PRIVATE GARDENS
_Even in the stifling bosom of a town
A garden, in which nothing thrives, has charms
That soothe the rich possessor_; ...
--COWPER.
In writing of the private gardens of London it is difficult to know
where to begin. There are a few large and beautiful gardens, but for
the most part the smaller they are, and the less there is to write
about them of interest to the general reader, the more they are of
value to the happy possessors. It is the minute back-garden, invaded
by all the cats of the neighbourhood, with a few plants on which an
infinity of time and trouble, care and thought, have been expended,
that is the real typical London garden. What a joy to see the patches
of seeds come up in the summer, and with what expectation are the buds
on the one lilac bush examined to see if really at last it is going to
flower! What pleasure the fern dug up on a summer holiday gives, as it
bravely uncurls its fronds year by year! What delight is occasioned if
the Virginian creeper, which covers the wall, grows more luxuriantly
than those of the houses on either side, and what excitement if it
really turns red once in a way in October, instead of shrivelling up
to an inglorious end! What grief is felt when the fuchsia, purchased
as a fitting centre-piece to the formal geranium bed, loses its
buds one by one before they expand! These and many similar joys and
sorrows are the portion of those who tend small gardens in London.
How fascinating it is to look into back-gardens as the train passes
over viaducts out of the heart of the town. Certainly the differences
in their appearance show what skill and devotion can accomplish.
Nothing but real love of the plants, and a tender solicitude for their
welfare, can induce them to exist in the confined areas and stifling
atmosphere of the average London garden. But even these inauspicious
surroundings may be brightened by flowers. When those absolutely
ignorant of the requirements of plant life take to gardening in the
country, they have Nature at hand to help them. The sunlight, air,
and good soil supplement their deficiencies of knowledge, and, though
terribly handicapped by careless planting, unsuitable situations, want
of water, and such drawbacks, the plants can struggle with success to
maintain their natural beauty. But let the ignorant try in town to
grow plants, where all the conditions militate against them, instead
of assisting, and the results are very different. For instance, many a
small back-garden, or even window box, is planted year after year with
no renewal of the soil. The crumbling mould, which is either caked hard
or pours like dust from the hand, is completely exhausted, and the poor
plants are starved. They should be given plenty of what in gardeners’
slang is called “good stuff,” if they are to grow in such adverse
conditions. A little of the money expended on plants which dwindle
and die, spent on manure or good soil, would better repay the would-be
gardener. Many plants require a good deal of water when making their
growth, and if that is denied them they will not thrive, no matter
how great the solicitude for their welfare in other ways. Washing
the leaves, especially of evergreens, and scrubbing stems is also a
great help, as leaves choked with dirt have no chance of imbibing the
life-giving properties necessary to the plant.
The back-garden has many enemies besides soot and fogs. Cats are one
of the greatest trials, and most destructive. Sparrows also are very
mischievous. They will pick the flower-buds off trees just at the
critical moment. A wistaria climber laden with young blossoms they
will destroy in a few days, just before the purple buds appear. But,
notwithstanding all these pests and difficulties, it is surprising how
many things will not only survive, but grow well. The task becomes
more and more easy as the houses recede from the City. In St. John’s
Wood, Bayswater, or Earl’s Court, in Camberwell or Stoke Newington,
plants will grow better than in Bloomsbury or Southwark. But yet it is
possible to grow many things even in Whitechapel.
It is impossible to prescribe the best plants for all London gardens,
as there is such a great difference in soil and aspect, that what
does well in one part will not flourish in another. The heavy soil of
Regent’s Park, for instance, is well suited to peonies, which do not
seem at home in Chelsea. On the other hand, some of the showy, hardy
spring flowers, such as wallflowers and forget-me-nots, die off with
fogs much more quickly in the Regent’s Park than in other districts.
Any deciduous tree or shrub thrives better than an evergreen or
a conifer in any part of London. The fresh growth of clean leaves
every year, by which the plant absorbs much of its nourishment, must
necessarily be better for it than dried-up, blackened leaves. Among
flowering shrubs, a great number grow sturdily in London. Laburnums
of all kinds, thorns in many varieties, flower well; lilacs grow and
look fresh and green everywhere, but cannot be depended on always
to flower; almonds, snowy medlars, double cherries, weigelas or
diervillas succeed; broom, Forsythias, acacia, syringa, many kinds
of prunus, ribes, rose acacia, Guelder rose, Japanese red peach,
_Kerria japonica_, _Hibiscus Syriacus_, or _Althæa frutex_, are all
satisfactory, and many more could be mentioned. _Yucca gloriosa_ will
stand any amount of smoke, and _Aralia spinosa_ does well in many
parts; and among evergreens, _Arbutus Andrachne_ can be recommended.
Fruit-trees, pears, and apples are charming when in bloom, and in a
large space, or to cover a wall, figs are valuable.
Alpines grow astonishingly well, and though a considerable percentage
will die from the alternating damp fogs and frost in the winter, many
will really establish themselves, and be quite at home, much nearer
the heart of London than Dulwich, where many have been cultivated. “I
know a bank whereon the wild thyme grows” in London--not a green, mossy
bank, but rather a blackened rockery; still the slope is really covered
with large patches of wild thyme, purple with bloom in the summer,
carefully marked by the London County Council “_Thymus serpyllum_,” for
the benefit of the inquiring. Several of the other thymes, which form
good carpets, will also grow. _Antennaria dioica_, a British plant,
forms a pretty silvery groundwork on beds or rockeries, and nothing
seems to kill it. Saxifrages in great numbers are suitable, beginning
with the well-known mossy green _hypnoides_, to the giant known as
_Megasia cordifolia_, also sedums, semper-viviums, aubrietias, phloxes,
tiarella, dianthus in variety; and several other Alpines have succeeded
in different parks and gardens, such as _Androsace sarmentosa_, _Dryas
octopetala_, yellow fumitory, _Cotoneaster frigida_, the small ivy
_Hedera conglomerata_, _Achillea tormentosa_, _Lychnis Haageana_,
_Linnæa borealis_, _Azalea procumbens_, _Campanula garganica_, only
to mention some that have been noticed; even edelweiss has been
successfully grown in the centre of London.
A few annuals will make a good show, and nothing is better in a
window-box or really dingy corner than Virginian stock; but, as a rule,
it repays trouble best to rear perennials. Seedling wallflowers, sweet
Williams and Canterbury bells, and such like, make a border bright. The
great secret of success in growing annuals is to thin them out well;
the patches of seedlings are too often left far too much overcrowded.
This “thinning” is even more important than good soil and careful
watering. Marigolds thrive best of all, and will often seed themselves,
but a few other annuals can be safely recommended.
Candytuft.
Catchfly. (Silene pendula and
armeria).
Erysinum perofskianum (a kind of
Treacle mustard).
Eschscholzia.
Flax (scarlet).
Godetias.
Ionopsidium acaule (violet cress).
Larkspur (annual).
Love-in-a-mist (Nigella).
Nasturtiums.
Phlox drummondi.
Snapdragon (Antirrhinum).
Toadflax (Linaria).
Very many things may succeed well that are not specially noted here,
but the following list of fifty herbaceous plants have all been seen
really growing, and coming up, year after year, in private gardens
in London. Some are not so sturdy as others; for instance, neither
alyssum nor phlox flourish as well as thrift or the members of the iris
tribe, but all are hardy in London. Thomas Fairchild, who had a famous
nursery garden at Hoxton, writing of City gardens in 1722, gives his
experience of plants that succeed best, and many on his list are those
that do well still. He specially notes some growing in the most shut-in
parts of the City, which were flourishing: fraxinella in Aldermanbury,
monkshood and lily of the valley near the Guildhall, bladder senna
in Crutched Friars, and so on, mentioning many of those which still
prove the most smoke-resisting. One large, coarse, but handsome plant
deserves mention, as it grows so well it will seed itself, and that
is the giant heracleum. It propagates itself in the garden of Lowther
Lodge, Kensington Gore, and in much more confined spaces, even in the
garden used by the London Hospital, near the Mile End Road.
LIST OF FIFTY HERBACEOUS PLANTS
Alyssum.
Auricula.
Bachelors’ buttons.
Buglos.
Campanula--several varieties.
Candytuft.
Carnations.
Centaurea.
Chrysanthemums.
Columbines.
Comfrey.
Crane’s bill.
Creeping Jenny.
Crown Imperial.
Cyclamen.
Day lilies.
Dictamnus fraxinella (burning bush).
Doronicum (leopard’s bane).
Erigeron (Fleabane).
Funkias (Plantain lilies).
Galega officinalis.
Golden rod (solidago).
Heucheras.
Hollyhocks.
Iris--several varieties, especially those with rhizomes and
non-bulbous roots.
Japanese anemone.
Larkspur.
Lilies of the valley.
Lilies--
Canadense.
Candidum.
Davuricum.
Lancifolium (speciosum).
Martagon dalmaticum.
Pyrenaicum.
Tigrinum.
London Pride (also many other Saxifrages).
Lupin.
Mallow.
Michaelmas daisies.
Monkshood.
Montbretia.
Pansies.
Periwinkle.
Phlox.
Polygonum.
Primroses (also Japanese primulas, cowslips, and polyanthus).
Pyrethrum.
Rock roses.
Solomon’s seal.
Southernwood.
Speedwell (Veronica amethystina and others).
Spiræa (S. aruncus, venusta, &c.).
Sunflower (perennial, including Harpalium).
Thrift.
Tradescantia.
Trollius.
Of climbing plants the Virginian creeper, which makes a green bower
of so many London houses, must come first, but the real grape vine is
quite as successful. In several parts of London vines laden with grapes
may be seen in the autumn, by those on the look-out for such things.
One vine in Buckingham Gate had forty bunches of fruit that ripened in
1906. On one branch of a vine, near Ladbroke Square, fourteen purple
bunches were hanging in a row at the same time, and in other parts of
the town well-cared-for vines will bear well. Wistaria also thrives,
and jasmine, yellow or white, and ivy. Besides these in constant use,
for more special gardens there are Everlasting peas, Dutchman’s pipe
(_Aristolochia_), clematis, Jackmani, Montana, or the Wild Traveller’s
Joy, and Passion flower; also convolvulus, _Cobæa scandens_, and gourds
of all kinds for the summer.
Spring flowers planted in autumn succeed, and even those in pots
or boxes in windows or on roof gardens flower freely. Hyacinths,
crocus, tulips, daffodils, and narcissus do well; snowdrops are not so
successful as a rule, but Spanish Iris will make a good show when the
earlier bulbs are over. The minute green-house which often opens out of
a staircase window in London houses can easily be made gay in spring
by this means. Acorns and chestnuts sown in the autumn in shallow pans
and covered with moss make a delightful small forest from May onwards.
Foxgloves dug out of the woods will flower well in these dingy little
green-houses, and are a delightful contrast to the ferns which will
flourish best in them. A few other plants are sturdy for this purpose,
such as the fan palms, _Chamærops excelsa_, _Fortunei_, and _humilis_,
Aspidistra, _Aralia Sieboldii_, _Selaginella Kraussina_, the Cornish
money-wort (Sibthorpia). Geraniums will flower well, and Imantophyllums
(or Clivias) are one of the most accommodating plants for such small
green-houses, as although they take up an undue share of room on
account of the large pots necessary, they will flower well every year.
[Illustration: THE GARDEN OF SIR LAURENCE ALMA-TADEMA, R.A.]
