76 LONDON PARKS & GARDENS 



Near the top of the Park was a reservoir or "fine 

 piece of water" belonging to the Chelsea Waterworks, 

 and the path round it was included in the fashionable 

 promenade by those who paraded in the Queen's Walk 

 after dinner. Lower down, where there is still a de- 

 pression, was a little pond, originally part of the Tyburn 

 stream. The "green stagnant pool" was abused by a 

 writer in 1 731, who regretted that trees had just been 

 planted near it, which probably meant that the offensive 

 pool would " not soon be removed." The prophecy was 

 correct, for it was more than a hundred years later before 

 this was filled up. The Park wall ran along Piccadilly, 

 and here and there, as was often the case in the eighteenth 

 century, there were gaps with iron rails, through which 

 glimpses of the Park could be obtained. Some persons 

 had private keys to the gates leading into the Park from 

 Piccadilly. Daring robberies were by no means un- 

 common, and thieves, having done mischief in the streets 

 near Piccadilly on more than one occasion, were found 

 to be provided with keys to the gates, through which 

 they could make their escape into the Park and elude 

 their pursuers. The Ranger's Lodge stood on the 

 northern side, and was rebuilt and done up in I773- 

 It was made so attractive that there was great competi- 

 tion, when it was completed, to be Deputy-ranger and 

 live there. The two stags which now stand on Albert 

 Gate, Hyde Park, once adorned the gates of this Ranger's 

 Lodge. It is described in 1792 as " a very neat lodge 

 surrounded by a shrubbery, which renders it en- 

 chantingly rural." When George III. bought Buck- 

 ingham House, then an old red-brick mansion, he 

 took away the wall which separated the Green Park 

 from St. James's, and put a railing instead. In this 



