Cromwell, the Lord Protector of England, “picnicked” in Hyde Park in 1654. According to Cromwell’s secretary of state Edmund Ludlow, “His highness, only accompanied with secretary Thurloe and some few of his gentlemen and servants, went to take the air in Hyde-park, where he caused some dishes of meat to be brought; where he made his dinner.” Had Ludlow known the word picnic, it would have been appropriate. Instead, he uses the euphemism to take the air. But at the time, pique-nique was an obscure French word that had not crossed the Channel. By1845, Thomas Carlyle editing Cromwell’s letters, called the alfresco dinner a picnic because that’s what it was
Oliver Cromwell in 1654. Johann Martin Lerch after a print by Robert Walker.
The episode is notorious because, on his return, Cromwell got careless driving his high-spirited coach horses and lost control. The carriage overturned, and in the tumult, Cromwell’s pistol discharged. He suffered a superficial wound to his thigh, but Ludlow was laid up with a broken ankle for a week.
Featured Image: Cromwell’s unlucky accident ends a pleasant dinner in Hyde Park. The artist is unknown.
See Edmund Ludlow. The Memoirs of Edmund Ludlow, Lieutenant General of the Horse in the Army of the Commonwealth of England, 1625-1672, edited by C. H. Firth. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1894; Thomas Carlyle. Ed. Oliver Cromwell’s Letters and Speeches. Including Supplement to the Frist Edition 1845. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1868