot be identified, induced to do
so, as related by his widow in her Memoir of him, by his
music master, who had told him, "There was very good
company and recreations there, the King's hawkes being
kept neere the place and severaU other conveniences." At
the same time another friend warned him to take heed of
the place — which then, as now, seems to have been in some
subtle way provocative of courtship — "for it was so fatal
for love that never any young disengag'd person went
thither who returned againe free," Strange to say, the

30 ROYAL MANOR OF RICHMOND.
prophecy was fulfilled in his case, for he presently lost
his heart to the lady who became his wife, even though
he had not yet seen her, simply through hearing a
description of her.
Although Charles I. was never again at Richmond, his
three daughters, Majry, who was later to drive her brother
from the throne, Elizabeth, who was to die unmarried
soon after her father's tragic death, and Anne, happiest
perhaps of all, who passed away in 1640, were there under
the care of the Countess of Roxburgh during the troubled
years that preceded the execution of Strafford, that was
the beginning of the end; and later the two surviving
sisters were joined by their brother Charles, who was sent
to the Palace, not by his father, but by the Parliament
that had usurped the King's paternal rights, to study
with his tutor, the good Bishop Duppa, whose memory
is still venerated in the neighbourhood on account of his
generosity to the poor.
The young prisoners, for such they practically were,
were later removed to Sion House on the other side of
the river, and in 1647, in accordance with the orders of
Parliament, the defences of Richmond Palace were
strengthened that it might serve as a place of detention
for the King. Charles, however, so strenuously resisted
the attempt to compel him to take up his residence there,
that he was aUowed to remain at Hampton Court, whence,
as proved by a statement in a newspaper for August 29th,
1647, he rode over to indulge, perhaps for the last time, in
his favourite pastime of hunting in the Park that, as
related below, he had added to his Richmond demesne.
Soon after the execution of the King in 1649 a survey
was taken of the Royal Palace at Richmond preliminary
to its being put up for sale by auction, from which survey,
with the aid of various drawings and engravings that
have been preserved, a very accurate idea may be obtained
of the appearance of the Palace in the second half of the
seventeenth century. "Richmond Court," as it was styled
by the Commissioners, was, they said, a "leaded and

RICHMOND PALACE. 31
battyled structure built of freestone with fourteen Turretts
all standing a convenient height above the said leads,
which Turretts," they add, "very much adorn and set
forth the Fabrick of the whole structure and are a very
graceful ornament unto the whole House, being per
spicuous to the country round about."
The most important features of the imposing group of
buildings were the Great Hall and the Chapel, the former
built, as the emissaries of the Parliament reported, on to a
lower storey containing "one very large room called the
Great Buttery, and one other littel room known as the Silver
Scullery, with a third room called the Saucery, and a large
and fayr passage." The hall itself was one hundred feet
long by forty broad, and had "a screen in the lower end
thereof, over which was a little gallery and a fayr foot
pace in the higher end thereof ; the pavement was of square
tiles, and the apartment was very well lighted and ceeled
(ceiled), there were eleven statues in the sides thereof, a
brick hearth for a charcoal fire in the midst, having above
it a large lanthorn fitted in the roof for that purpose,
turretted and covered with lead, whilst in the north-end
was a turrett or clock-case, which," says the report, "with
the lantern in the middle thereof were a special ornament
unto the building," a remark proving that even the stern
commissioners were not altogether insensible to the charms
of the Royal home that was so soon to be desecrated.
The chapel, which was ninety-six feet long by thirty broad,
also won their approval, for they declare it to have been
"well fitted with all things useful for a chapel, with hand
some cathedral seates and pewes, a removeable pulpit and
a fayr case of carved work for a payr of organs."
The conscientious emissaries, who did the work entrusted
to them with great thoroughness, go on to describe a circular
canted or polygonal tower, with a staircase, probably spiral,
of one hundred and twenty-four steps, a library well
stocked with valuable works, an open gallery one hundred
feet long, with a closed-in one above it of the same length,
a vast number of bedchambers, including one known as the

32 ROYAL MANOR OF RICHMOND.
Duke of York's ; a " third storie with twelve chambers, all
well lighted and ceeled, and most of them vaulted," the last
detail an incidental proof how greatly comfort was already
considered, and an endless series of rooms and offices for
the use of the servants of the household, such as flesh, fish
and pastrie larders, livery kitchens, ale butteries, scalding
rooms, and so on, apartments for the retinues of the King's
guests, etc.
The Commissioners also describe minutely the Wardrobe
Court, part of which alone survives of all the complicated
system of buildings that made up the Royal demesne, to bear
witness to the past glories of the Palace, for which reason
the section of tlieir report dealing with it is quoted at
length : "The wardrobe and other offices," they say, "consist
of three fayre ranges of buildings embattled and guttered
with lead and tyled in the roof, two stories high, lying
round the fayre and spacious court, sixty-six yards long
and sixty yards broad, all paved, conteyning very many
good rooms and lodgings, both on the first and second
storie, and divers garrets, and one payr of strong gates,
leaded and well arched, leading into the sayd court from the
green lying before Richmond House. The rooms and
lodgings in these three ranges of buildings did usually serve
for several offices, and did belong to several officers of the
Court — to wit, the cupbearer, carver, sewer, grooms of the
privie chamber, the spicery, chandelry, cofferer, the clerk
of the green cloth, the apothecary, the confectioner,
the housekeeper, the wardrobe and wardrobe keeper,
the porter, the chaplains and the gentlemen of the
bedchamber." There can be no reasonable doubt that the ancient
gateway referred to above in connection with Queen
Elizabeth and the embattled buildings adjoining it facing
the Green and still known as Wardrobe Court, formed
part of the "three fayre ranges of buildings " described in
this quaintly worded report, the fact that their material
is brick, not stone, proving that they did not belong, as
has sometimes been claimed, to the same group as the

RICHMOND PALACE. 33
Great Hall, the Chapel and the principal Royal Apart
ments. Divided into private residences that are rented
from the Crown, these deeply interesting survivals of Tudor
times, with their ornate internal decoration, " divers choice
and fayre rooms," picturesque nooks and corners, and,
above all, their secret passages, so suggestive of romance
and intrigue, still retain in the midst of their modern
surroundings the subtle undefinable aroma of the past
that is so strong an element of charm, appearing now and
then, even at this late day, to be haunted by the ghosts
of those who used them when Richmond Court was one
of the most beautiful of the palaces near London, rivalling
even Hampton Court in the affections of its owners.
Not content with their careful survey of the Royal
residence itself, the Commissioners dwelt on the beauties
of the Park connected with it, now known as the Old Deer
Park, which they describe as "impaled and contayning
upon admeasurement 349 acres i rood and 10 perches of
land," whilst they estimate the Green as twenty acres
in extent, "more or less excellent land to be dispastured
only with sheep, well turfed and level, and a special
ornament to the whole Palace, having one hundred and
thirteen elm trees, forty-eight whereof stand on the West
Side and include in them a very handsome Walk," which
some two and a half centuries later was to become
a fashionable promenade of the frequenters of Richmond
Wells. In 1650 the Palace, the value of which had been assessed
at ;^ 10,782, was sold to provide the money to pay the
arrears due to certain regiments of the Parliamentary
Army, the purchasers being Thomas Rookesby, William
Goodwin, and Adam Baynes, from whom it was bought a
little later for £10,000 by Sir Gregory Norton, who had
been one of the King's judges and had signed the
warrant for his execution. Needless to add that the
presence of the regicide was very unwelcome to the loyal
people of Richmond, but he appears to have lived
unmolested in the still beautiful but dismantled palace D

34 ROYAL MANOR OF RICHMOND.
until the Restoration, when he had to give it up to the
Crown and narrowly escaped losing his life also.
Soon after the landing of Charles II. at Dover he was
joined by La Reine Malheureuse, as the French called his
widowed mother, but she only remained with him for four
months, during which, however, she is said to have paid a
short visit to Richmond, wandering disconsolately about
the rooms hallowed by so many touching memories, from
which all the treasures accumulated by her husband and
her brother-in-law, Prince Henry, had been removed. In
1662 she was back again in England, and her son, who
did not care to have her at Court, where her silent dis
approval would have been a check upon his reckless
dissipation, assigned Richmond Palace, which as a matter
of fact was really already her own property, to her as a
residence, and she lived there in great seclusion till 1665,
when she went back to her native land, ending her days
four years later at her Chateau of Colombes, near Paris.
The story goes that when the unfortunate Henrietta Maria
was at Richmond this last time she was one day suddenly
intruded on by the notorious Lady Castlemaine, who had
run away from London in a fit of temper with the King,
and, in spite of the cold reception she received from her
lover's mother, insisted upon remaining for the night at
the Palace. The next morning Charles himself appeared
upon the scene, eager for reconciliation with his beloved
mistress and regardless of the remonstrances of Henrietta,
who must indeed have wondered that his early troubles had
taught him nothing, he achieved his purpose, the reconciled
pair, after a somewhat stormy interview, going off happily
together. Possibly this incident, if it really occurred, may
have had something to do with the Queen Dowager's
resolve to leave England, for it must have proved to her
that she need hope for no consideration from her undutiful
son, and she can have had no wish to watch him con
summating his own ruin. However that may have been,
it is very evident that she never intended to return to her
husband's country, for before her departure she granted

RICHMOND PALACE. 35
the Manor of Richmond to Sir Edward ViUiers, who either
let it or lent it to his relative, Lady Frances Villiers, then
guardian of the young children of the Duke of York, the
future James II, Lady Frances brought her Royal charges
to Richmond, and there, in 1669, the two boys, the Dukes
of Cambridge and Kendal, died, greatly to the grief of the
people of England and Scotland, who began to dtespair of
the survival of a legitimate heir to the United Kingdom.
On the accession of James II. in 1685, Sir Edward
Villiers is said to have given back the Richmond estate
to the Crown, but he appears still to have had a hold upon
it, for when, shortly afterwards, the Princess Anne wished to
live in the Palace, permission for her to do so was refused
by the then occupier, Madame Puissars, a meirried daughter
of Lady Frances. The new King Ccured nothing for
Richmond, and did not assert his rights to the property
there until some little time after his marriage to his second
wife, Mary of Modena, when he sent his infant son,
James Francis Edward, who was born in 1688, to be taken
care of there. The boy, who was to have such a
melancholy career as the Pretender, was so delicate that he
was not expected to live, but the country air did him so
much good that he survived to share his mother's flight to
Freuice on the eve of the landing of the Prince of Orange
at Torbay. Happy perhaps would it have been for him
if he had died in infancy, and strange was the irony of
fate which made his half-sister Mary, who before his birth
was the next heir to the throne, the wife of the man who
was to dispossess his father of his heritage. Mary, who
had never seen her brother, naturally felt little compunction
at supplanting him, but the yoimger Arme, though she
consented to the act which secured the succession to her
brother-in-law William should he survive her sister, seems
to have had a genuine affection for the unfortunate boy
who, through no fault of his own, was deprived of his
birthright before he was a year old. The loss of her own
children, one after the other, must have intensified Anne's
regret at the course events had taken, and she must often

36 ROYAL MANOR OF RICHMOND,
have longed to be back in the quiet home at Richmond,
where she had been so happy before her father came to
the throne.
Neither William III. nor his wife ever resided in Rich
mond Palace for any length of time, though the former
occasionally put up there for a night when he had been
hunting in the Park, and after the accession of Anne it fell
into decay for want of repair. Later, much of it was
deliberately pulled down, the Tudor style having gone
completely out of fashion. Exactly when and how the
tragic work of demolition began is not known, but that the
materials of part at least of the palace were sold for building
purposes and turned to account in the construction of some
of the many houses that were built on or near the site
of the once noble Royal residence, is proved by the
incorporation in them of pieces of fine old oak panelling
and beautiful bits of Gothic carving, etc. Queen Anne
did not live to see the completion of the havoc she had
sanctioned, but either just before or soon after her death
in 1 7 14 what was left of the beautiful riverside home of
her predecessors was cased in stucco to give it a
resemblance to the Renaissance work which was then
becoming the rage, and it was not until the nineteenth
century was considerably advanced that the disfiguring
addition was removed.
George I. had, of course, no associations with Richmond,
and so far as can be ascertained never resided there, but
soon after his accession he gave the Palace to the Prince
and Princess of Wales as a residence. They had not been
in it long before the former wrote to his father complaining
of the want of accommodation for the ladies-in-waiting,
an incidental proof of the amount of destruction that
had already taken place, and the King replied by
giving leave for the erection of the four fine red brick
houses still standing, known as Maids of Honour Row.
George II. was seldom at Richmond after he became King,
but his wife, Caroline of Anspach, was often there, finding
consolation perhaps in its beautiful surroundings for the

RICHMOND PALACE. 37
neglect of her husband, to whom, in spite of his infidelity,
she seems to have been greatly attached, thinking more of
his interests than her own, for almost with her last breath
she urged him to marry again.
Queen Caroline passed away in 1737, the year of the
banishment of her son, Frederick, Prince of Wales, from
Court, and for the next half century Richmond Palace
was practically deserted by the Royal Family. Neither
George IV. nor William IV. ever lived in the Palace, though
they may have been there as children, and by the time
Queen Victoria came to the throne further portions of the
grand old mansion, which with its dependencies once
covered more than ten acres of ground, had been pulled
down. Fortunately, however, the Crown, to which the
little remnant of the old Palace still belongs, has shown
a real respect for its traditions, a respect that has been
shared by the successive tencints to whom it has been
leased, who from the first have one and all greatly prided
themselves on living in a building associated with so
many interesting historic memories.

CHAPTER IIL
The Religious Houses of Sheen, The Royal Lodge,
AND The Old Deer Park.
JOULD the true story of the Religious Houses
of Sheen be fully told, there can be little doubt
that it would be almost as full of fascination
as that of the Royal Palace itself, for whereas
the latter reflects chiefly the outward and
visible fortunes of its successive owners and occupiers, the
former is intimately bound up with the inner lives of those
who strove to propitiate Heaven by the foundation of
monasteries, and which is even more important, of the
devout who sought in them a refuge from the cares and
ambitions of the world. Unfortunately, however, there is
little to aid the student in an attempt to reconstruct what
may be caUed the spiritual history of Sheen, for there
remain scarcely any traces of the beautiful buildings that
were at one time the homes of holy men and women, who
devoted all their time to prayer, meditation and good
works. Neither is there anything in the present appearance
of the sites that were occupied by the monasteries to
recall their memories, which are preserved only in such
names as Friar's House, The Priory, Friars' Lane and
Friar Stile Road, though it must be added that certain
eighteenth-century houses on the green were evidently
raised on the foundations of some of the old conventual
buildings, as proved by the existence beneath the modern
ground floors of subterranean passages and cellars lined
with ancient masonry.
The earliest and most important of the Sheen
monasteries was that called the House of Jesus of Bethle
hem — the seal of which, representing the Nativity with the
Star of Bethlehem above, is in the British Museum — which

RELIGIOUS HOUSES. 39
was situated in what is now known as the Old Deer
Park, about half a mile to the north-west of the Palace,
covering a space 3,125 feet long by 1,305 broad. It was
one of two religious houses, the other having been the
Convent of Sion, on the opposite side of the river, founded
by Henry V. in 1414 to expiate the crimes of his father,
who had usurped the Crown of England, and it is popularly
believed had caused the murder of his predecessor
Richard II. From the first Henry had shown himself
anxious to atone for the past, as far as possible without
jeopardising his own safety, for soon after his Coronation
he released his rival, the young Earl of March, from prison,
and he is also credited with having had the body of
Richard II. brought from its obscure resting place — thougb
where that resting place was is not known — to be buried
with regal honours in Westminster Abbey.
The House of Jesus of Bethlehem, which belonged to the
Carthusian Order, and at first accommodated forty monks
only, whose numbers greatly increased as time went on,
appears to have been a most imposing group of buildings,
the chief features of which were a spacious Refectory
132 feet long by 24 feet wide, a great Quadrangle, a series
of lofty Cloisters and a Chapel, the last the true raison
d'etre of the whole, in which, as in that of the
contemporaneous convent of Sion, continual prayers were
offered up day and night for the repose of Richard's soul,
a fact skilfully turned to account by Shakespear, who in
his play of Henry V. makes the King say, in his grand
soUloquy on the eve of the decisive Battle of Agincourt : —
" Not to-day, O Lord,
O, not to-day, think thou upon the fault
My father made in compassing the crown 1
I Richard's body have interred anew ;
And on it have bestowed more contrite tears
Than from it issu'd forced drops of blood :
Five hundred poor I have in yearly pay,
Who twice a day their wither'd hands hold up
Toward Heaven, to pardon blood ; and I have built
Two chantries, where the sad and solemn priests
Still sing for Richard's soul."

40 ROYAL MANOR OF RICHMOND.
The revenues of the Monastery, which were drawn chiefly
from those of the then recently suppressed alien priories,
amounted to nearly a thousand pounds a year, a very large
sum for the time of its foundation, and its monks enjoyed
many privileges, including the right of fishing in the
Thames from Kew to Petersham Were or Weir, that was
situated near the present Glover's Island, and of receiving
every Candelmas four pipes of red wine from the Royal
cellars. The prior was exempt from all taxes, and had the
power not only of holding a Court Leet, but of having
offenders against the law executed or put in the stocks
within the precincts of the monastery. Moreover, all goods
forfeited for felony within his jurisdiction became his
property, as well as any profits that accrued through wrecks
on that part of the river under his jurisdiction. The new
community — to which in i6i6 a hermitage was added
endowed with twenty marks a year contributed by the
holders of the manors of Greenwich and Lewisham —
quickly won a great reputation for sanctity, and its superiors
were all men noted for their unselfish devotion to duty.
Until his death in 1422 Henry V. retained his affection
for his Chantry at Sheen, and though his son and successor
Henry VI. cared nothing for it, it was left in undisturbed
possession of its property all through the long struggle of
the Wars of the Roses. In 1472 Edward IV., who had far
more cause to look back with remorseful regret to the
events that won him his throne than the founder himself,
who was personally innocent, went to the House of
Bethlehem with his wife Elizabeth Woodville to share
in the benefits of the Great Pardon promised to all who
had contributed to the expense of the restoration of
the conventual buildings. There, too, perhaps, he may,
as would have been but fitting, have added to the
prayers that still ceaselessly went up for Richard's soul,
a petition on behalf of that of his own victim, the
gallant young Edward of Lancaster. On this occasion
the King was accompanied by his brother the Duke
of Gloucester, to whom he was greatly attached, but

RELIGIOUS HOUSES. 41
from whom he would have shrunk with aversion could he
have foreseen the murder in the Tower eleven years later
of his own sons, which was to avenge the tragedy of
Tewkesbury. To the chapel of Sheen Monastery the widowed and
broken-hearted mother of the unfortunate princes often
went to pray during her tenancy of the Palace, but
Richard III. seems to have avoided it, and so far as can
be ascertained Henry VIL, in spite of his great love
for the neighbourhood, was perfectly indifferent to the
presence of his saintly neighbours, until they incurred
his severe displeasure in 1496 when they gave shelter to
the impostor Perkin Warbeck, who claimed to be the
younger of the two sons of Edward IV., refusing to give
him up to the messengers of the King. The fugitive was
dragged from his refuge, vainly pleading for the right of
sanctuary, and for a short time it seemed probable that
some terrible punishment would be meted out to those who
had protected him, but for some unexplained reason the
storm blew over, possibly because Henry had no wish to
make an enemy of a man so powerful as the Prior.
Throughout the whole of the reign of the first of the Tudors,
and much of that of Henry VIIL, the House of Jesus of
Bethlehem continued to be a centre of religious and also to
a great extent of political influence, to which the sons of the
great Roman Catholic families were sent for education.
There, for instance, the future Cardinal Pole, who was
tinder the care of the monks from the age of seven to
twelve, imbibed the principles to which he remained
radically true throughout his long and chequered career,
and it was to his old school at Sheen that he withdrew on
his return from Italy in 1525, to prepare for his strenuous
life by two years of quiet meditation and prayer.
It was long popularly believed that the dead body of
James IV. of Scotland was brought to Sheen for interment
after the Battle of Flodden, which took place in September,
1 5 13, and a gruesome story is told of how it was left
"unhouseled and unassoiled" in an upper room of the

42 ROYAL MANOR OF RICHMOND.
monastery, preserved from decay by leaden wrappings, until
1552, It was then, it is said, accidentally discovered by
some workpeople in the employ of Queen Elizabeth, who cut
off the head and buried the rest of the remains in the garden.
Why a spot so remote from the scene of his death should
have been chosen as the burial place of the unfortunate
young King is not explained, but if there be any truth in
the rumour, it was, indeed, a strange irony of fate that
brought back to Richmond, under circumstances so tragic,
all that was left of the man who had been betrothed in
the Palace there to the Princess Margaret, daughter of
Henry VIL, and who left behind him an infant son who was
to become the father of the yet more unhappy Mary Stuart.
The fact that the monasteries had been suppressed long
before the finding of what a prejudiced chronicler, writing
in 1575, irreverently called the "perjured careas of the King
of Scottes," militates greatly against the truth of the legend,
for it is scarcely likely that so strange a relic as a body
wrapped in lead should have escaped the notice of the
successive tenants of the Priory buildings.
It must have been soon after the accession of Henry VIIL
that the founder of St. Paul's School, the liberal-minded
and saintly Dean Colet, paid his first visit to the House of
Jesus of Bethlehem, at Sheen, when he was so charmed
with the beauty of its situation that he determined to make
the neighbourhood his home when he could work no longer.
With part of the large fortune left to him by his father. Sir
Henry Colet, who was twice Lord Mayor of London, he
bought a piece of land from the Prior, some say within,
others without, the precincts of the monastery, and built on
it a house to which he withdrew in 15 18, and in which he
passed peacefully away a year later. The exact position
of this house cannot be determined, but it is generally
supposed to have formed the nucleus of the so-called Lodge,
that after the death of its builder, became a kind of annexe
to the Royal Palace, and was occupied at different times
by guests of the King. It was to this Lodge that Cardinal
Wolsey, as related above, was ordered to withdraw when.

RELIGIOUS HOUSES. 43
after his disgrace, he paid his last visit to Richmond, but
whether it passed by bequest, purchase or confiscation to
the Royal Family it is impossible to ascertain.
Even before the drastic measure of the suppression of
all the important religious houses of England had been
finally decided on, the monks of Sheen had fallen under
the severe displeasure of Henry VIIL, for the Prior,
Henry Man, had dared to espouse the cause of the
so-called Holy Maid of Kent, a servant girl named
Elizabeth Barton, who was looked upon as inspired by the
common people and had won over many dignitaries of the
Church, including Archbishop Warham and Bishop Fisher,
to belief in her divine mission. No impostor, but only
as she described herself in her confession at the stake,
"a poor wench without learning who had been deceived
to her own undoing," she brought her terrible fate on
herself by her denunciation of the King as an adulterer
and her prophecy that should he insist on marrying Anne
Boleyn he would die before the ceremony. When her
prediction was falsified by the consummation of the union,
the greater number of her followers deserted her, but
Henry Man remained staunch in his loyalty to her, and
but for the fact that the monks of Sheen, on the advice
of the Prior, who seems to have seen the error of his
ways, anticipated the confiscation of their property by
their voluntary surrender of it to the King, a severe
punishment would probably have been meted out to him.
At it was, Henry Man escaped with censure only, actually
receiving a pension of one hundred and thirty-three pounds
six shillings and eightpence, and the Priory buUdings were
given by their Royal owner first to the Earl of Hereford,
brother of Jane Seymour, and later to the Duke of
Somerset, on whose disgrace in 1551 it passed to his rival,
the Duke of Suffolk, who brought to it his wife. Lady
Frances Brandon, and their daughter. Lady Jane Grey,
then a lovely girl of fourteen. During their tenancy the
Priory was several times visited by Edward VL, and
according to some authorities it was in its chapel, not

44 ROYAL MANOR OF RICHMOND.
that of the Palace, that the marriage took place,
in the young King's presence, of Sir Robert Dudley,
later Earl of Leicester, to Amy Robsart, However that
may be, the estate was seized by Queen Mary soon after
her accession, and given back to the Carthusian friars,
A little remnant of the dispersed community took up
their residence in their old home under Prior Maurice,
author of a deeply interesting pamphlet on the sufferings
of the Carthusians under Henry VIIL, but they were not
allowed to remain in it long, for when Elizabeth came to
the throne she at once reversed the policy of her sister.
The monks were again banished, this time never to return,
and the Priory was leased by the Queen first to one and
then another tenant, including Sir Thomas Gorges, who
later became Keeper of the Palace and Park, and whose
son, Sir Edward Gorges, succeeded him both in that office
and in the possession of the property.
During the reigns of James I. and Charles I. the former
monastery at Sheen changed hands several times, many
changes being made in it by the successive occupiers,
and in 1650 particulars of its condition were included
in the survey of the Parliamentary Commissioners
already quoted from, in which its value was assessed
at ninety-two pounds a year. The ancient Chapel
was condemned as ruinous and fit only to be pulled
down, and amongst the buildings still standing were
mentioned the Monk's Refectory, the Lady of St, John's
Lodgings, the Anchorite's Cell, and a Gallery. Sold to a
certain Alexander Easton, the estate changed hands
several times before the Restoration, when it was once more
declared to be Crown property, and was leased to^ various
tenants, passing about 1675 to Lord Brouncker and the
distinguished diplomatist and writer. Sir William Temple,
who in 1677 took an important share in bringing about
the marriage of the Princess Mary with William of Orange.
By this time the buildings of the Priory had evidently
been restored and others added to them, for John Evelyn,
in his diary for August 27th, 1678, says, "I dined at Mr.

