Queen Victoria to Viscount Palmerston

[Osborne, 7th August 1855.]

The Queen has read Sir B. Hall's letter, and must say that she quite concurs in the advantage resulting from the playing of a band in Kensington Gardens on Sunday afternoon, a practice which has been maintained on the Terrace at Windsor through good and evil report, and she accordingly sanctions this proposal. [She would wish Lord Palmerston, however, to notice to Sir B. Hall that Hyde Park, although under the management of the Board of Works, is still a Royal Park, and that all the Regulations for opening and shutting gates, the protection of the grounds and police regulations, etc., etc., stand under the Ranger, who alone could give the order Sir B. Hall proposes to issue....]

Footnote 70: First Commissioner of Public Works; afterwards Lord Llanover.

Footnote 71: The Government granted permission for the Band to play, but the practice was discontinued in 1856. See post, p. 194, note 31.

Footnote 72: The portion of the letter within brackets was struck out of the draft by the Queen.