INTRODUCTORY 13 



to be taken doune, 22 foot to be measured forth right 

 into the north of every man*s ground, a line then to 

 be drawn, a trench to be cast, a foundation laid, and an 

 high bricke wall to be builded. My Father had a garden 

 there, and there was a house standing close to his south 

 pale ; this house they loosed from the ground, and bare 

 upon Rowlers into my Father's garden 22 foot ere my 

 Father heard thereof. . . . No man durst goe to argue 

 the matter, but each man lost his Land." 



It is difficult to estimate whether the charitable muni- 

 ficence of the Company is altogether as great a public 

 benefit, from a health point of view, as retaining some 

 of the garden for public use would have been. Men are 

 naturally so conservative, that, because they have been 

 content to talk and do business, and even search for a 

 breath of air, in the crowded streets on the hottest 

 summer days, it has probably never occurred to them 

 that a few minutes on a seat under shady trees would 

 have "refreshed their spirits," and the addition of 

 better air improved their brain powers more effectually. 

 The idea of a garden city is such a new one that it 

 is not fair to judge by such standards. Distances are 

 now much reduced by electricity above and below 

 ground, so that the necessity of crowding business 

 houses together to save time is not so all-important. 

 When the City gardens became built over, no doubt the 

 newer and more sanitary conditions were felt amply to 

 compensate for the loss of oxygen given off by the 

 growing plants, and the preservation of air spaces in the 

 midst of crowded centres had not occurred to men's 

 minds. 



London four or five hundred years ago must indeed 

 have needed its gardens. The squalor and dirt of its 