Roses only do fairly well; but though they sometimes will last two
or three years, they are apt to give disappointments and must often
be renewed. The climbing roses, however, in some gardens are very
charming. In one of the prettiest in London--that belonging to Sir
Laurence Alma-Tadema, in Grove End Road--the illustration shows how
charmingly an iron trellis is covered with red and white roses. The
garden is most artistically arranged and is a good illustration of
how much can be made of a small space. A large evergreen oak overhangs
the basin with a stone margin and splashing fountain, on which
water-lilies gracefully float. The variety and harmony of the whole
garden, with its paths shaded by fig-trees, apples and pears, cherries
and lilacs, sunny borders with Scotch roses, Day lilies, foxgloves,
and iris, and formal fountains, all in a small space, yet not crowded,
and bright with flowers, is delightful. Another small garden in
Kensington--tended by Lady Bergne--of quite another type, contains
nearly all the flowers that have been mentioned as growing well in
London. It is only the stereotyped long narrow strip at the back of
the house; but by putting a path and rock-work and pools of water on
one side, and having grass and flower borders on the other, backed by
flowering shrubs and ferns at the shaded end, a great variety of plants
have been grown successfully.
In most London gardens very little enterprise is shown. The old system
of bedding out is adhered to. Of the large London houses standing by
their own lawns, none have gardens of any horticultural interest.
Montagu House is on the site of the extensive gardens of Whitehall, and
the present lawn is where the bowling green, with its gay throng of
players, lay in former years, and the terrace keeps up the tradition
of the wide terraces that descended from the palace to the green. The
turf is still fair and green, and is brightened in summer by lines of
geraniums, white daisies, and calceolarias. Devonshire House garden,
on the site of the famous one belonging to Berkeley House that covered
all the present Square, is in the same way merely planted with the
usual summer bedding plants. Lord Portman’s house, 22 Portman Square,
is where Mrs. Montagu, the Queen of the Blue-Stockings, held her
court. The present garden, with spacious lawn, has no horticultural
peculiarity, but its historical interest lies in the fact that it
was here that Mrs. Montagu entertained the chimney-sweeps, every
year on the 1st of May. She is said to have done so, to give these
poor children “one happy day in the year,” and when the horrors and
tragedies attending the lives and often deaths of these cruelly treated
little creatures is realised, it is not to be wondered at that one lady
was humane enough to befriend them.
A quaint pathetic poem by Allan Cunningham, written in 1824, records
in characteristically stilted language an incident supposed to have
occurred to Mrs. Montagu. A sad boy, whose life was spent in climbing
flues, is pictured, and one lady he supplicates turns away--“And lo!
another lady came,” and spoke kindly to him, asked him why he thus
spent his life, listened to his tale of how he was an orphan and “sold
to this cruel trade.”
“She stroked the sooty locks and smiled,
While o’er the dusky boy,
As streams the sunbeam through a cloud,
There came a flash of joy.
She took him from his cruel trade,
And soon the milk-white hue
Came to his neck; he with the muse
Sings, ‘Bless the Montagu.’”
Her kindness is recorded in other poems, and in her lifetime took the
practical shape of a sumptuous spread of beef and plum-pudding on the
lawn of her house in Portman Square.
Grosvenor House garden, with terrace and lawn sloping down to large
trees, has natural advantages for a beautiful garden, but a row of
beds along the terrace are the only flowers. The owners of these large
London gardens have such an abundance of floral display elsewhere that
no real gardening seems to be attempted. To understand what are the
horticultural possibilities of London, it is in the minute back-garden
that the lesson must be learned, and the subject studied. Holland House
is an exception to this rule, for there the most beautiful garden, in
keeping with the magnificent old house, is kept up, and the greatest
care and skill were bestowed on it with wonderful results by the late
Earl of Ilchester.
[Illustration: THE LILY POND, HOLLAND HOUSE]
No house, perhaps, has more associations than Holland House. Its
history has been so often written, that to go over it in detail would
be superfluous. Built by Sir Walter Cope, while Elizabeth was on
the throne, from the designs of Thorpe, it doubtless from the first
had a good garden, as in those days great care was expended on the
surroundings of a house, for people realised, as did Bacon, that, “men
come to build stately, sooner than to garden finely; as if gardening
were the greater perfection.” The second stage in its history, when
it passed to Henry Rich, through his marriage with Sir Walter Cope’s
daughter and heiress, was even more eventful. He enlarged the house,
which became known as Holland House after Charles I. had created him
Baron Kensington and Earl of Holland. His wonderful personal charm,
inherited from his mother, the “Stella” of Sir Philip Sidney, made
him a general favourite; but not even his attachment to the Queen
preserved him from disloyalty, although in the end he fought for
the King’s cause. While he was on the Parliamentary side, Holland
House was often the meeting-place of its leaders. Cromwell and Ireton
talked together in the centre of the field in front of the house, so
that their raised voices, occasioned by Ireton’s deafness, should not
be overheard. For a time after the Restoration, Holland House was
tenanted by various people of note, to whom it was let out in suites
by the widowed Countess. One among them, the Frenchman Chardin, who
became famous by his travels to Persia, it has been surmised, may
have brought some of the rare plants to the garden. The connection
with Addison came from his marriage with the Dowager Lady Warwick, to
whom the house belonged, the second Lord Holland having succeeded his
cousin as Earl of Warwick. He must have delighted in the gardens of
Holland House, although they were hardly so wild as the ideal one he
describes in the _Spectator_. There he said, “I look upon the pleasure
which we take in a garden as one of the most innocent delights in human
life.” No doubt he found some solace in the beauties of Holland House
garden to cheer the depression of the unhappiness the marriage had
brought him. The brilliant days of Holland House continued after it
changed hands, and was owned by Henry Fox, second son of Sir Stephen
Fox, who was chiefly instrumental in starting Chelsea Hospital. Henry
Fox eloped with Lady Caroline Lennox, and was afterwards created
Lord Holland. He took great interest in his garden, and was advised
and helped by the well-known collector and horticulturist, Peter
Collinson. This friend was the means of introducing many new plants
to this country--a genus Collinsonia was named after him--and he
must have been pleasant and good besides, for his biographer says to
him was attached “all that respect which is due to benevolence and
virtue.” He was in correspondence with leading men in America, and was
constantly receiving seeds and plants, and his own garden contained
“a more complete assortment of the _orchis_ genus than, perhaps, had
ever been seen in one collection before.” No doubt some found their way
to the gardens of his friend, Lord Holland. How astonished they both
would be could they peep for a moment at the orchids displayed in the
tents of the Horticultural Society’s shows, which have been allowed
to take place in the park where Cromwell conversed? At this time the
gardens must have been considerably remodelled, as the taste for the
formal was waning, and the “natural” school taking its place. One of
the pioneers of the natural style, Charles Hamilton, assisted the new
design. His own place, Painshill, near Cobham, in Surrey, embraced
all the newest ideas, groves, thickets, lakes, temples, grottos, sham
ruins, and hermitages. A contemporary admirer, Wheatley, says of
Painshill, it “is all a new creation; and a boldness of design, and
a happiness of execution attend the wonderful efforts which art has
there made to rival nature.” No doubt this adept in the new art would
introduce many changes. The “Green Lane” was a road shut up by Lady
Holland, and Hamilton is said to have suggested turfing it. He appears
to have been fond of woodland glades and turfed the shaded walks in his
own creation, so it seems very likely that the idea of grass was his.
In the Green Lane, Charles James Fox, son of the first Lady Holland,
who closed the road, loved to walk, and still the Green Lane is one
of the most attractive spots in all London. The fame of Holland House
increased as time went on, and some of its most brilliant days were
during the time of the third Lord Holland, when Lady Holland drew all
the wit and fashion of London to her salon. Although it is no longer
a country place, and though no highwaymen have to be braved to reach
it, and though its surroundings are completely changed, the garden of
Holland House was never more beautiful than it is to-day. It is easy to
forget it is a London garden, the flowers look so clean and fresh. The
long vista into the rose garden from the lawn, which lies to the north,
is flanked on either side with pink roses, that pretty free-flowering
Caroline Testout. To the west, overlooking the Dutch garden, the view
is even more attractive, and the garden so well harmonises with the
house that it is easy to picture the beaux in wigs, and ladies in
hoops and powder, moving among the box-edged beds. On the south, the
wide terrace shown in the sketch was made in 1848, when the footpath
was altered and the entrance to the house changed to the eastern side.
The stone basin in the centre was put in by the late Lord Ilchester.
The hybrid water-lilies, raised by Marliac, grow well in it, and that
rather delicate, but most beautiful of the Sagittarias, _montevidensis_
has flowered there. The raised terrace on the arches of the old
stables, which encloses one side of the garden and is covered with a
tangle of ivy, affords a charming view over the Dutch garden. Beyond is
the old ballroom, orangery and garden enclosed by arches of cut limes.
A terrace runs to the south of the Dutch garden and orangery, and the
Italian garden which lies here is in itself as complete a contrast to
the box-edged beds of the Dutch garden as is the Japanese garden,
a new addition which lies further to the north. It was near here that
the fatal duel between Lord Camelford and Colonel Best took place in
1804. There is yet another small enclosed garden cut off by thick yew
hedges and fat hollies from the rest. In it is the seat inscribed with
lines to the poet Rogers:--
“Here Rogers sat, and here forever dwell
With me those Pleasures that he sings so well.”
In this garden, year by year, dahlias have grown ever since they were
first successfully grown in England. In 1789 the dahlia came for the
first time from the New World to the Old. It was then sent to Spain,
and that same year Lady Bute procured some from Madrid. She was not,
however, successful in growing it and it quite died out, until it
was reintroduced by Lady Holland in 1804. The plants remained rare
in England for some years. It was being grown in France, Germany,
and Holland, but little had been done to improve the original plant.
When, however, a larger supply was available in England after 1814,
the English growers took it up, and produced, before long, the round
very double flowers which soon became the rage. In stilted style a
writer in 1824 describes the dahlia mania, after giving the history of
its introduction. “It was left to English capital and perseverance,”
he says, “to illuminate the northern part of the globe by the full
brilliancy of these floral luminaries.” Thus in extravagant language
he continues to sing the praises of the dahlia. It is curious that
the name is now generally pronounced as if it were “dalea,” forgetful
of the fact that there is a flower, something like a vetch, called
“Dalea” by Linnæus, after Dr. Samuel Dale, who died in 1739, a
well-known botanist and friend of Ray. The dahlia was named long after
in honour of the Swedish botanist Dahl.
The so-called “Japanese garden” was made by the late Lord Ilchester. It
is extremely pretty, but is entirely an English idea of what a Japanese
garden is like, and, however pleasing it may be to the uninitiated,
would probably shock the Japanese gardener, who is guided by as precise
rules in his garden, as the painter in his art. In Japan the rules
governing the laying-out of a garden are so exact that, apparently, it
requires years of study to acquire the rudiments. The Japanese garden
at Holland House, which is pleasing to the English eye, consists of a
little stream descending through grassy lawns, with groups of plants,
a stone lantern, and rustic bridges, and water plants at each little
pond. The delightful _Iris kæmpferi_ flowers well, and yuccas, which,
by the way, come from America, and not Japan; neither do _Aralia
spinosa_ or _Saxifraga peltata_, which together form charming groups,
with auratum lilies in the summer and other Japanese plants. The French
hybrid water-lilies, of varying shades of pink, red, and yellow, here
too make a picture, with their brilliant blossoms floating on the
miniature pools--while bamboos, maples, and eulalias, true natives of
Japan, make a soft and feathery background. Above the Japanese garden
there is a well-furnished rock garden, and between that and the roses,
which make such a grand display on the north of the house, green walks
through rhododendrons and flowering shrubs unite the gardens. There
are some really fine trees, as well as all the charming flowers, in
the grounds. Near the bridge leading to the Japanese garden there is
a beautiful evergreen oak and rare forest trees, while on the lawn
some old cedars, planted by Charles James Fox, are showing signs of
decrepitude, although the delightful picturesque effect a cedar always
has, adds one more to the many charms of this, the most beautiful as
well as the largest of London gardens.