RELIGIOUS HOUSES. 45
Henry Brouncker's, at the Abbey of Sheene, formerly a
monastery of Carthusians, there yet remaining one of their
solitary cells with a cross," and, he adds, "within this
ample enclosure are several pretty villas and fine gardens
of the most excellent fruits, especially Sir William
Temple's, late Ambassador into Holland, and Lord Lisle's,
son to the Earl of Leicester, who has divers rare pictures
there, above all that of Sir Brian Tukes of Holbein."
Sir William Temple became deeply attached to his " little
Corner at Sheen," as he called his beautiful home there,
finding comfort in his many sorrows and relief from his
many cares, in the cultivation of rare flowers and fruit in
his gardens and orchards. His love for the place was
shared by his wife, Dorothy Osborne, whose charming
letters to him when they were engaged are well known,
and it was her delight to look after his interests during
his many absences on State affairs. To her, too, was
confided the care of her husband's ward, Hester Johnson,
who was born on the Sheen Estate in 1681, and is
supposed to have been the daughter of its owner. How
ever that may be, she was brought up as a child of the
home, and teaching her was part of the duties of her
reputed father's secretary, Jonathan Swift, who has
immortalised her as Stella, and, in spite of all his vagaries,
remained true to his love for her to the last. She was
but a child of seven when he first saw her, and he was
fourteen years her senior, but for all that she was the one
real passion of his life, and it was no doubt from him that she
imbibed the principles that enabled her to bear with heroic
fortitude the bitter disappointments of her womanhood.
Sir William Temple was offered the important post of
Secretary of State by WiUiam IIL, but he declined it,
declaring that he had no mind to return to the arena of
politics, and the King had to be content with consulting
him privately, a privilege he often availed himself of by
riding over to Sheen from Hampton Court. Ill-natured
gossip declared that the conferences which took place in
the little comer at Sheen, at which Jonathan Swift and

46 ROYAL MANOR OF RICHMOND,
his Stella were generally present, had reference rather to
the best way to grow and cook vegetables and fruit than
to more important matters. It seems certain, however, that
it was on Sir William's advice that his son John, the only
survivor of eight children, was made Secretary of War, a
fatal appointment as it turned out, for unable to cope with
the difficulties of his new position, the young tnan drowned
himself in the Thames four days after he received his seals
of office. A few months before the sad event his father
had given him the house at Sheen, and it may have been
from its gardens that the tragic plunge was taken. In
any case, Sir William never cared to visit his old home
by the river again, but spent the remainder of his life at
Moor Park, where he died in 1699, leaving Jonathan Swift
his executor.
After the deaths of Sir WiUiam Temple and Lord
Brouncker, the houses occupied by them at Sheen passed
to tenants of little note, and by the middle of the eighteenth
century the buildings were nearly all pulled down, the
gateway of the ancient Priory alone remaining standing
until 1770, when it shared their fate. Meanwhile, however,
the Royal Lodge referred to above in connection with
Dean Colet and Cardinal Wolsey, had remained uninjured,
and was leased by the Crown to different tenants until
about 1707, when it was granted by Queen Anne to James
Butler, second Duke of Ormonde, who pulled it down,
rebuilt it, and lived there tiU his impeachment for high
treason in 171 5. It was then either rented or given by
George I. to the Earl of Arran, the late owner's brother,
who in 1 72 1 is said to have sold it to the then Prince
of Wales, the future George IL, whose wife, the Princess
Caroline of Auspach, took a very great fancy to it. It
was in the Lodge that they received the news in 1727
of the death of George I., and one of the first acts of
the new King was to settle it upon the Queen, who made
it her chief residence, lavishing vast sums of money on it,
adding a library to the house itself, and erecting in the
grounds a number of ornate buildings, including a quaint

THE ROYAL LODGE. 47
structure which she called Merlin's Cave, forming a kind of
shrine for wax effigies of the titular wizard and those who
came to consult him, a Hermitage adorned with busts of Sir
Isaac Newton, John Locke and other savants, a Dairy, a
Grotto and a Menagerie.
It was in the Park of- the Lodge that Sir Walter Scott
is by some supposed to have laid the scene in his "Heart
of Midlothian " of the interview between Queen Caroline
and Jeanie Deans, on which the fate of the unfortunate
Effie depended, and the description he gives of the drive
there calls up a very vivid picture of Richmond and its
surroundings as they were then. The carriage containing
the Duke of Argyle and his humble protegee, says
the novelist, "rolled rapidly onwards through fertile
meadows ornamented with splendid old oaks, and catching
occasionally a glance of the majestic mirror of a broad
and placid river. After passing through a pleasant village,
the equipage stopped on a commanding eminence, where
the beauty of English landscape was displayed in its utmost
luxuriance. Here the Duke," he continues, "alighted and
desired Jeanie to follow him. They paused for a moment
on the brow of a hill, to gaze on the unrivalled landscape
which it presented. A huge sea of verdure, with crossing
and intersecting promontories of massive and tufted groves,
was tenanted by numberless flocks and herds, which seemed
to wander unrestrained and unbounded through the rich
pastures. The Thames, here turretted with villas and there
garlanded with forests, moved on slowly and placidly, like
the mighty monarch of the scene to whom all its other
beauties were but accessories, and bore on his bosom an
hundred barks and skiffs whose white sails and gaily
fluttering pennons gave life to the whole."
According to some authorities Queen Caroline bought
the Lodge and its grounds with her own money, which
would account for the fact that the King, parsimonious
though he was, did not complain of the alterations she
made, declaring that he did not care how she flung away
her own revenue. Great indeed, however, was his indigna-

48 ROYAL MANOR OF RICHMOND.
tion when he found, after her death, that Sir Robert
Walpole had lent her twenty thousand pounds from the
privy purse, and his anger was still further increased
when he was informed that the property had been left to
his hated son, the Prince of Wales, for his life. He is
even said to have tried to induce the Lord ChcUiceUor to
declare the will to have been invalid, but all his efforts
were in vain, and he had to submit to the law. It is
uncertain whether the new owner ever occupied the Lodge,
and after his untimely death it seems to have been left
empty and neglected for many years. His son, George IIL,
settled it on Queen Charlotte in 1762, and the Royal pair
occasionally resided in it, but they never really cared for
it, and about 1768 or 1769 the King had aU the buildings
pulled down, and the grounds, which were added to the
Kew Estate, ploughed up to serve as pasturage for his
herds of sheep and cattle, in which he took far more
interest than in affairs of State. A narrow pathway,
known as Love Lane, that formed a boundary between the
Richmond and Kew Gardens, was closed up, and very soon
not a sign was left to recall either the Carthusian friars or
their successors in the possession of the Old Deer Park.
Many years later a considerable portion was leased from
the Crown by the Mid-Surrey Golf Club, and another large
portion as an athletic ground, the latter being now a very
important centre for various sports that has been the scene
of several celebrated football, hockey, and cricket contests.
There, too, is held every summer the famous Royal Horse
Show, that attracts hundreds of fashionable spectators,
when the scene is brilliant in the extreme and presents
indeed a striking contrast to what it must have been when
the chief charms of the Richmond demesne were its quiet
seclusion, its ancient avenues of trees, its brilliant flower
gardens and prolific orchards.
The fate which befell the various groups of buildings
that once occupied the Old Deer Park also overtook the
hamlet of West Sheen that had grown up about the
conventual buildings, and was later occupied by retainers

RICHMOND FROM CHOLMONDELEY WALK.

THE OLD DEER PARK. 49
in the service of the occupiers of the Lodge, Every cottage
and hut was swept away, and nothing now preserves the
memory of what must have been quite an important
settlement but the names of Sheen Road, and North
and East Sheen, It was the same with two other religious
houses founded in the neighbourhood by Henry V,, one of
which, for French monks of the Celestine Order, was
suppressed before it had been a year in existence, whilst
the other was soon removed to Oxford, A somewhat
longer career was, however, enjoyed by the convent of
Observantist Friars which was founded by Henry VII, in
1499, the year of the destruction of the Royal Manor
House by fire, possibly in the hope of winning by this
pious generosity immunity from further disaster for the
beloved home he was rebuilding. The new monastery, as
proved by a drawing by Wyngarde, dated 1652, preserved
in the Bodleian Library, had a long river frontage,
extending from the garden of the present Asgill House
beyond what is still called Friars' Lane, and its buildings,
that included a fine Gothic chapel and extensive cloisters,
occupied the sites of Queensberry House, Cholmondeley
Lodge, Cholmondeley Cottage, St. Helena's Terrace, the
White Cross Irm, and some of the houses on the Green,
notably the one still known as Old Friars, which was at
one time a famous London coffee house, a favourite resort
of the beau monde of London in the eighteenth century,
and later the headquarters of the Richmond Liberal Club.
Suppressed by Henry VIII. in 1534, the Observantist
Friary was all but completely destroyed by his orders, but
in the survey of 1649 reference is made to a building
adjoining the Palace called "The Friars, containing three
rooms below stayrs and fourr handsome rooms above
stayrs," that were then used as a chandler's shop. Even
this relic was, however, soon "plucked up," as the saying then
was, as of no value, and its materials were sold for building.

CHAPTER IV.
Riverside Richmond, the Ferry and the Bridge.
T is of course to its position on a picturesque
reach of the Thames that Richmond owes its
chief distinction, and it is impossible to over
estimate the way in which the joy of the river
enters into the life of the people, or the
importance of preserving to them unspoiled the source of
so much innocent recreation and mental refreshment.
From early spring to late autumn the silent highway
between Kew and Teddington Lock is the resort of
hundreds of pleasure seekers, who flock to it to enjoy its
charm, some merely strolling or resting on its banks, but
the greater number passing in endless procession up or
down stream in a great variety of craft, from the cheap
hired punt or skiff to the luxuriantly fitted-up electric or
motor launch, contrasting equally with the quaint heavily
laden barges, reminiscent of days long gone by, and the noisy
up-to-date excursion steamers, the shrill warning whistles
of which now and then strike a note of prose in what is
truly an idyllic environment. Lovers of nature for her
own sake will prefer the river when it is comparatively
deserted, but it is at Eel Pie Island on Saturday and
Sunday evenings, when the open-air concerts are being
held at that popular rendezvous, that the scenes presented
are most characteristic and impressive, long lines of
boats full of gaily-dressed women and men in boating
costumes lining the banks, whilst the space between them
is crowded with pleasure craft, jostling each other as they
shift their position, and forming a kaleidoscopic feast of
colour. Scarcely less noteworthy, however, are the
pictures formed below the Weir, where the only sound is

RIVERSIDE RICHMOND. 51
the rush of the foam-flecked water, forming an effective
background to the picturesque pool beloved of fishermen,
and those at the Rollers, where group after group of
athletic men and graceful girls, who rebel against the long
wait at the locks, may be seen silhouetted against the
sky, as they embark or disembark or stoop to drag their
boats to the upper river.
Few things have added more to the healthiness of
Richmond or to its popularity with lovers of boating than
the construction of the half lock and weir, completed in
1894, between it and St, Margarets, that keep the river
clear of mud at all states of the tide, rendering it possible
to row or punt up to Teddington Lock without difficulty
at any time, and at high water to hold regattas and the
beautiful Venetian fetes that of late years have brought no
little renown to the town, when river, bridge, and banks
are converted for the nonce into a veritable fairy land of
mysterious beauty. Before this valuable improvement was
made, Richmond had been in great danger of losing the
exceptional advantages it had long enjoyed, as the level
of low water had been for many years steadily sinking,
owing to the tapping of the river for the London water
supply, the removal of old London Bridge, and other
causes, but it was not until August, 1890, that the Royal
Assent was given to a Bill sanctioning the useful scheme
inaugurated by the local members of Parliament and other
public-spirited gentlemen. No time was however, then
lost in putting the work in hand, the main feature of
which is the use of sluices of great weight that, with the
aid of roUers placed in the recesses of the piers above, can
be easily lifted and lowered. Fortunately, Ccire was also
taken not to spoil the view up and down stream, for it
was contrived that the sluices when raised should not
remain suspended, but turn under the footway out of
sight. By this ingenious contrivance all the old charm of
the Richmond reach of the river has been preserved,
and there could now be no more delightful walk than that
from Kew to Teddington Lock, the winding towing-path

52 ROYAL MANOR OF RICHMOND.
revealing fresh beauties at every turn, whilst on the
Middlesex side one picturesque scene succeeds another,
beginning with the quaint old houses of Strand-on-the
Green and passing on to Brentford, Isleworth, Marble
Hill, Twickenham, and Strawberry Hill, that in spite of all
the changes that have taken place in them during the
last half-century, still retain something of their ancient
character when seen from the river or the Surrey side.
In contrasting riverside Richmond of to-day with that
of the past, it must be remembered that it is only com
paratively recently that the public has had free access to
the banks of the river. It was not until 1774, the year when
the first stone of the bridge, the history of which is related
below, was laid, that the embankment was made from Kew
to Cholmondeley Walk, the towing path coming before that
date to an end opposite Isleworth. The bargemen who
had brought the heavily laden craft from Putney or Barnes
were there relieved by others who, walking on the
Middlesex bank, towed the barges to an ancient hostelry,
known as Ragman's (originally Rayman's) Castle, at
Twickenham, whilst the rest of the journey to Kingston
was performed on the Surrey side of the river. The men,
seven or eight to each barge, were harnessed together by
broad leather straps fastened round their shoulders, each
strap being connected with the long towing rope. They
worked for short stages only, earning very high wages and
living together in huts or cottages near the river, the
Richmond men congregating in what is still called Water
Lane, that runs down from Hill Street to the Thames,
ever ready day or night to respond to the cry, "Man to
horse ! Man to horse ! " of those who wished to secure
their services.
From Friar's Lane to Petersham Meadows, the gardens
of the riverside houses, the timber wharves and the
premises of the malt-houses, that were long distinctive
features of Riclimond, came right down to the water, and
even the little creeks that flowed into the river were private
property, constant quarrels arising between their owners and

RIVERSIDE RICHMOND, 53
those who ventured to trespass on them. To set against
these various restrictions on the use of the banks, however,
the Thames itself appeeirs to have been practically free to
all, and the fishermen who depended for their livelihood
upon the spoil they won from it were often quite well-to-do
men. Salmon and a great variety of other large fish
abounded, for Holinshed in his valuable " Chronicle " says :
"The noble river Thames yieldeth not clots of gold as
the Tagus doth, but an infinite plentie of excellent sweet
and pleasante fish, wherewith such as inhabit neere unto
her banks are fed and fuUie nourished. What should I
speake," he adds, "of the fat and sweet Salmon dailie
taken in this stream and that in such plentie after the
time of the smelt be passed, and no river in Europe able
to exceed it. What store of Barbels, Trouts, Perches,
Smelts, Breams, Roaches, Daces, Gudgings, Flounders,
Shrimps, etc," — a description that did they read it — must
rouse the envy of the patient fishermen who now sit for
hours in punts, hoping against hope for a bite and counting
themselves lucky if they carry home a few small fishes,
scarcely enough for a meal for one person !
The first riverside house above the Old Deer Park and
the unsightly railway bridge is Asgill House, named after
its first owner Sir Charles Asgill, who was Lord Mayor of
London in 1758, for whom it was built by the noted
architect Sir Robert Taylor, Rising from part of the
foundations of the Royal Palace, that were skilfully turned
to account by its designer, the lines of the frontage are
supposed to follow those of the western wing of
Henry VIL's erection. The view commanded by its
windows and grounds is therefore practically the same as
that on which so many Royal and distinguished residents
looked down in the golden days of Richmond, when richly-
decorated barges, now replaced by humbler craft, were
constantly passing up and down stream, and the river banks
were crowded with spectators, eagerly interested in the
doings of the inmates of the Palace and the arrival and
departure of their guests.

54 ROYAL MANOR OF RICHMOND.
Next to Asgill House is an ancient red brick mansion
now known as the Old Palace, but long caUed the
Trumpeting House, because two figures of men holding
trumpets once adorned the entrance. Built in 1708 by
Richard Hill, brother of the Mrs. Masham who exercised
so great an influence over Queen Anne, it is a typical
example of the domestic architecture of her reign, the effect
of which is somewhat marred by the ornate portico in the
Renaissance style, added later. In the Old Palace lived
at different times the Dowager Countess of Northampton,
Lady Sullivan, and Prince Mettemich, the last of whom
took refuge in it during the political troubles which
drove him from France, receiving in it many sympathisers,
including Lord Beaconsfield, who in a letter dated
May 2nd, 1849, says: "I have been to see Mettemich,
He lives on Richmond Green, in the most charming
house in the world caUed the Old Palace — ^long
library, gardens, everything worthy of him, I met there
the Duchess of Cambridge and the CoUoredos, I am
enchanted with Richmond Green, which, strange to say, I
don't recollect ever having visited before, often as I have
been to Richmond I should hke to let my house and go
to live there. ... It is stiU and sweet, charming alike in
summer and in winter."
The grounds of the Old Palace adjoin those of Wardrobe
Court, already described as the one remaining relic of
Henry VIL's Palace, and the next riverside residence
above it is the pretentious modern Queensberry House,
that presents a very marked contrast to both its older
neighbours. It occupies the site of a considerably larger
building that was contemporaneous with the Trumpeting
House, for it was built at the beginning of the eighteenth
century by George, third Earl of Cholmondeley, whose
name is stiU preserved in those of Cholmondeley Lodge,
Cholmondeley Cottage, and the beautiful riverside walk
running from Old Palace Lane to Friar's Lane, which is
also connected with the memory of David Garrick, who met
his future wife in a house overlooking it.

RIVERSIDE RICHMOND. 55
The original owner of Cholmondeley House bequeathed
it before his death to the Earl of Warwick, and after
changing hands several times it was bought by the
notorious profligate the Duke of Queensberry, familiarly
called Old Q. by his intimates, who at once changed its
name to his own and set about embellishing it, hanging the
hall and some of the principal rooms with costly tapestry,
whilst others were adorned with a number of fine pictures,
which he brought from his estate at Amesbury. After he
had resided in his new home for some years, and
had won great popularity by his open-handed generosity,
the Duke made an attempt to extend the grounds by
taking in Cholmondeley Walk, an illegal proceeding that
was bitterly resented by the people of Richmond, who set
the law in motion to prevent it, so incensing the offender
that he left the neighbourhood in a fit of temper, greatly to
the regret of those who had driven him away, so much were
the money he spent in his lavish entertainments and his
gifts to the poor missed when he was gone. The loss of
temporary patronage was really, however, but a small price
to pay for securing in perpetuity the rights of the public,
and all who have rested beneath the beautiful trees in
Cholmondeley Walk and enjoyed the fine view from it
up and down stream, must feel grateful to the public-spirited
men who successfully resisted encroachment upon it.
Contemporary correspondence is full of allusions to
the gay doings at Queensberry House when its owner
was in residence ; Horace Walpole, for instance, telUng
the Misses Berry how on one occasion the Prince of
Wales and Mrs, Fitzherbert dined there together, whilst
on another the Duke of Clarence, later WiUiam IV.,
was the guest of the evening, when supper was
not over till midnight. Horace Walpole himself, most
of the chief members of the aristocracy. Lady Diana
Beauclerk, Lady Cowper, and, alas! also many fair
women whose beauty was greater than their discretion,
were constant guests at the hospitable riverside mansion,
which was left by the Duke on his death in 18 10 to a lovely

56 ROYAL MANOR OF RICHMOND.
girl, whose mother was an Italian named Fagniani, and
who was supposed by some to be the testator's daughter,
whilst others make the famous wit and bon vivant George
Selwyn her father. The young heiress does not seem to
have cared much for the legacy, and so far as can be ascer
tained was never at Richmond for any length of time. In
1 82 1 Queensberry House was occupied by the Marquis of
Hertford, who gave an entertainment in it to the Duke of
York, but this was the last time that any important
gathering took place in it. In 1830, having fallen into
decay through neglect, it was pulled down, with the excep
tion of a few arches that were left standing, and with the
long old-fashioned pergola, preserve to the grounds some
thing of their original appearance. The present mansion,
that stands further back from the river than its predecessor
had done, was built in 1831 for Sir William Dundas, who
obtained a grant of the property from the Crown, in
exchange for some other land belonging to him in what
are now the Kew and Mortlake Roads.
Above Friar's Lane, looking down upon the walk known
as Waterside, is the modern St. Helena Terrace, that is
succeeded by the White Cross Hotel on the site of an
ancient hostelry of the same name, generally supposed
to occupy the position of the chapel of the Observantist
monastery, and to have been built soon after its demolition.
Not far from it are the gardens of a group of Georgian
houses, on the site of the old Royal Hotel, known as
Heron, originally Herring, Court, said to be named after
a former owner, a wealthy Dutchman, in one of which
Lord Lytton was often the guest of his less celebrated
brother. A little higher up stream are some boat
building yards, that in spite of their up-to-date appearance
are quite in harmony with their surroundings, and the
substantial eighteenth century mansion long known as
Camborne House, but now called Northumberland House,
that was at one time the residence of the Dowager Duchess
of Northumberland, and is rented by the Richmond Club.
Above the Bridge are several other historic mansions.

RIVERSIDE RICHMOND. 57
including Bridge House, built by Sir Robert Taylor about
the same time as Asgill House ; Ivy Hall, at one time the
home of William IV., when Duke of Clarence, and of the
beautiful actress, Dorothy Jordan, who was the mother of
nine of his children, and that was later occupied by the
widow of the learned divine, Charles James Blomfield,
Bishop of London.
Other interesting riverside residences are Gothic
House, where lived for a short time in 1813 the
gifted Madame de Stael, who in 181 1 had been secretly
married to Count Albert de Rocca, twenty years her
senior, throwing over for his sake her devoted lover,
Benjamin Constant, who had hoped after the death in
1802 of her first husband, the Baron de Stael-Holstein,
that she would become his wife ; Bingham House, named
after Lady Ann Bingham, who at one time lived in it,
that replaced the old hostelry of the Blue Anchor, long
a favourite resort of the Richmond watermen and their
patrons ; and Buccleuch House, that was for many years
as celebrated for the receptions held in it as Queensberry
House. Built towards the close of the eighteenth century
for the first Duke of Montagu, it passed on his death
to the Duke of Buccleuch, after whom it is named, who
in 1842 gave in its grounds a magnificent moonlight enter
tainment to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, the King
and the Queen of the Belgians, and many other distin
guished guests, when the Thames, with its countless
illuminated boats, must have presented an appearance not
unlike that of the river pageants in which the Tudor
sovereigns delighted. Connected by a subterranean
passage running under Petersham Road with a building
still standing, long used as a library, and with gardens
extending up the hill to the present Terrace and fine lawns
sloping down to the water, Buccleuch House was long one
of the most charming riverside mansions of Surrey, its
successive owners constantly adding to its attractions.
Some years after the river fete of 1842 the grounds of
Buccleuch House were added to by the purchase of those

58 ROYAL MANOR OF RICHMOND,
of Lansdowne House, a fine mansion that belonged to the
Marquis of Lansdowne, which stood upon the brow of the
hill, where the ornamental Fountain and Terrace of the
Public Gardens now are, a little above Cardigan House.
Lansdowne House was puUed down about 1865, and as
time went on the owner of. Buccleuch House became more
and more indifferent to his beautiful property, but later,
when his old home was occupied by Sir J. Whittaker and
Lady Ellis, to whom it still belongs, its traditions were
worthily maintained. In 1886 the combined Lansdowne
and Buccleuch estates were offered for sale. This
afforded an opportunity, which was fortunately not
neglected, to secure a fine open space for the use of the
people, and the whole was bought for the large sum of
;£"30,ooo by the Richmond Vestry, who a little later re-sold
Buccleuch House and part of its gardens, reserving, how
ever, a very considerable portion, which was laid out to
great advantage under the superintendence of Sir
Frederick, later Lord Leighton and other men of taste,
various residents in the neighbourhood contributing to the
expense. The beautiful pleasure ground was declared
open in May, 1887, scarcely a year after the acquisition
of the site, by the late Duchess of Teck, representing
Queen Victoria, Lady of^he Manor. Since then the
gardens have been one of the most attractive of the many
charming features of Richmond on the Hill, the shady
trees, the flower beds bright with flowers from early spring
to late autumn, with the distant vista of river, woods and
meadows, forming a truly beautiful picture.
A little below Buccleuch House, the last of the old river
side mansions in Richmond parish, is the popular Pigeon's
Hotel, now under the management of the well-known
trainer to the Cambridge crew, William Giles East,
familiarly called Bill East, who won the Doggett's
Coat and Badge in 1887, the Sarle Memorial Cup
in 1888, the Sculling Championship of England in
1 891, and was made Bargemaster, in succession to
James Messenger, to King Edward VII. in 1901. As

RICHMOND FROM TWICKENHAM FERRY.

