1750 Views FROM the Garden Terrace at Somerset House

Canaletto (Italian artist, 1697-1768) The Thames from the Terrace of Somerset House Looking toward Westminister c.1750-51

Canaletto (Italian artist, 1697-1768)  The Thames from Somerset House Terrace towards the City c.1750-51

Attributed to Thomas Priest (1740-1770) A View of the Thames looking upstream from the Terrace of Somerset House c.1750s

The original Somerset House was built by Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset (1506-1552), the Lord Protector of the boy king Edward VI. In order to have the ideal place to build his new home, it is reported that he had the Inns, as they were called, of the Bishops of Coventry, Lichfield, Chester, Worcester & Llandaff, as well as the old parish church of St Mary’s, raised to the ground "without any recompense," so as to create a flat space to build his new palace. The architect chosed for its design was John of Padua who was responsible for Longleat & who, under Henry VIII, held the post of "Devizer of His Majesty’s Buildings." 

Upon the Duke's untimely death, Somerset’s palace reverted to the Crown & was used as a royal palace by Elizabeth I, James I’s wife Anne of Denmark & the neglected wife of Charles II, Catherine of Braganza. Later it came to be a residence of dowager queens or temporary residences of foreign princes or ambassadors. All these different occupants made alterations both in & outside the main building. 

By 1706, there were extensive terraced gardens facing the Thames with stairs at each end. The gardens were laid out in the square with avenues of trees & gravel paths. Alexander Pope wrote of them: “Grove nods to grove, each alley has its brother, & half the garden just reflects the other.” Along the river there was a raised terrace & a heavy low wall.

A few yards upstream from Somerset House was York Water Gate & Water Tower. The former, built in 1626, was all that remained after the demolition of York House by its owner, George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham a few years after the Restoration. The Gate originally led down to the river but since the building of the Embankment in the 1860s, 150 yards from the river. The Water Tower was close by the Gate & constructed between 1690 & 1695 from wood & its purpose was supplying the Strand & its neighborhood with water from the Thames. It was an octagonal structure, about 70' high & was illuminated within by small loopholes in its sides. It was still standing in the 1780s. The York Buildings Waterworks Company building with its chimneys was adjacent, Samuel Pepys’s house was just behind it & the Salt Office was in close by. Further upstream, on the north side of the river was the Banqueting House, Westminster House, Westminster Hall, the two towers of the Church of St John the Evangelist & then Westminster Bridge which had been completed on 25th October 1746.

Garden & Grounds to attract a Queen - Kenilworth Castle in Warwickshire

Kenilworth Castle dated 1620 by Unknown Artist

David Wilkes for the Daily Mail, London, 4 September 2014

Kenilworth Castle in Warwickshire was "Built to woo the Virgin Queen... There is no doubt the views from the top of the 100ft tower, which boasts what were then the biggest glass windows in a secular building in Tudor England, are impressive enough to make you go weak at the knees.

"Whether they also made Queen Elizabeth I swoon into the arms of her favourite Robert Dudley in the spectacular quarters he created for her exclusive use at Kenilworth Castle in Warwickshire remains a mystery as intriguing as the rest of their relationship.

"There was, believes the Head Curator at the castle, Dr. Jeremy Ashbee, an antechamber between the two sets of rooms where Dudley, the handsome and flamboyant Earl of Leicester, could well have ‘lurked’ until Elizabeth was free of other company before popping in to see her alone. From there it is just a few short steps into the regal boudoir, where no one was normally allowed except the Queen and her ladies in waiting.

"We do not know whether their relationship was ever physical,’ said Dr Ashbee. ‘But they had known each since childhood, shared passions for riding and dancing, and it was no secret in Court circles that he was a suitor for the queen’s hand in marriage. Indeed, Dudley built the tower expressly to win her hand...’

"Their relationship - portrayed by Cate Blanchett and Joseph Fiennes in the 1998 film Elizabeth - was much talked about after Dudley’s first wife Amy broke her neck and died after apparently falling down the stairs at Cumnor Place, Berkshire, in 1560.

