Buckingham
House (Palace) in the Eighteenth Century
The
information in this article comes from a letter written by John Sheffield,
the Duke of Buckinghamshire, builder of the house, to the Duke of Shewsbury
sometime before Buckinghamshire's death in 1721.
The
building we now know as Buckingham Palace, was built originally as Buckingham
House in 1703 on the site of Mulberry Gardens (a place where, according
to legend, seventeenth century poets would wander in order to find inspiration;
more prosaically, this space was a walled garden for mulberry trees
built by James I in the early seventeenth century in the hope of kick-starting
England's silk industry).
During
the early eighteenth century the approaches to the house was via twin
avenues which ran through rows of stately elm and lime trees running
the length of St James' Park. The avenue of elm trees was for coaches,
that of the lime trees for those on foot. The avenues eventually terminated
in a iron palisaded square court, which had in its centre a great basin
with statues and water works. From this court a flight of steps led
to the house.
On
the very roof of Buckingham House, hidden from view, was a massive lead
cistern which held fifty tons of water which had been pumped up from
the Thames. This water was for watering the gardens of the house and
for supplying the various water works for the fountains etc. One reached
the garden at the back of the house by descending a flight of seven
steps leading to a grand walk that reached across the garden with a
covered arbor at the end of it.
Another
grand walk led from the front gardens through two groves of tall lime
trees, planted in several equal ranks, upon a carpet of grass. Tubs
of bay and orange trees (no doubt brought inside during winter) bordered
the lime tree groves.
For
a reasonably detailed plan of the gardens in 1720 visit the
parish map of St
Margaret's Westminster, the house and gardens are in the
upper right hand corner. For a rough plan of the garden and
of the area about it in the later 1700s, visit Richard
Horwood's plan and click on the thumbnail for more detail.
This plan was produced in the very late 1700s and while it is
highly doubtful it is in any way accurate, it will give you
an idea of the House - then the Queen's residence - and its
environs some ninety years after this description was penned.
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At the end of this broad walk one walked up to a terrace four hundred
paces long, with a large semi-circle in the middle, from where it was
possible to survey the Queen's two parks (Green Park and St James Park,
presumably, or perhaps even St George's and Hyde Park) and a great part
of Surrey. A few steps down led to the bank of a canal, 600 yards long
and 17 wide, with two rows of lime trees on either side of it.
On
one side of this terrace, a low wall, covered with roses and jessamines,
allowed a view of a meadow of cattle beyond. At each end the wall descended
into Parterres, with fountains and water works.
From
the biggest of these parterres the visitor wandered into a little square
garden with a fountain in its centre and two green houses on the sides
with a convenient bathing compartment in one of them. A flower garden
lay nearby.
Below
all of this was a kitchen garden, full of 'the best sort of fruits'
and which had several walks in it for the colder weather.
By
the late eighteenth century the 'goodly elms and gay flourishing limes'
were greatly decayed, the iron palisade had been replaced with a far
simpler fencing and the great basin and waterworks in the front court
had long since vanished. Many of the terraces in the main part of the
garden had similarly decayed.
In
1761 the house was purchased for £21,000 for the private and exclusive
use of Queen Charlotte, wife of George III. It was extensively rebuilt
into the palace we know today by her son, George IV. See a
view of the house in the early 1800s.