There is a charming group of houses standing in their own grounds
still left on Campden Hill, although Campden House has been demolished
and its site built over within the last few years. The property on
which Campden House stood, and some authorities say the house itself,
was won over some game of chance in James I.’s time by Sir Baptist
Hicks, afterwards Viscount Campden, from Sir Walter Cope, the builder
of Holland House, hard by. It was to Campden House that Queen Anne’s
little son, the Duke of Gloucester, was taken for country air. The air
is still pleasant on these heights, and the open tract of Holland Park
gives so much freshness that plants flourish wonderfully. There are
good gardens attached to many of the houses--Cam House, Blundell House,
Aubrey House, Thornwood, Holly, and Moray Lodges, and several others.
Holly Lodge is noteworthy as having for a few years been the residence
of Lord Macaulay. There are some charming trees in the grounds, even
yews (which are among the first to suffer from smoke) looking well;
a good old mulberry and silver elms, and a camellia in a border near
the wall, which often flowers out of doors, although some years the
half-open buds drop off from the effects of frosty fogs.
Cam House has one of the most charming gardens. It is now lived in by
Sir Walter Phillimore, and has been in his family for some 150 years.
It was well known as Argyll Lodge, as the late Duke bought the lease
and made it his town residence from the time he first took office in
Lord Aberdeen’s ministry in 1852. Before that it was known as Bedford
Lodge, as the Duchess of Bedford, step-mother of Lord John Russell,
the Prime Minister, had lived there and laid out and planted most of
the garden. The “two very old oaks, which,” wrote the Duke of Argyll,
“would have done no discredit to any ancient chase in England,” are
still to be seen. The Duke was also delighted with the wild birds
which there made their homes in the garden; in fact, he says in his
Memoirs, it was the sight of the “fine lawn covered with starlings,
hunting for grubs and insects in their very peculiar fashion,” the
nut-hatches “moving over the trees, as if they were in some deep
English woodland,” the fly-catchers and the warblers, that made him
decide to take the house. During the half-century he lived there many
of the birds, the fly catchers, reed-wren, black cap, and willow-wren,
and nut-hatches, deserted the garden, but even now starlings and
wood-pigeons abound, and, what is even more rare in London, squirrels
may be seen swinging from branch to branch of the old trees. Besides
the two old pollard oaks there are good beech and copper-beech, elder,
chestnuts, snowy medlar, sycamore, several varieties of thorn, and
a large Scotch laburnum, _Laburnum alpinum_, which flowers later
than the ordinary laburnum, and is therefore valuable to prolong the
season of these golden showers. The leaves are broader and darker,
and growth more spreading. On the vine trellis is a curious old vine
with strongly scented flowers. All the plants which thrive in London
are well grown in the charming formal garden and along the old wall,
which is covered with delicious climbing plants. So luxuriously will
some flowers grow, that the hollyhocks from this garden took the prize
at the horticultural show held in the grounds of Holland House, in a
competition open to all the gardens in the Kingdom.
At Fulham there is a charming garden, with trees which would be
remarkable anywhere, and appear still more beautiful from their
proximity to London. These trees in the grounds of Broom House have
fared on the whole better than those at Fulham Palace, hard by. It is
separated from the Palace by the grounds now attached to the club of
Hurlingham. Of Hurlingham there is not much early history. Faulkner,
the authority for this district, writes in 1813: “Hurlingham Field is
now the property of the Earl of Ranelagh and the site of his house. It
was here that great numbers of people were buried during the Plague.”
The same authority mentions: “The Dowager Countess of Lonsdale has
an elegant house and gardens here in full view of the Thames,” and
Broom House is shown on Rocque’s map of 1757. The estate was bought
by Mr. Sulivan from the Nepean family in 1824, and his daughter, Miss
Sulivan, keeps up the garden with the utmost good taste and knowledge
of horticulture. The ailanthus, with a trunk 10 feet 4 inches in girth
at 4 feet from the ground, is probably one of the finest specimens in
England. The one in Fulham Palace garden is exactly the same girth, but
does not appear to be so lofty. The liquidamber is also a magnificent
tree, and the false acacia is quite as fine as the one in Fulham
Palace, and was probably planted at the same time. There are still
two cedars left, although the finest was blown down some years ago,
and the timber afforded panelling for a large room and many pieces of
furniture. Perhaps the most beautiful of the trees is the copper or
purple beech. Not only is it very tall and has a massive trunk (14 feet
6 inches at 2 feet from the ground), but the shape is quite perfect,
and its branches are furnished evenly all round. There are also good
evergreen oaks, elms, chestnuts and Scotch firs. There is a large
collection of flowering shrubs, which are in no way affected by the
smoky air. Standard magnolias, grandiflora, conspicua and stellata,
many varieties of the delightful autumn-flowering plant, the _Hibiscus
syriacus_, known to older gardeners as _Althæa frutex_, and recommended
under that name by Fairchild in 1722 as suited to London, _Cratægus
pyracantha_, _Choysia_, _Pyrus spectabilis_, and many other equally
delightful shrubs all appear most flourishing. These, together with
herbaceous plants and ornamental trees, well grouped in a garden of
good design, with the river flowing at the foot of it, make the grounds
of Broom House rank among the most attractive about London.
[Illustration: ST. JOHN’S LODGE, REGENT’S PARK]
A few of the gardens, like this one, have succeeded in keeping the
real stamp of the country, in spite of the encroachments of the town
and the advance of trams and motor omnibuses, but they are every day
becoming more scarce. Hampstead and Highgate have many such, and here
and there, to the north and on the south of the river, such delightful
spots are to be found, although the temptation to cut them up and build
small red villas on the sites is very great. Towards the north of
London there are many small gardens which are bright and attractive,
and without going so far as Hampstead, pleached walks and small but
tastefully arranged grounds are met with. Within Regent’s Park
there are several charming gardens round the detached villas, which
have been already noticed in the chapter on that Park. The two most
interesting from a horticultural point of view are St. Katharine’s and
St. John’s Lodges. The fountain in the former is the frontispiece to
this volume, and that view says more than any elaborate description.
It might be in some far-away Italian garden, so perfectly are the
sights and sounds of London obliterated. On a still, hot day, when
the fountain drips with a cool sound and there is a shimmering light
of summer over the distant trees beyond the terrace, the delusion is
perfect. Most of the herbaceous plants which take kindly to London grow
in the border--hollyhocks, day lilies, poppies, peonies, pulmoneria
and lilies, while there is a large variety of flowering shrubs--ribes,
lilacs, buddleias, shumachs and _Aralia spinosa_. The kitchen-garden
produces good crops of most of the ordinary vegetables. The garden is
arranged with a definite design; there is nothing specially formal,
no cut trees or anything associated with some of the formal ideas in
England, but there is method in the design; the trees and plants grow
as Nature intended them, but they are not stuck about in incongruous
disorder and meaningless, distorted lines, as is so often thought
necessary, in designing a garden or “improving” a park.
St. John’s Lodge has also a well-thought-out garden, some of it of a
distinctly formal type. The coloured illustration of it is taken from
a part of the garden enclosed with cut privet hedges, with a fountain
in the centre, on which stands a statue of St. John the Baptist, by
Mr. Johnes. Between the four wide grass walks there are masses of
herbaceous plants, backed by rhododendrons, which, as the picture
shows, stand out with brilliant colour in summer against the green
background. This garden opens into a bowling-green enclosed by cut lime
trees, and a cool walk for summer shaded by pleached lime trees. A
seductive broad walk bordered with fruit-trees is another feature. This
attractive garden has been made within the last eighteen years. The
conception of it was due to Lord Bute, and the designing and carrying
out to Mr. Schultz. The other side of the house, with a wide terrace
and park stretching down toward the water, has no special horticultural
feature, but the formal garden is full of charm, and the plants are
thriving and trees growing up so fast there is no trace of its newness.
It only shows how much can be done where knowledge and good taste are
displayed.
St. James’s Park is still skirted by garden walls--Stafford, Clarence,
and Marlborough Houses, as well as St. James’s Palace, though their
gardens are hardly as elaborate as those of former years. The garden
of that Palace delighted the Sieur de la Serre, who accompanied Marie
de Medicis when she came to pay a visit to Henrietta Maria and Charles
I. and was lodged in St. James’s Palace. After describing the house,
“there were, besides,” he writes, “two grand gardens with parterres of
different figures, bordered on every side by a hedge of box, carefully
cultivated by the hands of a skilful gardener; and in order to render
the walks on both sides which enclosed it appear more agreeable, all
sorts of fine flowers were sowed.... The other garden, which was
adjoining and of the same extent, had divers walks, some sanded and
others grass, but both bordered on each side by an infinity of
fruit-trees, which rendered walking so agreeable that one could never
be tired.”
[Illustration: IN THE GARDEN, ST. JOHN’S LODGE]
The garden of Bridgewater House was a little slice taken off Green
Park. On the advice of Fordyce, the Crown in 1795 granted a lease, on
certain conditions, to the Duke of Bridgewater and other proprietors
near their respective houses, on the ground that it would improve
rather than injure the Park. In 1850 the question arose whether the
plans Barry had just made for the garden of Bridgewater House infringed
the terms of the lease, and Pennethorne, architect to the Office of
Works, had to report on the question. It being finally settled that the
proposed wall and terrace would not hurt the Park, the alterations were
allowed.
Last, but by no means least, either in size or importance, the gardens
of Buckingham Palace must be glanced at. The Palace is so modern, when
compared with the older Royal residences, that it is easy to forget
the history of the forty acres enclosed in the King’s private garden,
yet they have much historical interest. In the time of James I. a
portion of the ground was covered by a mulberry garden, which the King
had planted, in pursuance of his scheme to encourage the culture of
silkworms, in 1609. That year he spent £935 in levelling the four acres
of ground and building a wall round it for the protection of the trees.
A few years later most of the enclosure became a tea-garden, while part
was occupied by Goring House. There are many references to these famous
tea-gardens, called the “Mulberry Garden,” in plays and writings of the
seventeenth century. Evelyn notes in his “Diary,” on 10th April 1654:
“My Lady Gerrard treated us at Mulberry Garden, now the only place
of refreshment about the town for persons of the best quality to be
exceeding cheated at, Cromwell and his partisans having shut up and
seized Spring Garden, which till now had been the usual rendezvous for
the ladies and gallants at this season.”
Goring House stood just where Buckingham Palace does now, and was the
residence of George Goring, Earl of Norwich, and of his son, with whom
the title became extinct. It was let in 1666, by the last Earl of
Norwich, to Lord Arlington, and became known sometimes as Arlington
House. It was burnt in 1674, and Evelyn notes in his “Diary” of 21st
September: “I went to see the great losse that Lord Arlington had
sustained by fire at Goring House, this night consumed to the ground,
with exceeding losse of hangings, plate, rare pictures, and cabinets;
hardly anything was saved of the best and most princely furniture that
any subject had in England. My lord and lady were both absent at the
Bath.” Buckingham House, which was built in 1703 on the same site for
the Duke of Buckingham, must have been very charming. Defoe describes
it as “one of the beauties of London, both by reason of its situation
and its building.... Behind it is a fine garden, a noble terrace (from
whence, as well as from the apartments, you have a most delicious
prospect), and a little park with a pretty canal.” The Duke of
Buckingham himself gives a full description of his garden in a letter
to a friend, telling him how he passed his time and what were his
enjoyments, when he resigned being Privy Seal to Queen Anne (1709). “To
the garden,” he writes, “we go down from the house by seven steps into
a gravel walk that reaches across the garden, with a covered arbour at
each end. Another of thirty feet broad leads from the front of the
house, and lies between two groves of tall lime trees, planted on a
carpet of grass. The outsides of those groves are bordered with tubs
of bays and orange trees. At the end of the broad walk you go up to a
terrace 400 paces long, with a large semicircle in the middle, from
where are beheld the Queen’s (Anne’s) two parks and a great part of
Surrey: then, going down a few steps, you walk on the bank of a canal
600 yards long and 17 broad, with two rows of limes on either side. On
one side of this terrace a wall, covered with roses and jessamines, is
made low to admit the view of a meadow full of cattle just beneath (no
disagreeable object in the midst of a great city), and at each end is a
descent into parterres with fountains and waterworks. From the biggest
of these parterres we pass into a little square garden, that has a
fountain in the middle and two green-houses on the sides ... below this
a kitchen-garden ... and under the windows ... of this green-house is a
little wilderness full of blackbirds and nightingales.” This is truly
an entrancing picture of a town garden.