"Debate raged over whether Dudley had got rid of her as an obstacle to his relationship with the monarch. Dudley, who was also the Master of the Horse, overseeing all the queen’s equestrian needs for travel and hunting, was granted Kenilworth Castle by Elizabeth I in 1563.

"At a cost equivalent to tens of millions of pounds in today’s money, he began building the tower for her there in 1570. Elizabeth stayed at the castle 4 times during her summer ‘progresses’ away from London. Her last visit in 1575 caused particularly intense speculation about their relationship as she stayed for 19 days from July 9 to 27 - the longest she ever stayed at any courtier’s house.

"Dr Ashbee said: ‘We know from documentary evidence when the tower was built was right in the middle of the period when Dudley was getting her to come there. People referred to it as ‘the Queen’s lodge.' ‘She was 41 and he 42 during the 1575 visit and it has long been thought this was his last throw of the dice to get her to marry him. He even commissioned portraits of the queen and himself specifically for that visit, which might have been intended to hang in the dancing chamber above her bedroom.,,’

"Dudley failed, however, to win the queen’s hand, his chances having probably not been helped by him fathering an illegitimate son by Lady Sheffield in 1574. Elizabeth never returned to Kenilworth and he married Lettice Knollys, Countess of Essex, in 1578.

"But the queen evidently retained an affection for him and kept a letter he wrote to her shortly before his death in 1588. Its contents were mere pleasantries, but she wrote on the back ‘His last letter’ and kept it in a casket of treasured possessions by her bed until her death in 1603."

1575 Letter describing the Gardens at Kenilworth Castle during Queen Elizabeth's visit

Kenilworth Castle from the south in 1649, adapted from the engraving by Wenceslaus Hollar (European-born English artist, 1607-1677) 

Kenilworth Castle is located in Warwickshire, England. Constructed from Norman through Tudor times, Kenilworth was the subject of the 6-month-long Siege of Kenilworth in 1266. The 16C Earl of Leicester expanded the castle, constructing new Tudor buildings & exploiting the medieval heritage of Kenilworth to produce a fashionable Renaissance palace. Kenilworth was the scene of the Earl of Leicester's lavish reception of Elizabeth I in 1575.

Robert, Earl of Leicester hoped to ensure that Kenilworth would attract the interest of Elizabeth during her regular tours around the country. Leicester's work was apparent during the queen's last visit in 1575. Leicester was keen to impress Elizabeth in a final attempt to convince her to marry him, & no expense was spared. Elizabeth brought an entourage of 31 barons & 400 staff for the royal visit that lasted an exceptional 19 days; 20 horsemen a day arrived at the castle to communicate royal messages. Leicester entertained the Queen & much of the neighboring region with pageants, fireworks, bear baiting, mystery plays, hunting & lavish banquets. The event was considered a huge success & formed the longest stay at such a property during any of Elizabeth's tours, yet the queen did not decide to marry Leicester.

One of the participants in the festivities wrote a letter to a friend during the Queen's visit. "A letter wherein part of the entertainment unto the Queen's Majesty at Killingworth Castle in Warwickshire in this summer's progress, 1575, is signified;" the author (probably Robert Langham) provides a detailed description of the castle's gardens:  "Unto my good friend, Master Humfrey Martin, Mercer...

"Unto this, his Honour's exquisite appointment of a beautiful garden, an acre or more of quantity, that lieth on the north there. Wherein hard all along the castle wall is reared a pleasant terrace of a ten foot high & a twelve broad, even underfoot & fresh of fine grass, as is also the side thereof toward the garden, in which, by sundry equal distances, with obelisks, spheres & white bears all of stone upon their curious bases by good show were set; to these, two fine arbours redolent by sweet trees & flowers, at each end one. The garden plot under that with fair alleys green by grass, even voided from the borders a both sides & some (for change) with sand, not light or too soft, or soily by dust, but smooth & firm, pleasant to walk on as a sea-shore when the water is avaled. Then, much gracified by due proportion of 4 even quarters, in the midst of each upon a base a 2 foot square & high, seemly bordered of itself, a square pilaster rising pyramidally of a 15 foot high, symmetrically pierced through from a foot beneath until a 2 foot from the top, whereupon, for a capital, an orb of a 10 inches thick; every of these (with his base) from the ground to the top of one whole piece, hewn out of hard porphyry & with great art & heed (thinks me) thither conveyed & there erected.

