DAY 64: Fashionable Hyde Park

Jennie Churchill rode hunters in the country (particularly during the three years she spent in Ireland in the late 1870s) and she loved to ride out in Newmarket a decade later, to watch the Thoroughbreds at their training gallops on the Downs. But in Town, she rode in Hyde Park with the rest of Society.

The picture above shows Rotten Row, a bastardization of the original Route du Roi, or King's Way. Riders took over the Row in Hyde Park until about noon, and might appear again between the hours of five p.m. and seven--although at that time, Fashionable London preferred to throng the Drive that paralleled the Row, reserved for vehicles. A third option was possible: Promenading along the path that ran alongside both Drive and Row, where ranges of benches were thoughtfully provide for those who wished to look on. All three are portrayed in the painting below.

Appearing in Hyde Park at the correct times was as much a social duty as an opportunity to ride or "take an airing." During the afternoon hours, when Society was busy elsewhere, the Horse Guards from their nearby barracks drilled in the Row. What the sedate artwork above fails to convey is just how crazy the crowds could be at peak hours. An actual photograph from 1890 shows what Jennie Churchill experienced:

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