ST. JAxMES'S & GREEN PARKS 6i 



time for anything ; and to show how absolutely I am 

 governed, I need but tell you that I am every night 

 in the Park and at New Spring Gardens, where, though 

 I come with a mask, I cannot escape being known nor 

 my conversation being admired." 



The most brilliant days of its history began, how- 

 ever, in Charles II. 's reign. He entirely remodelled it, 

 and began the work soon after his return from exile, 

 imbued with foreign ideas of gardening. It has always 

 been supposed that Le Notre was responsible for the 

 designs, and it has often been asserted that he himself 

 came to England to see them carried out. But close 

 investigation has furnished no proof of this, and it is 

 practically certain that, although invited, and allowed 

 by Louis XIV. to come to England, he never actually 

 did so. Other "French gardeners" certainly came, and 

 one of them. La Quintinge, made many English friends, 

 and kept up a correspondence with them after his return 

 to France. Perrault probably visited London also, and 

 may have superintended the "French gardeners" who 

 were employed on St. James's Park. They transformed 

 the whole place. Avenues — the Mall and "Birdcage 

 Walk" — were planted. A straight canal passed down 

 the middle, and at the end, near the present Foreign 

 Office, was the duck decoy. The "Birdcage Walk" 

 IS no fantastic title, for birds were literally kept there 

 in cages. These were probably aviaries for large birds, 

 and not little hanging cages, as has been sometimes 

 suggested. A well-known passage occurs in Evelyn's 

 Diary, 1664, where he enumerates some of the birds 

 and beasts he saw during one of his walks through 

 the Park. The pelican delighted him, although "a 

 melancholy waterfowl," and he watched the skilful way 



