Anne Hyde

“ Wild and beautiful, no doubt, was the Hyde Park of Queen Anne, but it was not the luxurious garden that we now know. Let us obliterate for a moment from our mind’s eye the well-kept grounds of our favourite resort, with the waters of the Serpentine sparkling in the sun, and replace them by thickets and brushwood growing on marshy ground, here and there stagnant pools, with the pungent smell that ever pervades any tract of swampy forest-land ”

“ An early allusion to the festivities in which Anne Hyde afterwards shared and shone.
In the year 1655, within a few months of her appointment in the Princess Mary’s service, Anne’s young charms of mind and body brought to her feet at least one lover worth the winning.
At The Hague, in those days, among the many exiled Cavaliers who were generally made welcome at the Court of their young King’s elder sister, was Sir Spencer Compton, not the least distinguished of his gallant race. ”

“ But four more years of strenuous life, as we know, were to pass over his head, and then at Peronne, in the train of his sister Mary, James, Duke of York, was fated to meet for the first time Anne Hyde. In his own memoirs, dictated long afterwards, he acknowledges that he learnt to love her at that time. The brilliant girl, for whom Spencer Compton and Harry Jermyn had sighed in vain, was, with her ready wit and hereditary talents, a conspicuous figure in the entourage of the Princess of Orange. ”

“ It is an unlovely side of Anne Hyde’s perplexing character, and one displays it with reluctance. Certainly it was a strange outcome of her narrow upbringing in her father’s careful household. Of her thirst for gain Pepys has a word to say: “Mr Povy do tell me how he is like to lose his £400 a year pension of the Duke of York which he took in consideration of his place that was taken from him. ”

“ It is strange, because 277for one occupying the position she did for ten years of English history, Anne, Duchess of York, had left personally a very slight impression on that position. The place that knew her was so soon content to know her no more, the gap she left was so quickly filled.
It is not to her but to her children that we must look for any consideration of her life as important. No doubt in the early days in Flanders Edward Hyde watched the unfolding of his daughter’s keen intelligence with hope and confidence as a factor in her future. ”

“ It is all the more surprising that her own large flock of children “got on,” as one says, so badly with their mother, though she did care more for her sons than for her daughters. [30] However, that she took a fancy to “Nan Hyde” was certain. Beauty, it is true, was lavishly 32distributed among those high-spirited, high-handed Princes and Princesses Palatine (among whom their cousin Charles II. so nearly found a bride) , but it was probably Anne’s acute perception and strong intellect that appealed to their brilliant mother. ”

“ Given at or Court at Whitehall this 19th of July 1661” (Egerton MS.) .
Duchess Anne had for her part “wit and agreeable manners, but without personal charm,” and Jesse rather ponderously asserts: “In the character of Anne Hyde there seems to have been more to admire than to love. She was possessed rather of dignity than grace, rather of masculine sense than feminine gentleness.” [152] And Burnet further testifies that she was “a woman of great spirit,” “a very extraordinary 165woman,” who “had great knowledge and a lively sense of things.” ”

“ She was not idle, either; she was always fond of writing and ready with the pen, and at some time during her service—there is no date attached—Anne bethought her to set down in writing the character of her royal mistress. The manuscript is not in the girl’s own hand, but it is endorsed: “Pourtrait of ye Princess Royall drawne by Mrs Anne Hyde.”
“Ceux qui connoissent l’admirable Princesse dont j’entreprend le portrait trouveront bien étrange qu’une personne si peu capable que moy, de la bien representer oze l’hazarder a un si grand ouvrage et on m’accusera assurement de vanité 37ou de folie. ”

“ Considering the passion which Anne had certainly inspired in several men, and which in the Duke of York had now raised her to her lofty position, one is forced to the conclusion that, in spite of her lack of physical beauty, she must have been possessed of some conquering charm of manner which, joined to undoubted wit and certain brilliant endowments of mind, made up for the want of personal attractions in an age which, perhaps of all others, most prized such an attribute. ”

