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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Hyde Park
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Large open space adjoining the *West End of London, forming with the adjacent *Kensington Gardens an unbroken 249ha/616ac of countryside. Hyde was the name of a piece of land here belonging to Westminster Abbey. At the *dissolution of the monasteries it was appropriated by Henry VIII, who turned it into a royal deer park. Open to the public from 1635, it became the haunt of highwaymen and duellists. Its present character derives from landscape gardening done for Queen Caroline, wife of George II; in 1730 she had the Westbourne stream dammed to form the lake known as the Serpentine (location of a 100-yd swimming race, the Peter Pan Cup, held each Christmas morning).
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*Rotten Row runs along the south side of the park. The southwest corner was the site of the *Crystal Palace; in the southeast corner is Achilles, a nude heroic figure by *Westmacott erected in 1822 in honour of Wellington and his companions by 'their countrywomen' (it is placed so as to be visible from the duke's nearby residence, *Apsley House); and to the northeast there is *Marble Arch and *Speakers' Corner.
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