The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1825-10-18 00:00:00

IIiPIiOr.C.I4,AITS AT lIYDE PAW( COBAV:Il.
Some of our contemporaries have of late taken, a good deal
of pains to create public dissatisfaction at the improvements
made or projected in Hyde-parl:; and we must say that
their representations, or rather their waisrerresettations,
Feely] tobe maliciously intended to excite a suspicion that
the Duke of Wellington is, somehow, to be accommodated
with something savouring of a job, at the expense of the
public. -..-a jevo
We have as hesitation in saying, that if the Duke-of
Weliingtoiris Own residence could he in any way row-
demi more agreeable or commodious by the addition of
I a few feet of gardyn, wo believe the public, if it had a voice
I on the motor, would cheerfully see any such compliment
paid to a person Who hai carried the glom y of the British
people higher than any Man wlio ever lived. We are still
the same nation which saw viisio-pleasure two acres of St.
Jamas garden granted to the I)uke of Marlborough, and
.we would not grudge a few yards of Hvde-perk to one
whose public services exceed Marlhomugh's in the same
proportion that Duonapatte's terrors exceeded those of

I, Ire the• universal
we think we may
ion of these male-
'l ellington if Ow°.

•
park, from Ken-
wilco to Tyburn,
Cnightsbridge, in
'park, procettl on
on no other prin-
blic convenience ;
Ni of the Duke of
d possibly enter_
en, the splendour
ht to have been,
ed to • but it so

)iappeno,'as must be plain to every eye, that he can have
had nothing to do with.the matter; and thatif eventually
his house should be in auy respect improved by the in-
teuded alte:ations, it' will' be the natural consequence of
improvements, sihich his Grace will enjoy in edinmon with
the public, and not greater than hundreds of other pro-.
priemra will derive from the same general system of orna-
mental alteration.
The inconvenient and dangerous turn, out of the south
west corner of Hydr Park, into the street of' Kensingten,
has been levelled, widened, and otherwise improved. ‘Vas
thettlone to accommodate the Duke of Wellington ? The
turf of the whole park has been levelled and re-laid, the
roads and rides macadaruizcd, and the walks gravelled and
.fenced.
.Was this done to accommodate the Duke of
Wellington? A new bridge is erecting over the Serpen-
tine, awdia new road and foot-path made round the upper
pas. of,the Vail,. called litiekden-hill. Is this done to
• acipmitiodete.the Duke of Wellington ? The entrances at
Cumberland-gate hav'e bcen widerickl; and the whole road
Prom Oicfbrd-street to Pitcaitilly has been improved ; new
4ppivaciin have been made opposite Grosvenor and Stan-
hope street% and lodges of great architectural beauty have
been ereatcd iu these Nista.. Have all these things been
done to accommodate the Duke of Wellington ? A dead
wall Furl-Minded the Park (excel-it where it was bounded by
the Duke's railing) f this dead wall is gradually vanishing
frorp our offendsti-nyas,.and a railieg, similar to that al-
ready erected near Apsley house, is in the progress of
substitution.; and the filthy r.ooks and corners on every
aide are in coiirte'bf • receiving the ornaments of plant-
ing and dressing, which will make what hitherto have
been nuisances:. the most sightly parts of the whole Park.
Has this been llont for the Duke of Wellington's accom-
modation ?

At last, the progress of the general design approaches
the. spot where the Duke's houses happens to stand ;
awd then, immediately, an eatery is raised that his
('.taw's influence is misused to pilfer twenty feet of
H,sde -Park from the public, and hypocritical appeals are
'Made to his Grace's competition. not to dismember the
Park. •
Now, any of our readers, who will take the trouble of
looking at the ground, will see that the removal of the
road a few fed westward of its present course is the ine-
vitable cons: quence of local circumstances—of the dime-
tion.of the streets and roads in the neighbourhood—of the
position of the statue—and of the opposite entrance to the
Green Park. All these various circumstances mark nut the
intended line of road so clearly, that it is evident, if Aps-
ley House were a tradesman's shop, the same line must,
of necessity, have been adopted.
The removal of the lodges and tall gates at Hyde Park-
corner has brought Grosvenor-place, as it were, into town ;
and it became desirable, if not necessary, that one entrance
at least of Hyde Park should correspond with this great
avenue. It was also evident, that the entrance of the
Green Park should have a corresponding opening into Hyde
Park ; and it 'so happens, that the statue of Achilles, as it
is called, was placed exactly in the centre, between these
tatlif avenue's. These circumstances determine the povition
of `the new gates, and, as it will be admitted that the Doke
of Wellington had nothing to do with the building of
Grosvenor-pace, the line of which has decided the matter
in question; it follows that his Grace can, on the one hand,
claim no merit, and on the other, ought to suffer no impu-
tation on account of the new alignment intended.
We pretend to no official information on the matter—we
really have none—but we have eyes, and, we hope, some
degree of common sense, and we defy any man who has
either, to look at the entire design of the improvements in
the ..Park, and of the local circumstances at Hyde Park-
korner. without seeing that a regular and well arranged
iletem of ornamental improvement has been in progress,
And that the natural course and direction of the public
grits and roads, and considerations of public convenience,
life the causes, and the only causes, of the intended altera-
tion! at Hyde Park-corner, just as they•have been of those
made in every other entrance istto that Park.
Tbak tb,e Dtdce's house may be rendereel more agreeable
by the removal (even for so short a distance as fifteen or
Went* *et) of the public road, we not only do net deny,•
ffilts,
I.lk rejoice at it, and this not nerdy on his Grace's ac-
hut • on our own, as a part of the publio, who feel,
* will enjoy, the additional beauty which will he con-
'retied on the Park, by soaking dressed ground of a corner,
wh:elt would otherwisl become what tit Impervious corners
are, 'and must he, an unsightly and fetid nuisance. Does
any one complain of those strips of dressed ground which
ornament the Green Perk, in front of the houses of Lord
Camden. Lord Salisbury, Lord Sefton, Lord Guilford, Sir
Francis Burdett, Lord Spencer, and Mr. Lambton ? Cer-
tainly not. They ornament the houses of these Gentlemen,
who have formed, and keep them in order at a considerable
cost, but they are still a greater ornament to the public
walk.
Have we ever heard any complaints against the permis-
sion given to Lord Coventry to occupy and adorn that part
of the Green Park opposite his mansion on the other side
of Piccadilly? Quite the reverse. Every one sees that it
is the most beautiful part of the whole park, and it would
be very desirable either that the Government itself should
imitate his Lordship's example, or that Lord Hertford,
Lord Cholmondeley, Mr. Baring, the Duke of Devon-
shire, and•other proprietors of houses in Piccadilly, would
be so !public 'spirited as to solicit pennirsion from the
Crown,to continue, all alone the line of Piccadilly, an or-
namental garden like that of Lord Coventry.
Let us not be misunderstood. Against ale grant of an
inch of the park for building, or indeed for any
whatsoever, but ornament to the parks themselves, we
test isalouelly at any one can do, and we are satisfied that
.the Sovereign (whose taste in all the arts—even those who
do not approve his taste in Ministers, acknowledge) will ne- 1
vcr permit shy improper encroachment onthe Parks, which
are so important to the beauty and health of his own resi-
dences, and what lie must value still more, to those of his
capital. The early part of his Majesty's administration
was splendid in military glory; the subsequent years have
been marked by improvements to all our iotenal ciressm-
statism end by .a more decitied patronage of the Fine Arta,
the adorning of the. capital, and all the caber pursuits