Rustling Green is midway between Knebworth and St. Paul’s Walden Parks.  The district is prettily diversified by small woods.  By the shortest way through the park Knebworth Station is about 31/2 miles E.

THE RYE HOUSE, on the W. bank of the river Lea, is a famous resort of fishermen, excursionists and folk wishing to see the Great Bed of Ware, brought here from Ware in 1869.  The bed is a huge construction of solid oak, quaintly carved, and large enough to hold twelve adults, as is proved by a story which can readily be found by the curious, but which is unfit for repetition in these pages.  It is alluded to by Shakespeare, Byron and other writers.  The present Rye House is modern, but attached to it are some remains of the old House, some account of which must be given here.

In his description of the “Mannor of the Rye” Chauncy says, “King Henry VI. granted licence to Andrew Ogard and others, that they might impark the scite of the Mannor of Rye, otherwise called the Isle of Rye in Stansted Abbot, fifty Acres of Land, eleven Acres of Meadow, eight Acres of Pasture and Sixteen Acres of Wood, erect a Castle there with Lime and Stone, make Battlements and Loopholes &c."[6] The castle built by Ogard passed into the hands of the Baesh family; it was doubtless in part rebuilt at different times, for what remains of it is of brick.  In course of time it became the property of Lieut., afterwards Col., Rumbold, known as “Hannibal” among his associates, who had been a private in Fairfax’s famous regiment of 1648.  This man was the originator of the Rye House Plot.

[Footnote 6:  Hist.  Antiq. of Hertfordshire, etc., vol. i., p. 383, ed. 1826.]

The story of that plot may be recapitulated in few words.  In the spring of 1683 Charles II. and James Duke of York were at Newmarket.  Rumbold and some of his ultra-Republican friends heard that the Royal party would return to London by way of Rye House.  They met together and arranged to secrete some men in the house, to create a disturbance as the King passed and to kill him in the confusion which would follow.  The King escaped—­probably, as most writers agree, because he left Newmarket earlier than was expected.  The plot soon became known, the Rye House was searched and many persons were charged with High Treason.  Two illustrious men became implicated, through the allegations of Howard of Escrick and others—­Algernon Sidney and Lord Russell.  Both were certainly innocent, but both were beheaded, and Russell was buried at Chenies in Bucks (almost on the Herts border).  Rumbold fled to Holland, joined the expedition which Argyle headed in Scotland, and was hanged in Edinburgh in 1685.  Visitors to the neighbourhood of the Rye House will perhaps be assured that Rumbold suffered on a tree near by, but such was not the case.