io s. x. AUG. 22, iocs.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
143
was " at the further end of the said Park,
extending from Kensington highway to
Uxbridge way," and it was " bounded on
the west by the landof Sir Heneage Finch."
Further, the orchard was to be enclosed,
" where not already enclosed with the late
wall made by Sir Heneage Finch," by a brick
wall eight feet high above the ground, which
it may fairly be assumed was the height of
the Finch wall ;* it was taken down, I think,
by George I.
In 1689 the delicate Dutch King, Wil- liam III., seeking purer air and better rest than was to be had at Whitehall, bought the Finch mansion and the land pertaining from Daniel Finch, second Earl of Notting- ham, son of the first Earl, the above Sir Heneage. As the purchase papers are not found, we are ignorant of the particulars. The land probably included the 50 acres above calculated, and the whole " quadri- lateral " of 67 acres appears to have been afterwards gradually acquired by the King or by Queen Anne. The old house was then transformed, and how much of it was left on the north side is now difficult to trace. Adjoining the lower portion (old, or in harmony with the old building) of the south front rose, under the hands of Wren, a singularly disproportionate but stately building, destined to contain royal galleries and apartments. And besides extensive building, much was done in the way of gardening, for both William and Mary loved the pursuit. In the first edition of Kip's engraving, though the picture was made in Queen Anne's, time, is probably seen the southern expanse as laid out in the King's Dutch style, f
Queen Anne is also credited with the love of gardening, and under the guidance of the famous Mr. Wise did much both at Kensington and Windsor. Indeed, garden- ing was the rage then and during the cen- tury; and as gardeners differed like other professionals, we find in the later edition of the engraving above mentioned that the gardens in front of the Palace had beer considerably altered ; the Dutch design " stuffed thick with box " (Switzer), had been exterminated by Wise, whose superior achievement was destined to be swept awaj by Bridgeman, under Queen Caroline Bowack (1705) on Queen Anne's gardens if
- See State Papers, Domestic, 23 April, 1664, and
Patent Rolls, 12 April, 1666. At the latter date th grant was renewed in almost similar terms, but th orchard scheme does not seem to have been carriec out.
t Brit. Mus. K. xxviii. 10, d. 2 and e. 1.
>ften quoted, though mainly as evidence
o their small extent. He admires " the
loble collection of foreign plants, and the
fine neat greens which make it pleasant all
,he year " ; and he is charmed with the
rugal disposal of the space, " the whole,
vith the house, not be^ng above 26 acres."
That area, however, seems to refer only to
- he pleasure-grounds close to the house,
'or he then adds : " Her Majesty has been pleased lately to plant near 30 acres more towards the north, separated from the rest )y a stately greenhouse, not yet finished," an interesting reference to Wren's handsome greenhouse or orangery. The Queen and Mr. Wise in the north ground got among
- he old gravel-pits, and worked wonders
in the contrivance of woody " wildernesses," and especially in the transformation of a great gravel-pit too large to be obliterated 3y filling up into a spacious sunken pleasance. This, in its day quite a famous achievement, even won the admiration of the sedate and polished Mr. Joseph Addison, expressed in The Spectator, No. 477.*
But Queen Anne did not restrict her operations to the space which King William had bought. She crossed the wall built by Sir Heneage Finch, and took from Hyde Park a large piece of ground to form a pad- dock for " fine deer from Windsor and ante- lopes." " The Paddock," at first perhaps a comparatively small enclosure, seems to have become the name for the whole exten- sion of ground down to the West Bourne, which stream, when dammed up, widened, and shaped, was called " the Canal." It is evident from Kip's engraving that the Broad Walk was made by the Queen, but from the accounts which exist the full extent of the work done cannot be clearly gathered ; the Canal, however, has mention. And the fact is clear that if encroachment were made on Hyde Park, it as well as the Palace Gardens being royal property, Queen Anne was the first sovereign to encroach. A Report of 1713 in the Treasury Papers stated that " the Paddock joining to the Gardens was taken from Hyde Park in 1705 " ; and in the same year the Ranger claimed com-
?ensation for loss of herbage of " near 00 acres of ground enclosed from the Park by Kensington."
It is curious that George I., the chief
appropriator of Hyde Park for the purpose
of forming his Kensington Palace domain,
should generally have escaped the indict-
- The outline of the converted gravel-pit is yet
easily traced in the pasture-field beyond the present west limit of Kensington Gardens.
