The Merry Past 



reasons, from the time it was made by Le Notre, till 

 it was finally destroyed by the improvements of 1770. 

 The lawn north of the canal was left as a pasture 

 for the cows that supplied the nursery-maids and 

 their charges with milk, at the east end of the park. 

 It will be remembered that when the Processional 

 Road was formed a few years ago the proposal to 

 entirely banish the milk stall from the Park raised 

 much indignant protest, with the result that the 

 descendants of those to whom the privilege was 

 originally granted were permitted to establish a new 

 stall to be held for their "lifetime only" on another 

 spot. The cows (latterly one only was kept) had 

 been a feature of this park since the sportive days of 

 Charles II. He it was who originally granted the 

 right of purveying milk here to an ancestor or ances- 

 tress of those still holding the existing stall. When 

 permission was accorded for this to be set up it was 

 stipulated that the cow should be banished, and so 

 about the last survival of the semi-rural ways of old 

 London disappeared. 



199 