“ Of the Maids to Henrietta Maria I have full and entertaining particulars. This part of my work will include Cecilia Crofts (Tom Killigrew’s wife) . Miss Porter (Endymion’s daughter) , Mrs. Kirk, that delightful blue-stocking, and Margaret Lucas, Duchess of Newcastle, whose life of her husband no casket is too good to contain. I claim particular attention for the life of Anne Hyde, the future mother of the two Queens of England, Mary and Anne. ”

“ Another great man lies at Catherington, within the church; Sir Nicholas Hyde, Lord Chief Justice of England, and uncle of the still greater Clarendon. [Pg 326] His splendid monument, with recumbent marble effigies of himself and his wife, occupies the east wall of the Hyde Chapel. Hinton House—the seat of the Hydes near here, and the scene of the marriage between James, Duke of York (afterwards James II.) , and Anne Hyde, daughter of the Chancellor, Clarendon, in 1660—has long since been rebuilt. ”

“ The originators of the “joke” themselves entered the coach, and, making a dash through the gates of Hyde Park, drove their dying steeds furiously to the Ring and took their turn round it before they could be prevented.
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Although Queen Anne did not herself encourage people to waste their time in the Parks, her reign saw Society considerably broadened, somewhat to the disgust of the older families. The City merchants on the Sabbath sallied forth with their fine ladies to join the habitual frequenters, and the Church parade of gallants and dames became an important function. ”

“ For one thing, the queen-mother, always a woman of impulse and violent prejudice, had in no degree abated her dislike to Hyde, and everyone was aware of the fact. O’Neill, it seems, declaring that the Princess herself had 23so much kindness for the Chancellor’s daughter that she long resolved to have her upon the first vacancy, suggested to his friend to ask for the post for Anne, a proceeding to which Hyde strongly objected, no doubt smarting under the knowledge of Henrietta’s attitude towards him. ”

“ IN GEORGIAN DAYS Society from the time of the Revolution had gradually drifted into an independent existence, and was no longer dominated by the influence of the Court. The hatred entertained by Queen Mary, the Consort of William III., towards the supporters of her father was probably responsible for this in a great measure. The Jacobites in their turn entered into intrigue. As Queen Anne’s reign drew to a close, often beneath those old trees in Hyde Park, meetings were arranged under the very eyes of the Whigs. ”

“ There was at one time a rumour coupling the name of the Duchess of York with Henry Savile, another of the Duke’s grooms of the bedchamber, and in reference to this report, Pepys piously ejaculates: “God knows what will be the end of it!” However, as in the case of Sidney, there is no positive evidence beyond rumour, and rumour was not likely to spare anyone who 189had so many enemies as Anne Hyde. ”

“ Anne granted forty shillings a year to her “pourvoioir de noz chariettes.” But such “chariettes” were merely cumbersome waggons to which strong horses were attached. Priests rode at the head of troops and at pageants, and were some of the greatest equestrians of the age; the monks from Westminster enjoyed many a gallop in Hyde Park. ”

“ In the house at Breda, sedulously cared for by her parents, Anne, the elder, and by her father at least the best beloved daughter, reached her seventeenth year. She was a clever, thoughtful girl, unusually well read for the period and circumstances of her life, a devout churchwoman under the guidance of Morley and her father, looking out on the life unfolding before her with a mind which then at least showed singular powers of balance and perception. ”

“ A ROYAL HUNTING-GROUND Hyde Park in its present guise is essentially modern. It preserves nothing of that old-world air which makes the lawn of Hampton Court and the formal gardens of Windsor Castle so delightful.
Rotten Row as a tan ride has been laid out in the memory of people still living. The Marble Arch on its present site is Victorian. Burton’s Arch, and the screen at Hyde Park Corner, are but a little earlier. Queen Caroline, consort of George II., formed the Serpentine. Queen Anne planted avenues of stately elms. ”

“ Dean Morley, Anne’s spiritual adviser since her childhood, was also summoned, and in view of the aspersions against her now current, the poor mother was solemnly exhorted in that extreme hour to make profession on oath of her innocence in respect of Berkeley’s hideous accusations, which she did with a vehement earnestness and passion in a degree which seems to have carried conviction to those present. ”