The waterworks, those elaborate fountains then in vogue, were supplied
by water pumped up from the Thames into a tank above the kitchen,
which held fifty tons of water. Buckingham House was then a red-brick
building, consisting of a central square structure, with stone pillars
and balustrade along the top, and two wings attached to the main
building by a colonnade. It was this style of house when King George
III. bought it, originally for a dower-house for Queen Charlotte,
instead of Somerset House, where the Queens-Dowager had previously
lived. These formal gardens were not suited to the taste of the time,
and George IV. had all the garden altered, as well as the house
rebuilt by Nash. The whole of the parterres, terraces and fountains
and canal were swept away, and most of the lime-trees cut down. A wide
lawn and five acres of ornamental water, glades, walks and thickets
took their place. When first made the water was severely criticised by
a writer of the landscape school, the chief fault he found being that
too much was visible at once from the path which encircled it, so that
the limits were not well concealed. This seems to have been altered to
the satisfaction of later critics. Dennis, writing in 1835, gives a
plan in which the path has been made a little distance from the water’s
edge, and the outline broken by clumps of trees and a promontory, which
later on was turned into an island, on which a willow from Napoleon’s
tomb at St. Helena is said to have been planted, though no old willow
now exists. This writer gives great praise to Aiton, who superintended
all the execution of the plans. The pavilion in the grounds was added
in 1844, and decorated with paintings of scenes from Milton’s _Comus_
by Eastlake, Maclise, Landseer and other artists, with borders and gilt
ornaments by Gruner.
During the last four years his Majesty has had a great deal done
to improve the grounds. His appreciation of what is beautiful in
gardening has led him to effect several changes, which, while keeping
the park-like character of the gardens, have added immensely to their
scenic beauty and horticultural interest. The dead and dying trees
and others of poor and stunted growth have been removed, giving air
and light to those remaining. Several good specimens of plane, lime,
elm, beech, ash, ailanthus and hawthorn have thus secured more
space to develop. A very large assortment of all the best flowering
shrubs which will flourish in London have taken the place of worn-out
evergreens. The best of the hollies, arbutus and healthy evergreens
have been encouraged by careful attention. The great object in laying
out the garden originally was naturally to obtain as much privacy as
possible, and the earth taken out of the lake was formed into a great
bank, which was thickly planted to screen the stables and distant
houses. This bank, which was stiff and formal in appearance, has now
been artistically broken by planting and rock-work--not merely by a
few stones, which would seem small, unnatural, and out of place, but
by bold crags, over which roses climb, and where gorse, savin and
broom, and countless other suitable plants look perfectly at home. The
aspect of the lake is also greatly enhanced by the substitution of
rustic stone bridges for the iron structures, The water’s edge is well
furnished with iris and other water-loving plants--the finest Marliac
lilies brighten its surface--and the stiff, round island is now varied
by striking rocky promontories and is prettily adorned with broom and
cherries.
The colossal vase by Westmacott, executed as a memento of the Battle of
Waterloo, has lately been placed on one of the lawns in an amphitheatre
of trees. It stands in front of his Majesty’s summer-house, which
is quaint in design, and was brought from the old Spring Gardens at
Whitehall. The views down the wide glades, with the groups of tall
trees, the bridges, the herbaceous borders, and the wealth of flowering
shrubs, make the garden altogether one of singular charm considering it
is even more truly “in the midst of a great city” than when the Duke
of Buckingham described the same spot nearly 200 years ago.
The Buckingham Palace Gardens show how much judicious planting can
do, and how much is lost in many of the parks as well as gardens by
not sufficiently considering the decorative value of plants. The old
landscape gardeners, in their desire to copy nature and depart from
all formality, forgot the horticultural part of their work in their
plans for the creation of landscapes. They had not studied the effects
which skilful planting will produce, and ignored flowers as a factor
in their scenery. They had not got the wealth of genera which the
twentieth century possesses, and of which, in many instances, full use
is made. But in a review of London Parks and Gardens, it is impossible
not to notice effects missed as well as success achieved. The immense
advance gardening has made of late years, and the knowledge and wide
range of plants, makes it easier to garden now than ever before. The
enormous number of trees and flowers now in cultivation leaves a good
choice to select from, even among those suitable for the fog-begrimed
gardens of London. The carpets of spring flowering bulbs, the masses of
brilliant rhododendrons, the groups of choice blossoming trees, which
so greatly beautify many of the parks and gardens, are all the result
of modern developments. Experience, too, has pointed out the mistakes
in landscape gardening, which is for the most part the style followed
in London, and it should be easy to avoid the errors of earlier
generations. In formal designing, also, the recent introductions and
modern taste in flowers should have a marked influence. In all the
parks and gardens, public and private, the chief aim should be to make
the best use of the existing material, to draw upon the vast resources
of horticulture, which have never been so great as at the present time,
and thus to maintain the position of superiority of London gardens
among the cities of the world.
APPENDIX TO PRIVATE GARDENS
CHARLTON
Owing to unavoidable circumstances it was not possible to include
Charlton in the foregoing chapter on private gardens, but some account
of this place of historic interest is necessary to complete this
book. Further from the centres of fashion, on the eastern limits of
London, it has not been the scene of such brilliant assemblies as
Holland House on the west; yet its early days share that speculative
fascination which gathers round the personality of Henry, Prince of
Wales, who figures for such a short time on the pages of English
history. Only two miles from Greenwich, in the hundred of Blackheath,
lies the manor of Charlton, which was bestowed by William the Conqueror
on his half-brother, Odo of Bayeux. Later on it passed by gift to
the Priory of Bermondsey, and so remained until the Dissolution of
the Monasteries, when it became crown land until James I. gave it to
Sir Adam Newton, “who built a goodly brave house” thereon. Born in
Scotland, Sir Adam had spent much of his life in France, and passing
himself off as a priest, had taught Greek at St. Maixant in Poitou.
On his return to Scotland in 1600, he was appointed tutor to Prince
Henry, and was in attendance on him as secretary when the Prince grew
up. In 1607 he commenced to build Charlton for him, Inigo Jones being
the architect, and after the Prince’s death in 1612, the King granted
Sir Adam the manor, in lieu of payment for the expenses he had incurred
in building the house. The owner of Charlton continued to enjoy
royal favour, became Treasurer of the Household to Prince Charles,
was created a baronet in 1620, and married a daughter of Sir John
Puckering, who had been Keeper of the Great Seal to Queen Elizabeth.
His second son, Sir Henry Newton, who succeeded him at Charlton, and
took the name of Puckering from estates inherited from his uncle, was
an ardent supporter of Charles I. He sold the property to Sir William
Ducie, Viscount Downe, at whose death it was again sold. The purchaser,
Sir William Langhorne, was a wealthy East India merchant, who was, from
1670 to 1677, Governor of Madras. On his death it passed by entail to
his cousin Mrs. Maryon, and eventually to her great-granddaughter,
the wife of Sir Thomas Spencer Wilson, in whose family Charlton still
remains.
The gardens show traces of all the many owners, and in spite of the
growth of London and its attendant drawbacks, they are still charming.
The house stands in about 150 acres of undulating deer park, with some
fine old trees, an avenue of English elms on the east, and one of
horse-chestnuts, forming the approach on the west. Perhaps the planting
of the tulip tree near the present lodge was due to John Evelyn, the
friend of Sir Henry Puckering. Evelyn’s liking for tulip trees is well
known, and this specimen looks old enough to claim his acquaintance.
The two shattered but grand old mulberry trees probably date from the
year 1609, when James I. encouraged all his subjects to plant them,
and tradition points to one as the first brought to England. There is
an immense horse-chestnut on the lawn, with a wide spread of branches
which are rooted in the ground all round, and among the evergreen oaks
and other attractive trees in the “Wilderness,” a Judas of great age
is remarkable. The small house standing near the road which passes
the parish church, known as the “Guard House,” recalls the time when
Prince Henry was living there, and his guard of honour kept watch near
the entrance. The stables are just as they were built by Inigo Jones,
and the little “Dutch” walled garden which adjoins them on one side is
also a pretty relic of those days, and the “Gooseberry Garden” near
it is a survival of the same period. A walk overshadowed by tall yew
trees stretches across and along the main part of the grounds, and
hidden away near its southern end is a delightful rose garden. The
beautiful lead fountain in the centre must have been put there by Sir
William Langhorne. His initials appear on the leaden tank, and the
spray rises from a basin held up by a charming little cupid standing
on a pedestal surrounded by swans. The same group appears without
the tank in another part of the garden, and there are lead vases and
figures, and a cistern dated 1777, which add greatly to the old-world
charm which still lingers. Chemical works and sulphurous fumes now work
deadly havoc among the old trees, but everything that modern science
can recommend is done to preserve them, and young ones planted to keep
up the traditions, and bridge over the centuries dividing the present
from the days of Prince Henry and his learned and courtly tutor.
LIST OF SOME OF THE WORKS CONSULTED.
(_The date does not always refer to the first edition, but to the one
consulted._)
Ambulator. A Pocket Companion in a Tour Round London. 1792.
Amusements of Old London. Boulton. 1900.
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Dowager Duchess of Argyll. 1907.
Baker, T. H. Records of Seasons and Prices.
Battersea, All About. H. S. Simmonds. 1882.
Birds in London. W. H. Hudson. 1898.
„ of London. H. K. Swann. 1893.
Bloomsbury. Chronicle of Blemundsbury. W. Blott. 1892.
„ and St. Giles. George Cluich. 1890.
Bradley, Richard. New Improvements of Planting and Gardening. 1717.
Burial Grounds, London. Mrs. Basil Holmes. 1896.
Butler, Samuel. Hudibras. Notes by Grey and Nash. 1847.
Calendar of State Papers. 1557, &c. Ed. J. Redington.
Camberwell. Parish of All Saints. T. J. Gaster. 1896.
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Catesby, Mark. Natural History of Carolina. 1731–43.
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„ „ „ „ Ed. by R. H. Semple. 1878.
„ An Account of Chelsea Hospital. 1805.
„ Historical Notes. Isabella Burt. 1871.
„ Hospital. Thomas Faulkener. 1805.
„ Thomas Faulkener. 1810.
Cleveland. Character of a London Diurnal. 1647.
„ Poems, annotated by J. M. Berden. 1903.
Cole, John. A Pleasant and Profitable Journey to London. 1828.
Commons. A Glance at the Commons and Open Spaces of London. 1867.
Curtis, William. Botanical Magazine. 1787–1906.
„ „ A Catalogue of the Plants Growing Wild in the Environs
of London. 1774.
„ „ Flora Londinensis. 1777–1828.
