68 LONDON PARKS & GARDENS 



how, they managed frequently to escape their master's 

 vigilance, and fell a prey to the unscrupulous thief, and 

 descriptions of the missing dogs were published in the 

 Gazette. One, answering to the name Towser, was 

 " liver colour'd and white spotted " ; and a " dogg of 

 His Majestie's, full of blew spots, with a white cross on 

 his forehead about the bigness of a tumbler," was lost on 

 another occasion. 



Charles with his dogs, his ducks, his wit, his engaging 

 manners, his doubtful morals, is the central figure of many 

 a picture in St. James's Park, but it does not often form 

 a background to his Queen. One scene described by 

 Pepys has much charm. The party, returning from Hyde 

 Park on horseback with a great crowd of gallants, pass 

 down the Mall ; the Queen, riding hand in hand with 

 the King, looking " mighty pretty " in her white laced 

 coat and crimson petticoat. Again, on another occasion, 

 the Queen forms an attractive vision, as she walks with 

 her ladies from Whitehall to St. James's dressed from 

 head to foot in silver lace, each holding an immense 

 green fan to shade themselves from the fierce rays of the 

 June sun, while a delighted crowd throng round them. 



The popularity of the Mall as the rendezvous of all 

 classes lasted for over a century. Through the reigns 

 of Queen Anne and George I. and II. all the fashionable 

 world of London congregated there twice daily. In the 

 morning the promenade took them there from twelve 

 to two, and after dinner in full dress they thronged 

 thither again, not to play the game of paille-maille, which 

 was then out of fashion, but simply to walk about under 

 the trees and be amused with races, wrestlings, or an 

 impromptu dance. Every well-known person — courtiers, 

 wits, beaux, writers, poets, artists, soldiers — and all the 



