Volume Ii Part 8 (1/2)
”E. W. Hamilton.
”The Vestry Clerk of Lambeth.”
Mr. Hill gave notice of the following motion:--
”That an instruction be given to the Prime Minister that if the proper authorities are willing to hand over the Lambeth Palace grounds for the free use of the public, this Board will accept the charge and preserve the grounds as a portion of the open s.p.a.ces.”
Then came a hopeless and defensive letter, before referred to, addressed both to the _Standard, Telegraph_, and the _Times_:--
”Sir,--Some of the statements (including a correspondence with the Prime Minister) which have, during the last few days, appeared in the newspapers with reference to Lambeth Palace grounds, would, I think, lead those who are unacquainted with the circ.u.mstances to suppose that these grounds have been hitherto altogether closed to the public, and reserved for the sole use of the Archbishop and his household. Will you, therefore, to prevent misapprehension, kindly allow me to state the facts of the case?
”For many years past the Archbishop of Canterbury endeavoured, in what seemed to him the best way, to make the grounds in question available, under certain restrictions, to the general public. During the summer months twenty-eight cricket clubs, some from the Lambeth parishes and some from other parts of London, have received permission to play cricket in the field, and similar arrangements have been made for football in the winter, though necessarily upon a smaller scale. The whole available ground has been carefully allotted for the different hours of each day. On certain fixed occasions the field is used for rifle corps' drill and exercises, and throughout the summer, arrangements are constantly made for 'treats' for infant and other schools unable to go out of London. Tickets giving admission to the field at all hours have been issued for some years past, in very large numbers, to the sick, aged, and poor of the surrounding streets; and the whole grounds, including the private garden, have been opened without restriction to the nurses and others of St. Thomas's Hospital.
”His Grace frequently consulted those best qualified from local experience to judge what is for the advantage of the neighbourhood, and invariably found their opinion to coincide with his own--namely, that a more public opening of the ground would interfere with the useful purposes to which it is at present turned for the benefit of the neighbourhood, and that, considering the limited s.p.a.ce, no gain could be secured by throwing it entirely open which would at all compensate for the inevitable loss of the advantages at present enjoyed.--I am, sir, your obedient servant,
”Randall T. Davidson.
”Lambeth Palace, December 16.”
On January 6, 1883, I wrote to the _Daily News_, saying:--
”Sir,--Your columns have recorded the steps taken by the Lambeth Vestry and by Lord Brabazon (on the part of the Open s.p.a.ce Society, for which he acts) with respect to the use of the pasture acres connected with the Palace grounds of Lambeth. I have been asked by a clergyman, for whose judgment I have great respect, to write some letter which shall make it plain to the public that it is not the gardens of the Palace for the use of which any one has asked, but for the nine acres of fields outside the gardens, as a small recreation ground which shall be open to the children of Lambeth, who are numerous there, and much in need of some pleasant change of that scarce and pleasant kind. No one has dined at the Lambeth Palace, or been otherwise a visitor there, without valuing the gardens which surround it and which are necessary to an episcopal residence in London. No one wishes to interfere with or curtail the garden grounds. I thought the public understood this. I shall therefore be obliged if you can insert this explanation in your columns. Much better than anything I could say upon the subject are the words which occur in the _Family Churchman_ of December 27th, which gives the portraits of the new Archbishop, Dr. Benson, and the late Bishop of Llandaff. The editor says that 'every one knows the Archbishops of Canterbury have a splendid country seat at Addington, within easy driving distance of London. Within the same distance there are few parks so beautiful as Addington Palace, whilst, unlike some parks in other parts of the country, it is jealously closed against the public. The Palace park is remarkable for its romantic dells, filled with n.o.ble trees and an undergrowth of rhododendrons. There are, moreover, within the park, heights which command fine views of the surrounding country.
It is thought, perhaps not unjustly, that the new Archbishop might well be content with this country place, and, whilst retaining the gardens at Lambeth Palace, might with graceful content see conceded to the poor, whose houses throng the neighbourhood, the nine acres of pasture land.'
This is very distinct and even generous testimony on the part of the _Family Churchman_ to the seemliness and legitimacy of the plea put forward on the part of the little people of Lambeth.--Very faithfully yours,
”George Jacob Holyoake.
”22, Ess.e.x Street W.C.”
News of the Palace grounds agitation reached as far as Mentone, and Mr. R. French Blake, who was residing at the Hotel Splendide, sent an interesting letter to the _Times_--historical, defensive, and suggestive. He wrote on January 3, 1883, saying:--
”Sir,--Attention having recently been drawn to the Lambeth Palace grounds and the use which the late Primate made of them for the recreation of the ma.s.ses, it may be interesting, especially at this juncture, to place on record what were his views with regard to those historic parts of the buildings of the Palace itself which are not actually used as the residence of the Archbishops. These chiefly consist of what is known as the Lollards' Tower, and the n.o.ble Gate Tower, called after its founder, Archbishop Moreton. The former of these has recently been put into repair, and rooms in it were granted to the late Bishop of Lichfield and his brother, by virtue of their connection with the Palace library.”
Mr. Blake then adverts to the affair of the grounds. He says:--
”Nor can I suppose that any well-informed member of the vestry could imagine that it is in the lawful power of a Prime Minister, or even of Parliament, to alienate, without consent, any portion of the Church's inheritance. It may be a somewhat high standard of right, which is referred to in the sacred writings, to 'pay for the things which we never took,' but in no standard of right whatsoever can the motto find place to 'take the things for which we never pay.' Although the Archbishop may have deemed that he turned to the very best account the ground in question, for the purposes of enjoyment and health to the surrounding population, he was far too wise and too charitable to disregard, so far as he deemed he had the power, any pet.i.tion or request which might, if granted, add to the pleasure and happiness of others, and if it had been made clear to him as his duty, and an offer to that effect had been made to him by the Metropolitan Board of Works or others, I am satisfied he would have consented, not to the alienation of Church property, but to the sale of the field for a people's park, and the application of the value of the ground to mission purposes for South London, and such a scheme I happen to know was at one time discussed by some of those most intimately connected with him.”
Afterwards, January 13, 1883, the _Pall Mall Gazette_ remarked that ”it is not a happy omen that the consent of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners is required before the well-fed donkey who disports himself in the Palace grounds can be joined by the ill-fed, ragged urchins who now have no playground but the streets.” The _Daily News_ rendered further aid in a leader. Then a report was made that the condition of the streets, ”to which, in his correspondence with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Mr. Holyoake had called attention, had been ill.u.s.trated by the fall of several miserable tenements, in which a woman and several children were fatally buried in the ruins.” The writer says there is ”no hope that the unkindly exclusiveness of 'Cantuar' will be broken down.”
So the matter rested for nearly twenty years before the happy news came that the London County Council had come into possession of the ecclesiastical fields, and converted them into a holy park, where pale-faced mothers and sickly children may stroll or disport themselves at will evermore. All honour to the later agents of this merciful change. There is an open gleam of Nature now in the doleful district.
Sir Hudibras exclaims:
”What perils do environ Him who meddles with cold iron.”
Not less so if the meddlement be with ecclesiastical iron and the contest lasts a longer time.
CHAPTER x.x.xIII. SOCIAL WONDERS ACROSS THE WATER
Being several times in France, twice in America and Canada, thrice in Italy and as many times in Holland, under circ.u.mstances which brought me into relation with representative people, enabled me to become acquainted with the ways of persons of other countries than my own.