RIVERSIDE RICHMOND. 59
the holder of that appointment "BiU East" has taken an
important part in more than one State function, the Royal
Watermen being under his orders. During the hard winter of
1906-7, when the Cam was frozen over, the Cambridge crew
put up for practice at the Pigeon's Hotel before the great
annual contest, attracting crowds of spectators whenever
they went out, and all through the summer the restaurant
is the haunt of lovers of boating who make it their
headquarters. Close to the Pigeon's Hotel are the not unpicturesque
buildings and wharves known far and near as Messum's,
owned by Mr, Richard Messum, who has developed an
extensive boat-building and boat-letting business from a
small river-side hostelry left to him by his father. He is a
King's waterman, as is also his neighbour up stream, Robert
Chitty, but, alas ! the time-honoured corps will ere long be
extinct, for on the death of its present members, who were
last called out at the opening of Tower Bridge, no new ones
will be enrolled, and the quaint old costumes that have
added so much to the eclat of aquatic fetes and ceremonies,
will be stowed away, treasured up, no doubt, as heirlooms,
by the descendants of their wearers, but never again to
appear in public.
The finely situated Mansion Hotel, on the slope of
the hill, a little above the grounds of Buccleuch House,
occupies the site of Nightingale HaU, that was pulled
down some forty years ago, and was long the home of the
cultivated Ladies Ashburnham, and in Petersham Road,
looking down on Petersham Meadows, that were leased for
some years from the Earl of Dysart, and are now the
property of the Richmond Corporation, is the creeper-clad
Devonshire Lodge, formerly known as the Wilderness Club,
the central portion of which is the old Devonshire Cottage,
named after the beautiful Georgiana Duchess of Devon
shire, whose portrait was painted by Sir Joshua Re5molds
and Gainsborough, who may possibly have visited her in
her Richmond retreat, the former having been her near
neighbour, when he was living at Wick House. Devon-

6o ROYAL MANOR OF RICHMOND.
shire Cottage is also associated with the memory of Lady
Diana Beauclerk, daughter of the Duke of Marlborough,
who married Lord Bolingbroke, was divorced from him,
and two days after married Topham Beauclerk, who is
often alluded to in Boswell's "Johnson," Lady Di, as she
was called by her friends, was one of the most accomplished
art amateurs of her time, and found no little consolation for
her many troubles in making designs for the famous potter
Josiah Wedgwood, some of them of great beauty and full
of classic feeling. She survived her second husband for
eight years and died at Devonshire Cottage in 1808.
After the death of Lady Diana Beauclerk, Devonshire
Cottage was occupied at intervals by the Misses Mary and
Agnes Berry, who are constantly referred to by Horace
Walpole in his letters, and who seem to have quite
fascinated him by their charmingly unaffected manners and
ready wit. Of the elder, who appears to have been a bit of a
bluestocking, he says, writing to Lady Ossory, "she under
stands Latin, and is a perfect Frenchwoman in her
language ; the younger draws charmingly, and has copied
Lady Di.'s Gipsies which I lent her, though for the first
time of her using colours." Mary Berry kept a diary, as
was, at that time, customary with well-born ladies, and
often speaks in it of her visits to Richmond from
Twickenham, as when, writing in 1808, the year of Lady
Diana's death, she says : "Drove with Phil Cayley to
Rayman's Castle (the Ragman's Castle of the bargemen),
walked through the meadows, crossed the Richmond Ferry,
and straight up the hill, which Phil Cayley had never seen,
and which has always new beauties even to those much
accustomed to it. The door of the ' Star and Garter ' (now
shut up as an hotel) was open, we walked in, and a civil
quondam servant of the house showed us the rooms.
Dismal history from the woman of the foolish man who
made these great additions to the former house — ruined
himself and died in prison; his wife seeing that aU was
going wrong became insane and died before him." More
cheerful than this are later entries in this valuable picture

RIVERSIDE RICHMOND. 6i
of early nineteenth-century Richmond, in which the same
writer tells of the balls she went to at great houses in the
neighbourhood, but as time goes on the note of pathos is
struck, for she alludes constantly to the increasing
infirmities of old age and to her anxieties about her
sister. In Febmary, 1 844, she says ,- " If life consisted of
nothing but eating and drinking and sleeping, she is well ;
but her adviser, Dr, Grant, allows that after such a severe
attack at her age she cannot recover," and again, in
1845 : "Here (at Richmond) I am still and once again in
Mr, Lamb's House (Devonshire Cottage). After all, few
women at eighty-two have so little to complain oL Life
begins to be very fatiguing, although aware how much
better off than most or almost any woman of my great age,
both as to physical and as to moral advantages."
In January, 1852, Agnes Berry passed peacefully away at
Richmond, and was buried in Petersham Churchyard, and
in November of the same year Mary died at her London
residence in Curzon Street, Mayfair, and was laid, in
accordance with her own wish, beside her sister, their tomb
bearing the foUowing inscription to their memory from the
pen of their devoted friend and admirer the Earl of
Carlisle : — "Mary Berry,
Bom, March, 1763, Died, Nov., 1852.
Agnes Berry,
Born, May, 1764 Died, Jan., 1852.
Beneath this stone are laid the remains of these two sisters
amidst scenes which in life they had frequented and loved,
followed by the tender regret of those who close the
unbroken succession of friends, devoted to them with fond
affection, during every step of their long career. In pious
adoration of the great God of Heaven and earth, they
looked to rest in the Lord They were lovely and pleasant
in their lives, and in their death they were not divided."
Amongst the "unbroken succession of friends " who often

62 ROYAL MANOR OF RICHMOND.
•
visited the Misses Berry at Devonshire Cottage was the
Rev. Sydney Smith, who was apparently as much in love
with them both as was Horace Walpole himself, and never
wearied of making puns upon their name, caUing Mary
the Elderberry and Agnes The Berry par excellence. A
letter written to them in April, 1841, is so characteristic of
the celebrated wit that it deserves quotation at length.
"Dear Berrys, — I dine on Saturday with the good
Widow Holland, and blush to say that I have no
disposable day before the 26th, by which time you will,
I suppose, be plucking gooseberries in the suburban
region of Richmond ; but think not, O Berries, that that
distance, or any other of latitude or longitude, shall
prevent me from pulling you, plucking you and eating
you, for whatever pleasure men find in the raspberry, in
the strawberry, or in the coffeeberry, all these pleasures
are to my taste concentrated in the Mayfair Berries.
Ever theirs,
Sydney Smith."
The beautiful stone bridge which is so notable a feature
of the river at Richmond, presenting an equally picturesque
appearance whether seen from above or below, replaces a
ferry that had been in use for many centuries, various
entries in the privy purse expenses of the Tudors proving
that it was often used by them. On two occasions in
1529, for instance, Henry VIII. paid the ferryman there
six shillings and eightpence, and in 1537 Princess Mary
and her attendants availed themselves of his services for
crossing the river. In a lease granted to Edmund Cooke
and Edward Sawyer, who are described as gentlemen of
London, for forty years from March 25th, 1652, the rent
they were to give was assessed at the very low sum of
thirteen shillings and fourpence, "to be paid yearly during
the said term at the feast day of Michael the Archangel
and the Annunciation of Mary the Virgin, into the receipt
of the King's Exchequer by even and equal portions."

RIVERSIDE RICHMOND. 63
As time went on and the population on either side of
the river increased, the inadequacy of the means of transit
became ever more apparent. Foot passengers often had
to wait a very long time for their turn to use the ferry-boat,
whilst riders on horseback, or in carriages, and travellers
encumbered by luggage, were sometimes kept on the bank
for hours, watching the slow passage to and fro of the
heavily-laden horse-boat, as the larger craft for the convey
ance of heavy goods was called. Ferry Hill, that led
up, as Bridge Street does now, to Hill Street, was so steep
that the old and infirm were scarcely able to climb it, and
at one time it was customary for a woman to earn a few
coppers by letting out chairs to the poor for a trifle. Well-
to-do passengers, however, preferred to rest in the hostelry
known as the Ferry Inn, that occupied the site of the later
King's Head, or in that with the sign of the Dog that was
replaced by the Talbot Hotel, where they were of course
expected to order drink for the good of the house.
At the expiration of the forty years' lease referred
to above, the rent of the ferry was raised to ;^8 13 s. 4d.,
an incidental proof of the greater profits to be made
by it, and it was not until the eighteenth century
was considerably advanced that the idea of a bridge
was mooted. Even then some few opposed its erection
as an imnecessary innovation, and when their absurd
objections were overruled much time was lost in disputes
as to the best position for it, some advocating the one
eventually chosen, others thinking it would have been
better for it to start on the Surrey side from the gardens of
Herring Court or from Water Lane, the latter opinion
being still shared by many inhabitants of Richmond, who
are now advocating the pulling down of the bridge and its
replacement by another lower down stream. It is, how
ever, greatly to be hoped that if a new bridge should be
built for heavy traffic, that the old one wUl be preserved
for the sake of its architectural beauty and its old
associations. In 1773 a lengthy report was drawn up, setting forth

64 ROYAL MANOR OF RICHMOND.
very clearly the advantciges and disadvantages of the
different schemes, reading which it is difficult to understand
the decision finally arrived at, but the probability is that
it was the then owner of the ferry, whose rights it was
necessary to consider, who was responsible for the mistake
that was made. Six thousand pounds were paid to him in
compensation for the loss of the remainder of his lease,
which did not expire until 1798, and on August 23rd,
1774, the first stone of the long-talked-of bridge was laid
by the Honourable Henry Hobart. The architects were
Messrs. Paine and Couse of London, and the graceful
structure, with its five main arches, supplemented on either
side by several smaller ones, the semicircular bays breaking
the outline of the parapet, does no little credit to their
taste and technical skill. The bridge, which cost ;£'26,ooo,
was opened in 1777, the money having been raised on
what Is known as the Tontine system, named after the
Italian, Lorenzo TontI, who evolved it in 1653, when
he saved the French Royal exchequer from bankruptcy
by its means. The shares of ;£'ioo each represented an
annuity that was divided amongst the purchasers according
to age, the surplus accming from the death of the share
holders being divided amongst the survivors, so that the
whole eventually fell to the longest liver. The shares
were mostly, for self-evident reasons, made out in the
names of the youngest members of the families Interested,
but some few who loved to be associated, however
remotely, with the Royal Family, chose to make their
profits depend on the length of the lives of the Prince of
Wales or the Duke of York. The last surviving tontine
nominee, an old lady of eighty-six, died on March 3rd, 1859,
having, during the last five years of her long life, received
no less than ;£'8oo per annum from the bridge. Until 1825
somewhat heavy tolls were levied on all traffic, but at that
date they were considerably lowered, and after the last
holder of the original shares had passed away they were
remitted altogether.
The throwing open of the bridge was made the occasion

RIVERSIDE RICHMOND. 65
of a picturesque ceremony, when Mr. Henry Pownall, as
the representative of the Commissioners, crossed over it
on horseback, followed by a long procession of the
residents In the neighbourhood. Having passed through
the further gates, Mr. Pownall made a short speech to the
assembled crowds, and then in a loud voice he declared
the bridge open to all-comers. He was answered by a
ringing cheer, and the next moment a strong body of
navvies advanced upon the gates and tore them up then
and there, to the accompaniment of shouts of joy from
the spectators, but it was not until some fifty years later
that the quaint toll houses, which figure in old prints, were
pulled down, since which time little change has taken place
in the approach to the bridge on the Surrey side.

CHAPTER V.
Richmond Green, Town and Hill.
IT Is Indeed fortunate that although the grand
old Palace of Henry VII. has fallen a prey
to the spoiler, part of Its ancient pleasaunce
has been preserved Known for centuries as
the Green, It retains, though its limits have
been considerably curtailed, and its surroundings almost
completely changed since It adjoined the Royal Gardens
and was the scene of jousts and tournaments, a certain air of
seclusion, rendering It difficult to realise that It is In close
touch with a busy modern town. The old sundial that
once stood In the centre, has been removed to the Terrace
Gardens, and the wooden palings that long encircled the
Green were replaced by iron railings, put up at the expense
of William IV., who, though he never lived in Richmond
after his accession, often drove through It on his way to
Railshead House, Isleworth, to see his beloved daughter,
who had married the second son of the Earl of Cassllls, and
her children, one of whom, the Countess of Munster, dwells
much. In her recently-published "Memories and Miscel
lanies," on the generous kindness of Queen Adelaide to
Mrs. Jordan's family.
The venerable rook-haunted elms overshadowing the
borders of the Green, the fine old Queen Anne and
Georgian mansions overlooking it, and even the com
paratively modern buildings of the Vicarage, and the
Free Library (opened by the Countess Russell in 1881),
are all to a certain extent In harmony with It, and it has
been more or less intimately associated with the life of the
people of Richmond for many generations. In the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries a certain portion of

GREEN, TOWN AND HILL, 67
the Green, where the Vicarage and the adjoining villas now
stand, was set apart for a bowling alley, protected from
the weather by a series of lofty arches, along the top of
which was a gravelled path, called the Terras, or High
Walk, that formed a delightful promenade, commanding
a fine view of the Old Deer Park. As time went
on, and the more manly sports of cricket and football
superseded the leisurely game of bowls, the Green became
the scene of many a hotly-contested struggle, and although
the extensive recreation grounds of the Old Deer Park
are now formidable rivals to it in popular esteem. It is still
constantly used for practice and local matches. Many
important public meetings have also been held on it, such
as the great Radical gathering of 1821 to advocate
Parliamentary Reform, and in 1890 a seal may be said
to have been set on the old-world Green as the heart of
modern Richmond, by the reading within its boundaries
of the Royal Charter raising the town to the rank of a
borough. The name of the High Walk was retained, long after
the removal of the arches and promenade, by a narrow
railed-In pathway leading from the corner of what Is now
known as the Little Green, to a group of small houses
called Poverty Court, because they were occupied by
well-born tenants in reduced circumstances, that stood
near the former entrance of the Old Deer Park, and from
which a country lane led to all that was left of the hamlet
of West Sheen, and thence along the riverside to Kew. A
more Important thoroughfare was Love Lane, which was
a continuation of the present Park Shot, and as already
stated was closed by George III. It must, however, be
added that the King gave to Richmond parish in exchange
for it the valuable piece of property known as Pest House
Common, because a hospice for the plague-stricken, pulled
down in 1787, once stood on it, that included all the land on
the eastern side of Queen's Road from below the grounds
of Ancaster House to that of the new cemetery. The
bargain struck between the King and his people was

68 ROYAL MANOR OF RICHMOND,
therefore really a very fair one. In spite of aU that has
been said about the Royal land-grabber's high-handed
measures. It is generally supposed that at the end of the seven
teenth century the ralhngs enclosing the Green extended
from the corner of Duke Street, where, by the way, stands
one of the very oldest houses of the town, as far as King
Street, meeting at right angles those starting from Cedar
Grove, on the opposite side. The space now occupied by
the houses on the left of the pedestrian going from King
Street along the alley known as Paved Court, was
probably then entirely free from buildings, so that the
residences between the two thoroughfares must all have
faced the Green. However that may have been, it Is
certain that it was not long before a number of stately
mansions rose up within what had so long been the
precincts of the Palace, for in the view and plcm of
Richmond, dating from about 1710, that hangs In the
Public Library, several of those still standing, with others
since replaced by modern villas, can be identified. Of the
latter the most Important, after the riverside residences
already described, was the one later known as Fitzwilliam
House, which occupied the site of the present Pembroke
Villas, with part of the land now owned by the railway
company. Fitzwilliam House was built for Sir Charles Hedges,
Secretary of State to Queen Anne, and was occupied for
many years by Sir Matthew Decker, one of the founders of
the Richmond Parochial School, the children attending which
used to wear a picturesque costume. The house was consider
ably enlarged by Sir Matthew, some of the new rooms
resembling. It is said, the State apartments at Hampton
Court, in the luxury of their appointments, especially the
Dining HaU, In which the owner often received George I.
and his successor, who happened to be dining with him on
the day that he was proclaimed King. Inherited from
Sir Matthew Decker by the cultivated Lord Fitzwilliam,
the eager advocate of Catholic emancipation and Parlia-

GREEN, TOWN AND HILL, 69
mentary reform, it became his favourite residence, and in
it he formed the fine collection of rare books, illuminated
MSS, and pictures, which he bequeathed, with a large
sum of money, to the University of Cambridge, and which
is still preserved intact in the Museum named after him in
that town. Between the death of Lord Fitzwilliam, in
1 816, and the sale of the property to a builder about 1850,
the beautiful mansion was the home of several notable
personages, including Sir Patrick Ross, at one time
Governor of St, Helena, and the Countesses of Pembroke
and Mulgrave, but even before its doom was sealed by
the exigencies of modern traffic, it had lost many of the
attractions that distinguished it during the occupancy of
the Earl, after whom it was named.
Another site on the Green that is associated with many
deeply interesting memories, though of a kind differing
greatly from those called up by the name of Fitzwilliam
House, Is that now occupied by the modem Garrick House.
There once stood what was known as the New Theatre, to
distinguish it from an older one on the Hill, and near to
it rose a grand old elm tree, said to have been planted
by Queen Elizabeth, that had to be removed many years
ago. Built on the model of Drury Lane Theatre, but on
a smaller scale. In 1765-6, at the expense of a certain Mrs.
Horn, for an actor relative named Dance, better known by
his nom de guerre of Love, it had a small residence
connected with it, and was opened on June 15 th, 1766, with
the declamation by the lessee and manager of a prologue
written for the occasion by David Garrick, then at the
zenith of his fame.
There does not appear to have been anything specially
attractive about the earliest plays performed at the place
of entertainment inaugurated with such a flourish of
trumpets, and it was not until the theatre on the Green
had been open for more than twenty years that any
great actor or actress appeared on its boards. In 1789,
however, when a Mr. John Edwin was manager, the
lovely Mrs. Jordan, whose real name, by the way,

70 ROYAL MANOR OF RICHMOND.
was Bland, and who had made her debut in 1785, at
Drury Lane, In " The Country Girl," was persuaded to act
at Richmond in the " Constant Couple," taking the part of
Sir Harry WUdaIr, and delighting everyone by her spirited
interpretation of the character. A year later began her
long connection with the heir-apparent to the throne, and
in 1793 she was present with him in the Richmond
Theatre, In a private box, when Charles Mathews, then
only an amateur, appeared, having. It is said, paid a large
sum for the privilege, as Richard IIL, a part that does not
seem to have suited him very well, for in his Autobiography
he gives a humorous account of the effect on his audience
of the dying scene, which moved them to mirth Instead of
tears, the Duke of Clarence and Mrs. Jordan being In
convulsions of laughter.
In 1 79 1 the comic actor Suett made his entry Into the
theatrical world at Richmond, and the same year the elder
Macready acted there several times as Marplot in "The
Busybody," but the next Important event after the appear
ance of Mrs. Jordan in the history of the little playhouse
was the fancy taken to it In 1796 by George III. and
Queen Charlotte, who were the first members of the Royal
Family to patronise it officially, and quickly made it the
fashion to attend the entertainments given in it. It was
now no longer difficult to secure the services of the stars
of the London stage, and in 1807, when a Mr. Beverley
was manager, even the Queen of Tragedy, Mrs. Siddons,
deigned to act In the theatre on the Green as Lady
Randolph in the popular play of "Douglas."
Many were the spirited efforts made by Mr. Beverley's
successors to attract the public, one of them, a Mr. Klanert,
hitting upon the singular device of organising a competition
for the Thames watermen, the prize being a wherry, which
was presented to the winner at the theatre, and in which he
was carried round the stage In a triumphal procession, to
the accompaniment of the strains of "Rule Britannia."
Needless to add that the rowing match drew crowds, not
only from all the neighbouring villages, but also from

GREEN, TOWN AND HILL. 71
London, but great as was the renown which accrued
through it to Mr. Klanert, he is now chiefly remembered
for his connection with Edmund Kean, whose services he
secured at a very high salary for the winter season of 18 17.
The great tragedian, who had made his dkbut at Drury
Lane Theatre as Shylock in 18 14, was announced in the
Richmond advertisements as "Mr. K. ! ! ! " a tremsparent
disguise assumed because he had agreed to act at Drury
Lane only, and the first character he impersonated was
Sir Edward Mortimer. Kean at once took a great fancy to
Richmond, and used to put up at the Castle Hotel, pulled
down about 1890, from which he dated various character
istic epistles to his manager, who paid very dearly for the
privilege of employing him in more ways than one, often
lending him money which it was not always easy to recover.
The story goes that on one occasion, when Kean had
been playing Richard III. to Mr. Klanert's Richmond, he
had been so enraged at the indiscriminate applause, no
distinction being made between the actors by the
uncritical audience, that he refused to acknowledge the
plaudits, leaving the house directly the performance was
over, and at once sending the following note to his
employer: "My Dear Sir, — I have the greatest respect for
you and the best wishes for your professional success, but
if I play in the Richmond Theatre again ' I'll be damned !' "
For all that he did play again very often, and when
Mr. Klanert died in 1831 Kean became lessee of the
theatre, taking up his residence in the house connected
with it, much to the delight of the people of Richmond,
who through all the vicissitudes of his chequered career
retained their affection for and pride in him. Unfortu
nately, however, his health was already broken, and in
1833 he passed away in a little room connected with the
theatre, having been brought to Richmond after the
tragic Incident at Covent Garden Theatre when, whilst
acting Othello, he was suddenly taken ill, falling into the
arms of his son, who was playing lago. He was buried in
Richmond Churchyard, In the presence of the chief

72 ROYAL MANOR OF RICHMOND.
members of the dramatic profession and many whom
he had delighted by his genius or aided with his sympathy,
and a little later an excellent bas-relief portrait, by
A. Fletcher, a sculptor of some little note, on a marble
tablet, was placed, at the expense of his son, on the West
Front of the Church, near his resting-place, but removed in
1904 to the interior, where it occupies a prominent position
on the West wall.
Many are the references in contemporary correspondence
and literature to the beloved Edmund Kean, whose faults,
serious though they undoubtedly were, were condoned
by those able to recognise the true nobility of his
character. No one in distress ever appealed to him In
vain, and many were the actors and actresses who owed
everything to his encouragement. His appearance on the
Green for his daily stroll during the last few years of his
life was the event of the day at Richmond, and in
her delightful book, "Some of Shakespeare's Female
Characters," the great actress, Helen Faucit, who as a child
lived during the summer in one of the houses of Old
Palace Terrace, and was to make her debut in the little
theatre near by, under Kean's successor, gives a most vivid
picture of the great tragedian in his old age. " One of my
earliest and most vivid recollections," she says, "was a
meeting with the great Edmund Kean, as my sister called
him. She had seen him act, and bad, through friends, a
slight acquaintance with him. Wishing her little birdie, as
she called me, to share all her pleasures, she often took me
to the Green for the chance of seeing him as he strolled
there with his aunt, old Miss TIdswell. ... At last, about
noon one very warm sunny day, my sister's eager eyes saw
the two figures in the distance. It would have been bad
manners to appear to be watching, so In a roundabout way
our approach was made. As we drew near I would gladly
have run away. I was startled, frightened at what I saw —
a small pale man with a fur cap and wrapped in a fur cloak.
He looked to me as if he had come from the grave. A
stray lock of very dark hair crossed his forehead, under

GREEN, TOWN AND HILL, 73
which shone eyes which looked dark and yet bright as
lamps. So large were they, so piercing, so absorbing, I
could see no other feature. I shrank behind my sister,
but she whispered that it would be unkind to show any
fear, so we approached and were kindly greeted by the
pair. Oh, what a voice was that which spoke ! " she adds.
"It seemed to come from so far away, a long, long way
behind him. After the first salutation It said, ' Who is
this little one?' When my sister had explained, the face
smiled (I was reassured by the smile and the face looked
less terrible), and he asked me where I went to school, and
which of my books I liked best." The ice once broken, a
long conversation ensued between the veteran actor and
the little maiden, every word of which the latter treasured
up in her heart to the end of her life, especially the " God
speed " with which Kean dismissed her, laying his hand
for a moment on her head.
To the last the great tragedian loved the river and the
hill ; he had his own boat, and was fond of rowing up
alone, beyond Teddington, though towards the end he
would time his excursions so as to have the help of the tide
both ways. In climbing to the Terrace to enjoy the view,
he always used the agate-headed stick he appeared with on
the stage when he acted as Sir Giles Overreach, and would
stand for a long time leaning on it to watch the sunset.
Strange to say, though the elder Miss Faucit was familiar
with all the haunts of her hero, neither she nor her sister
ever saw him again. His aunt. Miss TIdswell, told them that
he often talked of the sweet-voiced maiden, and hoped she
would soon go to see him, but a few days after the meeting
on the Green he was taken seriously ill, and although he
recovered sufficiently to act again, he was rarely able to
receive visitors, reserving all his strength for his work,
Kean was succeeded as lessee and manager by a Mr,
Willis Jones, and Helen Faucit made her dkbut as Juliet
under him. Whether her decision to go on the stage
was the result of the memorable interview with the great
tragedian It is Impossible to say, but she teUs how

