ST. JAMES'S & GREEN PARKS S7 



crossed the modern Oxford Street to where it joined 

 the Thames, a little west of where Vauxhall Bridge 

 afterwards stood. It passed right across Green Park, 

 where the depression of its valley can still be traced 

 between Half Moon Street and Down Street. The 

 name, St. James's, originated with the hospital for lepers, 

 dedicated to St. James, on the site of the present palace. 

 The exact date of its foundation is lost in the mists of 

 antiquity, but it was established by the citizens of 

 London, ''before the time of any man's memorie, for 

 14 Sisters, maydens, that were leprous, living chastly 

 and honestly in Divine Service." Later, there were 

 further gifts of land and money from the citizens, and 

 "8 brethren to minister Divine Service there" were 

 added to the foundation. All these gifts were sub- 

 sequently confirmed by Edward I., who granted a fair 

 to be held for seven days, commencing on the eve of 

 St. James's Day, in St. James's Fields, which belonged to 

 the hospital. The letting out of the land for booths 

 became a source of further income to the lepers. Stowe 

 shortly tells the subsequent history. " This Hospital 

 was surrendered to Henry the 8 the 23 of his reigne : 

 the Sisters being compounded with were allowed Pensions 

 for terme of their lives, and the King builded there a 

 goodly Manner, annexing thereunto a Park, closed about 

 with a wall of brick, now called St. James's Parke, serving 

 indifferently to the said Mannor, and to the Mannor 

 or Palace of Whitehall." At first sight the summary 

 ejection of these helpless creatures appears unusually 

 heartless, even for those days ; but leprosy, which during 

 the time of the Crusades had grown to a formidable 

 extent, was declining in the sixteenth century in Eng- 

 land. It is probable, therefore, that the poor outcast 



