The springs in Hyde Park—Used as water supply for Westminster—Horses in the Park—The Westbourne—Making the Serpentine—The “Naumachia” thereon—Satires about it—The Jubilee Fair.
Hyde Park has several springs of water, one of which was said to have been slightly mineral. The one shown in this illustration still exists, and the author of “The Morning Walk” thus eulogizes one:—
“But let my footsteps first pursue their course
To yon clear fountain, hid in shady grove,
And quaff the clear salubrious crystal brook,
Emblem of purity! when innocence
Partakes, and all the wakened sense restores.
O blessed Jordan! at thy limpid stream,
Gladly I mingle with the cheerful throng,
And drink the cup, and then renew my walk,
With strengthen’d nerves, down the delightful shade.”
Some of these springs were utilized for the supply of water outside the Park—but the larger quantity came from the Westbourne. Still, in 1620, the Dean and Chapter of Westminster had permission given them to use the water of four springs in Hyde Park for their benefit, and letters patent were granted to “Thomas Day, Gent. of Chelsea, to enable him to take the water from Hyde Park to the City of Westminster.” This, I take it, meant to utilize the Westbourne, as the Dean and Chapter had the springs: but both their privileges were annulled by the King’s Bench, as it was alleged that the ponds in the Park were, by these means, so drained that there was not enough water left for the wants of the King’s deer.
In the time of James I. there were eleven pools in the Park, and a glance at Roque’s map of 1747 will show that many were then still remaining; indeed, in the accompanying illustration of the Bathing House in 1794, we see a horse drinking at one of them. By this, we see that horses were turned out to grass in the Park. In 1751, grooms used to exercise their horses there, as did also a riding master named Faubert.
“See, too, the jolly courser, with his groom,
Expert, not like to him who Persia’s crown
Obtained, yet skill’d with upright crest and arm,
Compacted knee, to give the rein and bitt
Their motion due, his flight retarding not.
—— Next Faubert view with graces of menage,
And troops of horse in strictest motion wheel.”
From the heights of Hampstead spring several small streams, such as the Fleet, the Brent, and the West Bourne, probably so called to distinguish it from St. Mary le bourne, which was further east. Roque’s map shows its position with regard to the Serpentine, but, before that misnamed lake was made, it ran right through the Park from north to south, leaving the Park about Albert Gate, where was a bridge, from which Knightsbridge takes its name. Then it flowed by what are now William Street, Lowndes Square, and Chesham Street, falling into the Thames near Ranelagh.
Queen Caroline, wife to George II., conceived the idea of utilizing this little stream, and making it into a lake, and, as it was supposed that she was
