I had sought the volume out to check some historical point, but was drawn in by a passage in the first essay, a description of the pleasure of walking across Kensington Gardens & Hyde Park from Pembridge Villas to Westminster
This turned me into a James convert – my efforts to read his novels had led me to the firm conclusion – as a teenager – that he was BORE-ING
The piece drew me in, a century later, becauseI often did the same walk to get to work in the morning, but only if it was dry underfoot; through some accident of history there is no route laid out which follows the north west/south east diagonal to Hyde Park Corner. To avoid wet feet in the aftermath of rain you must follow the paths down to the southern edge of the park & then turn east alongside Rotten Row. It is much quicker, & a more pleasant walk, to strike out across the unmarked territory of the grass – I learned to navigate by the trees.
A wonderful, invigorating start to the day, especially during the long hot summer of 1976 when I would set out even earlier to fit in a swim in the Serpentine
The Civil Service had (may still have) a rule that in the event of a disruption to transport you must make every effort to get to work, including walking up to 4 miles
We lived just under 4 miles from the office, as the crow flies, so I had no excuse to stay at home, barring a natural disaster such as a Thames flood
This became an issue during the not infrequent transport strikes of the 1970s & 1980s
The crow can fly over the gardens of Buckingham Palace. Pedestrians, on reaching Hyde Park Corner, must take a dog’s leg diversion through Green Park & St James’s, making the distance travelled to just over 4 miles
I sometimes liked to ponder what would happen were I ever to raise this as an issue with line management
Might the Queen (at whose pleasure I held my appointment under these terms & conditions) be persuaded to give me a key to the back entrance – to the solid, high, black, double wooden gates which I only ever saw open as an entrance for guests to the summer Garden Parties? I would promise not to cause any bother, just nip through as quickly, quietly & inconspicuously as possible
***
If you travel by double-decker bus round Hyde Park Corner & down Grosvenor Place you can look over the wall into the Palace garden, in the top corner of which, just inside the gates, there is a tennis court. In all my years of doing this journey I never, not once, saw anybody playing there. Even though the court was well maintained &, once, resurfaced in a different colour
One day, on that very bus, I was reading the collected works of Arthur Marshall
One was the tale of a London charlady who also often travelled this route. She was the mother of Doris, 14 years old & a promising tennis player. The (very English) problem was that Doris lacked a place where she could put in the necessary practice. Her mother conceived the idea of petitioning the Queen to seek permission for Doris to put her court to good use
I had to put the book away & try to recover myself. Stop being that mad woman corpsing & giggling uncontrollably to herself
One day, on that very bus, I was reading the collected works of Arthur Marshall
One was the tale of a London charlady who also often travelled this route. She was the mother of Doris, 14 years old & a promising tennis player. The (very English) problem was that Doris lacked a place where she could put in the necessary practice. Her mother conceived the idea of petitioning the Queen to seek permission for Doris to put her court to good use
I had to put the book away & try to recover myself. Stop being that mad woman corpsing & giggling uncontrollably to herself
***
It has recently been announced that the Queen is opening up the gardens to the public – a strictly limited number of opportunities for groups of 25, booked in advance
I wonder if visitors will get the opportunity to inspect the tennis court?
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