HYDE PARK

Fashionable women stroll in the Rotten Row riding track, Hyde Park, London. park in the borough of Westminster, London. It covers more than 340 acres (138 hectares) and is bordered on the east by Mayfair and on the west by Kensington Gardens. The park shares a large curved lake with its western neighbour; the portion of the lake in Kensington Gardens is known as the Long Water, whereas the Hyde Park portion is called the Serpentine. The lake is used for boating in the summer and skating in the winter. In the park's northeastern corner, near Marble Arch, is Speakers' Corner, which has long been a centre of free speech for soapbox orators. Also in the park are the Hudson Bird Sanctuary, a bandstand, large fountains, a ranger's lodge, and, in the southeastern corner of the park, the statue of Achilles (1822), which recalls the duke of Wellington's victories. Not far from the statue, and nearly adjoining the park, is the Wellington Museum (1952), which is housed in a structure built in 177178. Nearby starts a celebrated riding track, Rotten Row, which traverses the park westward. Hyde Park was formerly a royal hunting preserve. It was opened to the public in the early 17th century. In 1851 it was the location of the Great Exhibition, which was held in the newly constructed Crystal Palace, a massive greenhouse-style exhibition hall that incorporated many of the park's trees under its roof. town (township) and unincorporated village, Dutchess county, eastern New York, U.S. It lies on the east side of the Hudson River, 8 miles (13 km) north of Poughkeepsie and about 75 miles (121 km) north of New York City. Both the village (settled as Stoutenburgh in 1741) and town (formed in 1821) bear the name of a local estate honouring Edward Hyde, Viscount Cornbury, who was governor of New York (170208). Primarily residential, Hyde Park was the birthplace and home of President Franklin D. Roosevelt; he and his wife, Eleanor, are buried there at his family estate (290 acres [117 hectares]), which has been a national historic site since 1944. The adjacent Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum contains some 44,000 books and houses Roosevelt's papers and memorabilia as well as a collection of material on U.S. and New York state history. Nearby is the Vanderbilt Mansion, which was designed in the Italian Renaissance style for Frederick W. Vanderbilt (a son of railroad magnate William Henry Vanderbilt) and constructed (189698) on the grounds of the original Hyde Park estate. The mansion was dedicated as a national historic site in 1940. Hyde Park is the seat of the Culinary Institute of America (founded 1946). Area 37 square miles (96 square km). Pop. (1990) 21,230; (1998 est.) 21,191. Fashionable women stroll in the Rotten Row riding track, Hyde Park, London. Hulton Getty Picture Collection/Tony Stone Images Hyde, Sir Nicholas died Aug. 25, 1631 Hyde also spelled Hide chief justice of England during the reign of Charles I. Sir Nicholas entered Parliament in 1601 and soon became prominent as an opponent of the court of James I, though he does not appear to have distinguished himself in the law. Before long, however, he deserted the popular party, and in 1626 he was employed by George Villiers, duke of Buckingham, in his defense to impeachment by the House of Commons. In the following year he was knighted and appointed chief justice of the king's bench, in which office it fell to him to give judgment in the celebrated case of Sir Thomas Darnell and others who had been committed to prison on warrants signed by members of the privy council, which contained no statement of the nature of the charge against the prisoners. In answer to the writ of habeas corpus the attorney-general relied on the prerogative of the crown, supported by a precedent of Queen Elizabeth I's reign. Hyde, three other judges concurring, decided in favour of the crown, but without going so far as to declare the right of the crown to refuse indefinitely to show cause against the discharge of the prisoners. In 1629 Hyde was one of the judges who condemned Eliot, Holles, and Valentine for conspiracy in Parliament to resist the King's orders; the judges refused to admit their plea that they could not be called upon to answer out of Parliament for acts done in Parliament.