Richmond

Richmond, a town of Surrey, 8½ miles WSW. of London (by rail 9½, by river 16), stands partly on the summit and declivity of Richmond Hill, and partly on the level right bank of the Thames. The Terrace, stretching along the brow of the hill, commands an unrivalled prospect of hill and dale, woodland and winding stream; and one of the fairest river-views in England may be gained from Richmond Bridge, which, 100 yards long, was built in 1774-77 at a cost of £26,000. Only a gateway remains of the ancient royal palace of Sheen, where died Edward III., Richard II.'s queen, Anne of Bohemia, Henry VII., and Elizabeth, and which was rebuilt by Henry V. and Henry VII. (1499), who renamed the place Richmond after his own former earldom. That palace, which has memories also of Wolsey, Charles V., and many others, was dismantled in 1648; but the splendid deer-park, formed by Charles I. in 1634, remains. It covers 2253 acres; and its brick wall is nearly 8 miles in circumference. Scott here makes Jeanie Deans have her audience with Queen Caroline. The well-known 'Star and Garter,' which dates from 1738, was largely destroyed by fire in 1870, but rebuilt in 1872-74 at a cost of £24,000; its banqueting-house escaped, built by Barry in 1865. At the parish church are buried the poet Thomson, Kean, Lady Di Beaulerck, and Dr John Moore; and here, too, Swift's Stella was baptised. St Mathias' (1858) is a striking building by Scott, with a spire 195 feet high; and there are also a Wesleyan theological college (1834), a free library (1881), &c.; whilst Richmond worthies other than those above mentioned have been Reynolds, Gainsborough, Collins, and Earl Russell. Market and nursery gardening is a chief industry. Richmond was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1890. Pop. (1861) 7423; (1881) 19,066; (1891) 22,684. See R. Crisp's Richmond (1866); Round Richmond (1881); and E. B. Chancellor's Historical Richmond (1885).