Dennis, John. The Landscape Gardener. 1835.
Domesday Book. Ed. 1812.
Draper, W. H. The Morning Walk; or, City Encompass’d. 1751.
Evelyn, John. Diary.
„ „ Sylva. 1664.
Fairchild, Thomas. The City Gardener. 1722.
Fiennes, Celia. Through England on a Side-Saddle in the Time of
William and Mary. Ed. Hon. Mrs. Griffiths. 1888.
Foreign Visitors to England. Smith. 1889.
Fulham, Old and New. C. J. Feret. 1900.
„ and Hammersmith. Faulkener. 1813.
Gardeners’ Magazine. Conducted by J. C. Loudon. 1826–43.
Gardening. History of, in England. Alicia Amherst. 1896.
Gerard. Herbal. 1597.
„ „ Ed. by T. Johnson. 1633.
„ Catalogus. 1599.
Greenwich. W. Howarth. 1886.
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Grosley. A Tour to London. 1765.
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„ History and Antiquities of. William Robinson. 1842.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Passages from English Note-Books. 1870.
Hazlitt, W. C. Gleanings in Old Garden Literature. 1887.
Highgate, History of. Frederick Prickett. 1842.
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Hyde Park, from Domesday to Date. J. Ashton. 1900.
Index Kewensis. 1893, &c.
Inns of Court. Inner Temple Records, F. A. Inderwick. 1896.
„ „ Inner and Middle Temple. H. H. L. Bellot. 1902.
„ „ Lincoln’s Inn. Douthwaite. 1886.
„ „ Gray’s Inn. Douthwaite. 1886.
„ „ and Chancery. W.J. Loftée. Illustrations by Herbert
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„ „ Thomas Allen. 1828.
„ Palace and its Associations. J. C. Browne. 1883.
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London, Ancient and Modern, from a Sanitary Point of View. G. V.
Poore. 1889.
„ Birds and Insects. T. D. Pigott. 1892.
„ Botanic Gardens, Pierre E. F. Perrédès. Pub. by Wellcome
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„ Bygone. F. Ross. 1892.
„ City Suburbs as they are To-Day. 1893.
„ City: Its History, &c. W. J. Loftie.
„ Curiosities of. Timbs. 1868.
„ Environs of. Daniel Lysons. 1790–96.
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„ Fascination of. Series ed. by Sir W. Besant.
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„ Our Rambles in Old. E. S. M. Smith. 1895.
„ Pageant of. Richard Davey. 1906.
„ Past and Present. H. B. Wheatley and P. Cunningham, 1891.
„ Pleasure Gardens of the Eighteenth Century, W. Wroth. 1896.
„ Redivivium. James Peter Malcolm. 1807.
„ Reliques of Old London and Suburbs. H. B, Wheatley. 1896.
„ Round About. W. J. Loftée, 1893.
„ Signs and Inscriptions, Wheatley and Philip Norman. 1893.
„ Some Account of. Thomas Pennant. 1793.
„ Soul of. F. H. Madox Heuffer. 1905.
„ Story of. H. B. Wheatley. 1904.
„ Survey of. (London County Council.) C. R. Ashbee. 1900.
„ „ Stowe. Several Editions. 1598, 1633, &c.
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„ Town. Marcus Fall. 1880.
„ Vanished and Vanishing. P. Norman, 1905.
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„ Walks Through. Hughson David. 1817.
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London, G., and H. Wise. Complete Gardener. 1701.
Loudon, J. C. Arboretum. 1838.
„ Encyclopædia of Gardening. 1822.
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„ Gardeners’ Magazine.
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Magalotti. Travels of Cosmo III., Grand Duke of Tuscany, through
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Marylebone, Random Sketches in. F. H. Hallam. 1885.
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Mayfair and Belgravia. G. Cluich. 1892.
Miller, Philip. Gardeners’ and Florists’ Dictionary. 1724.
„ „ „ Dictionary. 1759.
Mirabeau. Letters during his Residence in England. 1832.
Misson, H. Memoirs and Observations in his Travels over England.
Translated by Mr. Ozell. 1719.
Montagu, Letters of Mrs. E. 1809–13.
„ Mrs. E. By J. Doran. 1873.
Montgomerie, James. Chimney Sweepers’ Friend. 1824.
Municipal History, Bibliography of. Cross. 1897.
Nichol. Progress of Queen Elizabeth.
Nisbet, J. British Forest Trees. 1895.
Norden. Notes on his Map of London, 1593. H. B. Wheatley. 1877.
Open Lands, Inclosure and Preservation of. Sir Robert Hunter.
Reprint. 1897.
Parliamentary Reports--
Committee on the Public Parks, &c. 1887.
„ „ Best Means of Preserving ... Use of Forests,
Commons, &c. 1865.
Other Reports: see Catalogue of Parliamentary Papers, 1801–1908.
P. and S. King & Co.
Plan of Improvements proposed opposite Buckingham Palace. 1850.
Return of the Outlay on Battersea Park. 1856.
Select Committee on Open Spaces. 1865.
Parks, Gardens, &c., of London. Edward Kemp. 1851.
„ Hyde Park, from Domesday to Date. J. Ashton. 1896.
„ Municipal, and Gardens. Lieut.-Col. J. G. Sexby. 1905.
„ and Pleasure Grounds. C. H. J. Smith, 1852.
„ „ Open Spaces. London County Council Sixpenny Guide. 1906.
„ „ „ and Thoroughfares. A. M’Kenzie. 1869.
„ Royal, and Gardens. N. Cole. 1877.
„ Story of the London. Jacob Larwood. 1872.
Parkinson, John. Paradise in Sole. 1629.
Pepys, Samuel. Diary.
Piccadilly and Pall Mall, Round About. H. B. Wheatley. 1817.
Philips, Henry. Sylva Florifera. 1823. Flora Historica, &c.
Phillips, Sir Richard. Morning Walk to Kew. 1817.
Pulteney, Richard. History of the Progress of Botany in England. 1790.
Pyne, Wm. H. History of the Royal Residences. 1819.
Regent’s Park. Some Account of the Improvements. 1814.
„ „ „ „ „ . John White. 1815.
„ „ Literary Pocket Book. 1823.
„ „ Picturesque Guide to. 1829.
Repton. Landscape Gardening. Ed. J. C. Loudon. 1840.
St. Botolph, Aldgate. A. G. B. Atkinson. 1898.
St. James’s Square. Dasent. 1895.
Selby, P. J. British Forest Trees. 1841.
Shipton, Mother. Life and Death of. 1687.
„ „ Prophecies. Ed. E. Pearson. 1871.
„ „ „ C. Hindley. 1877.
Soho, Two Centuries of. J. H. Cardwell. 1898.
„ and its Associations. E. F. Rimbault. 1895.
Sorbière, Samuel de. A Journey to London. [William King.] 1698.
„ „ A Voyage to England. 1709.
„ „ Journey to London. 1832.
„ „ Reponse aux Faussetés ... dans la relation du
Voyage en Angleterre. 1675.
Stepney. Two Centuries of History. W. H. Frere. 1892.
Stowe. Survey of London. 1598.
„ Munday’s Edition. 1633.
„ Strype’s Edition. 1720.
Suburban Reliques of Old Londons. H. B, Wheatley. Drawn by T. R. Way.
1715.
Switzer, Stephen. Nobleman, Gentleman, and Gardener’s Recreation.
1715.
Tradescant, John. Museum Tradescantianum. 1656.
Trinity Hospital, Mile End Road, C. R. Ashbee, 1896.
Westminster, Antiquities of. John T. Smith. 1807.
„ Abbey. W. J. Loftie. 1890.
„ „ Dean Stanley.
„ „ MSS. Records.
„ „ Richard Widmore. 1751.
„ Memorials of the City, St. Peter’s College, &c. Rev.
MacKenzie E. C. Walcott. 1849.
Wheatley. Observations on Modern Gardening. 1793.
Whitten, W. London in Song. 1898.
Wren, Christopher. Parentalia. 1750.
HYDE PARK AND KENSINGTON GARDENS
LIST OF TREES AND SHRUBS
_N.B._--Those marked thus * are not in existence at the present time. A
small number proved unsuitable for London, and others have been removed
from the plantations for various reasons.
Acer campestre.
„ circinatum.
„ creticum.
„ dasycarpum.
„ macrophyllum.
„ Negundo.
„ „ foliis variegatis.
„ palmatum.
„ platanoides.
„ „ Reitenbachii.
„ „ Schwedleri.
„ Pseudo-platanus.
„ „ „ foliis variegatis.
„ „ „ purpureum.
„ rubrum.
„ saccharum.
„ saccharum nigrum.
„ tartaricum.
Æsculus Hippocastanum.
„ „ laciniata.
„ „ rubicunda.
Ailantus glandulosa.
Alnus barbata.
„ glutinosa.
„ „ incisa.
„ „ laciniata.
„ „ quercifolia.
Amorpha fruticosa.
Amygdalus (Prunus) communis.
„ „ „ amara.
Amygdalus communis macrocarpa.
„ nana.
Amelanchier canadensis.
„ vulgaris.
Aralia chinensis.
„ spinosa.
Arbutus Andrachne.
„ Unedo.
„ „ rubra.
Aristolochia Sipho.
Armeniaca (Prunus) sibirica.
Artemisia arborescens.
Asimina triloba.
Aucuba japonica.
„ „ maculata.
„ „ viridis.
Azalea (Rhododendron) sinense.
„ pontica.
„ nudiflorum.
Berberis Aquifolium.
„ Darwinii.
„ Fortunei.
„ japonica.*
„ repens.
„ stenophylla.
„ vulgaris.
„ „ foliis purpureis.
Betula alba.
„ „ pendula.
Betula fruticosa.
„ lenta.
„ nana.
„ nigra.
„ populifolia.
„ urticifolia.
Buxus balearica.
„ caucasica.
„ sempervirens arborescens.
„ „ aureo-marginita.
Caragana arborescens.
„ Chamluga.
„ frutescens.
„ spinosa.
Carpinus betulus.
Carya amara.
Caryopteris Mastacanthus.
Castanea sativa.
Catalpa bignonioides.
Cedrus Deodora.*
„ Libani.
Cerasus. _See_ Prunus.
Cercis Siliquastrum.
Cistus florentinus.
„ ladaniferus.
„ monspeliensis.
Clematis Flammula.
„ Jackmani.
„ montana.
„ Vitalba.
Celtis Tournefortii.
Clerodendron trichotomum.
Colutea arborescens.
Cornus alba.
„ „ Spæthii.
„ Mas.
„ „ aurea elegantissima.
„ „ variegata.
„ sanguinea.
„ stolonifera.
Coronilla Emerus.
Coryllus Avellana.
„ maxima atropurpurea.
Cotoneaster acuminata.
„ bacillaris.
Cotoneaster frigida.
„ horizontalis.
„ microphylla.
„ Nummularia.
„ Simmonsii.
Cratægus altaica.
„ Azarolus.
„ coccinea.
„ cordata.
„ „ accrifolia.
„ „ maxima.
„ Crus-galli.
„ „ ovalifolium.
„ „ pyracanthafolia.
„ „ splendens.
„ dippeliana.
„ heterophylla.
„ macrantha.
„ nigra.
„ orientalis.
„ Oxyacantha.
„ „ aurea.
„ „ eriocarpa.
„ „ flexuosa.
„ „ flore pleno albo.
„ „ flore pleno coccineo.
„ „ flore pleno puniceo.
„ „ flore pleno roseo.
„ „ flore pleno rubro.
„ „ flore roseo.
„ „ laciniata.
„ „ pendula.
„ „ præcox.
„ „ quercifolia.
„ „ stricta.
„ punctata.