74 ROYAL MANOR OF RICHMOND.
after it she and her sister never lost an opportunity
of stealing in at the theatre, the door of which was
always left open on off days, to stand on what to them
was the weirdly mysterious stage, and to gaze from it Into
the gloom of the pit and boxes. One hot afternoon they
took refuge In the dark cool place to rest awhile, and
presently noticing a flight of steps and a balcony left
standing after rehearsal, the elder girl suddenly exclaimed,
" Why, this might do for Romeo and Juliet's balcony ! Go
up, birdie, and I will be your Romeo," The sisters then went
through the whole of the balcony scene, with which they
were thoroughly familiar, httle dreaming that they had an
unseen listener, for Mr. Jones, happening to pass through
the theatre on the way to his house, was arrested by the
sound of their voices and remained concealed till the end.
He was so delighted with Helen's appearance, voice, and
manner, that he called on her parents, and with great diffi
culty persuaded them to let her appear as Juliet on his
boards. "Thus," she says, "did a little frolic prove to be the
turning-point of my life," and she goes on to relate how she
was allowed to dress for her first appearance in the room
that had been Mr. Kean's, "in which, under a glass-case,
were preserved as relics several articles of his toilet, brushes
and things of that kind, which brought vividly before her
the frail figure . . . the large eyes so intense In their
lustre, the dark hair straggling over the forehead, the voice
coming from so far away, and the kind, quaint manner."
Up to the time when the signal was given for Miss
Faucit's entry on the stage, the spirit of Kean seemed
to be with the trembling neophyte, but, she says, "when I
turned to give a last look at the relics in the glass-case It
was a sort of fareweU, a feeling as if life were ending."
Vainly she strove to keep up her courage, and after
struggling painfully through the opening scenes she wound
up by crushing the phial containing the potion she had to
drink in her hand, the broken glass cutting It severely, so
that the blood trickled down upon her white satin dress.
"Excited as I already was," she says, "this was too much

GREEN, TOWN AND HILL, 75
for me," and having always had a sickening horror of the
bare sight or even talk of blood, poor Juliet grew faint,
and went staggering towards the bed, where she really
fainted. "I remember nothing," she adds, "of the end of
the play, beyond seeing many kind people in my dressing-
room, and wondering what this all meant. Our good doctor
from London was among the audience, and bound up the
wounded hand ; but, oh, my dress ! my first waking thought.
I was Inconsolable till told that the injured part could be
renewed." In spite of this melancholy breakdown, Helen Faucit
played Juliet several times at Richmond with greater
success, a wooden phial replacing the broken glass one,
before, three years later, she made her first appearance at
Drury Lane, where she was to win such great renown and
to secure what she valued even more, the friendship of
Charles Kemble, then about to retire from the stage, who,
she relates, was always present at rehearsals, seated in the
front of the dark theatre. The next actor of note to grace
the boards of the little house of entertainment on Rich
mond Green was Charles Kean, son of the greater Edmund,
who, though he did not inherit his father's genius, had
considerable talent. Later Buckstone, Mrs. Fitzwilliam,
Ben Webster, the Keeleys, and Sothern drew large
audiences, but in 1880 the long-popular theatre was closed.
In 1884 it was decided to pull it down, and Helen Faucit,
in a note to her "Reminiscences," dated March, 1885, refers
with regret to its destruction.
Of the older houses on the Green the most important
and interesting are the four known as Maids of Honour
Row, already referred to in the account of the Old Palace,
which are very typical of the time at which they were built,
resembling each other in their general style, but each with
a distinctive character of its own. In one of them Sir
Richard Burton, the famous traveller and linguist, lived
when a boy, attending as day scholar an academy kept by
the Rev. Charles Delafosse, in a house at the comer of
Duke Street, now replaced by modern offices. In No. 4

76 ROYAL MANOR OF RICHMOND,
Maids of Honour Row, resided for many years and died John
James Heidegger, Master of the Revels to George I. and
George IL, who had made a fortune as Director of the
Italian Opera Company In London, and was a liberal
patron of artists. His scene-painters were very superior to
most of their brethren In the craft, and he commissioned
the best of them to decorate the panels of the principal
reception rooms in his Richmond home, that still remain
much what they were in his time.
Other noteworthy old residences facing the Green are
the three of uncertain date known as Tudor Lodge, Tudor
House and Tudor Place, adjoining Maids of Honour Row,
that have, however, been completely modernised with
somewhat unsatisfactory results ; the Irregular row of
houses known as Greenside, the best of which Is that named
after Queen Anne, with good Iron railings and finely
moulded eaves ; the group called Old Palace Terrace, in
one of which lived Helen Faucit, and in another Richard
Crisp, author of a valuable book on Richmond, published In
1866, opposite to which is a strip of turf, supposed to be
the sole relic of an extensive greensward that connected the
present Green with the Palace grounds ; the mansion called
the Old Friars, with a fine hall and a private theatre, built,
as stated above, on part of the foundations of the
Observantist monastery ; and Cedar Grove. In a vault
beneath the last-named was discovered, in 1813, two
ancient silver spoons with diamond-shaped bowls and long
handles, and a large number of bottles of antiquated shape,
the corks of which had crumbled away with old age, that
had evidently contained wine, and were probably part of
the stores referred to in the Rutland papers, that in the
time of Henry VIII. were "laid yn dyvers places for the
King and the Emperor (Charles V.) between Dovyr and
London." There Is a certain air of the long ago about the
narrow alleys such as Paved Court, and Brewer's Lane,
leading to the Green, though most of the shops and
houses in them are modern, but there is not very much left

RED LION INN.

GREEN, TOWN AND HILL. 77
in the actual town of Richmond to recall the past. Gone,
fortunately, is the pond that was the receptacle of the parish
refuse, and gone are the ancient Watch House, or Lock-up,
and the old Stage Coach Office, where tickets used to be
taken for the journey to London, the up-to-date Fire
Brigade Station and the Quadrant replacing them. Ere
long, too, will be improved away the picturesque but some
what insanitary Red Lion Street and Artichoke Alley, the
former, now the haunt of organ-grinders and costermongers,
at one time an important thoroughfare. The present
Red Lion Inn, probably licensed about the middle
of the eighteenth century, beEiring on its front the mis
leading date 1520, represents a very much older and more
important hostelry that was, it is supposed, built In the
early sixteenth century, and was the scene of many
important meetings, including that of September 24th,
1638, for the creation of one William Crowne as Rouge
Dragon Pursuivant of Arms and the future Sir William
Dugdale as Blanch Lyon Pursuivant, when a bowl of wine
was poured over the head of each newly-appointed ofiicer
by the presiding Earl-Marshal,
The original Red Lion Inn was of red brick, with stone
facings in the Tudor style, and from two huge beams
projecting from the chief front hung swinging signs. An
archway gave access to a vast paved yard, with accommo
dation for carriages, horses, and the grooms in charge of
them, the premises altogether covering a considerable area,
including, it is supposed, the sites of Nos, i, 2, 3, 4 and 5,
George Street, No. 4 still retains the wide fireplace of
the kitchen, that escaped destruction when the rest of
the fine old building was pulled dowiL The house contain
ing this interesting relic of the good old days before the
railway ruined so many country places of entertainment,
was for a time used as the Richmond post-office, when a
corner adjoining the wide fireplace served as a sorting-
table. Of the many hostelries that competed for custom with
the first Red Lion Inn nearly aU have passed away.

78 ROYAL MANOR OF RICHMOND.
though In some cases their successors retain their names.
The popular Greyhound, In George Street, has been
transformed beyond recognition; of the famous Feathers
Inn, at the Junction of King Street and Water Lane, only
the assembly room and the staircase, now part of modern
places of business, remain ; and of the more celebrated
Castle Inn, of George Street, that was the resort of the
actors, Edmund Kean and James Quin, as well as of the
wealthy City magnates, only the memory remains. To
make up for this, however, its site is occupied by a building
of no little Importance in the history of modern Richmond,
the Town Hall, built on land given to the town by Sir
J. Whittaker Ellis, its first Mayor, soon after its incorporation
as a Borough, the arms of which. It may be added, are
singularly appropriate, combining as they do the lion of
the Royal Manor, the portcullis, a favourite badge of
Henry VIL, a swan, in allusion to the river; a stag,
suggesting the parks, the Tudor Rose, and a representation
of the old Palace, the motto, "A Deo et Rege " succinctly
expressing the recognition by the people of aU they owe to
God and to the King.
Passed away, too, with the more important Feathers
and Old Castle Inns, leaving absolutely no trace, are the
Rose and Crown that stood opposite to the latter, the
Queen's Arms and Black Boy, of George Street, as well
as the outlying Bull's Head Tavern, that stood on the
site of the house now known as the Wick, whilst its
neighbour, near the top of Queen's Road, the Lass
of Richmond Hill, is now being rebuilt for the third
or fourth time, and but for Its attractive name would
probably escape notice altogether. Who that name
commemorates it Is, alas! impossible to say with any
certainty, and many are the theories that have been
hazarded on the subject, some asserting that the " Lass "
was none other than the lovely Mrs. Fitzherbert, who Is
said to have been living at No. 3, The Terrace, when she
first attracted the attention of her Royal admirer. Others
think the famous maiden was the Lady Sarah Lennox, with

GREEN, TOWN AND HILL. 79
whom George III, was in love before he married Queen
Charlotte, and yet others, who really seem to have the
weight of evidence on their side, insist that she was a
rastic beauty of the Yorkshire Richmond, who had never
seen or even heard of its younger rival on the Thames,
The same fate which has overtaken so many of the old
Richmond inns has been meted out to the places of enter
tainment that preceded the theatre on the Green, The
earliest of these appears to have been the one known as
Richmond Wells, near a medicinal spring that has long
since disappeared, in what are now the grounds of Cardigcin
House, and to which there were two entrances, one from
Petersham Road, the other from the Hill. The buildings
connected with It Included a great ballroom, stabling and
coach-houses, and from Its opening In 1696 to about 1750
Richmond Wells enjoyed no little popularity. By
degrees, however, the style of the entertainments given
there deteriorated, attracting such rowdy crowds that they
became a nuisance to the residents in the neighbourhood,
and about 1755 the property was bought by the Misses
Houblon, then living In EUerker House, now converted into
EUerker College. The new owners lost no time in having
the Wells closed, but it was not until twenty years later
that the last of the buildings, including the WeU House,
were destroyed.
In 1 7 19, what was long known as the Old Theatre, to
distinguish It from the one on the Green, was built. It
occupied the site of an ancient stable for donkeys, the quaint
business card of which announced that, "At King William's
Royal Ass-House a little above ye ferrey on Richmond
Hill, Asses milk Is sold. Also Asses are bought and sold
there or let to such as desire to keep them at their own
Houses by John Scott." Humorous reference to its
predecessor was made in the prologue spoken on the
opening night at the Theatre, and the joke was often
referred to in the contemporary Press, in which there are
also many allusions to the pieces played. Tickets for the
Old Theatre were bought at a little Inn opposite to it.

8o ROYAL MANOR OF RICHMOND.
called the Three Compasses, an Incidental proof that the
establishment was on a much smaller scale than its rival
on the Green. Its career was apparently prosperous but
brieL Some of the great actors of the day played in It, and
It appears to have been tumed to account by Gcurrick for
testing the powers of the actresses he wished to bring out
at Drury Lane, for Horace Walpole, writing in 1749,
remarks that he had "seen Miss Clough there; a new
actress, an extremely fine and tall figure, and very hand
some. Garrick is to produce her next winter ; and a Miss
Charlotte, a poetess and a deplorable actress. Garrick,
Barry, and some more of the players were there to see
these new comedians. It Is to be their seminary." For
some unexplained reason the license of the Old Theatre
was forfeited in 1756, and the then owner, Theophilus
Cibber, brother to the famous actor, dramatist and poet
laureate, CoUey Cibber, who wrote several of his comedies
at Richmond, evaded the difficulty In which he found
himself, by advertising his establishment as a snuff ware
house, with "an histrionic Academy connected with it for
the instruction of young persons In the art of acting."
The device had but little success, for the audiences in the
snuff warehouse dwindled away, till there was nothing left
to do but to close it, and after serving as a warehouse for
some little time it was pulled down.
Scarcely less complete than the destruction of Richmond
Wells has been that of the greater number of the old
houses in the town, only a few of the ancient shops
remaining, amongst which may be noted the one near
Water Lane, known as the "Maid of Honour," because
certain cakes are still made in It that were first
Introduced in Richmond by Queen Caroline's ladies-in-
waiting. Here and there, however, amongst the sea of
modern villas that cover the slopes of the hill, a venerable
homestead rises up, robbed. It Is true, of the environment
that made up half its charm, yet striking In the present the
unmistakeable note of the past. Such are the fine Queen
Anne houses of Ormond Road, In one of which lived

GREEN, TOWN AND HILL. 8i
the authoress, Mrs. T. C. Hofland, and her artist husband ;
Ormond House, In which lives Mr. Frederick Brown, Slade
Professor of London University; with the neighbouring
Lancaster, Clarence, and Halford Houses, all not far from
the approaches to the old ferry.
In what, not so very long ago, was a beautiful country
lane overshadowed by venerable trees, but Is now a noisy
artery of traffic, though parts of it, strange to say, are still
without a footpath. Sheen (formerly Marshgate) Road, are
several noteworthy ipanslons, built probably on the sites of
yet older ones, occupied by the nobility when Richmond
and Kew were the favourite residences of the Royal
Family. Such are Marshgate House, with an iron entrance
gate of beautiful and ornate design ; Egerton House,
dating probably from about 1710, possibly built on
the site of one of the outlying dependencies of the
Palace, a silver coin of the reign of Queen Elizabeth
having been dug up in Its grounds some years ago ;
StrSatham, Carrlngton, and Beverley Lodges — in the
second of which lives the distinguished artist, Mr,
Charles Edward Johnson, R,L, one of whose works Is
in the Tate Gallery — all three originally a single mansion
with a remarkably fine oak staircase ; and Lichfield House,
named after the Bishop of Lichfield, who at one time lived
in it. A grand old red brick building with a beautiful
formal garden, thoroughly in harmony with the delightful
home to which It belongs. It is a centre of the social and
intellectual life of Richmond, as the residence of the
celebrated novelist, Mrs. Maxwell (Miss Braddon), and also
of her son, Mr, W. B, MaxweU, who Inherits his mother's
literary talent.
Many picturesque thoroughfares, of which few now
retain anything of their original character, led up from
Sheen Road to the Hill and Park, of which the
most important is Sheen Lane, close to the lower end of
which is an interesting milestone, bearing the date 175 1,
and the Inscrip'tion, "X miles from the Standard, Comhill,
and ^ from West-Minster Bridge, VI. miles and ^ from

82 ROYAL MANOR OF RICHMOND.
Hyde Park Corner." Once fined on either side by the
seats of noblemen and leading up to the Sheen Gate of
Richmond Park, Sheen Lane still retains the famous
Temple Grove, long the residence of Sir John Temple,
brother to the more celebrated Sir WiUiam, of West Sheen
memory, and East Sheen Lodge, to which the Duke of
Fife brought his bride, thd Princess Royal, In 1889, but
Sheen House, once the retreat of the Comte de Paris, has
recently been pulled down, and its grounds are now
advertised for sale. Fortunately, however. Sheen Common,
which may be reached from Sheen Road or from
the Park, will ever remain an open space for the enjoyment
of the public, as wIU also the little remnant of the so-caUed
Pest House Common at the Sheen Road end of Queen's
Road, that at one time extended to the top of the Hill.
In Mount Ararat Road, named after a large mansion
that once stood In it, there is nothing reminiscent of the
long ago, but it is associated with the memory of the
philanthropist, Mrs. Hanbury, who aided Mrs. Fry in her
noble work amongst prisoners, and In It now lives the
talented novelist. Miss Tuttiett (Maxwell Gray), author of
the "Silence of Dean Maltland," the "Last Sentence," and
other fine works. In Onslow Road lives the well-known
naturalist and writer on military and other subjects. Pro
fessor Demetrius Charles Boulger, and his wife, the novelist,
Dorothy Boulger, long a collaborator of Charles Dickens
in " AU the Year Round ; " and in the adjoining Marlborough
Road Is the home of Miss Agnes Dunbar, whose useful
"Dictionary of Saintly Women " is a standard work on the
subject of which It treats. Friar's Stile Road prides itself
on having been a favourite resort of Thackeray, who used
to put up at the Rose Cottage Inn, now the Marl
borough Hotel ; In Queen's Road lives the poet, John
Gurdon, whose "Erinna" is a masterpiece of classic style.
One of the houses in Chisholm Road has long been the
residence of Mr. Frederick Dixey, whose fine interpreta
tions of local scenery are appreciated far beyond the limits
of Richmond ; and near to him, on the skirts of the

GREEN, TOWN AND HILL. 83
freeboard of the Park, a long strip of which she rents from
the Crown as a garden, lives Miss Beatrice Fellowes,
hereditary Herb-strewer to the Royal Family, the dignity
having been conferred on her great aunt, daughter of
WiUiam Fellowes, M.D., one of the King's physicians, by
George IV., who was very much attached to her, and
used to call her his "Little Fell,"
Even more completely transformed than Sheen Road
and the slopes of the hill, is the thoroughfare once con
nected with the Green by a shady lane, known as Park-
shot, Its name recalling the time when the land on which
Richmond Is built was divided Into portions called shotts,
of which there were fourteen in the Upper Field and
ten in the Lower, all now completely built over. In
lodgings, at iNo. 8, Pzurkshot, recently pulled down
and replaced by the building now occupied by the offices
of the Richmond Board of Guardians, lived and worked,
from 1855 to 1859, the great novelist, George Eliot (Mary
Ann Evans), and the less celebrated George Lewes, who
exercised so strong an influence over her, receiving there,
amongst other kindred spirits, the philosopher, Herbert
Spencer, with whom they loved to discuss the subjects In
which he was Interested. In this even then most common
place locality, close to the railway, were written those
masterpieces of imagination, the " Scenes of Clerical Life "
and "Adam Bede," and their author's Journals and Letters
are full of allusions to the progress of her work, its
reception by the public, and the varying aspects of the
environment In which It was produced. She tells how,
when with hesitating diffidence she first confided to Mr,
Lewes her idea of writing a novel, he gave her but scant
encouragement, observing, "It may be a failure. It may be
that you are unable to write fiction," though later, when
she told him, as they were walking In the Park, that she
intended to try a series of stories founded on her own
observation of the clergy, he cheered her by admitting that
It was a fresh and striking notion,
"About a week afterwards," says George Eliot, "when I

84 ROYAL MANOR OF RICHMOND.
read him the first part of ' Amos,' the scene at Cross Farm
satisfied him that I had the very element he had been
doubtful about — It was clear I could write good dialogue.
There still remained the question whether I could command
any pathos, and that was to be decided by the mode in
which I treated Milly's death." " One night," she adds, " G.
went to town on purpose to leave me a quiet evening for
writing It. I wrote the chapter, from the news brought by
the shepherd to Mrs. Hacket to the moment when Amos
is dragged from the bedside, and I read it to G. when he
came home. We both cried over it, and then he came up
to me and kissed me, saying, ' I think your pathos Is better
than your fun.' "
At 8, Parkshot, on December 29th, 1856, George
Eliot received a cheque for fifty guineas for "Amos Barton,"
and there as long afterwards as December loth, 1857,
her disguise was first penetrated by Major Blackwood,
who called on behalf of his brother, being still, till he came
face to face with her, under the impression that she was a
clergyman, so intimate was the acquaintance she had
displayed with the clerical point of view.
It seems strange that two literary people, for whom
quiet was so essential, and who were free to live anywhere
they liked, should have remained soi long in Parkshot,
and her immediate surroundings seem to have
coloured tmfavourably the great novelist's opinion of
Richmond, which, she says, writing on June 5th, 1857, "is
not fascinating In the summer. It is hot, noisy, and
haunted with Cockneys, but at other times we love the
Park with an increasing love, and we have such a kind
good landlady that it always seems like going home to
return to Parkshot." She writes with real enthusiasm of
the Park, referring to "delicious walks " there, dwelling
on the exquisite colouring of the scenery In the autumn
and winter, on the clearness of the view of London and
Hampstead, and describing one particular sunset when
everything "had a delicate blue mist over It, that seemed
to hang like a veil before the sober brownish yellow of the

RICHMOND GARDENS IN THE SPRING.

GREEN, TOWN AND HILL, 85
distant elms." The last word of "Adam Bede" was
written at Richmond on November 15th, 1858, and in
February of the foUowing year the "home-like lodgings"
were finally given up, George Eliot and Mr. Lewes
removing to Holly Lodge, Wandsworth ; but the spirit of
the former still seems to haunt the scene of her early
triumphs, and to lend a romantic interest to the prosaic
district that witnessed them.
There is nothing specially noteworthy about the
approach from the town to the world-famous terrace on
Richmond Hill, most of the viUas on either side being
modem, but near the summit, completely hidden from the
road by a high wall, is Cardigan House, named after the
Earl of Cardigan who once owned It, which is still much
what It was a hundred and fifty years ago, when It was
described by a contemporary writer, "as a small house
under Richmond Hill, standing so shady that every apart
ment in It is as cool and gloomy as a grotto." Beyond its
extensive grounds, which the same author declared were
so thickly planted with trees that the sun had no admit
tance, are the Terrace Gardens already noticed, that are
succeeded by the Terrace Field, long knovm cis the Hill
Common The latter was granted to the Richmond Vestry
In 1786, and is the favourite playground of the children of
the neighbourhood, who, rich and poor alike, seem to prefer
it and the promenade above even tO' the Park, their light-
hearted merriment and the picturesque groups they form
in their games adding not a little to the attractions of a
scene that is without a rival in its charms to those who
know how to appreciate them as they deserve. Not even
in the depth of winter, is the Terrace deserted, and never is
the long vista presented by its fine avenue of trees anything
but fascinating, though It is perhaps in the early spring,
late autumn, and on the rare occasions when the popular
walk is one gleaming stretch of frozen snow, and the
leafless branches of the trees are outlined with delicate
hoar-frost, recalling the fan-tracery roof of a Gothic aisle,
that the colouring and atmospheric effects are most

86 ROYAL MANOR OF RICHMOND.
entrancing, especially In the gloaming after the sun
has set.
The glorious prospect from the Terrace and the houses
overlooking it from the other side of the road, with
Petersham Wood and the winding river In the foreground,
extends to the distant Surrey and Berkshire Hills, taking
In Windsor Castle, that can be distinctly seen on a clear day,
St. Ann's Hill, Cooper's Hill, and Guildford. Never twice
exactly the same, the exquisite panorama has been again
and again painted and described. Sir Joshua Reynolds and
Turner having been amongst the great artists who have
Interpreted It In colour, whilst Wordsworth and Thomson
have written immortal poems in its honour ; yet It remains
ever full of fresh inspiration to each succeeding generation,
and may yet be the theme of other masterpieces, for there
is now no longer any fear that it will ever be lost to the
public. Often has It been threatened, but as often saved
through the generosity of public-spirited residents, who have
Interfered when one or another distinctive feature of the
prospect was in peril of desecration or obliteration, and
amongst whom special recognition is due to Sir Max
Waechter, who a few years ago bought the beautiful
Petersham Ait, or Glover's Islet, and presented it to the
Corporation of Richmond.
Fortunately only two houses, both built In the eighteenth
century, interrupt the view from the Terrace : that called
the Wick, on the site, as already stated, of the Bull's
Head Tavern, and Wick House, that was built for Sir
Joshua Reynolds by the noted architect, Sir William
Chambers, but has been considerably altered since his time.
In It the famous artist received many of his royal and aris
tocratic sitters, giving princely entertainments not only to
them but to his literary friends, including Johnson,
Goldsmith, Burke, and many others. Sir Joshua was fond
of strolling in the Park, but he preferred what was then
known as Richmond Gardens, connected with the Palace,
and there more than once met George IIL, who was always
ready for a chat with him, and is said at one of these

GREEN, TOWN AND HILL. 87
accidental meetings to have congratulated him on having
been made Mayor of Plympton, as he called Plymouth, to
which the astute courtier replied that he valued more the
distinction of knighthood that had been conferred on him
by His Majesty.
Few of the houses opposite the Terrace have amy claim
to antiquity, but some of them are associated with the
memories of distinguished people. In Downe House, now
divided Into three residences, the grounds of which occupy
the site of Bishop Duppa's Almshouses, lived the gifted
and versatile Richard Brinsley Sheridan, who married
one of the famous beauties of the day, the lovely
Elizabeth Linley, and later it was the home for a time
of the poet earl. Lord Crawford. The large house that
was for many years the Queen's Hotel, was at one time
the residence of the Countess of Mansfield, whose name
it bore; Morshead House, at the top of Queen's Road,
was named after a former owner, and Doughty House, now
the residence of Sir Frederic Cook, who owns a fine collec
tion of pictures by the old masters, was once the property
of Miss Doughty, whose memory Is also connected with the
Roman Catholic Church in the Vineyard. In the house
next door to Doughty House lived Rhoda Broughton, the
novelist, and Terrace House, adjoining the modernised but
still old-fashioned-looking Roebuck Inn, Is the property of
Sir Max Waechter, the generous benefactor of Richmond
referred to above in connection with the preservation of
the view.
Close to the entrance to the Park, and opposite the
Fountain put up In 1901 in honour of Princess Mary,
Duchess of Teck, is Ancaster House, soon to be pulled
down or converted into flats, named after the Duke of
Ancaster, who' sold It to Sir Lionel Darrell, the favourite
of George IIL, who often visited him In it, and one day,
when he complained that he had not room enough for all
the hot-houses he wished tO' build, gave him a slice of the
Park to add to his grounds, marking it off with his riding
whip then and there.

