Rotten Row and Hyde Park Corner

Items on Zazzle feature this images of Rotten Row and Hyde Park Corner. Click on the link to find a mousepad, coasters, and mug. The website states:

Rotten Row is a broad track running along the south side of Hyde Park in London, leading from Hyde Park Corner to the west. In its heyday in the 18th century, Rotten Row was a fashionable place for upper class Londoners to be seen. Today it is maintained as a place to ride horses in the centre of London...The name "Rotten Row" may be a corruption of the French 'Route de Roi' or King's Road. In the 18th century, Rotten Row became a popular meeting place for upper class Londoners. Particularly on weekend evenings, people would dress in their finest clothes in order to ride along the row and be seen. The adjacent South Carriage Drive was used by people in carriages for the same purpose.

An American in Regency England: From Richmond to Hyde Park Corner

From 1809 to 1811, Louis Simond, a French emigre who lived in America, spent 21 months in England. He chronicled his trip in journals, which he published as The Journal of a Tour and Residence in Great Britain.

I have in my possession a copy of his book, which has been retitled "An American in Regency England." Occasionally, I will post Simond's observations, as they seem as fresh now as the day he recorded them.

"January 11.--We arrived yesterday at Richmond. This morning I set out by myself for town, as London is called par excellence, in the stage-coach, crammed inside, and herisse outside with passengers, of all sexes, ages, and conditions. We stopped more than twenty times on the road--the debates about the fare of way-passengers--the settling themselves--the getting up, and the getting down, and damsels shewing their legs in the operation, and tearing and muddying their petticoats--complaining and swearing--took an immense time. I never saw any thing so ill managed. In about two hours we reached Hyde Park corner; I liked the appearance of it; but we were soon lost in a maze of busy, smoky, dirty streets, more and more so as we advanced."

Click here to find the Royal Parks, including Hyde Park and Richmond Park.