“ In 1712, Anne issued further orders “for the better keeping of Hyde Park.” Gatekeepers were always to be on duty, and not to sell intoxicating liquors. No one was to leap or ride over ditches and fences, or to break the latter, and this also applied to the banks of ponds. No person was to ride over the grass on the south side of the gravelled coach road except Henry Wise, who was permitted to cross the part of the Park leading to the door in the Park wall next his plantation. ”

“ Anne also took a more or less intelligent interest in the art of her time and country, for it was she who projected the Series of Beauties to be painted by Lely, whose genius was employed for many years of this reign. [169] She could at least appreciate beauty in others, if she had but little herself, and for this scheme we certainly owe her a debt of gratitude. ”

“ THE accession of Anne to the throne of her Anne-cestors, as Hume in a most humiliating attempt at humour hath it, was hailed with general satisfaction, for it usually happens that a new reign is welcomed on the old principle of "anything for a change," and most people expect that some good may come out of it. It will be remembered that Anne was originally a Miss Hyde, being the child of James by his first wife—the daughter of Old Hyde, afterwards Earl of Clarendon; and she had been married to the young man known among his familiar friends as "Georgey Porgey, Prince of Denmark." ”

“ On 20th April of this year 1661, Pepys writes acidly: “Saw the King and Duke of York and his Duchess, which is a plain woman, and like her mother my Lady Chancellor.”
162In fact, if nearly all the pictures of her which exist may be trusted, they certainly dispose of Anne’s pretensions to beauty. They represent for the most part a large, heavy looking woman, with an abnormally wide mouth; and we know from contemporary evidence that she became very fat early in life. ”

“ London was delirious for the time being with the revulsion, and those who had endured years of exile and poverty were not the least happy. Among these might be numbered the Hydes. The Chancellor might certainly be considered to deserve a season of rest and prosperity after so many strenuous years of service, and as soon as the King was at Whitehall, firmly established in the house of his fathers, Hyde had leisure to 116turn to his own affairs, and forthwith sent off for his daughter Anne. ”

“ Queen Henrietta had never been able to reconcile to herself Princess Mary’s appointment of Hyde’s daughter about her person, and since its accomplishment had constantly appealed to her to dismiss Anne from her service. [36] Lord Hatton, in fact, writes: “The Queen’s last sickness was by the chamber confident said to be expressed by the Queen by reason of some late letters from the young Prsse Orange wherein she still contests for retaining with her Sir E. H. daughter which the Queen will not cease till she out her there. ”

“ In his old age he used to say ' that he owed all the little he knew and the little good that was in him to the friendship and conversation of the most excellent men in their several kinds that lived in that age,' but always recalled with most fondness his ‘entire and unreserved' friendship with Lord Falkland (Life, i. 25, 35) .
In 1629 Hyde married Anne, daughter of Sir George Ayliffe of Gretenham, Wiltshire. ”

“ At the time of the Restoration Hyde had refused a peerage, but now, for obvious reasons, he signified his acceptance of one, and on the 6th November he had taken his seat as Baron Hyde of Hindon in Wilts (near Hatch, where Laurence Hyde, his ancestor, had lived) . Moreover the King made him a grant of twenty thousand pounds out of the amount (fifty thousand pounds) which Parliament had sent the latter at The Hague, at which time the Duke of York, by the way, had received ten thousand pounds and Gloucester five thousand pounds. ”

“ There were the poets Carew and Cotton, the elder Godolphin, Evelyn, who extols Hyde’s “great and signal merits,” and greatest and noblest of all, Lucius Carey, Lord Falkland.
6. “Life of the Earl of Clarendon,” by himself.
If, as has been said, a man is known by his friends, then it may surely be counted to Edward Hyde for righteousness that he had eyes to discern the shining of that “steadfast star” too early extinguished. ”

“ He was present with the chivalrous Arthur, Lord Capel, on the scaffold, aiding him with his prayers, and soon after went into exile, first in Paris, then at Breda where he took up his abode with the Hydes. We find his old friend the Chancellor, who called him “the best man alive,” recommending him as a spiritual adviser to Lady Morton, and much later we shall see how far his influence availed with his pupil, Hyde’s daughter. ”