„ „ brevispina.
„ „ xanthocarpa.
„ pyracantha.
„ „ Lalandi.
„ siniaca.
„ spathulata.
„ tanacetifolia.
Cupressus Lawsoniana.*
„ Nootkatensis.*
„ sempervirens.*
Cydonia japonica.
„ Maulei.
„ vulgaris lusitanica.
„ „ maliformis.
Cytisus albus.
„ alpinus.
„ nigricans.
„ præcox.
„ racemosus.
„ scoparius.
„ sessilifolius.
„ tinctoria.
Daphne Mezereum.
„ pontica.
Diospyros Lotus.
„ virginiana.
Diplopappus chrysophylla.
Deutzia crenata.
„ „ flore pleno.
„ „ gracilis.
„ scabra.
Elæagnus angustifolia.
„ argentea.
Euonymus europæus.
„ „ fructo albo.
„ japonicus.
„ „ argenteus.
„ „ aureo-variegatus.
„ „ radicans.
„ „ „ foliis pictis.
„ latifolius.
Fagus sylvatica.
„ „ cuprea.
„ „ pendula.
„ „ purpurea.
„ „ „ pendula.
Fatsia japonica.
Ficus Carica.
Fontanesia phillyræoides.
Forsythia intermedia.
„ suspensa.
„ viridissima.
Fraxinus americana cinerea.
„ „ elliptica.
„ „ juglandifolia.
„ excelsior.
„ „ angustifolia.
„ „ aurea.
„ „ heterophylla.
„ „ pendula.
„ Ornus.
„ „ angustifolia.
„ parvifolia.
Genista hispanica.
Gleditschia triacanthos.
„ sinensis.
„ „ nana.
Gymnocladus canadensis.
Halesia diptera.
„ tetraptera.
Halimodendron argenteum.
Hamamelis virginica.
Hedera Helix.
„ „ arborescens.
„ „ caenwoodiana.
„ „ canariensis.
„ „ „ arborescens.
„ „ chrysocarpa.
„ „ colchica.
„ „ dentata.
„ „ digitata.
„ „ lucida.
„ „ maderensis variegata.
„ „ minima.
„ „ taurica.
„ „ variegata.
Hibiscus syriacus--and numerous garden varieties.
Hippophæ rhamnoides.
„ salicifolia.
Hydrangea hortensia.
„ paniculata grandiflora.
Hypericum calycinum.
„ elatum.
„ hircinum.
„ patulum.
Ilex Aquifolium.
„ „ albo-picta.
„ „ altaclerense.
„ „ angustifolia.
„ „ „ variegata.
„ „ argentea variegata.
„ „ argentea marginata.
„ „ aureo-picta.
„ „ aureo-regina.
„ „ balearica.
„ „ camelliæfolia.
„ „ ferox.
„ „ „ argentea.
„ „ „ aurea.
„ „ fructo luteo.
„ „ heterophylla.
„ „ Hodginsii.
„ „ latispina.
„ „ laurifolia.
„ „ myrtifolia.
„ „ recurva.
„ „ scotica.
„ „ Shepherdii.
„ „ Watereriana.
„ dipyrena
„ latifolia.
„ opaca.
Jasminum fruticans.
„ humile.
„ nudiflorum.
„ officinale.
Juniperus chinensis.*
„ communis.*
„ nana.*
„ Sabina tamariscifolia.
„ „ procumbens.
„ virginiana.*
Juglans cinerea.
„ nigra.
„ regia.
Kerria japonica.
Koelreuteria paniculata.
Laburnum alpinum.
„ vulgare.
„ „ quercifolium.
„ „ Watereri.
Laurus nobilis.
Leycesteria formosa.
Ligustrum Ibota.
„ japonicum.
„ lucidum.
„ ovalifolium.
„ „ foliis aureis.
„ Quihoui.
„ vulgare.
Liquidamber styraciflua.
Liriodendron tulipifera.
Lonicera Caprifolium.
„ flexuosa.
„ involucrata.
„ Periclymenum.
Lycium chinense.
„ hamilifolium.*
Magnolia acuminata.
„ conspicua.
„ „ Soulangeana.
„ grandiflora.
„ stellata.
Morus alba.
„ „ pendula.
„ nigra.
Osmanthus Aquifolium ilicifolius.
Pavia (Æsculus) flava.
„ „ purpurascens.
„ glabra arguta.
„ humulis.
„ neglecta.
„ parvifolia.
„ rubra.
Philadelphus coronarius.
„ „ tomentosus.
„ floribundus.
„ „ verrucosus.
„ Gordonianus.
„ grandiflorus floribundus.
„ hirsutus.
„ inodorus.
„ Lemoinei.
Phillyrea angustifolium.
„ decora.
„ latifolia.
Photinia serrulata.
Pinus cembra.*
„ insignis.*
„ Laricio.*
„ sylvestris.
Planera aquatica.*
„ Richardi.*
Platanus accrifolia.
Populus alba.
„ „ pyramidalis (bolleana).
„ balsamifera.
„ canescens.
„ deltoidea.
„ „ aurea.
„ macrophylla.
„ nigra.
„ „ betulæfolia.
„ „ pyramidalis.
„ tremula.
„ „ pendula.
Prunus including Cerasus and persica.
„ persica camelliæflora.
„ „ flore roseo pleno.
„ „ „ alba pleno.
„ „ dianthiflora pleno.
„ Avium.
„ „ flore pleno.
„ „ pendula.
„ cerasifera.
„ „ atropurpureum.
„ communis.
„ (Cerasus) acida semperflorens.
„ japonicas flore roseo pleno.
„ pseudo-cerasus.
„ (Padus) Mahaleb.
„ „ pendula.
„ Padus.
„ rotundifolia.
„ serotina.
„ (Laurocerasus) caucasica.
„ „ colchica.
„ „ Laurocerasus.
„ serrulata.
„ spinosa.
„ triloba.
„ Watereri.
Ptelea trifoliata.
Pterocarya caucasica.
Pyrus Aria.
„ „ salicifolia.
„ „ undulata.
„ amygdaliformis.
„ arbutifolia.
„ Aucuparia.
„ auricularis.
„ baccata.
„ communis.
„ floribunda.
„ hybrida.
„ intermedia.
„ lanata.
„ malus astracanica.
„ nivalis.
„ pinnatifida.
„ rivularis.
„ spectabilis.
Quercus Ægilops.
„ cerris.
„ „ cana-major.
„ „ cana-minor.
„ „ fulhamensis.
„ coccinea.
„ fastigiata.
„ filicifolia.
„ Ilex.
„ „ Gramuntia.
„ lucombeana.
„ palustris.
„ pedunculata.
„ „ fastigiata.
„ rubra.
„ „ longifolia.
„ Suber.
Rhamnus Alaternus maculata.
„ alpina.
„ cathartica.
„ Frangula.
„ infectoria.
Rhododendron Cunninghami.
„ dauricum.
„ hybrids in variety.
„ ponticum.
„ præcox.
Rhus canadensis.
„ copallina.
„ cotinus.
„ glabra laciniata.
„ typhina.
„ „ frutescens.
Ribes alpinum.
„ „ pumilum.
„ aureum.
„ „ præcox.
„ Diacantha.
„ nigrum variegatum.
„ Sanguineum.
„ „ albidum.
Robinia hispida.
„ inermis.
„ Pseudacacia.
„ „ angustifolium.
„ „ bessoniana.
„ „ Decaisneana.
„ „ dubea.
„ „ elegans.
„ „ fastigiata.
„ „ heterophylla.
„ „ inermis.
„ „ monophylla.
„ „ semperflorens.
„ „ tortuosa.
„ viscosa.
Rosa arvensis.
„ Banksiæ.
„ canina.
„ damascena.
„ gallica centifolia.
„ „ muscosa.
„ indica.
„ multiflora.
„ noisettiana.
„ rubiginosa.
„ rugosa.
„ „ flore pleno.
„ wichuraiana.
„ hybrids in variety.
Rosmarinus officinalis.
Rubus fruticosus.
„ „ albo-pleno.
„ „ rubra-pleno.
„ laciniatus.
„ nutkanus.
Ruscus aculeatus.
Salisburia (Ginkgo) adiantifolia.
Salix alba.
„ babylonica.
„ Caprea.
„ daphnoides.
„ rosmarinifolia.
„ viminalis.
Sambucus nigra.
„ „ laciniata.
„ „ foliis aureis.
„ racemosa.
„ „ plumosa.
„ „ „ aurea.
Skimmia Fortunei.
„ japonica.
Spartium junceum.
Smilax aspera.
„ glauca.
„ rotundifolia.
Sophora japonica.
Spiræa bullata.
„ canescens.
„ cantoniensis.*
„ chamædrifolia.*
„ discolor.*
„ japonica.*
„ „ Bumalda.
„ prunifolia flore pleno.
„ salicifolia.
„ sorbifolia.
„ Thunbergii.
Symphoricarpus orbiculatus.
„ racemosus.
Syringa Emodi.
„ Josikæa.
„ persica.
„ „ alba.
„ vulgaris.
And many garden varieties.
Taxodium distichum.
Taxus baccata.
„ „ adpressa.
„ „ „ aurea.
„ „ Dovastoni.
„ „ fastigiata.
„ „ fructo luteo.
„ canadensis.
„ cuspidata.
Thuja dolobrata.*
„ japonica.*
„ occidentalis.
„ orientalis.
„ „ aureo-variegata.
„ plicata.*
Tilia americana.
„ argentea.
„ cordata.
„ dasystyla.
„ petiolaris.
„ platyphyllus asplenifolia.
„ vulgaris.
Ulex europæus.
„ „ flore pleno.
„ nanus.
Ulmus americanus.
„ „ pendula.
„ campestris.
„ „ Louis van Houtte.
„ „ sarniensis.
„ „ Wheatleyi.
„ glabra.
„ „ cornubiensis.
„ „ stricta.
„ montana.
„ „ atropurpureum.
„ „ fastigiata aurea.
„ „ pendula.
„ „ vegeta.
„ pedunculata.
Veronica cupressoides.
„ Traversii.
Viburnum dentatum.
„ Lantana.
„ Lentago.
„ Opulus.
„ „ sterile.
„ Tinus.
„ „ hirtum.
„ plicatum.
Weigela (Diervilla) florida.
„ hybrida.
„ Looymansi aurea.
Wistaria chinensis.
„ multijuga.
Xanthorrhiza apiifolia.*
Yucca angustifolia.
„ filamentosa.
„ „ flaccida.
„ gloriosa.
„ recurvifolia.
EXAMPLES OF PLANTING FLOWER-BEDS IN HYDE PARK IN 1905–6
BED 1.
1. Autumn planting for spring flowers:--Hyacinths, margin of Saxifrage.
Day Lily, thinly planted, for bright green foliage growing up with and
above the Hyacinths.
2. Spring planting for early summer flowers:--Pansies for margin 18
inches wide, the centre of bed planted with Ragged Robin.
3. Summer planting for later summer and autumn display:--Large plants
of Calceolaria Burbidgeii 8 feet high, Cassia corymbosa 6 feet high,
Heliotrope 6 feet to 7 feet high, finishing off with Nicotiana affinis
and sylvestris, Lantana Drap d’Or with Lilium longifiorum interspersed.
BED 2.
1. Autumn planting for spring flowers:---Tulips, margin of Saxifrage.
Iris germanica for foliage planted thinly with bulbs.
2. Delphiniums, deep blue, 18 inch margin of yellow Pansies.
3. Broad margin of Dell’s dark Beet, remainder of bed well planted with
Cannas, Alphonse Bouvier, and Flambeau, brilliant crimson flowers.
BED 3.
