2-982-325 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

House in Deptford in which Peter the Great resided, 1858. '...a large, square, brick-built house, situated in Hughes'-fields, was in a most dilapidated state, "the roof all but falling in." This house is of considerable historic interest, having been occupied for a short time by Peter the Great whilst working as a shipwright in Deptford Dockyard in 1689: we therefore snatch it from oblivion by giving an Engraving thereof...Sayes Court - the property of John Evelyn - was, in 1698, hired by William III. for the Czar...The house gloried in a garden which...was "the wonder and admiration of the greatest men of his time"...An opening was made in the dockyard wall - a path broken through the impregnable hedge - and, for exercise, the Czar every morning either wheeled his favourite Menzikoff, or was himself wheeled, in a barrow in every direction over the cherished beds, walks, and borders; trampling in three short weeks all into one general wreck...'. From "Illustrated London News", 1858.