88 ROYAL MANOR OF RICHMOND.
Better known perhaps than any other building in
Richmond Is the Star and Garter Hotel, occupying a
fine position on the brow of the hiU, close to the entrance
to the Park, above Petersham Wood, and commanding a
view as grand and extensive as that from the Terrace
itself. It occupies the site of several earlier hostelries, the
first of which was a small, unpretending inn, completed in
1738, and named the Star and Garter because the land on
which it stood was leased from the Earl of Dysart, a
knight of the noble order of chivalry founded by
Edward III. The first lessee paid a ground rent of forty
shillings only, but In 1803 an adjoining strip of land was
added to the premises and the rent raised to £t„ a
condition being inserted in the agreement that no trees
should be allowed to grow higher than three feet, so that
the view from Ancaster House and the Park Gate Lodge
should never be intercepted, a restriction that might with
great advantage to the public have been placed on all
owners of property between the hill and the river. Needless
to add, the condition was very soon evaded. If not in the
letter In the spirit, by the successive proprietors of the
hotel, who as time went on made additions that inter
fered greatly with the prospect from the hill.
After undergoing various vicissitudes of fortune
the Star and Garter passed into the management
of Mr. Joseph EUis, father of the first Mayor of
Richmond, and it was under his spirited direction
that It first became a popular resort of the beau monde
of London, who delighted in driving out to It for
luncheon or dinner, whilst many writers of fiction whose
scenes were laid in London, notably Thackeray In his
"Vanity Fair," made a point of introducing their heroes
and heroines to its delights. Its fame spread far and near,
foreign visitors to London always including It amongst the
places It was their duty to see, and all through the summer
the approaches to It were lined with the gay equipages of
its patrons. On the death of M4 Ellis, one of his sons, Mr.
George Ellis, carried on the business with no little success

GREEN, TOWN AND HILL. 89
mitil 1 864, when he sold It to a hmited habUIty company,
who employed the then fashionable architect. Sir Charles
Barry, to add to it what is stiff the principal building, that
contrasted very strongly with its older neighbour. In
1870, however, the latter, with the exception of the original
coffee room, was completely destroyed by fire, and
replaced a few years later by the present pavilion, so that
as it now stands, the hotel consists of three distinct parts,
which cannot be said to harmonise well either with each
other or their surroundings.
During its palmy days the Star and Garter was
occupied for some time by the exiled King, Louis Philippe,
who was visited in it by the young Queen Victoria,
and later it was the home for a time of Napoleon III.
and the ill-fated Prince Imperial, of the equally unfor
tunate Emperor Maximilian of Mexico, the Due
d'Aumale, the Empress of Austria, the widowed Queen
Amelia, and many other celebrities. Some of the Indian
Princes, too, who came to England to attend the late
Queen's Diamond Jubilee lodged in the Star and Garter,
but during the last decade its popularity has been greatly
on the wane, and when In 1907 It was offered for sale by
auction no satisfactory result ensued, and It Is still in the
market. The universal use of motor cars may possibly
have had something to do with this untoward change, it
being easier with their aid to go much further into the
country In a shorter time than was needed for the drive
from London, The Drinking Fountain that was put up
only a few years ago by the Richmond branch of the
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and
has been such a boon to the horses that have climbed the
long hill, Is already far less used than it was at first, and
it may be that, before the end of the century, drinklng-
places for draught animals will be quite out of date.

CHAPTER VL
The Churches, Cemeteries, and Charities of
Richmond,
ALTHOUGH It was only some sixty years ago
that Richmond attained to the dignity of
becoming a distinct and separate parish. Its
ecclesiastical history can be traced back to the
twelfth century, for when, in 1 1 30, Gilbert the
Norman — to whom Henry I. had granted the Manor of
Meretone — founded Merton Abbey, he endowed it with
the advowson of the church of Kingston-on-Thames,
with its dependent chapelries at East Moulsey, Thames
DItton, Petersham and Sheen. The first step towards
Independency was gained by Richmond in 1658, when the
Commissioners appointed to examine into the condition of
the benefices of England, decreed that its church should
be characterised as a parish one, and the second In 1769,
when Richmond was made a perpetual curacy, but it was
not until 1849 that it was finally divided from Kingston by
the passing of an Act of Parliament, which provided a
stipend and residence for the vicar, and vested in him
the site of the church, the church Itself, and the church
yard thereto adjoining.
Whether the present Parish Church of Richmond
occupies the site of the chapel that was part of the endow
ment of Merton Abbey It is impossible to say, the various
references to a chapel at Sheen, generally quoted to prove
that It does, probably alluding to the one connected with
the Royal Manor House or to that of the House of Jesus
of Bethlehem. The earliest unmistakeable mention of a
place of public worship In Richmond occurs in a MS. book

CHURCHES AND CHARITIES. 91
of the privy purse expenditure of Henry VIL, who, it is
there stated, "gave £^ to the Parish Clerke of Richmond
toward the building of his new church," the use of the
word new implying that the building then in course of
construction was not the first. That the former was com
pleted before the end of Henry's reign is, however, proved
by the fact that several interments are stated to have taken
place In it ; and in a will preserved at Doctors' Commons,
dated July 17th, 1487, the testator directs that his body
shall be buried in front of the altar of St. Mary Magdalene
at Richmond,
Whatever the date of its first foundation, very little now
remains of the original fabric of Richmond Parish Church.
The tower, evidently the oldest part. In spite of much
restoration, is still however a typical structure, one of
fifty similar examples of the style remaining in Surrey.
It contains a very fine peal of bells, dating from about
1680 to 1790, on the greater number of which the names
of the churchwardens holding office when they were
cast are Inscribed, the fourth bearing also the quaint
sentence —
" Lambert made me weake not fit to ring,
But Barklett among the rest hath made me sing,"
Next to the tower the walls of the nave, that are of red
brick and date probably from the eighteenth century, are
probably the oldest part of the church, but the interior
has been completely transformed. The old chancel was
pulled down a few years ago — when the monuments were
removed to the walls of the nave — and replaced by a new
chancel, having on one side the vestry and organ, and on
the other a chapel dedicated to All Saints, erected by the
present vicar, the Rev. Max Binney, to the memory of his
first wife. The windows in the new chancel and chapel
were all designed by the well-known architect, George
Frederick Bodley, R.A., and are good examples of modern
stained glass. The themes are well chosen and form an
harmonious scheme, illustrative of the work of Christ as

92 ROYAL MANOR OF RICHMOND,
the Redeemer of the world, and of the chief saints of the
early history of the Church In Great Britain,
Fortunately the ancient monuments In the Parish
Church, In spite of their change of position, serve to keep
the much modernised sanctuary In abiding touch with the
long ago, and to preserve the memory of many of those
who worshipped in the ancient building before Its trans
formation. Oldest of all of these memorials of the dead
Is the beautiful Brass to Robert Cotton, with kneeling
effigies of himself, his wife, and their eight children,
beneath which is the following Inscription : " Mr. Robert
Cotton, gentleman, sometime an officer of the Remooving
Wardroppe of Bedds unto Queene Marie, whoe by her
Mats speciall choise was taken from the Wardroppe to
serve her Matie as a Groome In her Privie Chamber al her
lyfe-tlme and after her decease againe he became an
officer of the Wardroppe, wher he served her Matie that
now is Queene Elizabeth many yeres, and dyed Yeoman of
the same office." He married, it Is further stated, "one
Grace Cawsen, of whom he had issue 4 sonnes and
4 daughters," Scarcely less interesting than the Cotton Monument is
the one to Sir George and Lady Dorothy Wright, who
died, the former In 1623 and the latter in 163 1, who were
both great benefactors of Richmond, Sir George having
founded the almshouses now known as Queen Elizabeth's,
and contributed towards additions to the church, whilst
his wife helped to restore the tower and was a
constant visitor to the poor and suffering in the town.
Two kneeling figures represent the beloved knight and
his wife, and beneath them are bas-relief effigies of
their three sons and four daughters, the Inscription below
stating that Lady Wright "lived the faire example and
cleare Light of her whole sex, her mother's matchless
merit in all thinges good and great shee did inherit and left
it to her children," with much more in the same strain.
Exactly where this paragon of all the virtues rests is not
known, but it is probably near her husband, who was buried

CHURCHES AND CHARITIES, 93
in the old chancel, the marble slab meirklng his grave
bearing the inscription, "George Wright here buried lies.
Learned, Just, Religious, Wise, Friendlie, Chearfulle,
Charitable, sober, gentle, hospitable, a sweet companion, a
safe friend, harmless his life, peaceful his end."
Very noteworthy, too, are the Monument with a kneeling
figure to William Hickman, of Kew, one of the original
vestrymen of Richmond, who died In 161 7, and the marble
Tablet to the memory of Matthias Pringhami, who passed
away in 1620, bearing the curious tribute: "Here lieth
interred under this stone a man of charity alone who while
he lived did good to all. He was a help to great and
small He left the world all full of sinne. He lived in
Christ and dyed therein. He hoped In God his soul to
save." To the 1 7th century also belong the Monument to Lady
Margaret Chudleigh, who died in 1627, with kneeling
figures of herself and her second husband Sir John Chud
leigh; the brass Tablet, dated 1646, commemorating
Margaret the virtuous wife of Thomas Jay, mother of
Thomas Jay, Captain of Horse, whosei "short life was
beavtefyed with many graces of nature and reire piece's of
arte " ; the Monument to Henry Lord Viscount Broimcker,
who was cofferer to Charles IL, and lived, as related above.
In a house on the site of the monastery of Jesus of Bethle
hem ; and the Monument, dated 1656, in the gallery, to the
Bentley family, with three good portrait busts, very
characteristic of the Stuart period. Of considerably later
date are the bas^rehef Portrait of William Rowan,
Esq., K.C., FeUow of Dublin College, who died in
1767 ; the marble Memorial, now on the wall of the passage
outside the gallery, to the famous tragic actress Mrs.
Mary Ann Yates and her husband, who are represented
kneeling side by side ; the two mural Bas-reliefs designed
by Flaxman, with medallion portraits, one of the Honour
able Barbara Lowther and the other of the noted school
master, the Rev. Mark Delafosse ; and the three Tablets
commemorating the Rev. George Wakefield, and his sons

94 ROYAL MANOR OF RICHMOND,
Gilbert and Thomas Wakefield, who were successively
ministers of Richmond, and are burled in the churchyard.
Of these the most famous was Gilbert, the elder of the
brothers, who suffered many things for conscience sake,
including imprisonment for two years in Dorchester Gaol
for his so-called seditious reply to Bishop Watson's address
to the people of Great Britain, and during his incarceration
brought more than one condemned criminal to repentance
by his exhortations.
One and all of the memorials of former residents In
Richmond parish enumerated above are eclipsed in interest
by the brass tablet on the western end of the north wall of
the nave to the memory of the poet James Thomson, who,
as related below, lived for several years and died in a
cottage known as Rosedale, in the Kew Foot Road.
He was burled in the graveyard close to what was
then the outer wall of the church, David Mallet,
the poet, and James Quin, the actor, having been his
chief mourners. No monument marked the last rest
ing-place of a man who had conferred lasting honour
upon Richmond by his association with it, and a few
years after his death his very grave became lost, for
when the church was enlarged the new wall cut right across
It, so that it is now almost Impossible to identify it. The
tardy tribute on the wall was put up in 1792 by Lord
Buchan, and bears the following inscription: "In the earth
below this tablet are the remains of James Thomson, author
of the beautiful poems entitled the ' Seasons,' the ' Castle
of Indolence,' etc., etc., who died at Richmond on the 27th
August, and was burled on the 29th, O.S., 1748. The Earl
of Buchan, unwilling that so good a man and so sweet a
poet should be without memorial, has denoted the place of
his Interment for the satisfaction of his admirers In the
year of Our Lord 1792."
Beneath this sentence, so touchingly human, with its
bracketing together of the names of its author and of the
immortal bard, is a quotation from the latter's beautiful
poem "Winter," which, revealing as It does Thomson's

CHURCHES AND CHARITIES. 95
reverence for, and aspiration after, the divine, forms indeed
a fitting epitaph : —
" Father of Light and Life ! Thou God supreme,
O teach me what is good, teach me Thyself I
Save me from folly, vanity aud vice.
From every low pursuit, and feed my soul
With knowledge, conscious peace and virtue prove.
Sacred, substantial, never-fading bliss."
In the graveyard connected with the Parish Church also
rest many of the celebrities already noticed in connection
with old Richmond, including Lord Fitzwilliam, Sir
Matthew Decker, John James Heidegger, Edmund Kean,
Dr. Moore and Mrs. Hofland, whilst In that in the Vine
yard- — the name of which recalls the time when the lower
slopes of the hill were covered with vines — which was
consecrated about 1790, are several interesting early nine
teenth century tombs. Including one to the memory of the
political refugee Louise Frances Gabriel d' Alsace Chimez,
Viscountess de Cambris, born Princess of the Empire, who
died at Richmond on January 27th, 1807, at the age of 72.
The Parish Registers of Richmond, though the earliest
dates only from 1583, that is to say, forty years after the
issue by Thomas Cromwell of an Injunction that "every
parson, vicar or curate of every church should keep one
book or register for the entry of marriages, births and
deaths," are of great value as reflecting the growth of the
population, and contain a number of interesting entries.
Among these are specially noteworthy that of July
24th, 1596, telling how the wife of one Lawrence Snowe
brought her husband's body from Kingstone to Rich-
mounte to be burled; that of July 28th, 1626, noting
that a certain ass-tamer named Elizabeth Mason was
interred in the churchyard, and above all the one dated
March 20th, 1680, recording the baptism, under the name
of Hester Johnson, of Swift's beloved "Stella," Many
references also occur to chrlsom children, that is to say,
infants who passed away after being privately baptised
before their mothers had been able to return public thanks,

96 ROYAL MANOR OF RICHMOND.
and there are occasional allusions to collections made in
the church on what was known as the brief system, the
name being derived from the briefs or written messages
that were addressed, when England was a Roman Catholic
country, by the Pope to local magistrates, and were
later superseded by similar licenses from the Protestant
ecclesiastics, without which it was illegal to ask for
contributions from the congregation.
Although, as proved by the entries of births In the
parish registers, the growth of the population of Richmond
was slow in the seventeenth euid eighteenth centuries. It
increased so rapidly In the nineteenth that the Parish
Church became quite Inadequate for the congregation, and
between 1831 and 1870 no fewer than three Protestant
places of worship were erected, dedicated respectively to
St. John, St. Matthias, and the Holy Trinity. In 1824
a Roman Catholic Chapel was built In the Vineyard
at the expense of Miss Elizabeth Doughty, already
mentioned in connection with the house named after her
on the hill, and six years after its consecration a
Congregational Chapel rose up beside it Somewhat
later were built Christ Church and the Wesleyan Chapel
in Kew Road, and the chapel In Friar's Stile Road
connected with the now famous Wesleyan Missionary
College, The latter, standing in extensive grounds near
the brow of the hill. Is entered from Queen's Road, and Is
a picturesque edifice in the Tudor style, with a fine hall and
library. In the former of which Is preserved, with other
Wesley relics, the pulpit from which the great founder of
Methodism used to preach in Foundry Chapel, Moorfields.
As will be seen from the list of churches and chapels in
the Borough of Richmond, the spiritual needs of its people
are well provided for, and fortunately a beautiful resting-
place for the dead, a veritable God's acre of peaceful
seclusion, has also been secured, which occupies part of the
land given to the parish by George III, in exchange for
Love Lane, supplemented by more than ten acres bought
by the Vestry from Sir Arthur Rugge Price in 1 890. The

CHURCHES AND CHARITIES, 97
new Cemetery has the Park on one side, and on the
other a charming public Garden, known as the Grove Road
Pleasure Ground, laid out in 1874 to meet the wishes of
the inhabitants In the immediate neighbourhood, which,
but for the superior attractions of the Park, would no
doubt be more frequented than it Is, Not far from the
Cemetery is the Workhouse — to which a new wing was
added in 1902- — with several windows and a balcony over
looking the Park, it having been built flush with the wall,
part of It on the so-called Freeboard forming its outer
boundary. The cost of the Workhouse which replaced a
much less satisfactory Union on another site, was borne
by George III. — a tablet on the outside commemorating
the fact — who, though it has long been the fashion to
underrate what he did for Richmond, proved himself on
more than one occasion a true friend to It.
In addition to Its Workhouse, which, alike in its
situation and management, enjoys exceptional advantages,
Richmond owns many almshouses, some of them dating
back for several centuries, the value of the endowments of
which has Increased a hundredfold since the death of their
founders. Of these the earliest in date were those built
about 1600 at the expense of Sir George Wright, but
generaUy known as Queen Elizabeth's, the founder having
been one of Her Majest^s most devoted servants,
that stood not far from the river, a little below the
Bridge, which were pulled down in 1767 but replaced
a httle later by the present Almshouses in the
Vineyard, that are occupied by eight poor old women.
The next oldest charity of Richmond Is that founded
by the saintly Bishop Duppa of Winchester, the tutor,
as related above, of Charles IL, who built a group
of almshouses, also for old women, on the hiU, where
Downe Terrace now stands, that were pulled down some
time after his death and rebuilt in the Vineyard, next door
to those just described. They consist of a row of ten
houses, with an archway dividing them into two
groups, and above the entrance gateway Is the beautiful H

98 ROYAL MANOR OF RICHMOND.
inscription: "Deo et Carolo Votiva Tabula. I will pay
the vows which I have made to God in my trouble," a
touching proof of the faithful devotion of the foimder to
his God and King, though his loyalty tO' the latter must
often have cost him dear.
Nearly opposite to Bishop Duppa's Almshouses are those
founded in 1696, for the use of sixteen poor old men, by
John Michel, who drew up a very strict code of rules for
the conduct of his pensioners, the perusal of which calls up
a very vivid picture of the time when they were issued.
No dissenter was eligible, and no person was to be
admitted who was likely to be offensive In any way to
his neighbours, each almsman was bound to attend
divine service every Sunday and holiday and to partake
of the Holy Communion three times a year, fines being
Inflicted for the neglect of any of these duties. Drunken
ness, the use of bad, or even aggravating, language, the
refusal of any person In health to nurse the sick, were
severely punished, a second offence, after due admonition,
bringing upon the evil doer final expulsion, from which
there was absolutely no- appeal.
Even more Important than Michel's Almshouses are
those founded in 1727 by William HIckey in Sheen, then
Marshgate, Road, which own a charming little private
chapel, to the services in which outsiders are admitted.
Rebuilt more than once and greatly added to at different
times — the income of the charity having long considerably
exceeded the expenditure — ^the almshouses now accom
modate more thcui four times the original number of
pensioners, who are all old women, for though the married
ones are aUowed to have their husbands with them, the
latter have to leave if their wives die before them. Each
inmate, in addition to^ a two-roomed house with a kitchen,
owns a smaU plot of ground. In the cultivation of which
the grea'test pride is taken, the flowers raised giving to the
gardeners the priceless privilege of having something of
their own to offer to their friends. To enter the gate of
Hicke/s Almshouses from the busy turmoU of Sheen Road

CHURCHES AND CHARITIES. 99
is hke going into another world, so peaceful and secluded,
and withal so picturesque, are the whole precincts, and so
happy do the tenants of the well-built stone cottages
appear, in spite of their dependent position and extreme
old age.
Next door to HIckey's Almshouses are those connected
with the Parish Church, consisting of ten tenements only ;
and on the other side of Sheen Road, on what was long
known as Church or Conduit Shott, are the oldest existing
almshouses In Richmond, though the charity to which they
belong was not founded until one hundred and fifty years
after Sir George Wright's. Built in 1757 for the use of
nine old women, at the expense of Miss Rebecca Houblon,
one of the sisters referred to above In cormection with
EUerker House and Richmond WeUs, and named after her,
they remain much what they were when first completed,
and consist of three blocks of quaintly picturesque old
buildings, overlooking on one side a grass-clad court, to
which a very fine old iron gate gives entrance, and on the
other a secluded garden, that, until comparatively recently,
was used as a parish store ground, but when part of the
Houblon property was let for building was acquired by the
trustees for the use of the Inmates of the cottages.
No greater contrast could be imagined than that between
the old-world Houblon Almshouses and the up-to-date
Hospital In Kew Foot Road — necir the entrance to the
grounds of the Athletic Association — the latest and most
widely useful of the charities of Richmond, Founded in
1863, the year of the marriage of King Edward VIL, then
Prince of Wales, the initial expenses were met with the
surplus funds subscribed for the celebration of that
important event, supplemented by many generous gifts
from residents in the neighbourhood The new Instltu-
tution, which had long been greatly needed, was opened
In February, 1868, by the late Earl and Countess RusseU,
who were then living at Pembroke Lodge in the Park.
Since then many important additions have been made to
the Hospital, Including two new wards, opened by the

loo ROYAL MANOR OF RICHMOND,
Princess Mary of Cambridge, Duchess of Teck, in 1 892 ;
the Princess May Ward for children, the name commemo
rating the marriage of Princess May to the Duke of York,
opened by the late Duke of Cambridge, who, at the dinner
at the Star and Garter, given in honour of the occasion,
announced that Her Majesty Queen Victoria had consented
to become a patron and to allow the hospital to assume
the title of Royal ; and, lastly, the Ophthalmic Ward, opened
by the Prince and Princess of Wales In 1907.
The original nucleus of the now vast hospital was Rose-
dale Cottage, a charming retreat that was long occupied by
the poet, James Thomson, who removed to It from
London In 1736, and lived In it till his death In 1748,
writing the " Agamemnon," " Alfred," " Tancred and
Siglsmunda," and the " Castle of Indtolence " In a summer-
house in the garden. In this quiet home the poet
received many of his famous contemporaries. Including
Alexander Pope, who used to come over from his villa at
Twickenham, Richard Savage and Lord Lyttelton, with
the less well-known Paterson, Armstrong, and Malloch,
the last of whom lived at Strand-on-the-Green, where he
was often visited by Thomson, who was fond of strolling
down to Kew along the towing-path, and crossing over to
Chiswick. His chief friend and companion at Richmond
was, however, James Quin, the actor, with whom he shared
many a revel at the Old Castle Inn, and the humbler
hostelry In Kew Lane, known as the Old Orange Tree,
where his barber, Taylor by name, often formed one of the
party. Quin was. Indeed, to some extent the poet's evil
genius, and the story goes that the housekeeper at Rose-
dale Cottage often wished the genial actor dead, so
pernicious was his influence over her master. For all that,
Quin was truly devoted to Thomson, often lending him
money, and on one occasion rescuing him from durance vile
in a sponging-house, by paying the debts which had led to
Interference with the poet's liberty.
Thomson died on August 27th, 1748, soon after the
publication of his " Castle of Indolence," from the result of

CHURCHES AND CHARITIES loi
a chill caught, it was reported at the time, by going on
the river in evening dress after a drinking bout with Quin,
whose grief, when he learnt that there was no hope of his
friend's recovery, was extreme. He remained with Thomson
to the end, and when the funeral was over, severed his
connection with Richmond, so bitter were the memories
connected with it. After the death of the poet, Rosedale
Cottage was sold to a Mr. George Ross, who added con
siderably to it and also to the garden, taking care, however,
to keep unchanged the rooms Thomson had occupied, and
the summer-house which had served him as a study. Later,
the enlarged house passed to the Honourable Frances
Boscawen, who put up a tablet on it commemorating its
famous tenant, that was unfortunately removed after her
death. The next owners of the property were the Earl
and Countess of Shaftesbury, parents of the great philan
thropist, who was often with them at Richmond, and under
them the house was so greatly altered that, though two
rooms are still shown as Thomson's it is evident that they
are very unlike what they were In his time. The only
actual relic of the poet that Is still just what it was when
he died, is the table on which he used to write, that is
carefully preserved in the Hospital, for although when the
house was purchased by the committee from the executors
of Lady Shaftesbury, it was resolved to keep the summer-
house as a memento, it was stolen one dark night, not, as
would have appeared probable, for the sake of the
memories connected with It, but to be used as firewood.