1. Autumn planting for spring flowers:---Narcissus Emperor with a 6 to
1 mixture of Hyacinth King of the Blues, margin of Saxifrage.
2. Broad margin of Pansies, remainder of bed filled with Erigeron
speciosum.
3. Large plants in pots of Ivy-leaved Pelargonium Madame Crousse, 6
feet high, placed 5 feet apart. Margin and intermediate spaces planted
with dwarf plants of a deeper coloured Ivy-leaved Pelargonium.
BED 4.
1. Autumn planting for spring flowers:---Hyacinths Czar Peter,
light-blue, Gigantea blush, margin of Saxifrage.
2. Dictamnus in two colours, about 2 feet apart, ground of bed Anemone
coronaria margined with Saxifraga Camposii.
3. Gymnothrix latifolia, Kochia scoparia tricophylla interspersed with
Acalypha musaica.
BED 5.
1. Dark Wallflowers with margin of Gardiner’s Garter (Phalaris).
2. Pelargonium Achievement 4 feet high and 4 feet apart, centre of bed
and margin planted with dwarf plants of same variety.
3. Celosia pyramidalis crimson and gold, with some crimson Cockscombs
intermixed, the remaining portion of bed thickly planted to the margin
with Leucophytum Brownii.
BED 6.
1. Autumn planting for spring flowers:--Hyacinth Grande Maitre, blue.
2. An interesting combination of the following flowers in rotation,
fresh ones being introduced as others faded:--Linum perenne, Ixias,
Sparaxis, and Calochortus, in variety, Oxalis rosea, Camassia
esculenta, Lychnis Viscaria, Crassula coccinea, Balsams with double
pink blooms. The setting for these flowers was a variegated grass. A
good effect was the result for many weeks.
3. For the remainder of the season this bed was filled with a
succession of Lilium speciosum roseum on a green ground, with a margin
of Agathea cœlestis.
ERRATA
Page 16, line 24, _for_ ‘Sir John Sloane’ _read_ ‘Sir Hans Sloane.’
„ 42, „ 4, _for_ ‘places’ _read_ ‘plans.’
„ 77, „ 15, _for_ ‘Quintinge’ _read_ ‘Quintinye.’
„ 241, „ 7, _for_ ‘battle of Alma’ _read_ ‘battle of the Alma.’
FOOTNOTES
[1] Close Roll, Henry VII.
[2] MSS. Manor Roll in the Record Office.
[3] MSS. Manor Roll, Archives of Ely Cathedral.
[4] See Alexander Necham, _De Naturis Rerum_, twelfth century.
[5] Stowe, “Survey of London.”
[6] Stowe’s “Survey of London.”
[7] See p. 171.
[8] As Vauxhall is not included in Lieut.-Col. Sexby’s exhaustive book,
the following details are not very accessible. It was bought from Mr.
Cobeldick for £43,500.
Made up by Lambeth Vestry £11,746 17 6
„ Charity Commissioners 12,500 0 0
„ London County Council 11,746 17 6
„ Donations and other sources 7,506 5 0
-----------
£43,500 0 0
The fencing and laying out was done by the Kyrle Society. The Park was
opened by the present King and Queen, July 7, 1890.
[9] See “Chitty’s Statutes,” by J. M. Lely, under “Metropolis.”
[10] See page 12.
INDEX
A
Acreage of Parks, 4, 121
Aiglio, 241
Albert Memorial, 50
Alma-Tadema, Sir Laurence, 334
Alpine plants, 330
Anne Boleyn, 110
---- of Cleves, 110
---- Queen, 41
Annual flowers, 331
Apothecaries’ Garden, Chelsea, 317
Archbishop’s Park, 307
Archery, 96, 97
Argyll Lodge, 344
Artillery Garden, 292
---- Ground, 10, 291
Austin Friars, 14
Avery Hill, 183
Avondale Park, 130
B
Bacon and Gray’s Inn, 283
Balloon ascents, 292
Bank of England, 258
Banqueting-houses, 26, 85, 86, 112
Barnard’s Inn, 263
Battersea enamel, 155
Battersea Park, 120, 155–161
---- bicycling in, 161
---- chrysanthemums in, 160
---- duel in, 157
---- early history of, 156
---- Red House in, 156
---- sub-tropical garden in, 158
Bayard’s Castle, 8
Bergne, Lady, garden in Kensington, 335
Bethlehem Hospital (Bedlam), 237
Bethnal Green Gardens, 134
Birdcage Walk, 61
Birds, wild, in Greenwich Park, 117
---- in Victoria Park, 139
---- on Hampstead Heath, 198
Blackfriars, 9
Blackheath, 107, 202
Bostall Wood, 199
Botanical Garden, Regent’s Park, 17, 98
---- Society, 98
Brewers’ Almshouses, 294
Bridgeman, 40, 42
Bridgewater House, 350
Broad Walk, Regent’s Park, 101
Brockwell Park, 170–174
---- old English garden in, 170–172
---- purchase of, 172
---- rooks in, 174
Brook Green, 213
Broome House, 345
Brown, Sir Richard, 293, 325
Buckingham House, 76, 351
---- Palace, 59, 350–355
Bunhill Fields, 11, 248–251
Bunyan, John, tomb, 249
Burial-grounds, 3, 242–260
---- Friends’, 249
---- in the City, 254–259
---- Marylebone, 245
---- St. John’s Wood, 245
---- St. Pancras, 243
---- Stepney, 245
Burton’s Court, 312
Burton, Decimus, 93, 100
C
Cadogan Place, 239
Cake-house in Hyde Park, 28, 32
Camberwell Park, 126, 166
---- Green, 168, 215
Cam House, 343
Campden Hill, gardens on, 343
Carlton House, 77
Caroline, Queen, 38, 40, 42, 45, 74, 75
Catalpa, 153, 286
Cedars, 17, 321
Chamberlain, Mr., house at Highbury, 191
Charles I., 60
Charles II., 61, 63, 67, 147
Charlton, 357
Charterhouse, 289–291
Chelsea, 311
---- Ranelagh Gardens, 315
---- Waterworks, 38, 76
Chelsea Hospital, 311–317
---- burial-ground, 314
---- statue in, 313
Chelsea Physic Garden, 16, 17, 317
---- cedars, 321
---- curators of, 320
---- new management of, 319
---- trees in, 323
---- visit of Linnæus, 324
Chrysanthemums, 17, 159
City Corporation Parks, 4
Clapham Common, 205–207
Clement’s Inn, 262
Clifford’s Inn, 263
Climate, changes of, 69, 98, 128
Clissold Park, 141–144
Commons, 185–216
---- Clapham, 205
---- Deptford, 203
---- Hackney, 188
---- Old Oak, 199
---- Peckham Rye, 204
---- Plumstead, 201
---- Streatham, 211
---- Tooting, 207
---- Wandsworth, 212
Commons’ Preservation Society, 185
Commonwealth, sale of Royal Parks in time of, 28, 87
Cost of maintenance of Parks, 5
County in Town Exhibition, 18
Cox’s Walk, 177
Cromwell, Oliver, 29, 233
Cromwell, Thomas, seizure of gardens by, 12
D
Dahlia, 341
Deer, 36, 67, 74, 88
Dell in Hyde Park, 52
Deptford Park, 178, 203
Devonshire House, 335
Dolphin Fountain, Hyde Park, 39
Downing Street, 72
Drapers’ Company Garden, 12, 292
Duck Island, 62, 72, 73
Duels, 33, 86, 157, 341
Duke Humphrey’s Walk, 77
Duke of York’s School, Chelsea, 311
Dulwich College, 175
Dulwich Park, 174–177
---- rock garden in, 176
E
Eel Brook Common, 213
Eltham Park, 182
Ely Place, 9, 14
Embankment Gardens, 132
Enfield, 323
Evelyn, John, 29, 67, 79, 229, 232, 293, 309, 312, 325–326
Exhibition of 1851, 48
F
Fairchild, Thomas, 18, 128, 223
Fawcett, Henry, 163
Fetter Lane, 15
Fickett’s Field, 236
Finsbury Circus, 237
---- Park, 120, 125, 139–141
---- Square, 10, 237
Fire of London, 12, 15
Flowers at the Grey-coat School, 298.
---- in Greenwich Park, 117
---- in Holborn, 9
---- in Hyde Park, 46–48
---- in Municipal Parks, 124
---- in the Temple Gardens, 272
---- of Shakespeare, 151, 154, 171
---- suited to London, 330–335
Fogs, 69, 128
Foley House, 89
Fordyce, Mr., 89, 90
Foundling Hospital, 296
French Gardeners, 61
Fuchsia, 17
Fulham Palace, 308, 311
---- gardens at, 345
G
Gardeners, 14
---- Company, 14
Gardens, Castle, 8
---- City, 14–16
---- monastic, 7–8
Gay, lines on Lincoln’s Inn Fields, 235, 282
Gerard, John, 16, 17, 19
Gibson, Mr., 137–158, 228
Godfrey, Sir Edmondsbury, 105
Goose Green, 213
Gordon riots, 194–233
Gospel Oak, 197
Grant, Baron, 228
Gray’s Inn, 283–288
Green Park, 56–73
---- fireworks in, 75
---- railings round, 76
---- Ranger’s lodge in, 76
Green Walk, St. James’s Park, 77
Greens, 213
Greenwich Fair, 115
Greenwich Park, 106–118
---- birds in, 117
---- burials in, 107
---- flowers in, 117
---- Queen’s House, 113
---- royal pageants in, 109–113
---- wild flowers in, 116
Grey-coat School, Westminster, 297
Grosley, Mr., 67, 281
Grosvenor House, 337
Gunning, The Misses, 69
H
Hackney, 16, 17
---- Commons, 188
---- Downs, 186, 189
---- Marsh, 189
Hainault, Forest of, 122
Hamilton Place, 35
Hampstead Heath, 192–198
---- Jack Straw’s Castle, 195
---- Spaniards, 194
---- Wells, 192
---- wild flowers, 197
Hatton, Sir Christopher, 14
Heath, Bostall, 199
---- Hampstead, 192
Henry VIII. and Hyde Park, 25
---- at Greenwich, 109
Henry, Prince of Wales, 357–359
Highbury Fields, 190
Highgate, 10
Hilly Fields, 203
Holborn, 8, 16
Holland House, 337–343
Honourable Artillery Company, 97, 292
Horniman Gardens, 177
Hornsey Wood, 140
Horse Guards’ Parade, 59, 72
Horticultural Society, 17
Hoxton, 18
Hunting, 25, 85–86, 88
Hyde, Manor of, 24
Hyde Park, 23–55
---- area of flower beds, 48
---- boundaries, 24
---- cake-house in, 28, 32
---- deer in, 35
---- dell, 52
---- duels in, 33
---- flowers in, 46
---- forts erected in, 27
---- fountains in, 39, 44, 54
---- frame-ground in, 47
---- gates, 54
---- hunting in, 25
---- keepers of, 35
---- Parliamentary army in, 28
---- Plague in, 32
---- railings round, 35, 46
---- reviews in, 35
---- Ring in, 28–30
---- roads in, 36
---- sale of, 28
---- trees in, 51
---- water in, 37, 42
I
Ice accident, 101
Ice-house in Green Park, 74
Inns of Court, 261–288
Ironmongers’ Almshouses, 296
Island Garden, Poplar, 133
Isle of Dogs, 133
Islip Abbot, 25
J
Jack Straw’s Castle, 194
Jacobite Walk, 73
James I., 59
James II., 67
Jefferies, Richard, 125, 210
Johnson, Thomas, 17, 19
K
Kennington Common, 164
Kennington Park, 164–166
---- fountain in, 166
---- historical incidents, 165
Kensington Gardens, 41–50
---- trees in, 51
Kensington Palace, 36–40
Kent, landscape gardener, 40
Kyrle Society, 121
L