"Where further also by great cast & cost the sweetness of savour on all sides, made so respirant from the redolent plants & fragrant herbs & flowers, in form, colour & quantity so deliciously variant, & fruit-trees bedecked with their apples, pears & ripe cherries...

"In the centre (as it were) of this goodly garden was there placed a very fair fountain, cast into an 8-square, reared a 4 foot high, from the midst whereof a column up set in shape of 2 atlantes joined together a back-half, the tone looking east, tother west, with their hands upholding a fair-formed bowl of a 3 foot over, from whence sundry fine pipes did lively distil continual streams into the receipt of the fountain, maintained still 2 foot deep by the same fresh-falling water, wherein pleasantly playing to & fro & round about carp, tench, bream & -- for variety -- perch & eel, fish fair-liking all & large. In the top, the ragged staff which, with the bowl, the pillar, & 8 sides beneath were all hewn out of rich & hard white marble. A one side, Neptune with his tridental fuskin triumphing in his throne, trailed into the deep by his marine horses. On another, Thetis in her chariot drawn by her dolphins. Then Triton by his fishes. Here Proteus herding his sea-bulls. There Doris & her daughters solacing a sea & sands. The waves surging with froth & foam, intermingled in place with whales, whirlpools, sturgeons, tunnys, conches & whelks, all engraven by exquisite device & skill, so as I may think this not much inferior unto Phoebus' gates which (Ovid says) -- & peradventure a pattern to this -- that Vulcan himself did cut, whereof such was the excellency of art that the work in value surmounted the stuff, & yet were the gates all of clean massy silver. Here were things, ye see, might inflame any mind to long after looking, but whoso was found so hot in desire, with the wrest of a cock was sure of a cooler, water spurting upward with such vehemency as they should by & by be moistened from top to toe. The hes to some laughing, but the shes to more sport. This sometime was occupied to very good pastime.

"A garden then so appointed as wherein aloft upon sweet-shadowed walk of terrace in heat of summer to feel the pleasant whisking wind above or delectable coolness of the fountain spring beneath; to taste of delicious strawberries, cherries & other fruits even from their stalks; to smell such fragrancy of sweet odors breathing from the plants, herbs & flowers; to hear such natural melodious music & tunes of birds. To have in eye, for mirth sometime these underspringing streams; then, the woods, the waters (for both pool & chase were hard at hand in sight), the deer, the people (that out of the east arbour, in the base-court, also at hand in view), the fruit-trees, the plants, the herbs, the flowers, the change in colors, the birds flittering, the fountain streaming, the fish swimming, all in such delectable variety, order & dignity whereby at one moment, in one place, at hand without travel, to have so full fruition of so many God's blessings, by entire delight unto all senses -- if all can take -- at once; for etymon of the word worthy to be called paradise, & though not so goodly as Paradise for want of the fair rivers, yet better a great deal by the lack of so unhappy a tree. Argument most certain of a right noble mind, that in this sort could have thus all contrived." 

A Little British Hunting History in Gameparks & the Wild

In Britain, hunting with hounds was popular in Celtic Britain, before the Romans arrived, using the Agassaei breed. The use of running hounds to track prey dates back to ancient times. When the  Romans brought their dogs to Britain in the 1st century, Britons were already hunting with Agassaei hounds.