CHAPTER VIL
The Great Park and its Inhabitants.
T is only the comparatively few, fortunately
perhaps for them, who can justly claim to be
thoroughly famllicur with all the varying
charms of Richmond Park. The residents in
the neighbourhood are no doubt all more or
less conscious of the great privilege they enjoy In having
the vast open space at their very doors, and thousands of
outsiders pass through It or linger in It for a brief space
in the course of every yeai. As a general rule, however,
they confine themselves to the beaten tracks and their
immediate vicinity, remaining absolutely unconscious of
the beautiful dells and dales beyond them, and of the
wild life which, to the Initiated, Is such an unfailing
source of Interest. Even on Sundays and public holidays,
when every seat within sight of the entrance gates Is
occupied, and the grass near them is dotted with groups
of happy Idlers, It Is still possible to spend hours in the
inner recesses of the Park, undisturbed by the intrusion of
a single human creature, though now and then a herd of
deer may dash through the undergrowth, or a verderer In
the picturesque green velvet coat and waistcoat of his
calling may appear in the distance, on his way to look after
the animals under his care.
Many are, of course, thoroughly familiar with the
general characteristics of the far-stretching demesne : its
low hills, shaUow valleys, and undulating plains. Its groves
of oak and chestnut, its long avenues of venerable trees, its
scattered clumps of silver birch and hawthorn, and Its
dense thickets of rhododendron, that are one blaze of glory
in June and July. They have strolled along the Terrace

RICHMOND GREAT PARK. 103
Walk, laid down In 1832 at the expense of WiUiam IV„
leading from Richmond HiU Gate to the north entrance of
Pembroke Lodge, to read the oft-quoted memorial to
Thomson just within its gates, and to look down upon the
glorious prospect the poet loved so well, of the Valley of
the Thames, with the hills of Surrey, Buckingham and
Berks in the backgroimd, and Petersham Park in the
foreground. They have stood for a time upon the rising
ground known as Oliver's Mount, between the Sidmouth
and Conduit Woods, from which the best view is obtained
of the White Lodge and the Queen's Ride, and whence,
on a clear day, the Towers of Westminster Abbey and of
the new Roman Catholic Cathedral, with the hUls of
Hampstead and Highgate, can be seen on one side, and
the Crystal Palace on the other. They have duly made a
pUgrimage to the venerable " Shrew Ash," near the Sheen
Gate, in which long centuries ago a living mouse is said
to have been shut up with solemn ceremony, to ensure the
prosperity of the cattle of the farmer to whom the land
then belonged, and to which, until quite recently, women
used to resort to mutter incantations, for, from time
immemorial, a cleft ash has been credited with super
natural powers. They have stood beside Pen Ponds and
noticed the smaller Owen's, Leg of Mutton, Ham and
other sheets of water, and have often watched the
browsing deer, but for all that much of the Park still
remains a terra incognita, for though they may often have
been close to them they have never yet discovered the
nurseries of the fawns, or the lonely reedy pools beloved
of wild fowl, about which the deer gather to drink in the
early morning and at eventide, preferring them to the
more public watering-places. It remains true, indeed, of
Richmond Park, as of many another beautiful district, that
it Is only to the genuine lover that all its secrets will be
revealed ; but for that lover who, with the power of
appreciation combines that of knowing how to watch and
wait, there is practically no limit to the delights in store.
It Is perhaps In the spring that the Park is most

104 ROYAL MANOR OF RICHMOND.
fascinating, when the woods seem palpitating with fresh
life and vigour; every day, almost every hour, bringing
about some subtle change in the general aspect of the
scenery and in the details that contribute to Its
charms. The passing of the winter is heralded
by the appearance on the hornbeams of the delicate
green catkins, that drape as with a shimmering veil the
still leafless branches of the trees ; but very soon they are
succeeded by the blossom of the hawthorns, looking like
masses of driven snow, the silent hymn of praise being ere
long taken up by the chestnuts, their upright spikes of
waxen flowers lending to their solemn beauty an ethereal
charm, whilst the venerable oaks, the giants of the sylvan
glades, begin to put forth their tender green foliage. As
the slow procession of the seasons passes on, and
promise is fulfilled in fruition, a certain languor falls upon
the Park, and throughout the summer repose is its
dominant expression, but with the approach of autumn
that repose is broken by many sounds not heard at other
times. In late September begins the love-making of the
deer, when the bellowing of the harts is echoed by the
challenge of their rivals, and now and then the clash of
antlers locked In deadly conflict strikes a note of tragedy
where all had long been peaceful calm. Not even In
winter does the grand open space lose its attraction, for
when the glory of the autumnal decay is beginning to fade,
and rising mists obscure the distant scene, it Is easier to
realise the fine proportions of the foreground trees, their
dark trunks and canopies of bare branches standing out
against the sky, and in the red glow of sunset looking like
sentinels in a world on fire.
Even more beautiful than In Its ordinary winter
aspect Is the Park when snow has fallen, and all is
transformed and etherealised by the pure white covering
in which everything is shrouded, when familiar objects are
so changed that recognition is difficult, and the very deer
seem to feel themselves at a loss as they roam about in
search of food. To the poetic temperament the time of

A WINTER SUNRISE IN RICHMOND PARK.

RICHMOND GREAT PARK. 105
frost will indeed appeal with special force, but It is really at
night, at every season of the year, when there is no light in
earth or heaven but the pale light of stars, that Richmond
Park excels itself in its romantic charm, for then to all Its
other attractions is added that of mystery. Through the
darkness loom the huge forms of the forest trees,
resembling the ogres of fairyland, and isolated hawthorns,
some of which even in bright sunshine look as if a curse
had fallen upon them, so' weird and distorted are their
forms, seem to stretch out long fingers to clutch the
unwary. Strange, too, and impressively solemn are the
rare sounds that break the brooding silence, for now a stag
gives vent to a roar of discontent, or a lonely hound,
craving for companionship, utters a melancholy howl.
Then, perhaps, a heron, on his way to his solitary fishing
in the river near Sion House, caUs to his mate ; a
nightjar sounds his vibrating whirr, like that of a
spinning-wheel, as he peers down from his lofty perch ; or
an owl mournfully complains as he passes by with muffled
flight, intent on his living prey, perhaps a young rabbit, or
a little shrew that has lost its way in the long grass and
betrays Its presence by a plaintive cry.
To the permanent dwellers in the Park, the birds and
the deer, it Is as a general rule a true sanctuary, for the
former are never disturbed in their nesting or in the bring
ing up of their families, except by their natural feathered
enemies, and the latter are no longer hunted. There
are some fifty head of red and fifteen hundred of fallow
deer, the latter including the dark brown, yellowish-brown,
and spotted varieties, with a few of pure white, the different
colours adding much to the picturesqueness of the herds.
The red and fallow deer are alike gregarious ; the bucks
and does, however, keeping apart except during the three
or four weeks of the pairing season, and In the early
winter, when they graze together. The life story of both
kinds begins at the same time, that is to say, when the
mothers, who have already chosen a suitable spot, drop
their young amongst the full-grown fronds of the bracken.

io6 ROYAL MANOR OF RICHMOND.
making the little creatures lie close to the ground curled up
like puppies, and so completely hidden that unless an
intruder actually stumbles over them they are rarely
discovered, except by the keepers, who know where to
look for them.
From the first the mother deer shows the
greatest affection for her offspring, keeping within
reach of it In its Infancy, though she only actually
visits it to feed it, fearful no doubt of drawing
attention to It, and when It Is old enough to follow her
taking it with her wherever she goes till it is about two
years old, when she leaves it to fend for ItselL The young
buck develops his first antlers at about the age of ten
months, the branches appearing In the later annual
growths, which are at first covered with a very sensitive
skin resembhng velvet in texture, that adds very greatly to
their picturesqueness, and is shed as the bone beneath
them hardens. It is just before this yearly shedding,
when their coats are stiU soft and flexible, harmonising
well with the delicate bloom on the spreading antlers, and
contrasting with the liquid darkness of the pathetic-looking
eyes, that the young deer are at their best, and it is
impossible to imagine anything more beautiful than the
appearance they present as they browse beneath the trees,
stand and gaze at the passers by, or lie amongst the
bracken. Later, however, when they have rubbed off some
of the velvet on their horns and the rest hangs like
ragged curls down the sides of their heads, or when
they have shed one antler and retained the other, there
Is a touch of the grotesque about them. Sometimes,
too, like their human admirers, they lose some of their
grace and charm through undue indulgence in the
pleasures of appetite, for in the autumn they glut
themselves on acorns, of which they are inordinately
fond, standing on their hind legs to drag them down
from the trees rather than wait for them tO' fall, and
bringing on now and then violent attacks of Indigestion as
a punishment. Yet In spite of their weaknesses — and how

RICHMOND GREAT PARK. 107
human those weaknesses are — they are most lovable
creatures, friendly and familiar with those who approach
them rightly, and without them the Park would lose much
of its unique attraction.
It is to Charles I. that the people owe Richmond Park,
with the deer that roam in it, and bearing in mind how
much delight the beautiful open space has given to many
generations, it is not difficult now to condone the high
handed measures that were so bitterly resented at the time
when the estate was first secured for the Crown. Generally
known as the New or the Great Park, to distinguish it
from the older one connected with the Royal Manor
House, It includes portions of six different parishes :
Richmond, Petersham, Ham, Kingston, Putney and
Mortlake, which formed part of a vast tract of unenclosed
land of which the present Ham and Sheen Commons are
survivals. This land belonged to many different owners,
chiefly farmers, and the King had control only over the
comparatively small area that came under the head of
Wastes and Woods, his rights over them being shared by
the common people, who enjoyed the privilege of pasturing
cattle and gathering firewood without payment.
Charles I., who was passionately fond of the chase,
had, it is said, long coveted the fine property and
determined to convert it into a new royal hunting
ground, but it was not until 1637 — ^just when, by the
way, his unpopularity owing to the extension of the
ship tax was at its height — that he announced his
Intention of enclosing some two thousand acres and
stocking them with red and fallow deer. As a matter
of course the various freeholders, copyholders, and
others interested in the matter, opposed the scheme with
all their might and main, their cause being warmly
espoused by Archbishop Laud, Bishop Juxon, and Lord
Cottington, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, who
entreated the King to forego his arbitrary action. All
was of no avail, and in the end most of the malcontents
were induced to sell their property considerably below its

io8 ROYAL MANOR OF RICHMOND.
value, whilst the few who remained obdurate were
ignored. A lofty wall some ten miles in circumference was
built by Royal command round the unjustly acquired
territory, having outside It i6^ feet of so-called Freeboard,
also known by the poetic name of the Deer's Leap, for the
periodical perambulation of the estate, which was only
discontinued some thirty years ago, and to allow of the
trees within the boundary overhanging. The only con
cessions made to public opinion were the confirmation to
the poor of the six parishes in which the Park is situated,
of the privileges enjoyed by them in the old woods and
wastes, and the provision of gates and step-ladders for
foot passengers, one of the latter of which was close to the
present Coombe entrance, still known as the "Ladder
Style Gate."
The wall was completed in June, 1637, and the Earl
of Portland was appointed the first ranger, receiving for his
services the modest salary of one shilling a day, the right
of pasturage for four horses, and the use, rent free, of a
house called Hartleton Lodge, the site of which cannot be
identified. During the Earl's tenure of office, which lasted
until 1648, the King often hunted in the Park, some of
his happiest hours during the last two' or three years of his
life, having been spent in it, but after his execution the
property was confiscated by Parliament and granted by
Cromwell to the City of London as a reward for Its loyalty
to the representatives of the people. At the Restoration
it was given back to the Crown, and Charles II. is said
by some authorities to have made the Duchess of Lauder
dale, then living In Ham House, its ranger, but If this be
so she can only have held the office for a very short time,
as Sir Daniel Harvey was certainly custodian in August,
1660. Whether the latter lived in Hartleton Lodge or
not is not known, and the' whole history of the Park is
somewhat obscure during the rest of the Stuart period.
Queen Anne, who, as has been seen in the account
of the Palace, was very fond of Richmond, gave the
rangership of the Great Park to her uncle, Laurence,

RICHMOND GREAT PARK. 109
Earl of Rochester, making the appointment hereditary
for three generations, but early in the reign of George
IV. the Earl of Clarendon, to whom It had descended,
sold It to the Crown for ;^5,ooo, with the consent
of his son and heir. Lord Cornbury. The rangership
was then given by the King to Robert, son of the
great minister. Sir Robert Walpole, later Earl of Orford,
and brother of the famous Horace, who In his gossipy
" Reminiscences " often refers to the work being done
on the estate by his father, for though it was the
younger Robert who was nominal ranger, it was the
great statesman who fulfilled all the duties of the
office. "The Park,'" says the sage of Twickenham, as Horace
Walpole was somewhat Ironically called, "had degenerated
under the Hydes, into a mere bog and harbour for
deer-stealers . , . nor was there any mansion other
than the Common Lodge of the keepers. The King,
however, ordered a stone one, designed by Henry, Earl
of Pembroke, to be erected for himself merely as
a banqueting house, with a large eating room, kitchen,
and necessary offices, where he might dine after his
sport, and Sir Robert began another of brick for
himself and the under keeper, which by degrees he
much enlarged, retiring thither from business, or rather,
as he said himself, to do more business than he
could in town, on Saturdays and Sundays. On that
edifice and on the Thatched Cottage and other improve
ments, he laid out ;£" 14,000 of his own money." The
new brick house that was called the Old Lodge, and
stood on the rising ground where the Spankers' Hill
Wood now is, was Sir Robert's favourite home until
his death, and in It, as well as in the cottage he
hired on the Hill during its construction, he often
received the King, who loved to shoot in the new
Park and to enjoy a good dinner afterwards. The
Old Lodge was later occupied by several distinguished
people, including the Countess of Mansfield, the Land-

no ROYAL MANOR OF RICHMOND.
gravine of Hesse, and Sir Henry Campbell, but It was
pulled down in 1837, why it Is impossible to explain.
Under the auspices of Sir Robert Walpole the Park was
drained and many trees were planted, whilst various
restrictions were placed on the admission of the public, for
the step ladders were all removed, and keepers were
stationed at the gates with orders to admit only such as
could prove their respectability, even those on horseback
or in carriages being compelled to show tickets. On the
death of the Earl of Orford, In 1751, the rangership of the
Park, which had now become a very coveted office, was
granted to the Princess Amelia, aunt of George IIL, who
carried the policy inaugurated by her predecessor to
extremes, for she looked upon the estate as her own
private property, and endeavoured to exclude all but
members of her own household and a few favoured friends
to whom she granted passes. Petition after petition was
presented to her, but she would not even look at them,
and when the people tried to take the law Into their own
hands, by breaking down the wall, she merely had it built
up again. In the British Museum Is a pamphlet, published
In 175 1, In which a party of Indignant protesters against
the ranger's despotic proceedings are represented, headed
by a clergyman in his robes, passing through a breach
in the waU made by them. In allusion to the fact
that the Rev. Thomas Wakefield, then minister of
Richmond, vigorously espoused the side of the people
In the quarrel, and In a letter to his friend George
Montague, dated 1752, Horace Walpole relates that
when Lord Brooke, who had taken the Duchess of
Rutland's house at Petersham, asked for a key, he was told
that one had just been refused to the Lord Chancellor.
In 1754 a suit was brought against the Princess
by the inhabitants of the neighbourhood, instigated
by the Duke of Newcastle, but the verdict at the
trial was in favour of the defendant, and it was not
until some years later that the evil was remedied through
the spirited proceedings of Mr. John Lewis, a brewer of

RICHMOND GREAT PARK. in
Richmond, whose name will ever be held in grateful
remembrance by all who love the Park and have the cause
of justice to the people at heart. Mr. Lewis diplomatically
Ignored the Royal ranger In the matter, bringing
an action not against her but against the gate-keeper,
Martha Gray, who is said to have refused the King himself
admission, and the case was heard at Kingston Assizes, in
April, 1758, before Sir Michael Forster, when to every
one's delight the right of free passage through the Park
was finally secured. The judge, who won much honour
and glory by his decision, and was called by an admiring
contemporary, the Lord Chief Justice De Gray, "the Magna
Charta of liberty of persons as well as of fortune," directed
Mr. Lewis to see that the step ladders were replaced,
adding the sensible rider that they should be "so con
structed that not only children and old men but old women
could get up them without difficulty."
The victory thus won was later fully confirmed, and
there are now six entrances for carriages, one for each of
the parishes represented in the Park, and a number of swing
gates for foot passengers, the public having absolutely
unrestricted use of the whole beautiful estate except the
enclosures known as the Great Paddocks, extending from
the Roehampton to the Robin Llood Gates, and the smaller
game preserves. True some small portions of the vast
demesne appropriated by Charles I. have passed into
private possession, but there remain more than two
thousand acres, the Park, being with the exception of Epping
Forest, the largest open space in close touch with London.
Even the beautiful stretch known as Petersham Park, on the
slopes of the hill at the foot of which lies the village after
which it is named, part of which was given by Jcunes II. to
one of the Hydes, and part by George I. to John, Duke of
Argyll, has been restored, and in 1846 the whole of the
noble heritage was declared by Act of Parliament to be a
permanent recreation ground for the people. In 1851 its
custody was transferred from the Commissioners of
Woods and Forests — to whom is due the credit of

112 ROYAL MANOR OF RICHMOND.
buying back Petersham Park — to the Commissioners of
Works, who have proved themselves most efficient
guardians of their trust, and are represented by a Superin
tendent, who has an assistant and a number of keepers
under him. The wall put up by Charles I, is now missing
for a considerable distance between the point adjoining
what were until recently the grounds of Bute House to
Ham Common, another portion was taken down when the
land referred to above was alienated, and a short piece was
wisely removed and replaced with iron railings near the
Richmond Gate, as it obstructed the view of the charming
wood known as Petersham Common below the Star and
Garter, but with these exceptions and a few minor gaps
the circuit is still complete.
The Princess Amelia was so enraged at her discomfiture
at the Kingston trial that she declared she would have
nothing more to do with the Park, and in 1761 she sold
her rights in the rangership to George IIL, who had
ascended the Throne the year before. The office was
then bestowed upon Lord Bute, the stern upholder of
the Royal prerogative, who held It until his death in
1792, when the King declared his Intention of being
ranger himself. He appointed the Countess of Mansfield
to be his deputy, and later the same position was held by
Mr. Addlngton — the future Lord Sidmouth and the
successor of Pitt as Prime Minister — George III. himself
superintending aU that went on 'on the estate, a consider
able portion of which he placed under cultivation. Traces
of his ploughing operations can still be made out near
Sidmouth Wood, but, alas, ere long his mental malady
interfered with his happy work in the Park, as well as at
Kew, and when he became insane the Princess Elizabeth
was made ranger in his stead, retaining the appointment
until 1825, when it passed to the Landgravine of Hesse.
Later the Duchess of Gloucester, aunt of Queen Victoria,
held It for five years, and was succeeded, In 1856, by the
Duke of Cambridge, who was the last ranger properly
so-called.

RICHMOND GREAT PARK, ii^
The most important house in the Park is the White Lodge,
the oldest portion of which, long known as Stone Lodge,
was built by George IL, and is probably the building
referred to by Horace Walpole as contemporary with the
Old Lodge that belonged to his father. It occupies a com
manding position on rising ground, looking down on one
side upon the avenue known as the Queen's Ride and the
Pen Ponds, so called because they are near the enclosures
for the deer, with the undulating Park beyond, and on the
other on to Beverley Brook and Wimbledon Common. The
two wings, which harmonise well with the central block,
were added, probably at the expense of the King, by the
Princess Amelia, who also had the Pen Ponds made In
what before her time were somewhat unattractive gravel
pits, so that whatever her faults in the administration of
the estate, credit must be given to her for having
originated one of its most beautiful and characteristic
features. She probably introduced the wild fowl which
still give so much animation to the beautiful sheet of
water, but it is not known whether she also stocked it
with the eels, that soon increased to an extraordinary
extent, great numbers migrating yearly to the river, the
young ones, some two inches long, making their way
from their birthplace In the upper pond to the lower, and
thence through subterranean water courses to the Thames.
George II. and Queen Caroline were occasionally at
Stone Lodge, though the former rarely used It except, -to
quote his own words, "as a house to dine at after his sport,"
and the latter greatly preferred her home in the Old Deer
Park. Neither did George III. reside In It, though he
sometimes put up at It on his visits of inspection, but he
lent it first to Lord Bute — who owned a fine residence at
Petersham that was pulled down a few years ago after
serving for some time as a school- — and later to Lord
Sidmouth, who there. In 1805, had his last Interview with
WiUiam Pitt, who rode over to see him from Bowling
Green House on Putney Heath. A little later the deputy
ranger received a farewell visit from Lord Nelson, with
I

n4 ROYAL MANOR OF RICHMOND.
whom he had, it is said, a very Interesting conversation on
naval tactics, the great commander having traced with his
finger, which he had dipped in wine, the plan of the still
unfought Battle of Trafalgar on a small table that is still
preserved as an heirloom In the family to which his host
belonged. Lord Sidmouth, after whom is named the beautiful
wood planted in 1823, in the depths of which is the far-
famed heronry, died at the White Lodge In 1844, and
since then It has been the home of many distinguished
people. The Duchess of Gloucester lived in It when she
was ranger, and Queen Victoria spent three weeks in It In
strict retirement after the death of her mother, the Duchess
of Kent, It was the residence for some years before his
marriage of King Edward, then Prince of Wales, and
later it was bestowed upon the Duke of Teck and his wife,
the beloved Princess Mary of Cambridge, who, when she
passed away, was mourned throughout the neighbourhood
as a personal friend, so thoroughly did she identify herself
with the Interests of Richmond, and so Ccigerly did she
share In every work for the good of Its people. To the
White Lodge the Princess May, Duchess of York, with
drew in the spring of 1894 to be under the care of her
mother, and there, on June 23rd of that year, her eldest
son. Prince Edward, heir to the throne after his father,
was born. The happy event was celebrated with the
greatest enthusiasm in Richmond, ever devotedly loyal,
and won for It the valued privilege of welcoming the
aged sovereign. Queen Victoria, who came from Windsor
to see her great grandson, driving from the station through
the town to the hill entrance of the Park in the presence
of a vast crowd of sympathetic spectators.
Next to the White Lodge the most Interesting house in
the Park is Pembroke Lodge, the exact date of the
erection of which it is difficult to determine. It is an
extensive two-storeyed building, standing In its own
grounds on the brow of the hiU beyond the Terrace Walk,
and in eighteenth century plans Is caUed the Molecatchers,

RICHMOND GREAT PARK. 115
It was also at one time known as HiU Lodge, and received
its present name in memory of the famous beauty, the
Countess of Pembroke, who Is said to have lodged in it
when it was occupied by a gamekeeper named Trage, and
to have become so attached to it that she persuaded the
King to give it to her for her life. The tenant was tumed
out and a cottage, since pulled down, built for him near
the Richmond HIU Lodge, then recently erected after
the design of the so-caUed CapablHty Brown, who, what
ever his other gifts, had certainly no architectural taste.
The Countess, well pleased with her new home, settled
down happily in it and remained there till her death in
1832 at the age of ninety-four, when the house, which she
had considerably Improved, was lent by William IV, to
the Earl of Errol, who had married one of the King's elder
daughters, and there the new tenant more than once
received his father-in-law and Queen Adelaide, who was
from first to last a true friend to her husband's illegitimate
children. Later Pembroke Lodge was occupied for many
years by Earl Russell, who was twice Prime Minister, and
during his residence in the Park he received many of the
celebrities of his time, including Lord Palmerston and the
popular hero. Garibaldi, who was welcomed with wild
enthusiasm by the people of Richmond. After the death
of the Earl, which took place in 1873, his widow. Lady
Russell, lived at the Lodge till she too passed away, and it
is now, 1907, the home of Georgiana, Countess of Dudley.
In the grounds of the Lodge, which command a fine
view of the Thames, St. George's Hills and Kingston Vale,
Is a mound, marked as the King's Standinge on the oldest
extant map of the Park, dated 1637, the year of its first
enclosure. This quaint name, the real meaning of which
cannot be determined, is supposed to have reference to the
legend that Henry VIII. stood upon the mound to watch
for the going up of the rocket which was to announce to
him that the head of Anne Boleyn had fallen, and, in
deference to this tradition, care was taken when Sidmouth
Wood was planted not to intercept the view from the

n6 ROYAL MANOR OF RICHMOND,
mound, by leaving a clear space, through which the dome
of St. Paul's can be seen on exceptionally clear days,
between two rows of trees that some years hence will form
a fine avenue. Unfortunately, however, there is really no
more historic foundation for the romantic story connected
with the King's Standinge — Henry having been far away
from Richmond on the day of the unfortunate queen's
death — than for the even more improbable supposition
that Oliver's Mount takes Its name from Oliver CromweU
having witnessed from It a battle between the Royal and
Parliamentary forces, no stmggle having taken place that
could possibly have been seen from Richmond Park.
Beyond the southern limits of the Pembroke Lodge
Estate is the beautiful Hornbeam Walk, in which is the
singular phenomenon of a hawthorn that has grown into
a hornbeam, the trunks of the two trees being inextricably
joined together, and near the Ham Gate, on rising ground
looking down upon Kingston, is the picturesque Thatched
Lodge, formerly known as Aldrldge's and Burkitt's, after
keepers who lived in it, that was for some years the home
of General Sir Edward Bowater, who died in it in 1861,
and later of General Meadows and Sir Charles Stuart. It
has been lent to Sir Frederick Treves, who succeeds the
Right Honourable Sir Edmund Monson, Bart., who has
held many important posts as Ambassador to Foreign
Courts, and was in 1888 Arbitrator In the dispute, known
as the Butterfield claim, between the United States and
Denmark. Sheen Lodge, marked in a map dated 1732 as the
Dog-Kennel, a rural-looking building near Sheen Gate,
opposite to Owen's Pond, was the home in the time of
George I. of the head keeper, and was later lent by
George III. to Baron Adam, then Lord High Com
missioner for Scotland, but it owes its chief distinction to
the fact that the great physiologist. Sir Richard Owen,
lived In it for some years before his death, and was there
the host of many of his famous contemporaries. Including
Sir Walter Scott, who was a great admirer of Richmond

RICHMOND GREAT PARK, 117
Park. Other picturesque buildings within the precincts
of the Royal demesne are Bailiff's Cottage, Whiteash
Lodge, the residence of the assistant superintendent;
Bishop's Lodge, named after a gamekeeper of that name
who had charge of the so-called Cattle Gate, that was
probably near the present Chisholm Road swing gate ; and
the more important Holly Lodge, below the Conduit Wood,
In the valley on the left of the road from Richmond Hill to
Roehampton, occupied by the chief superintendent of the
Park. Long called Bog Lodge because of its vicinity to the
marshy land now drained. Holly Cottage is also often
spoken of as Sawyer's, three custodians of the estate —
grandfather, father and son — having lived in it. The
Sawyers all enjoyed no little repute for their devotion to
duty and their woodland lore, even the famous naturalist,
Edward Jesse — who was at one time Itinerary Surveyor of
the Royal Parks to the Woods and Forests, and died in a
cottage In Sheen Lane — owning his debt to them for much
of his information respecting the wild life of the Park,
which, not long ago, included In addition to the red and
fallow deer, and the foxes that levy toll on the wild fowl,
turkeys, squirrels, and hares. George III. was much attached
to the first of the three Sawyers, and used often to ride
over from Kew to see him quite early in the morning before
his deputy ranger. Lord Sidmouth, was astir. King and
keeper walking about together as famUiar friends,
discussing the best place for planting trees, etc.
William IV., too, when he was staying with his daughter
at Pembroke Lodge, never failed to have a chat with the
reigning Sawyer, and had such a respect for the family that
he once declared he was sure It had come over with his
namesake the Conqueror.