Ladywell Recreation Ground, 203
Lamb, Charles, 15, 279, 285
Lambeth, 305
Lammas Lands, 119, 186, 189
Latimer, Bishop, 306, 308
Laud, Archbishop, 305–306
Lauderdale House, Waterlow Park, 147
Le Nôtre, 61, 113
Lincoln, Earl of, 8
Lincoln’s Inn, 279–282
Lincoln’s Inn Fields, 234, 282
L’Obel, 16
Loddige, 17
London and Wise, 40
London County Council, equipment of, 123
---- expenditure on parks, 6
---- inappropriate planting by, 189, 204
---- parks owned by, 4, 121
London Fields, 188
---- Hospital Garden, 295
Loudon, 54, 90, 99, 223
M
Mall, The, 61, 66, 68, 70, 73, 77
Manor Park or Manor House Gardens, 182
Marble Arch, 54
---- Hill, 121
Marvel, Andrew, 149
Mary, Queen, 40
Marylebone Fields, 89, 92
---- origin of, 83
Marylebone Park, 84–89
---- called Regent’s Park, 91
---- lease to the Duke of Portland, 90
---- Manor-house in, 89
Maryon Park, 181
Mayor of Garrett, 212
Meath Gardens, 248
---- Earl of, 243
Metropolitan Commons Act, 186, 188
---- Gardens Association, 121, 234, 243, 248
Milton, 60
Minet, Mr. William, 166
Mirabeau, letters of, 128, 220
Monastic gardens, 7, 8
Montagu House, 222, 232, 335
Montagu, Mrs., 222, 336
Moorfields, 10–12
Moorgate, 11
Moravian Mission, 15, 311
More, Sir Thomas, 311
Mother Shipton, 104
Municipal Parks, 119
---- acreage of, 121
---- criticisms upon, 184, 189, 204
---- equipment of, 123
---- flowers in, 124
---- formation of, 120, 123, 136
---- green-houses in, 124
---- laying out of, 126
---- old English gardens in, 127
---- situation of, 120
Myatt’s Fields, Camberwell, 166–168
---- avenue in, 126, 168
N
Naming plants, 54
Nash, architect, 90–91
Navy, timber in Marylebone Park used by Cromwell for, 88
Neate or Neyte, 24, 239
Nell Gwynn, 67, 147
Nesfield, 101
Nevill, Bishop of Chichester, 15
---- Court, 15
New River, 142–143
North Woolwich tea garden, 134
Nunhead Green, 213
O
Observatory, Greenwich, 108
“Old English Gardens,” 151–154, 171
Open Spaces, Select Committee on, 187
Osborne, Dorothy, 60
P
Paddington Green, 213
Pall Mall, 66
Pardon Churchyard, Charterhouse, 236
---- St. Paul’s, 250
Parkinson, John, 16, 298
Parks, acreage of, 4, 6, 122
---- classes of, 3
---- duels in, 33, 86, 157
---- lighting of, 37, 79
---- maintenance of, 5, 6
---- Municipal, 3, 6, 121, 122, 159
---- Royal, 3, 6, 122, 157
---- sale of, 28, 87
Park system, 22
Parliament Hill, 192, 197
Parson’s Green, 213
Paul’s Cross, 252
Pawlet, Sir William, 14
Peckham Rye, 204
Pennethorne, Sir James, 157
Pepys, 12, 15, 31, 34, 65, 79, 115, 148, 180, 189, 206, 257, 280
Piccadilly, 76
Placentia or Plaisance, 108
Plague, 32, 196, 226, 236, 238, 257
Plane trees, 223
Plants suited to London, 330–335
Plumstead Common, 201
Portland Place, 89
Postman’s Park, 255
Potatoes, 17
Primrose Hill, 104
Private gardens, 327–356
Q
Quaggy River, 182
Queen’s House, Greenwich, 113–114
Queen’s Walk, Green Park, 75
Quintinye, de la, 61, 77
R
Ranelagh Gardens, 315
Ranger’s Lodge, Green Park, 76
---- Greenwich Park, 115
Ravensbourne, 203
Ravenscourt Park, 152–154
---- old English garden in, 154
---- trees in, 153
Red House, Battersea, 156
Reform Bill riots, 46
Regent’s Park, 83–105
---- architecture and houses, 91
---- banqueting houses in, 85
---- canal, 90
---- deer, 88
---- duels in, 86
---- flowers in, 101–102
---- formerly Marylebone Park, 84, 91
---- hunting in, 85–86
---- Manor-house in, 89, 97
---- railings, 103
---- sale by Cromwell, 87
---- Societies in, 96
---- stone vase in, 101
---- villas in, 93–94, 347
Repton, Humphrey, 231–239
Rhododendrons in Hyde Park, 53
Ring in Hyde Park, 28–30
Riots in Hyde Park, 45
Rock gardens, 176
Rooks, 174, 288
Rosamond’s Pond, 58, 73
Roses, 9, 277, 334
Rotten Row, 36
Round Pond, 44
Royal Avenue, Chelsea, 312
Ruskin Park, 168–170
S
Saint Alphege, London Wall, 258
---- Bartholomew’s Hospital, 289
---- Botolph’s, Aldersgate, 255–256
---- Christopher-le-Stocks, 258
---- Dunstan’s Lodge, 93
---- Dunstan’s, Stepney, 245
---- George’s-in-the-East, 246
---- Giles, Cripplegate, 258
---- James’s Palace, 57, 348
---- James’s Park, 25, 45, 56–82
---- ---- ---- animals and birds in, 59, 61, 64,73
---- ---- ---- canal in, 65
---- ---- ---- cows in, 64
---- ---- ---- driving privileges in, 71
---- ---- ---- Duck Island, 62, 73
---- ---- ---- flowers in, 80
---- ---- ---- leper hospital in, 57
---- ---- ---- a races in, 71
---- ---- ---- Rosamond’s Pond, 58, 73
---- ---- ---- tilting ring, 59
---- John at Hackney, 245
---- ---- Knights of, 7–8, 236, 264
---- John’s Lodge, 74, 237
---- Katherine Coleman, 256
---- Katharine’s, Regent’s Park, 94, 437
---- Leonard’s, Shoreditch, 18
---- Martin, 259
---- Mary Staining, 254
---- Mary, Islington, 245
---- Olave’s, Hart Street, 254–257
---- Pancras-in-the-Fields, 243
---- Paul’s Churchyard, 250–254
Sand gardens for children, 124, 139, 163
Sayes Court, Deptford, 325
Scott, Sir Gilbert, 50
Seething Lane, 16
Serpentine, 37–38, 42–45
Shakespeare, flowers of, 151, 154, 171
Shepherd’s Bush, 213
Shrubs suitable for London, 330
Skating, 45, 79, 101
---- club, 97
Sloane, Sir Hans, 16, 318
Smoke, 69, 128, 129
Spa Fields, 247
“Spaniards,” Hampstead, 194
Spring flowers suitable for London, 334
Springfield Park, 144
Spring Gardens, 60
Squares, 217–241
---- Bedford, 232
---- Belgrave, 238
---- Berkeley, 222
---- Bloomsbury, 231
---- Brompton, 240
---- Brunswick, 296
---- Cadogan Place, 239
---- Cavendish, 221
---- Eaton, 218, 239
---- Finsbury, 237
---- Golden, 226
---- Grosvenor, 219, 221
---- Hanover, 221
---- in Belgravia, 238
---- in Bloomsbury, 230, 297
---- in the East End, 238
---- Kensington, 240
---- Ladbroke, 219
---- Leicester, 227
---- Lincoln’s Inn Fields, 234
---- Manchester, 221
---- Mecklenburgh, 297
---- New, 235
---- Portman, 222, 336
---- Queen’s, 233
---- Red Lion, 233
---- Russell, 321
---- Saint James’s, 223
---- Soho, 229
---- Southampton, 231
---- statues in, 220, 225, 226, 229, 230, 231
---- Trinity, 237
---- Vincent, 238
Sorbiere, M. de, 62
South London Parks, 155–184
Southwark Park, 179
Stepney, Manor of, 139
---- Museum, 146
Stoke Newington or Clissold Park, 141–144
Streatham Common, 209, 211
Sub-tropical Garden, Battersea, 158
Summer-houses, 86
Switzer, Stephen, 39
T
Telegraph Hill, 178
Templars, 7
Temple, The, 262, 264–279
---- Bencher’s Garden, Inner, 275
---- Bencher’s Garden, Middle, 275
Temple Garden, chambers built on the, 266
---- flowers in, 272
---- Fountain, 269–275
---- green-house, 272
---- iron gates, 271
---- re-turfing, 268
---- sun-dial, 271
---- Wars of the Roses begin in, 277
Thrale Place, 209
Tinworth, sculpture by, 163–166
Tooting Beck, 208
---- Common, 208, 210
---- Graveney, 208
Tortoise at Lambeth, 307
Toxopholite Society, 307
Tradescant, 16, 298
Trees at Fulham, 310, 345
---- in Chelsea Physic Garden, 321–323
---- in Greenwich Park, 106, 110, 114
---- in Hyde Park, 57
---- in Municipal Parks, 125, 137, 141, 144, 145, 147, 151, 153,
175, 182
---- in Regent’s Park, 103
---- in squares, 223
---- pruning of, 128
Trinity Hospital, Mile End, 293
Turner, William, 257
Tyburn, Manor of, 56, 83
U
Upper Park, 74
Uvedale, Robert, 323
V
Vatcher, Rev. Sidney, 295
Vauxhall Gardens, 161
Vauxhall Park, 161–164
---- purchase of, 162
Veitch, 17
Verjuice, 10
Victoria Docks, 157
Victoria Park, 120, 135–139
---- birds in, 139
---- planting in, 137
Victoria Park Cemetery, 248
Victoria, Queen, Memorial, 80
Vineyards, 9, 59, 180
Vintage, 10
W
Wages in 1554, 85
Wandsworth Common, 212
Waterlow Park, 145–150
---- historical events in, 147–149
---- ponds in, 147
---- trees in, 147
Waterlow, Sir Sidney, 145, 149
Waterworks Company, 38
Westminster, 10, 25, 38, 58, 299
Westminster Abbey, 299–305
---- gardens in monastic times, 302
---- Little Cloister, 299
Whip Club, 54
Whitechapel, 18
Whitfield, 165
Wild flowers near London, 20
William III., 36, 41
Wine, 10
Winter Garden, Duke Street, 219
Wise, 41
Woolwich, 202
Wormwood Scrubs, 198
Y
Yews, Irish, 245
Z
Zoological Society, 100
Zouche, Lord, Garden in Hackney, 16
THE END
Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO.
Edinburgh & London
[Illustration: (map)]
Transcriber’s Notes
Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a
predominant preference was found in the original book; otherwise they
were not changed.
Simple typographical errors were corrected; unbalanced quotation
marks were remedied when the change was obvious, and otherwise left
unbalanced.
Illustrations in this eBook have been positioned between paragraphs
and outside quotations. In versions of this eBook that support
hyperlinks, the page references in the List of Illustrations lead to
the corresponding illustrations.
The Errata following page 376 have been corrected in this eBook.
Footnotes, originally at the bottoms of the pages that referenced them,
have been collected, sequentially renumbered, and placed near the end
of the book, just before the index.
The index was not checked for proper alphabetization or correct page
references.
Page 203: “West Kent Grammer School” was printed that way.
Pages 368–374: In the original book, asterisks indicating “not in
existence” were positioned at the left sides of the lines. In this
ebook, they are positioned at the right sides.