1603 Robert Peake the Elder (c. 1551–1619) Henry Frederick (1594–1612), Prince of Wales, and Sir John Harington (1592–1614) on the hunting field

1633 Anthony Van Dyck William Fielding, 1st Earl of Denbigh England, Shooting

England 1680 John Poulett, 1st Earl Poulett by John Closterman (British artist, 1660-1711)

The Romans brought their Castorian and Fulpine hound breeds to England, along with importing the brown hare (the mountain hare is native) and fallow deer as quarry. Wild boar were also hunted.  The most dangerous prey was the wild boar, which was hunted only by men, usually on foot, with dogs and spears. 

Peter Tillemans (Flemish artist, 1684–1734) East View of Newsterad Abbey, Nottinghamshire

Peter Tillemans (Flemish artist, 1684-1734) A Hunting Piece Going-a-Hunting with Lord Biron's Pack of Hounds

 Peter Tillemans (Flemish artist, 1684-1734) A Warwickshire Hunt with Hounds

Peter Tillemans (Flemish artist, 1684-1734) Foxhunting in Wooded Countryside

England 1732 Huntsman with Horse by John Wootton (British artist, 1686-1765)

Norman hunting traditions were brought to Britain when William the Conqueror arrived in 1066, along with the Gascon & Talbot hounds.  The earliest known attempt to specifically hunt a fox with hounds was in Norfolk, in the East of England, in 1534, where farmers began chasing down foxes with their dogs as a form of pest control.

England 1733-36 Viscount Weymouth's Hunt - Mr Jackson, the Hon. Henry Villiers and the Hon. Thomas Villiers, by John Wootton (British artist, 1686-1765)

Packs of hounds were first trained specifically to hunt foxes in the late 17th century, with the oldest such fox hunt likely to be the Bilsdale Hunt in Yorkshire. In 1660, after the restoration of the monarchy, hunting grew as a sport: the first dedicated foxhound packs emerge but the game remained prime quarry (the hunted).  In England, a forest was not defined as wild, impenetrable woodland, but rather royal property managed by officials called foresters. Their job was to protect the "vert and venison" - the deer and the plants they rely on for food and cover.  John Manwood wrote in 1598 Treatise on the Lawe of the Forests, "A forest must always have beasts of venery abiding in it, otherwise it is no forest: and if there be no beasts of forest, nor beasts of chase in the same, then may men fell their woods that they have within the forest and destroy their covers" 

England 1733-36 Viscount Weymouth's Hunt - Thomas, 2nd Viscount Weymouth, with a Black Page and other Huntsmenby John Wootton (British artist, 1686-1765)

The Bilsdale Hunt was established in 1668, by George Villiers, the Duke of Buckingham.  By the end of the 17th century, many organized packs were hunting both hare & fox in Britain.  Sight hounds, (sometimes called gazehounds) including greyhounds and Irish wolfhounds, were prized for visual acuity & speed, crucial when coursing, in which the prey is sighted, stalked silently, pursued, and taken down.

England 1740 The Shooting Party by John Wootton (British artist, 1686-1765)

The Quorn Hunt was founded in 1696, by Mr Thomas Boothby of Tooley Park, Leicestershire. Tooley Park lies about eight miles southwest of Leicester, just to the north of the Hinckley road. The hunt takes its name from the village of Quorn, where the hounds were kennelled from 1753 to 1904. Shotguns were improved during the 18th and 19th centuries, and game shooting became more popular. 

England 1744 Clotworthy Skeffington, 1st Earl of Massereene by Sir Joshua Reynolds (English painter, 1723-1792)

To protect the pheasants for the shooters, gamekeepers culled vermin such as foxes and birds of prey almost to extirpation in popular areas, and landowners improved their habitats for game. 

England 1744 The Honorable John Spencer & His Son, the 1st Earl Spencer with their Servant, Caesar Shaw by George Knapton (English painter, 1698-1778)

British Game Laws were relaxed in 1831, which then allowed anyone to obtain a permit to take rabbits, hares and gamebirds.

England 1748 George Rogers and His Wife, Margaret, and His Sister, Margaret Rogers by Francis Hayman (English painter, 1708-1776)

The practice of hunting in England, at the time the American Colonies were settled, was legally restricted to the gentry.

