This section is from "The Horticulturist, And Journal Of Rural Art And Rural Taste", by P. Barry, A. J. Downing, J. Jay Smith, Peter B. Mead, F. W. Woodward, Henry T. Williams. Also available from Amazon: Horticulturist and Journal of Rural Art and Rural Taste.
Will you permit me with the greatest respect, to correct what appears to be an error in one of your most interesting letters on the parks of London, which has been copied into several of the papers. It is regarding the spot where Henry the 8th is said to have waited, for the signal of Anns Boleyn's execution. I never before heard of its being in Richmond Park, although that version of the legend has, since I saw your letter, been repeated to me by two young Englishmen. I, who lived in London some thirty years, always understood it was in Epping Forest, much nearer the Tower than Richmond, at which last, I very much doubt whether the small guns of the period, could have been heard, unless under particular circumstances of the air and wind. The story how-ever, although highly probable is not mentioned by Hollingshead, Hall or Fabyn, nor in Miss Strickland's life of Anne, all of which I have consulted. It is however given in one of the very useful pictorial folios published by C. Knight & Co., and also in that volume of the Edinburgh Cabinet Library wherein the life of Henry occurs, written by Patrick Fraser Tyler - -no mean authority although he gives it as a tradition; I beg leave to inclose the following extract from the work for your further information. "That Henry waited with unfeeling impatience for the death of Anne is certain; and a tradition is yet preserved in Epping Forest, which strikingly illustrates this fact.
On the morning of the day which was to be her last, he went to hunt in that district, and as he breakfasted, surrounded by his train and his hounds, under a spreading oak which is still shown, he listened from time to time with a look of intense anxiety. At length the sound of a distant gun boomed through the wood. It was a preconcerted signal, and marked the moment when the execution was completed. ' Ah, ah! it is done,' said he, starting up, ' the business is done; uncouple the dogs and let us follow the sport.' On the succeeding morning he was married to Jane Seymour." - vide life of King Henry the eighth, by P. F. Tytler - Edin. 1887 - p. 888, Edinburg Cabinet Library. I have my doubts whether Richmond Park ever was a hunting ground - but Epping Forest was, from the earliest records, and so continues to the present day, or did, until within a few years - and an annual hunt according to charter, was always given on Easter Monday to all citizens of London who chose to attend it. Tour obd't. servt.
Robert Balmanno. N. F., June 27, 1851.
 
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