CHAPTER VIIL
Petersham, Ham House, and Ham.
I HE history of Petersham, the Inhabitants of
which, not altogether without reason, claim
that it Is the most aristocratic viUage of
England, can be traced back to before the
Conquest, for it is mentioned as Patrlcesham
or Peter's home In Doomsday-book as held In demesne by
the Abbey of Chertsey, that was dedicated to St Peter. Its
value In the time of King Edward the Confessor was
assessed at ten hides, but It fell to four hides after his
death, the record adding in Its usual laconic style : "There
is a church and a fishery with i,ooo eels and i,ooo
lampreys, and three acres of meadows. In the time of
King Edward it was worth lOO shillings; now 6 poimds
and 10 shillings." The church here referred to was
probably but a small chapel, possibly the same as the one
referred to In connection with St. Mary Magdalene, Rich
mond, as having been part of the endowment of Merton
Abbey, but whether it occupied the site of the present
St. Peter's it Is Impossible to say. The existence of
an outlying chapelry belonging to an Abbey Implies, as
a general rule, that there was an anchorite's or priest's cell
attached to it, and the remains of a brick arch in the foot
path between Ham Road and the church Is supposed to be
a relic of such a cell.
It Is noteworthy that lampreys are nowhere else
mentioned in the Doomsday-book as homeland assets, but
eels formed In many riverside districts an important part
of the dues paid to the landowner, and It would appear
that in the reach of the Thames between Kew and
Kingston their numbers were very great. Until the

PETERSHAM. 1 19
making of Teddington Lock interfered with their move
ments they used to go up stream from Richmond to
Kingston in the early summer, in one huge palpitating shoal,
some two feet wide, when they were easily caught in great
numbers by anyone who chose to dip a basin or net Into
the river, no conditions whatever being attached to their
capture. This remarkable migration was known amongst
the Surrey and Middlesex fishermen as Eel Fair, and eel-
pie was a favourite dish, not only with them, but with the
more aristocratic residents of the neighbourhood, a fact
commemorated In the name of Eel Pie Island, where, until
the middle of the nineteenth century, the dainty generally
formed part of the hotel menu in May and June.
The Manor of Petersham was retained by Chertsey
Abbey until early in the fifteenth century, when it became
the property of the Crown, and was given by Henry I. to
Gilbert the Norman, founder of Merton Abbey, remaining
in the possession of that religious house until 1541, when
it was granted by Henry VIII. to the divorced Anne of
Cleves, who does not, however, appear to have lived in the
house belonging to it. In 1548 the property was again
taken possession of by the Crown, and In 1610 it was
bestowed by James I. upon Henry, Prince of Wales, who
also held the Manors of Sheen and Ham. On his death
in 161 2 all these passed to his brother Charles, who in
1637 granted a reversion of that of Petersham to William
Murray, who had been his whipping-boy when he was a
child, an office greatly coveted by parents for their sons,
as It often led to preferment. This William Murray was
the son of the minister of Dysart, a picturesque fishing
viUage in Fifeshire, and the nephew of Thomas Dysart,
who had been tutor to the young princes, and soon after
the death of Henry had rendered an important service
to the King, soi that it was probably through his influence
that the future Earl of Dysart obtained the introduction to
Court which was to have such great results for him. Prince
Charles, who was, as Is well known, a very delicate child,
took a great fancy from the first to the deputy who was to

120 PETERSHAM AND HAM.
suffer for his delinquencies, and certainly studied better
than he would otherwise have done to save William from
punishment. Heir-apparent and whipping-boy became the
closest friends, the latter remaining In the service of
Charles after his accession to the throne. The King's
affection for him was shared by Henrietta Maria, who in
some of her letters speaks gratefully of the services
rendered by him to her husband.
In 1643 William Murray was created Earl of Dysart,
taking his title from his old home In Scotland, and Baron
Huntingtower, of Huntlngtower, in Perthshire, with
remainder to his heirs, male and female, receiving at the
same time a grant of the Manors of Ham and Hatch, the
latter now absorbed in the former. He had married some
time previously Catherine Bruce, daughter of Sir Robert
Bruce, of Clackmannan, and on his death in 1651, his wife,
who is buried in Petersham Church, having died before
him, his property in Surrey passed to his eldest daughter,
Elizabeth, who had for many years been the wife of Sir
Lionel Tollemache, and was the mother of three sons and
two daughters. She now became Countess of Dysart in
her own right, and the earldom has ever since remained in
her family, her eldest son Lionel taking his father's second
title of Baron Huntlngtower until her death, which took
place In 1698, when he became Earl of Dysart.
Some little time after the death of Sir Lionel Tolle
mache his widow married the Earl, later the Duke, of
Lauderdale, the ceremony taking place In Petersham
Church on February 17th, 1671, when, in addition to the
usual fees, the bride gave, as stated in the parish register,
a CcU-pet, pulpit cloth, and cushion in honour of the
occasion. A year later her second husband was made
Duke, whilst the Lordship of Ham and Petersham was also
granted to him in fee simple, with the title of Baron Peter
sham and Earl of Guildford, but as he died without heirs
the barony lapsed to the Crown, and It was not until 1742
that It was given to William Stanhope, who was at the same
time made Viscount Petersham and Earl of Harrington.

HAM HOUSE, 121
Although opinions differ greatly as to whether the
ancestral home of the Tollemache family does or does not
occupy the site of the original manor house of Petersham,
there can be no doubt that it is the successor of a much
earlier residence of some Importance. The present Hcun
House, beautifully situated on the banks of the Thames, Is
the principal seat in the parish. Indeed In the whole neigh
bourhood, and was built, it Is generally supposed, by Sir
Thomas Vavasour, who was at one time the colleague of
Lord Bacon as judge of the Marshal's Court, for Henry,
Prince of Wales, who, however, never lived In it, though
he may possibly have ridden over to see It from Richmond
Palace. It is an Imposing red brick mansion, bearing
above the principal entrance the date 1610, with the words
Vivat Rex and the initials T. M. V, and is a very typical
example of the Jacobean style of domestic architecture, for
though certain details may have been modified. It remains
structurally much what it was when first completed. It
stands in extensive well laid out grounds, in which are
some fine Scotch firs, the first introduced into England,
that were planted by Archibald, third Duke of Argyll, and
is approached by two beautiful avenues, one leading from
Petersham, the other from Ham Common, presenting a
very dignified appearance from every point of view.
Ham House, the Interior of which Is very suitably and
lavishly decorated, contains a small private chapel, a
spacious central hall, many noble reception and other
rooms, and a long, well-lighted picture-gallery. Its art
treasures Include fine portraits by Van Dyck, Sir Peter
Lely, Hogarth, Janssens, Van der Heist, Dobson, Sir
Godfrey Kneller, and Sir Joshua Reynolds ; landscapes
by the great Dutch masters ; miniatures by John
Hosklns the Elder, Nicholas Hilliard, Isaac Oliver, Cos-
way and Plimer ; rare MSS., one dating from the time
of King Alfred ; printed books such as the first produced
by Caxton in England, some of the later examples In
bindings of rare beauty ; tapestries, porcelain, etc. The
furniture, too, is a kind of epitome of aU that was best in

122 PETERSHAM AND HAM.
the different periods to which it belonged, so that it may
be claimed for Ham House that it is a well-stored museum
as well as a most characteristic private home.
Ham House passed from Sir Thomas Vavasour to tlie
Earl of Holdemess, after whose death in 1625 It was sold
to William Murray, who was living in It when he was made
Earl of Dysart. The erstwhile whipping-boy made it his
chief residence, and there more than once received his
beloved master, Charles I., to whom he remained faithful
to the end. His traditions were nobly carried on by his
daughter and heiress, the second Countess of Dysart, who
was not only a very beautiful, but a very gifted woman,
and exercised no little political Influence, her personal
charm sometimes winning adherents tD the Stuart cause
even against their better judgment. It has actually been
said that she so fascinated Cromwell himself that she
cherished hopes of bending even his Iron will, and the
story goes that after the Battle of Worcester she won from
him, by a personal appeal, the life of her future husband,
the Earl of Lauderdale. Whatever truth there may
be in this romantic story, Ham House was the chief rendez
vous, throughout the Countess's long life, of those to whom
the very name of the Protector was anathema, and after
her marriage to the Earl of Lauderdale, It was the meeting-
place several times of the famous or, according to some,
infamous. Cabal Ministry, of which her second husband
was the L, the other letters standing for his four
coUeagues, Clifford, Ashley, Buckingham, and Arlington.
The room In which this notorious quintet held their
sittings, and the furniture they used, has been preserved
exactly as it was In the Duke's lifetime, and the rest of
the house still bears the unmistakeable impress of
his tastes, for the greater number of the art-treasures
In it — which were, however, supplemented by his successors
— were collected by him during his term of office, when his
gains were enormous.
Charles II. was several times the guest of the Duke at
Ham House, and it was suggested that James II. should

HAM HOUSE.

HAM HOUSE, 123
be sent there after his compulsory abdication, but he
pleaded so earnestly that some other place of durance
should be chosen, declaring the riverside mansion to be a
cold and comfortless place in the winter, that he was
allowed to go to Rochester instead. The Duchess, who
was not in residence at the time, would no doubt have
made him very comfortable, for she remained to the end
loyal to the Stuarts, though the ingratitude shown by
the last of the family to wear the crown to those who had
served him best must often have pained her.
In spite of the atmosphere of perpetual Intrigue
characteristic of Ham House in the time of the Cabal, the
Duke and Duchess appear to have lived very happily
together in it, and after the death of the former, his widow,
who survived him for sixteen years, continued to reside in
it, surrounded by her children and grandchildren, who all
looked upon It as their home. The Countess's eldest
daughter. Lady Elizabeth Tollemache, had married the
tenth earl and first Duke of Argyll, and her two sons,
John and Archibald, who successively inherited their
father's title, were bom in the so-called Yellow Satin
Room in Ham House. The elder of these boys was to
become the famous " Good Duke " who had no little share
in bringing about the Act of Union, was made Duke of
Greenwich In 171 8 for services rendered to George I., and
in 1737 won great popularity with the Scotch by his
defence In the Edinburgh Parliament of the rioters, who
had taken the law into their own hands and hung the
notorious Porteous, after he had been pardoned by the
King, an incident turned to admirable account by Sir
Walter Scott In his "Heart of Midlothian."
The Duchess of Lauderdale was laid to rest in Peter
sham Church, followed to the grave by a long procession
of mourners, and the parish register adds to the official
entry of the sad event the characteristic comment : " No
affidavitt made wthin 8 dayes and information of her
Graces being buryed in Linnen given by myself to S^ John
Buckworth, etc, accordingly." Her son, the third Earl of

124 PETERSHAM AND HAM,
Dysart, who was one of the richest peers in England, lived
in great retirement at Ham House, leaving a very large
fortune to his grandson and successor, whose father had
died in 171 2.
Later the historic mansion once more resumed its old
position as a centre of political and social life, especially
during the reigns of Grace Carteret, wife of the fourth
Earl ot Dysart, and the beautiful Lady Louisa Manners,
who became Countess in her own right in 1821,
and lived to a great age, retaining her attractions to the
last. Contemporary correspondence is full of allusions to
the gay doings In the popular riverside residence. Horace
Walpole, one of whose nieces married Lord Huntlng
tower, who was to become the fifth Earl of Dysart, Mrs.
Delany, Queen Charlotte and the artist John Constable
being amongst those who successively sung Its praises, the
last dwelling especially on the masterpieces of painting on
its walls, declaring that he "wished he had seen a certain
sublime Cuyp before he sent away his own Salisbury."
Other interesting old mansions In Petersham are
Petersham House, with fine entrance gates, long the home
of the late Mrs. Warde, the generous donor of the new
Church, Clergy House and Institute ; Montrose House,
named after the Duchess of Montrose, to whom It once
belonged ; Rutland House, a very typical Georgian
structure, supposed to have been built for the family to
which Lady Louisa Manners belonged; and Douglas
House, once the property of George Cole, who also owned
the fine old Petersham Lodge that stood in what Is now
Petersham Park, near the site of the schools given to the
village by Earl and Countess Russell, and was bought by
Charles I. when he first decided to enclose the new
hunting ground. Burnt down in 1721, it was replaced by
a new building, to which the same name was given, erected
after the designs of the Earl of Burlington for the then
owner of the estate, the WiUiam Stanhope referred to
above, to whom it had been given by Charles II. when
he created him Baron Petersham and Earl of Harrington.

HAM HOUSE, 125
It is to the second Petersham Lodge that refers the
oft-quoted line from Thomson's " Summer " : " The
pendant woods that nodding hang o'er Harrington's
retreat," but that retreat, after changing hands several
times, shared the fate of its predecessor, for it was bought
and pulled down by the Commissioners of Woods and
Forests soon after they took over the custody of Richmond
Park, with which its site and grounds were re-united, all
that is now left to recall the once famous residence being
the fine old cedars that were a characteristic feature of Its
beautiful gardens.
The memory of the two Petersham Lodges is preserved
in the name of a smaller house, that dates probably from
the early Georgian period, which was bought in 1902 by
Sir Max Waechter, who gave a ninety-nine years' lease of
It to the Princess of Wales and conferred the freehold upon
the Corporation of Richmond. The Princess converted
the charming residence Into a home of rest for governesses
and the generous donor In his deed of gift expressed a
hope that the lease should be renewed at its expiration
should the lodge still be required for that purpose. In the
well-timbered grounds, the trees including a remark
ably fine plane tree, of the third Petersham Lodge is
the picturesque summer house overlooking the towing
path and the river, that was a favourite retreat of
the poet Gay, when he was the guest of the eccentric
Catherine Hyde, Duchess of Queensberry, familiarly
known as Kitty, who lived for some years at Peter
sham, and whose charms were lauded by contemporary
poets, though her vagaries greatly scandalised the aristo
cratic residents In the neighbourhood, who never knew
what her Grace might choose to do next.
It was in the summer house of Petersham Lodge,
that has been kept much what it was when the poet
used it, except that some decorative panels have been
removed, that Gay wrote his celebrated "Fables,"
dedicating them to the Duke of Cumberland, then an
infant in arms, but gaining nothing by this attempt to

126 PETERSHAM AND HAM.
curry favour at Court, though later the book became very
popular. Gay was fond of strolling about in the beautiful
meadows, known as Ham Walks, between Petersham
Lodge and Ham House, that belong to the Earl of Dysart,
but are open to the public, and there perhaps he may have
pondered over the "Beggar's Opera," the idea of which Is
said to have been suggested to him many years before by
Dean Swift, and the fame of which was to eclipse every
thing else from his pen. In these same meadows a century
later Charles Dickens, a man of a very different type to the
pleasure-loving poet, might often have been seen with
one or other of his favourite companions, for it was In
Elm Cottage, now Elm Lodge, In the Ham Road, that the
great novelist wrote his " Nicholas Nickleby," and corrected
the proofs of its predecessor, "Oliver Twist."
Adjoining what were once the grounds of the Earl of
Harrington's home are the estate and mansion known
as Sudbrook Park, the early history of which is somewhat
obscure. Sudbrook Park Is referred to as a separate
hamlet of Petersham In a MS. dated 1266 preserved in the
British Museum, but in whose possession It then was is not
known. It became the property of John Duke of
Argyll in the reign of George L, and It Is a tradition
dear to the hearts of many of the people of Richmond that
he there received Jeanie Deans and introduced her to his
wife and daughters before the memorable Interview with
Queen Caroline, that they maintain took place, not as
others assert In the Royal Lodge In the Old Deer Park,
but in the White Lodge in Richmond Park. However
that may be. It Is certain that Jeanie's protector died at
Sudbrook Park in 1743, the estate passing, as he left no
son, to his eldest daughter. Lady Catherine Campbell,
who was created Baroness of Greenwich In 1767, and
bequeathed the property to Henry, third Duke of
Buccleuch, her son by her first husband, Francis, Earl
of Dalkeith. Later the mansion, which has certain typical
features of the Queen Anne period, notably the central
saloon with rooms opening into it, was bought by the

HAM. 127
Crown, and the estate is now rented by the Richmond
Golf Club.
The quaintly picturesque Parish Church of Petersham Is
supposed to date from the sixteenth century, but it retains
certain details, of which the remains of blocked lancet
windows in the chancel are the chief, suggestive of a yet
earlier building. It was restored and enlarged In 1790, and
again in 1820, but even now it is only capable of holding a
congregation of about 300, and Is soon to be supplemented
by a much larger building in the basiUca style now (1907)
nearing completion, with a Baptistry containing a bath
for total immersion, and other characteristic features of
ecclesiastical architecture in the first centuries of the
Christian era.
As it now stands the older Petersham Church has a
squat western tower, surmounted by a low dome-like turret.
The Interior retains unchanged the old-fashioned pews and
other fittings that have served many generations of
worshippers, and above the entrance to the chancel are the
royal arms, marking the fact that the hving is In the
gift of the Crown. Many monuments of distinguished
residents of Petersham serve stIU further to keep the
present in touch with the past, of which the most note
worthy are: that to George Cole and his wife Frances
(parents of the Gregory Cole who sold the first Petersham
Lodge to Charles I.), with fine recumbent effigies, one
above the other, the ornate memorial of Sir Thomas
Jenner, who was Recorder of London in the latter half of
the seventeenth century, and the mural tablets to the
memory of the great navigator. Captain George Vancouver,
who died in 1798; the Rev. Mark Delafosse, who was
minister of Petersham for some forty years ; Caroline
Maria, Duchess of Montrose ; the Honourable Sir Charles
Stuart, grandson of the unpopular minister, the Earl of
Bute ; and General Sir WiUiam Moore ; all of whom are
buried in the churchyard, where also rest, as already stated,
the famous sisters, Mary and Ann Berry.
The village of Ham, though It is perhaps not quite so

128 PETERSHAM AND HAM.
aristocratic as its neighbour Petersham, rivals it in
antiquity, and is its equal in up-to-date patriotism, as
proved by the remarkable success of the Ham and
Petersham Rifle Club. True Ham is not mentioned,
as is Patrlcesham, in Doomsday Book, but It Is referred
to In the seventh century Charter of Chertsey as
Estreham, that is too say, a hamlet In the street, the Via
Militarls, or military road, having run past it, and lands
in its district were given by King Athelstane to his chief
thane, Wulfgar.
The greater part of Ham is built round a beautiful
common adjoining Richmond Park, and the ancient Green,
which remains much what it was cetiturles ago, whilst
several of the older mansions. Including Ormeley Lodge,
with very fine entrance gates. West Heath, formerly
Morgan House, once the residence of the Duke of
Chartres, Orford House and Latchmere House, probably
date from early Georgian times. The modern church in
the Gothic style dedicated to St. Andrew, was built in
1832, when Ham, which till then had been a mere
chapelry of Kingston, was raised to the dignity of a
separate parish.

ST. PETER'S CHURCH, PETERSHAM.

CHAPTER IX.
Kew and its Memories.
JjLTHOUGH It is of course greatly altered since
it owned a Royal palace and was a favourite
residence of the reigning monarch of Great
Britain, Kew — the name of which is variously
spelt in ancient records, Kayhoo, Kayhough
and Kayo being some of the forms — still retains, in spite
of the vast number of modern villas that have been built
during the last half -century, a certain rural charm, whilst
its world-famous Botanic Gardens preserve to It a
distinction It will never lose.
Pleasantly situated on the Thames opposite Chiswick
and Isleworth, and owning In its Green, that Is twelve
acres in extent, an Inalienable playground for its people,
Kew Is even now one of the most popular outskirts of
London, and bids fair ere long to grow into as thriving a
town as its rival up-stream, to the Royal manor of which
it belonged until 1769, when it was separated from It by
Act of Pcurllament
Kew is not mentioned in Doomsday-book, for when that
invaluable record was drawn up It was, like Sheen, a
hamlet of Kingston, and the earliest reference to it occurs
In a thirteenth century Roll of the Royal Manor of
Henry VII. At that time there may possibly have been a
small chapelry at Kew, though the first actual allusion to a
place of worship there bears date 1532, when the Princess
Mary, sister to Henry VIII. and widow of Louis XII. of
France, was living In the neighbourhood with her
second husband, Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, in a
mansion that was pulled down about 1 560, near to one, also
now destroyed, then occupied by Charles Somerset, Earl
of Worcester. K

I30 KEW.
Later, Kew was the home for a few years of Robert
Dudley, Earl of Leicester, who lived In a house that is
supposed to have occupied the site of the one marked as
the Dairle House in a map of Kew and Richmond Gardens
dated 1734, and preserved in Museum III. In the present
Botanic Gardens. From his Kew residence, wherever It
may have been, the ambitious Earl used often to ride over
to Richmond to pay court to Queen Elizabeth, although
he was already married to the unfortunate Amy Robsart.
Whether the neglected wife of the fickle lover was with
him at Kew, and w'hether her Royal rival ever visited the
Earl there, history does not say, but after his death Queen
EUzabeth was more than once the guest in a house on the
Green, the site of which cannot now be identified, of Sir
John Puckering, Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal, whose
steward gives a very interesting account, quoted In the
Sydney Papers, of her reception and of the valuable
presents given to her by her host, which Included, he says,
"a very rich jewel with many pendants of unfirl'd
diamonds, a fair pair of virginals, and a fine gown and
juppin," and he adds, as If that were not enough, that "to
grace his Lordship the more she of herself tooke from him
a salt spoone, and a forcke of fair agatte."
It is very often asserted that the Earl of Leicester, soon
after his second marriage, with the Dowager Countess of
Sheffield', which so angered Queen Elizabeth when she
discovered It, sold his house at Kew to Sir Hugh Portman,
a wealthy Dutch merchant, and it has been claimed that
the building now erroneously known as the Palace,
standing just within the chief entrance to Kew Gardens, is
the very mansion occupied by the maiden Queen's
favourite. A mere glance at the house, which is a typical
example of the style prevalent In Holland at the time of
its erection, should be enough to dispel this error, and the
probability would appear to be that Sir Hugh pulled down
the Earl's mansion and buflt one on its site, that was long
caUed the Dutch House in memory of him, and the further
history of which is given below.