England 1748 Lady Mary Churchill at the Death of the Hare by John Wootton (British artist, 1686-1765)

England 1748 Thomas Nuthall (1715-1775) and Hambleton Custace (1715-1757)  with a very small bird by Francis Hayman (English painter, 1708-1776)  c. 1748

Virtually all of the land was owned in large parcels by the wealthy, who preserved them from generation to generation by bequeathing their entire estates intact to the oldest son through the law of primogeniture.

Britain 1749 Windham Quin of Adare, Co. Limerick, Ireland by Stephen Slaughter (English painter, 1697-1765)

Though hunting was primarily a masculine activity, women also participated as spectators and hunters. Elizabeth I of England (ruled 1558–1603) hunted avidly. On one occasion her hunt consisted of repeatedly firing a crossbow into a paddock filled with deer, killing three or four of them. The slaughter was accompanied by tunes played by the queen's musicians one of whom reportedly placed the crossbow into her hands.

England 1750 Mr. & Mrs. Andrews by Thomas Gainsborough (English artist, 1727-1788)

Royal gamekeepers made sure that royal forests were continuously stocked.  Sometimes deer had to be imported to maintain population levels. One hundred head were sent from Haughton Forest to Windsor Forest in 1711, for example.

England 1750 Richard Gwynne of Taliaris and Tregib

Over on the continent, in densely populated parts of Europe, game reserves were walled or fenced off to keep game in and poachers out. Palaces served as hunting lodges for monarchs.

England 1752 A Sportsman by Edward Haytley (British painter, fl 1740-c1762)

Commoners were usually prohibited from owning hunting dogs of their own. Instead, some were required to board a European nobleman's dogs & make them available whenever the owner wanted to hunt, with only part of the costs defrayed by the owner.  Scent hounds were valued for their sense of smell. They were generally used in a pack, known as a cry of hounds. Some breeds have a bell-like bark or yell; others are known for deep, booming barks.  Gervase (or Jervis) Markham (c 1568-1637) suggested a method for making a cry of hounds have more pleasant music, "If you would have your kennel for sweetness of cry, you must compound it of some large dogs that have deep solemn mouths, and are swift in spending, which must as it were bear the base of the consort. Then a double number of roaring and loud ringing mouths which must bear the counter tenor. Then some hollow, plain sweet mouths, which must bear the mean or middle part. ... Amongst these you may cast in a couple or two of small, single beagles, which as small trebles may warble amongst them. The cry will be a deal more sweet."

England 1754 John Orde, His Wife Anne, and His Eldest Son William by Arthur Devis (English artist, 1712-1787)

In Europe, peasants might also be called on to perform during the hunt as beaters or carters of slaughtered animals. They could only watch as the privileged hunters ran their horses through the fields, destroying the peasants' own crops.

England 1755 Major John Dade, of Tannington, Suuffolk by Thomas Gainsborough (English artist, 1727-1788)

Hunting retained its aristocratic character at the end of the 18th century in Europe, and would only be opened to commoners with the French Revolution.

England 1760-70 The Death of the Hare” by Unknown

For commoners, there were few restrictions on catching marginally edible fare such as badgers or starlings, but they were usually barred from hunting prime edible game animals such as wild boar & deer. Some resorted to poaching to provide meat for their diet or to sell at market.

England 1761 Sir Humphrey Morice by Pompeo Girolamo Batoni (Italian-born artist, 1708-1787)

Poaching was illegal in early modern Europe, but it was not uncommon.  Account books show numerous fines for illegal capture or killing of game.

England 1762 Francis Noel Clarke Mundy of the Markeaton Hunt by Joseph Wright of Derby (English painter, 1734-1797)

In rare cases, poaching was a capital offense, but in most of Europe, the most widespread punishment was a stiff fine.

England 1763 Jacob Morland of Capplethwaite by George Romney (English painter, 1734-1802)

In 17th-century England, it was not at all rare for gentry to poach on the lands of their neighbors. Most historians assume that forest officials were often bribed to look the other way.

