Introduction
In 1722, the pleasure gardens at Belsize House near Hampstead were raided by constables on the orders of horrified magistrates, as being a den of gambling, lewdness and riot. It had all started innocently enough two years earlier, after an enterprising Welshman named William Howell obtained a lease on the stately house and gardens.
THE extensive gardens of Belsize House near Hampstead were much admired in the days of Charles II, and both Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn visited them. But it was not until the reign of George I that Welshman and promoter William Howell* took over the lease from retired coal merchant Charles Povey, and Belsize became a favourite of England’s fashionable set.
On Easter Monday, April 18th, 1720,* Howell opened the gardens amid a flurry of publicity. Mist’s Journal of the previous Saturday had promised a lavish ceremony, “with an uncommon solemnity of musick and dancing”. Thereafter the gardens would be open every day from 6am to 8pm, without charge, throughout the summer season. A handbill assured the public that the park had been “wonderfully improved, and filled with variety of birds, which compose a most melodious and delightsome harmony”. A band would play from 7am, and guests “could breakfast on tea or coffee as cheap as at their own chambers”. Hampstead residents could summon a carriage at sixpence a head; those travelling from London were reassured that “there are twelve stout fellows completely armed to patrol betwixt London and Belsize, to prevent the insults of highwaymen or footpads which may infest the road”.*
* Several accounts, old and new, cautiously omit Mr Howell’s Christian name, but in his Topography and Natural History of Hampstead (1814) John James Park (1795-1833), who went on to have a short but highly successful career in the law, recorded verbatim a report of Howell’s indictment for gambling in 1722 in which he was named as William.
* Note that Mist’s Journal and the other contemporary sources mentioned here were all using the old style (OS) English calendar, which did not give way to the new style (NS) Gregorian until 1752. As a contemporary Book of Common Prayer confirms, Easter that year fell on April 17th OS. In countries using the new style Gregorian calendar, Easter was observed on March 31st. The prayer books also reminded readers that “the Supputation [counting, reckoning] of the Year of our Lord in the Church of England beginneth the Twenty Fifth Day of March,” i.e. the New Year began on March 25th, not January 1st.
* On footpads, highwaymen and cutpurses, see Karl Philipp Moritz on Three Criminal Types, written in 1782.
Précis
In 1720, Welsh promoter William Howell threw the gardens at Belsize House open to the public, with free admission. The venue was advertised as a semi-rural retreat with birdsong, musical entertainments and value-for-money catering; transport was laid on for Hampstead locals, and the road from London was patrolled by armed security guards. (52 / 60 words)
In 1720, Welsh promoter William Howell threw the gardens at Belsize House open to the public, with free admission. The venue was advertised as a semi-rural retreat with birdsong, musical entertainments and value-for-money catering; transport was laid on for Hampstead locals, and the road from London was patrolled by armed security guards.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 45 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: about, although, because, besides, just, since, unless, until.
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