KEW AND ITS MEMORIES. 131
Opposite to the Dutch House was a far more imposing
building caUed Kew House, the date of the erection of
which and the neune of the first owner are alike involved
in obscurity; all that is certain being that it belonged
early in the seventeenth century to a Mr, Richard
Bennet, whose daughter married Sir Henry, later Lord
Capel, who was really the first founder of the gardens,
though as long previously as 1551 a Dr. Turner, author
of a weU-known Herbal, had a nursery on a portion of
their site for the cultivation of rare plants. Sir
Henry Capel was an enthusiastic botanist, and after
the death of his father-in-law he lived in Kew House,
for some years, which his wife had inherited, devoting
much of his time to laying out the grounds, which
became quite famous for the fruit and flowers grown
in them, John Evelyn, in his journal for August 27th,
1678, records, "I went to my worthy friend. Sir Henry
Capel, brother to my Lord of Essex ; it is an old timber
house, but his garden has the choicest fruit of any planta
tion In England " ; whilst on March 24th of the following
year the same writer dwells especially on the "orangerie
and myrtelum," which he characterises as "most beautiful
and perfectly well kept,"
Soon after he was raised to the peerage Lord Capel was
made Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and went to take up his
duties in that country, where he died In i6g6, never
returning to his beloved home at Kew, His widow, how
ever, resided at Kew House until her death in 1721, when,
as she left no children, the property passed to the
great niece of her husband. Lady Elizabeth Capel, who
had married Mr, Molyneux, secretary to the Prince of
Wales, later George II. This Mr. Moljmeux was a man
of great cultivation, who was deeply interested in
astronomic science, and he may in a certain sense be said
to have been the founder of the Observatory, though It
was not built untU more than a century after his death,
for he it was who set up its comparatively humble
predecessor, the great Zenith Sector (the site of which is

132 KEW.
marked by a sun-dial presented In 1830 by William IV.),
with the aid of which the celebrated astronomer, James
Bradley, confirmed the first of the discoveries with which
the name of Kew is associated, the aberration of light, that
was, it is said, suggested to him when he was sailing on
the Thames, by the fact that the vane of his boat never
lay in the line of the wind, but Inclined to it at a variable
angle. Mr. Molyneux died in 1728, and two years later his
widow granted a long lease of Kew House to Frederick,
Prince of Wales, whose bitter quarrel with his father,
George IL, that was only to end with his life, had already
begun, and who was anxious to secure a retreat where
he could receive his political friends away from the
carping criticism of the Court. The new tenant added
considerably to the mansion, and placed the grounds undter
the care of a landscape gardener named Kent, who then
enjoyed no little repute ; but it was not until after the
death of the Prince In 175 1 that the foundations were laid
of the exotic gardens that were to become so famous. The
widowed Princess found consolation for the untimely death
of her husband In watching over the education of her
chUdren and superintending the estate at Kew.
Until the death of his grandfather in 1760 the future
George III. lived with his mother at Kew House In
great seclusion, and many references were made in the
contemporary press and private correspondence to what was
most unjustly called the Princess's injudicious training, for
there can be no doubt that it was she who inspired the
heir-apparent with a real desire to prepare himself for the
important position he was to hold'. The future King, who
from boyhood had shown a marked taste for horticulture,
took the greatest possible interest In all that was being
done at Kew, and was constantly with Sir William
Chambers, to whom the control of the works there had
been given by the Dowager Princess. The Orangery and
other houses for plants, the classic temples such as those
of the Sun, Bellona, Arethusa, Victory and ^olus, the last

KEW AND ITS MEMORIES. 133
rebuilt in 1845, ^^'^ the Chinese Pagoda, were all designed
by the popular architect, and though perhaps not altogether
in character with the beautiful gardens they adorn, are
very typical of the taste of the eighteenth century. They
present, indeed, a striking contrast to the charming Queen's
Cottage, built somewhat later for Queen Charlotte, and
also with the modern Museums that without any special
claim to architectural beauty are thoroughly suitable for
their purpose.
Sir William Chambers was equally successful with his
design for the Observatory, that was erected at the expense
of George III, in the Old Deer Park In 1768 for the
observation of the transit of Venus, which took place
that year. The building was long a centre of successful
astronomical study, but unfortunately the scientific men,
who so long watched from it the movements of the
heavenly bodies, were driven away by the electric trams
running between Brentford and Twickenham, which caused
so much osciUation of the delicate instruments employed,
that their accuracy could no longer be depended on, an
unfortunate result all too typical of the triumph of
commercial enterprise over scientific research. The
Observatory still serves, however, as a Department of the
National Physical Laboratory,
The distinguished botanist WiUiam Alton, author some
years later of the Important "Hortus Kewensis," was
appointed as the colleague of Sir William Chambers in
the Improvements to be made in Kew Gardens, and it
was not long before the wisdom of the choice was proved,
for under his auspices the estate became celebrated
throughout Europe for the successful acclimatisation of
exotic plants, for the cultivation of which new houses
were constantly being erected. On the death of the
Princess Dowager of Wales, her son George III, kept
Mr. Alton on as his chief adviser, and shortly afterwards
bought the freehold of the Kew property from the Capel
family, making the mansion on It his chief country seat.
There he lived like a simple squire, himself superintending

134 KEW.
all the planting that went on, and buying adjacent land
to add to the property. Several acres were purchased in
Mortlake Parish, and a large slice of the Old Deer Park
was appropriated to be converted into grazing land for a
flock of merino sheep, of which the King was very proud
Kew House, which was a very picturesque, half-timbered,
building, soon became too small for its new owner's large
family and ambitious schemes, and shortly before his first
attack of insanity George III, determined to pull it down
and erect in its stead, on another site facing the river
opposite Brentford, a huge palace which, when completed,
would combine the dignity of a mediaeval fortress with the
comforts of a modern home. The plans were prepared by
James Wyatt, and the building was begun, but its walls
had scarcely risen above the foundations, before the King's
mental malady had increased so much that he had to be
put under restraint. Though he recovered for a time, he
lost all interest In his grand scheme, and after his death
George IV., who had never cared much for Kew, had all
trace of the proposed palace removed.
Meanwhile the Dutch House had become as closely
associated with the Royal Family as its neighbour Kew
House, Queen Caroline lived in It for a short time, whilst
she was superintending the works in the grounds of the
Lodge in the Old Deer Park, and In 1871 It was bought
from the then owner. Sir Richard Levett, for Queen
Charlotte, who always preferred It to any other residence,
and turned it to account for the education of her large
family, for which reason It became known as the Royal
Nursery, and later as the Princes' House. There the
Royal children were taught gardening and agriculture by
their father, who, it is said, was specially delighted when
a loaf made of wheat grown by them was put upon the
table, and there, alas! the unfortunate King was more
than once shut up with his attendants when his evil hour
was upon him, his wife and children removing for a time
to Kew House.
In July, 18 1 8, three marriages, those of the Dukes of

KEW AND ITS MEMORIES. 135
Cambridge, Clarence, and Kent, the last the future father
of Queen Victoria, were solemnised in the drawing-room
of the Dutch House, fitted up for the occasion as a chapel,
and in November of the same year Queen Charlotte
passed away In the bedroom which had long been occupied
by her. Since then the building connected with so many
memories has not been used by the Royal Family, and
serves as a Museum of Georgian relics. It remains a
typical example of Dutch seventeenth century domestic
architecture, and also a silent witness to the simple tastes
of the Royal Lady whose home it was for sO' many years.
After the death of George III. till the accession of
Queen Victoria, the estate at Kew was somewhat neglected,
but in 1840 a new era of prosperity and usefulness began
for the gardens, for in that year, after a debate in Parlia
ment, It was decided with the consent of Queen Victoria,
to whom they belonged, that they should be given to the
people as a permanent recreation ground. Since then,
under the able directorship of Sir William Hooker, his
son and successor. Dr. J. D. Hooker, Sir W. Thiselton
Dyer, and other distinguished botanists, the beautiful
estate has been not only a delight to thousands of pleasure
seekers, but also a centre of scientific research. In 1841
the Queen added several acres to the grounds, and a little
later gave up the Royal kitchen garden and the fruit
houses connected with it. In 1846 the imposing gates,
designed by Sir Decimus Burton, were set up at the main
entrance from Kew Green, and as time went on one
attraction after another was added to the gardens, includ
ing the Palm House, and the Winter Garden.
Kew, long a mere hamlet of Kingston, was separated
from It in 1 769, to be united with Petersham, but was later
made a separate parish. The living is in the gift of the
Crown, and the church was dedicated to the Mother of
the Virgin, in memory of Queen Anne, who gave the site
on which it stands. It was consecrated in 17 14, the year
of the accession of George I., and is a fairly good example
of early eighteenth century ecclesiastical architecture, for

136 KEW,
though It has been a good deal altered since its com
pletion, the original style has been followed. The Doric
portico and octagonal Tower have been restored, the
nave widened, and the chancel lengthened, whilst the last
has been supplemented by a mortuary chapel at the
eastern end, in which rest the remains of the Duke of
Cambridge, youngest son of George IIL, and of his wife.
In Kew Church the blind King George of Hanover, who
was bom in a house still standing In Kew Gardens, was
baptised, and there long afterwards the Princess Mary of
Cambridge, who had long resided in the neighbouring
Cambridge Cottage, was married to the Duke of Teck.
The death of the Duchess was mourned in Kew as sincerely
as It was In Richmond, where most of her married life was
spent, and a stained glass window in the chancel of the
church where she worshipped as a girl, commemorates the
esteem in which she was held.
Amongst the noteworthy memorials to the dead in
the church of St. Anne, are monuments to Elizabeth,
Countess of Derby, who was a liberal benefactor of the
poor in Kew and Brentford, and Is burled In Westminster
Abbey, and to the Lady Dorothy Capel, already referred
to in connection with Kew House, and tablets to the
landscape gardener, William Alton, Sir William Hooker,
Francis Bauer, who contributed illustrations to the great
botanist's "Genera Flllcum," the miniature painter,
Jeremiah Meyer, the Bohemian artist, Johann Zoffciny
or Zauffely, who lived at Chiswick In a house still standing
on Strand-on-the-Green, and Thomas Gainsborough, R.A.,
all of whom are buried in the churchyard, the last and
greatest resting beneath a simple stone slab near the south
wall of the church, close, in accordance with his own wish,
expressed In his will, to his beloved friend Joshua Kirby, to
whose patronage he owed much in the early portion of his
career.

INDEX,

Adam, Baron  ii6
Alton, William  133
Aldrldge's Lodge  116
Almshouses  87, g2, g7 — gg
Amelia, Princess  no, 112, 113
Amelia, Queen  8g
Ancaster House and Duke of 67, 87, 88
Anne of Bohemia  6, 7
Anne Boleyn  16, 43, 115
Anne of Cleves  17, iig
Anne, Princess  30
Anne, Queen. ..36, 46, 54, 76, 108, 135
Argyle, Duke of... 47, iii, 121, 123, 126
Artichoke Alley  77
Arran, Earl of  46
Asgill House and Sir Charles, 49' S3. 54. 57
Ashburnham, The Ladies  59
Aston, Sir Roger  23
Aumale, Due d'  89
Austria, Empress of  89
Bailiff's Cottage  117
Barry, Sir Charles  8g
Beaconsfield, Lord  54
Beauclerk, Lady Diana  55, 60
Buccleuch, House and Duke of
57. 58, 59. 126
Bedingfield, Sir Henry  ig
Belet Family  4, 5
Bennet, Richard  131
Berry, The Misses  50, 60 — 62
Beverley Brook  113
Beverley Lodge  81
Bingham House and Lady Anne 57
Binney, Rev. Max  91
Bishop's Lodge  117
Black Prince  6
Blue Anchor, The  57
Bodley, George F  91
Bog Lodge  117
Boscawen, Hon. Frances  loi
Boulger, Professor and Mrs  82
Bowater, Sir Edward  116
Bradley, James  132
Brewer's Lane  76
Bridge, Richmond ... 56, 62 — 64, 97

Bridge House and Street  57, 63
Brooke, Lord  no
Broughton, Rhoda  87
Brouncker, Lord  44, 40
Brown, Frederick  81
Bruce, Catherine  120
Cabal Ministry  122, 123
Camborne House  56
Cambridge Cottage  136
Cambridge, Duchess of  54
Cambridge, Duke of... 35, 100, 112, 135
Cambris, Viscountess de  95
Campbell, Lady Catherine  126
Campbell, Sir Henry  no
Capel, Sir Henry  131
Cardigan House, and Earl of 58. 79. 85
Carew, Sir George  16
Carlisle, Earl of  61
Caroline, Queen  113, 126, 134
Caroline of Anspack ... 36, 37, 46, 47
Carrington Lodge  81
Castle Inn ...  71, 78, 100
Castlemaine, Lady  34
Cattle Gate  117
Cedar Grove  68, 76
Cemetery  97
Cibber, CoUey  80
Chambers, Sir William... 86, 132, 133
Chantry of Sheen  40
Charles I.
27 — 30, 107, 112, 120, 122, 124
Charles II  29, 30, 122
Charlotte, Queen 48, 70, 79, 124, 133—135
Chartres, Duke of  128
Chaucer  6
Chevreuse, Duchesse de  28
Chisholm Road  82, 117
Chitty, Robert  59
Churches and Chapels  96
Richmond Parish Church, 72, 90—96, 99
Petersham Parish Church, 120, 123, 127
St. Andrew's, Ham  128
St. Anne's, Kew  135, 136

138

INDEX,

Churchyard, Richmond  71
Cholmondeley Cottage and Lodge, 49. 54
Cholmondeley, Earl of  54
Cholmondeley House and Walk, 52. 55
Clarence, Duke of  70, 135
Clarence House  81
Clarendon, Earl of  log
Cole, George  124
Conduit Wood  103, 117
Constable  124
Convent of Sion  3g
Cook, Sir Frederick  87
Court Leet  29, 40
Cowper, Lady  53
Darrell, Sir Lionel  87
Dairie House  130
Deans, Jeanie  47, 126
Decker, Sir Matthew  68, 95
Deer's Leap  108
Devonshire Cottage and Lodge, 59, 60, 62
Devonshire, Duchess of  59
Dixey, Frederick  82
Dickens, Charles  126
Dog-Kennel  116
Doomsday Book  3, 118, 128, 129
Doughty House and Elizabeth, 87, 96
Douglas House  124
Douglas, Sir Robert  29
Downe House  87
Downe Terrace  g7
Dudley, Countess of  115
Dunbar, Miss Agnes  82
Dundas, Sir William  56
Duke Street  68, 75
Duppa, Bishop  30, 97
Dutch House  130, 131, 134, 135
Dyer, Sir W. T  135
Dysart Family... 5g, 88, ng — 124, 126
East, William  58, 5g
East Sheen Lodge  82
Eel Pie Island  50, iig
Egerton House  81
Elizabeth, Princess  i6, 30, 112
Elizabeth, Queen ig— 26, 32, 42, 69, 130
EUerker House  79
EUis, Sir J. Whittaker  58, 78
Elm Lodge  126
Edward 1  5
Edward III  5
Edward IV  g, 40
Edward VI  25, 43
Edward VII  114
Errol, Earl of  115

Essex, Earl of  22 — 24
Estreham  128
Evelyn, John  44, 131
Faucit, Helen  72 — 76
Feather's Inn  78
Fellowes, Beatrice  82
Ferry, Richmond  60, 62
Ferry Hill and Inn  63
Fife, Duke of  82
Fitzherbert, Mrs  55, 78
Fitzwilliam House and Lord 68, 6g, gs
Fitzwilliam, Mrs  75
Fletcher, A  72
Frederick, Prince  132
Freeboard  97
Friars, The  49
Friars' House and Lane
„ . „ 38. 49. 52. 54. 56
Friar Stile Road  38, g6, 182
Garrick House, and David, 54, 69, 80
George 1  36, 46, 68, in, 116
George II  36, 46, 113, 131
George III.
48, 67, 70, 86, 96, 112, 117, 132 — 136
George IV  37, 83, log, 134
George Eliot  83 — 85
George Street  77, 78
Gloucester, Duchess of  112, 114
Glover's Island  40, 86
Gorges, Sir Thomas  44
Gothic House  57
Great Paddocks  m
Green, The  3, 10, n, 32, 4g, 54,
66— 6g, 73—76, 83
Greenside  76
Greyhound Inn  ,  78
Grey, Lady Jane  43
Gurdon, John  82
Halford House  81
Ham  107, ng, 126 — 128
Common and Gate
107, 112, 121, 128, 116
House  108, 121— 126
Hanbury, Mrs  82
Harrington, Earl of  124 — 126
Hartleton Lodge  108
Harvey, Sir Daniel  108
Heidegger, John J  76, gs
Henry 1  4, 5, ,g
Henry V.  7, 39, 40, 4g
Henry VIL  10-13, 49. 53. 91
Henry VIII.
13 — 16, 25, 41 — 44, 4g, 115, ng
Henry, Prince  26, 27, 34, ng
Henrietta Maria  27, 28, 34, 120

INDEX.

139

Hereford, Earl of  43
Hertford, Marquis of  56
Heron Court  56
Hesse, Landgravine of  log, 112
Hickey, William  98
High Walk  67
HiU  81, 82
Hill Common  85
Hill Lodge  115
Hill, Richard  54
HiU Street  52, 63
Hobart, Hon. Henry  64
Hofland, Mrs  81, 95
Holderness, Earl of  122
Holinshed's Chronicle  53
Holly Cottage and Lodge  117
Hooker, Sir William  135
Hornbeam Walk  116
Hospital  99, loi
Houblon, The Misses  79, gg
House of Jesus of Bethlehem 16, 38—42, go, 93
Inigo Jones  27
Ivy Hall  57
James IV  n, 41
Jesse, Edward  117
Johnson, Hester  45, g5
Johnson, Charles E  81
Jordan, Dorothy  57, 6g
Katherine of Aragon ... n, 12, 14, 15
Kean, Charles  75
Kean, Edmund  71 — 74, 78, g5
Kent, Duke of  135
Kew  i2g — 136
Gardens  48, i2g, 130
Green  i2g, 130
House  131 — 134
Observatory  131, 133
Palace  130
Kew Foot Road  94
Kew Road  56, g6
King's Standinge  115, 116
King's Street  68, 78
Ladder Style Gate  108
Lancaster House  81
Lansdown House and Marquis of 58
Lass of Richmond HiU  78
Latchmere House  128
Lauderdale, Duchess of  108
Lauderdale, Duke of  120, 122
Leicester, Earl of  17, 23, 44, 130
Levett, Sir Richard  134
Lewes, George  83 — 85
Lewis, John  no, in

Library, Free  66, 68
Lichfield House, and Bishop of... 81
Lisle, Lord  17, 45
Lightfoot, Hannah  136
Little Green  67
Lodge, Sheen ,,,,,, i6, 42, 46 — 4g, 134
Lot Ait  4
Love Lane  48, 67, g6
Maids of Honour Row ,,, 36, 75, 76
Maid of Honour Shop  80
Mallet, David  g4
Man, Henry  43
Manners, Lady Louisa  124
Manor House, Sheen  5, 49
Mansfield, Countess of... 87, 109, 112
Mansion Hotel  59
Marlborough Hotel and Road ... 82
Margaret of Anjou  8
Margaret, Princess  42
Marshgate House  81
Mary, Princess  30, 62, 129
Mary, Queen  18 — 21, 26
Mathews, Charles  70
Maurice, Prior  44
Maximillian of Mexico  8g
Maxwell, Mrs. and Mr  81
Messum, Richard  5g
Mettemich, Prince  54
Michel, John  98
Meadows, General  116
Mole-catchers  114
Monastery of Sheen  40, 41, 45
Montague, Duke of  57
Monuments, Kew Church  136
Petersham Church  127
Richmond Church  92 — 94
Monson, Sir Edmund  116
Montrose, Duchess of, and House 124
Moore, Dr  95
Morgan House  128
Morshead House  87
Mortlake Road  56
Mount Ararat Road  82
Murray, William  119 — 122
Napoleon III  89
Nelson  113
Newcastle, Duke of  no
Nightingale Hall  59
Northampton, Countess of  54
Northumberland House, and
Duchess of  5^
Norton, Sir Gregory  33
Observantist Friary  49, 56, 76
Old Deer Park ... 3, 16, 33, 39, 48,
53. 67. "3. 126, 133, 134

140

INDEX.

Old Friars  4g, 76
Old Lodge  log, 113
Old Palace  54
Old Palace Lane and Terrace, 54, 72
Oliver's Mount  103, 116
Onslow Road  82
Orford, Earl of  log, no
Orford House  128
Ormeley Lodge  128
Ormonde, Duke of  46
Ormond House and Road  81, 80
Osborne, Dorothy  45
Owen, Sir Richard  116
Palace  3, 10 — 37, 66
Palace of Sheen  4 — 10
Paris, Comte de  82
Park  102 — 117
Park Gate Lodge  88
Park Shot  67, 83, 84
Park WaU  108
Patrlcesham  118
Paved Court  68, 76
Pembroke, Countess of  69, 115
Pembroke Lodge and Earl of
gg, 103, log, 114— ii'?
Pembroke Villas  68
Pen Ponds  103, 113
Pest House Common  67, 82
Petersham  go, 118 — 127
Ait  86
Churchyard  61
Common  112
House and Lodge... 124, 125, 126
Meadows  52, sg
Park  in, 112, 124
Road  57, 59. 79
Wood  86, 88
Philip II  ig, 22, 26
Philippa of Hainault  6
Pigeon's Hotel  58, 59
Pole, Cardinal  41
Pope, Alexander  100
Portland, Earl of  108
Pownall, Sir Henry  65
Poverty Court  67
Pretender, The  35
Prince's House  134
Priory, The  38, 44, 46
Puissars, Madame  35
Quadrant  '7
Queensberry, Duchess of  125
Queensberry House and Duke of
49. 55—57
Queen's Cottage  133
Queen's Hotel  87
Queen's Ride  103, 113

Queen's Road ,,, 67, 78, 82, 83, 87, 96
Quin, James  78, 94, 100, loi
Rangership, Park  108 — 112
Rayman's Castle  52, 60
Red Lion Street  77
Registers, Parish  95, 96
Reynolds  86
Richard II  6, 7
Richmond, Earl of  10
Richmond Hill Gate  103, 112
Richmond HiU Lodge  115
Richmond Gardens  86
Richmond Wells  79, 80
Robin Hood Gate  m
Robsart, Amy  17, 44, 130
Rochester, Earl of  log
Roebuck Inn  87
Roehampton Gate  m
Rosedale Cottage  g4, 100, loi
Ross, Sir Patrick  6g
Roxburgh, Countess of  30
Royal Hotel  56
Rugge-Price, Sir Arthur  g6
Russell, Earl and Countess 66, 99, 115, 124
Rutland House, and Duchess of
no, 124
Sawyer's Cottage  117
Seymour, Lady Anne  17
Scott, Sir Walter  47, 116, 123
Scrope, Lady  25
Shaftesbury, Earl of  loi
Sheen  2 — g, 41 — 4g, ng, i2g
Commou and Gate 82, 107, 103, 116
House and Lane  81, 82
Lodge  116
Road  81-83, q8
Sheridan  87
Shrew Ash  103
Siddons, Mrs  70
Sidmouth, Lord  112 — 114, 117
Sidmouth Wood  103, 112, 115
Sion House  30, 105
Somerset, Duke of  17, 26, 43
Spanker's Hill Wood  log
Stael, Madame de  57
Stage Coach Office  77
Star and Garter Hotel, 60, 88, 8g, 112
St. Helena's Terrace  4g, 56
Stone Lodge  113
Streatham Lodge  81
Stuart, Sir Charies  116
Sudbrook Park  126
Suffolk, Duke of  43, i2g
Sullivan, Lady  54
Swift  45, 46

INDEX.

141

Talbot Hotel  63
Taylor, Sir Robert  53, 57
Teck, Duke and Duchess of
58, 89, 100, 114, 136
Temple, Sir WiUiam  44 — 46
Terrace, The 57, 58, 67, 73, 78, 85—88
Field and Gardens ... 58, 66, 85
House  87
Walk  103, 114
Thackeray  82
Thatched Lodge  log, 116
Theatre  6g^ — 75
Theatre, Old  7g
Thomson ,,, g4, 95, 100, loi, 103, 105
Tollemache Family  120, 123
Tontine System  64
Town Hall  78
Treves, Sir Frederick  116
Trumpeting House  54
Tudor House, Lodge and Place,,, 76
Turner, Dr  131
Tuttiett, Miss  82
Vavasour, Sir Thomas  112, 122
Vicarage  66, 67
Victoria, Queen,.. 37, 57, 89, 114, 135
Villiers, George  27 — 29
Villiers, Sir Edward  35
Vineyard  87, 95, g6

Waechter, Sir Max  86, 87, 125
Walpole, Horace 55, 60, 80, log, 113, 124
Warde, Mrs  124
Wardrobe Court  32, 54
Warwick, Earl of  g, 10, 55
Watch House  77
Water Lane  52, 63, 78, 80
Watermen  59
Waterside  56
Well House  79
Wesleyan College  96
West Heath  128
Whiteash Lodge  117
White Cross Inn  49, 56
White Lodge  103, 114, 126
Wick, The  78, 86
Wick House  59, 86
Wilderness Club  59
Winyard Island  4
WiUiam IV  55, 57, 66, 103, 117
Wolsey, Cardinal  15, 16, 25, 42
Woodville, Elizabeth  g, 40
Workhouse  g7
Worcester, Earl of  i2g
Wyatt, James  134
York, Duchess of  114
York, Duke of  32, 56

M

YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

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