England 1763 Self Portrait with His Father & Brother by John Hamilton Mortimer (British painter, 1740-1779)

The Black Act in England in 1724, among other things, made deer-stalking in royal forests a capital crime. The numbers of animals taken in the areas affected by the Black Act were small.

England 1764 Alexander Gordon, 4th Duke of Gordon by Pompeo Girolamo Batoni (Italian-born artist, 1708-1787)

It is impossible to say how frequently poachers were caught in early modern Europe or how important game was for the livelihoods of villagers in the vicinity of forests.

England 1764 James and Mary Shuttleworth with One of Their Daughters by Joseph Wright of Derby (English painter, 1734-1797) 

To protect fields and woodlands from poachers, gamekeepers were employed who patrolled noblemen's properties and provided selective hunting for the owners.

England 1765 Charles IV as Prince

By law, no one was allowed to own a gun, unless he possessed substantial freehold property or was given special permission.

England 1765 The Third Duke of Richmond Out Shooting with his Servant by Johann Zoffany (German-born painter, 1733-1810)

Legal shooting was not even a choice for the average citizen. By the 1740s, this restrictive practice led to hunting being considered a symbol of wealth, and field shooting “on the wing” had become a popular sport for the well-to-do.

England 1765 Thomas Nuthallby Sir Nathaniel Dance-Holland (English painter, 1735-1811)

England 1768 The Repose After Shooting by George Stubbs (English painter, 1724-1806)

England 1768 Two Gentlemen Going Shooting by George Stubbs (English painter, 1724-1806)

England 1768 Two Gentlemen Shooting by George Stubbs (English painter, 1724-1806)

Britain 1769 Thomas Graham, Baron Lyendoch by David Allen or Allan (Scottish artist, 1744-1796)

England 1769 William Hulton with Gun-Dog and Shotgun by Henry Pickering (British artist, fl 1740-c 1771)

England 1770 A Sportsman, by Henry Walton (British painter, 1746-1813)

England 1770 Hunter

England 1774 Sir Edward Hales, Baronet, of Hales Place, Hackington, Kent by Philip Mercier (German-born painter, c 1689-1760)

England 1776 Sir John Nelthorpe, 6th Baronet, Lincolnshire by George Stubbs (English painter, 1724-1806)

England 1779 A Sportsman & His Son by Francis Wheatley (English painter, 1747-1801)

England 1780 Carrow Abby Hunt by Philip Reinagle (British painter, 1749-1833)

England 1780 Gilbert McHutchin by William Williams (British & American artist, 1727-1791)

Britain 1780 John, 4th Duke of Atholl, and his Family by David Allen or Allan (Scottish artist, 1744-1796)

England 1780s attributed to Thomas William Coke (English painter, 1752-1842)

England 1782 Sir William Elford, by James Northcote (English painter, 1746-1831)

England 1784 Joshua Walker, of Clifton House by John Russell (English artist, 1745-1806)

Britain1785 John Cockburn Ross by Alexander Nasmyth (Scottish artist, 1758-1840)

England 1785 Sir Thomas Gascoigne and Sir Walter Vavasour with a Priest and Servants

England 1786 Mr. and Mrs. John Custance of Norwich by Sir William Beechey (British painter, 1753-1839)

England 1787 The Countess of Effingham by George Haugh (British artist, 1755-1827)

You might be interested in finding

George Turberville, The Noble Art of Venerie Or Hunting: Wherein is Handled and Set Out the Vertues, Nature, and Properties of Fifteene Sundry Chaces : Together with the Order and Manner how to Hunt and Kill Euery One of Them, 1575

Gervase Markham, Country Contentments  Or, The Husbandmans Recreations: Containing the Wholesome Experience, in which Any Ought to Recreate Himself, After the Toyl of More Serious Business. As Namely, Hunting, Hawking, Coursing with Grey-hounds, and the Laws of Leash, Shooting in the Long-bow Or Cross-bow, Bowling, Tennis, Baloon; the Whole Art of Angling; and the Use of the Fighting Cock. 1611