The Kensington District | Page 4

Willesden, Padyngton, Westburn, and Kensington, in the countie of Midd., which maners, lands, and tenements the said Princes late purchased of Sir Reynolds Bray knight." The Countess left the greater part of her property to the Abbey at Westminster, and part to the two Universities at Oxford and Cambridge. On the spoliation of the monasteries, King Henry VIII. became possessed of the Westminster property; he took up the lease, granting the lessee, Robert White, other lands in exchange, and added it to the hunting-ground he purposed forming on the north and west of London. At his death King Edward VI. inherited it, and leased it to Sir William Paulet. In 1587 it was held by Lord Burghley. In 1599 it was sold to Walter Cope.
Earl's Court or Kensington Manor we traced to the three sisters of the last Earl. One of these died childless, the other two married respectively John Nevill, Lord Latimer; and Sir Anthony Wingfield. Family arrangements were made to prevent the division of the estate, which passed to Lucy Nevill, Lord Latimer's third daughter. She married Sir W. Cornwallis, and left one daughter, Anne, who married Archibald, Earl of Argyll, who joined with her in selling the manor to Sir Walter Cope in 1609. Sir Walter Cope had thus held at one time or another the whole of Kensington. He now possessed Earl's Court, West Town, and Abbot's Manor, having sold Notting Barns some time before. His daughter and heiress married Sir Henry Rich, younger son of the first Earl of Warwick. Further details are given in the account of Holland House (p. 76).
PERAMBULATION.--We will begin at the extreme easterly point of the borough, the toe of the boot which the general outline resembles. We are here in Knightsbridge. The derivation of this word has been much disputed. Many old writers, including Faulkner, have identified it with Kingsbridge--that is to say, the bridge over the Westbourne in the King's high-road. The Westbourne formed the boundary of Chelsea, and flowed across the road opposite Albert Gate. The real King's bridge, however, was not here, but further eastward over the Tyburn, and as far back as Henry I.'s reign it is referred to as Cnightebriga. Another derivation for Knightsbridge is therefore necessary. The old topographer Norden writes: "Kingsbridge, commonly called Stone bridge, near Hyde Park Corner, where I wish no true man to walk too late without good guard, as did Sir H. Knyvett, Kt., who valiantly defended himself, being assaulted, and slew the master-thief with his own hands." This, of course, has reference to the more westerly bridge mentioned above, but it seems to have served as a suggestion to later topographers, who have founded upon it the tradition that two knights on their way to Fulham to be blessed by the Bishop of London quarrelled and fought at the Westbourne Bridge, and killed each other, and hence gave rise to the name. This story may be dismissed as entirely baseless; the real explanation is much less romantic. The word is probably connected with the Manor of Neyt, which was adjacent to Westminster, and as pronunciation rather than orthography was relied upon in early days, this seems much the most likely explanation. Lysons says: "Adjoining to Knightsbridge were two other ancient manors called Neyt and Hyde." We still have the Hyde in Hyde Park, and Neyt is thus identified with Knightsbridge.
Until the middle of the nineteenth century Knightsbridge was an outlying hamlet. People started from Hyde Park Corner in bands for mutual protection at regular intervals, and a bell was rung to warn pedestrians when the party was about to start. In 1778, when Lady Elliot, after the death of her husband, Sir Gilbert, came to Knightsbridge for fresh air, she found it as "quiet as Teviotdale." About forty years before this the Bristol mail was robbed by a man on foot near Knightsbridge. The place has also been the scene of many riots. In 1556, at the time of Wyatt's insurrection, the rebel and his followers arrived at the hamlet at nightfall, and stayed there all night before advancing on London. As already explained, the Borough of Kensington does not include Knightsbridge, but only touches it, and the part we are now in belongs to Westminster.
The Albert Gate leading into the park was erected in 1844-46, and was, of course, called after Prince Albert. The stags on the piers were modelled after prints by Bartolozzi, and were first set up at the Ranger's Lodge in the Green Park. Part of the foundations of the old bridge outside were unearthed at the building of the gate, and, besides this bridge, there was another within the park. The French Embassy, recently enlarged, stands on the east side of the gate--the house formerly belonged to Mr. Hudson, the "railway king"--and