AGRICULTURE AND GARDENING.
Fifty years ago the greater portion of Kensington and Paddington was under cultivation for corn, market gardening, nurseries and grass land.
It would appear from ancient records that in past time the temperature of England must have been much higher than at present, for we read of vineyards and of wine being produced in very large quantities. Of those vineyards, especially about Brompton, there are many records.
“Bewick” writes of a spot of ground called Brompton Park as being famed all over the kingdom for the growth of plants, and adds the stock is so large that if reckoned only at a penny each plant the whole value would be above £40,000.
PADDINGTON in the time of Edgar was given to the monks of Westminster at the cost of two hides of land. As the value of a hide of land in Henry the First’s time was 3/-, the monks had a good bargain.
The name is of doubtful derivation, Pad may mean a path or a robber. It may also mean a saddle. The place may have been infested by robbers, or it may have been a place where travellers stopped to bait their horses and “re-padded.”
Pope Nicolas IV. gave the whole proceeds of the manor of Paddington to the poor.
This manor at the reformation passed into the hands of the Established Church. Much as I value the Reformation I cannot pass on without asking what the people to whom this manor of Paddington was given have done for the poor. If the poor had that which others have taken from them we should not have the sad spectacle of old couples driven into a workhouse in which no provision is made for them to end their days together. Married by a church which says “What God has joined together let no man put asunder.” That very church has become possessed of the means which would have enabled them to end their days in peace and comfort.
In Henry the Eighth’s time the manor of Paddington was valued at £41 16s. 8d. Edward the Sixth granted the manor and rectory to Bishop Ridley, then Bishop of London, and to his heirs and successors.
KENSINGTON church lands were also very extensive, as much property was given in the reign of Henry the First to the monastery of Abingdon. St. Mary Abbot’s district of Kensington will indicate the ground which was thus handed over to the abbots.
In 1527 a curate of Kensington (Sebastian Harris) was charged with having in his possession a New Testament and a Lutheran book.
He was ordered to leave Kensington within 2 days and not to return within 4 miles of the place for 2 years.
Tyndale’s New Testament was published 1525.
In 1612, in the reign of James I., the Archdeacon and other officials of churches were commanded to make answer to certain questions which threw some light upon the condition of the church and people of Kensington. From those answers I gather—
1. That all the parishioners receive Communion at Easter.
2. That the ministers are very careful about baptizing children at the font.
3. There is no stranger preacher, only men of worth.
4. That they intend to have a new Bible shortly.
5. That two poor men teach the children—sometimes they have a few, sometimes none. They are men of honest behaviour and sound of religion.
6. That there was a woman—Alice Maybanke—who did not go to church, but frequented an ale house.
7. That certain strangers were excommunicated for not attending Communion at Easter.
8. Also one honest man, who had been tried by the Archdeacon, and not satisfying him, he, the honest man, was excommunicated.
Non-Communicants, none. Communicants (both sexes), 400.
As the authorized version of the Bible was printed in 1611 it is probable the churchwardens wished to substitute that for the Bishops’ Bible which was published 1568.
And as James I. had stated that “he would make all men conform or harry them out of the land, or else worse,” perhaps the strangers and honest man were Baptists, Independents, or Puritans.
A happier time, however, came with William III.
The old church, which was taken down a few years since, was built in 1696, King William III. giving £300 and Princess Ann £100 towards the cost, the whole charge of which was £1,800.
In 1811 it was repaired and improved at a cost to the ratepayers of £3,000.
The first organ cost £500.
Some financial extracts from the old parish books may be interesting and amusing—
Kensington was not at all a noted place until William III. ennobled it with his court and residence.
Noel House, Kensington Goar, was built 1804.
Kensington House about William Third’s time.
Kensington Square in James Second’s reign, 1698.
Church Street probably took its name from the church at the end, or from the house called Church House, which was occupied by the “poore of the sufferance.”
Camden House was built by Sir Baptist Hickes, who possessed considerable property in the parish in 1612.
Phillamore Place was built 1787, and in 1811 David Wilkie, Esq., R.A., resided here. His works the “Blind Fiddler,” “Rent Day,” “Village Holiday,” &c., will be remembered by all.
Sir Isaac Newton, who by the way was never married, lived on Camden Hill. Here he died, March 20th, 1726–7, at the age of 84.
His nephew wrote of him. “His whole life was one continued series of labour, patience, charity, generosity, temperance, piety, goodness and all other virtues without any mixture of vice whatever.”
The Royal Palace of Kensington is situated in the parish of St. Margaret’s, Westminster.
The original mansion was built by a person named Finch, one of whose descendants was promoted to the Peerage. The house was then called Nottingham House.
The 2nd Earl of Nottingham sold it to King William III., 1691, for 18,000 guineas, and here, December 28, 1694, Queen Mary died of small pox.
William, who was much attached to this palace, divided his time between Hampton Court and Kensington.
In the month of February, 1702, he was thrown from his horse and brought back to Kensington, where he died March 8, 1702, in the 52nd year of his age.
Queen Ann and Prince George of Denmark were the next inhabitants of the palace. The Queen died here August 1, 1714.
In the reign of George I. the palace was much altered and improved. George II. died in this palace 25th October, 1760, aged 77.
The State Apartments were not occupied afterwards.
The lower apartments, in the south-east portion of the palace, were for some years occupied by the late Duke and Duchess of Kent, and on the 24th May, 1819, an infant princess was born here, who is now our beloved
QUEEN VICTORIA.
Kensington Gardens.—“Bewick” writes, 1705: “Whatever is deficient in the house is made up in the gardens. There is a noble collection of foreign plants—every inch is well improved—the whole, with the house, not being above 26 acres. Her Majesty (Queen Ann) has been pleased to add near 30 acres more toward the north. Upon this spot nearly 100 men work daily.”
In George Second’s reign Queen Caroline threw a string of ponds in Hyde Park into one, so as to form what is called the Serpentine River.
Her Majesty also added 300 acres from Hyde Park.
At this time the gardens were only opened on Saturday, whilst His Majesty and Court went to Richmond, and company appeared only in full dress on this day.
Hyde Park was originally Hyde Farm, and belonged to the Monastery of Westminster. At the Reformation it became vested in the Crown.
During the Commonwealth the Park was sold in 3 lots. 112 acres on Bayswater side were bought by Richard Wilcox for £4,141, and John Tracey bought 177 acres on the Kensington side for £3,906 7s. 6d.
Anthony Deane, of St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields, bought Tyburn Meadow, a banqueting house at Park Corner, Bayard’s watering, a fortification, a barn and stable, and land down to Park Corner, for £9,020 8s. 2d.
The fortification was opposite St. George’s Hospital, and another was in Mount Street, Park Lane.
These fortifications were hurriedly put up by the inhabitants to prevent the royalist army reaching London.
Hudibras writes:
“Marched rank and file, with drum and ensign.
T’entrench the city for defence in;
Raised rampiers with their own soft hands,
To put the enemy to stands.“From ladies down to oyster wenches
Laboured like pioneers in trenches,
Fal’n to their pick axes and tools,
And helped the men to dig like moles.”