HYDE PARK 41 



measuring, directing, or ordering her Buildings, but in 

 Gardening, especially Exoticks, she was particularly 

 skill'd, and allowed Dr. Pluknet ^200 per ann. for his 

 Assistance therein." After his queen's death William III. 

 did no more to the gardens, but they were completed by 

 Queen Anne. She appointed Wise to the chief care of 

 the gardens, and when in 17 12 rules for the "better 

 keeping Hyde Park in good Order" were drawn up, 

 and people were forbidden to leap the fences or ditches, 

 or to ride over the grass, a special exception was made 

 in favour of Henry Wise. Switzer, in tracing the history 

 of gardening to his day (17 15), praises the "late pious 

 Queen, whose love to Gardening was not a little," for 

 " Rooting up the Box, and giving an English Model 

 to the old-made Gardens at Kensington; and in 1704 

 made that new garden behind the Green-House, that 

 is esteemed amongst the most valuable Pieces of Work 

 that has been done any where. . . . The place where 

 that beautiful Hollow now is, was a large irregular 

 Gravel-pit, which, according to several Designs given 

 in, was to have been filled, but that Mr. Wise pre- 

 vailed, and has given it that surprizing Model it now 

 appears in. As great a Piece of Work as that whole 

 Ground is, 'twas near all completed in one Season, (viz.) 

 between Michaelmas and Lady Day, which demon- 

 strates to what a pitch Gard'ning is arrived within these 

 twenty or thirty years." 



When William III. purchased Kensington Palace, 

 the grounds covered less than thirty acres. Under 

 the management of Wise, in Queen Anne's time, more 

 was added, and the Orangery was built in 1705. Few 

 people know the charms of this old building, which 

 stands to the north of the original garden, and which 



