48 LONDON PARKS <^ GARDENS 



the National Gallery — are stored, that it is quite invisible 

 from the outside. There are storehouses for the bulbs, 

 and nurseries where masses of wall-flowers, delphiniums, 

 and all the hardier bedding plants, and those for the her- 

 baceous borders, are grown. Of late years the number of 

 beds in the Park has been considerably reduced, without 

 any diminution of the effect. In 1903 as many as ninety 

 were done away with between Grosvenor Gate and Marble 

 Arch. There is now a single row of long beds instead of 

 three rows with round ones at intervals. But even after 

 all these reductions the area of flower beds and borders 

 is very considerable, as the following table will show : — 



An event of historic importance which took place in 

 Hyde Park was the Great Exhibition of 1851. Various 

 sites, such as Battersea, Regent's Park, Somerset House, 

 and Leicester Square, were suggested, and the one chosen 

 met with some opposition, but finally the space between 

 Rotten Row and Knightsbridge Barracks was decided on. 

 Plans were submitted for competition, and though 245 

 were sent in not one satisfied the committee, so, assisted 

 by three well-known architects, they evolved a plan of 

 their own. This was to be carried out in brick ; the 

 labour of removing it after the Exhibition would have 



