was for some time occupied as a school,
conducted by the Rev. Thomas Bowen, who published in 1798 'Thoughts on
the Necessity of Moral Discipline in Prisons.' After Mr. Bowen's death
in the following year, his widow, with the assistance of the Rev. Joshua
Ruddock, carried on the establishment until 1825, since which time Park
House became the occasional residence of Mr. Powell, of Quex, in the Isle
of Thanet, until his death in 1849. A cottage opposite (formerly
"Brunswick Cottage") was called "Rosamond's Bower," during the time the
late Mr. Crofton Croker lived in it (1837-46).

In a privately printed description of this cottage, when the residence of
Mr. Croker, of which but a very few copies were distributed to his
friends, Mr. Croker himself writes:--

"In what, it may be asked, originates the romantic name of
'Rosamond's Bower?' A question I shall endeavour to answer. The
curious reader will find from Lysons' 'Environs of London' (II. 359),
that the manor of Rosamonds is an estate near Parson's Green, in the
[Picture: Old Rosamond's Bower and Park House, from a Sketch made
about 1750] parish of Fulham. Lysons adds, 'the site of the mansion
belonging to this estate, now (1795) rented by a gardener, is said,
by tradition, to have been a palace of Fair Rosamond.' There seems
to be, however, no foundation beyond the name for this tradition, and
it is unnoticed by Faulkner in his 'History of Fulham,' published in
1813. He merely mentions, adjoining High Elms, or Park House, an old
dwelling, which 'ancient house,' continues Faulkner, 'appears to be
of the age of Elizabeth, and is commonly called Rosamond's Bower.'
This 'ancient house' was taken down by Mr. Powell, in the year 1826,
and the present stables of Park House are built upon the site. But I
have recently learned that the name of 'Rosamond's Dairy' is still
attached to an old house probably built between two and three hundred
years, which stands a little way back from the high-road at the
north-west corner of Parson's Green.

"I have always felt with Dr. Johnson that relics are venerable
things, and are only _not_ to be worshipped. When, therefore, I took
my cottage, in 1837, and was told that the oak staircase in it had
belonged to the veritable 'Rosamond's Bower,' and was the only relic
of it that existed; and when I found that the name had no longer a