MUNICIPAL PARKS 137 



plaine of wood, and not to be discerned from other 

 grounds." These woods were on the ground covered 

 by the Park. Stowe notices in his short accounts of 

 the Bishops of London that Ralph Stratford, who was 

 Bishop from 1339 to 1354, "deceased at Stebunhith." 

 The name Bonner's Hall somehow became attached to 

 the Manor House. The same chronicler also records 

 that Bishop Ridley gave the manors of Stepney and 

 Hackney to the King in the fourth year of Edward VI., 

 who granted them to Lord Wentworth. Bonner, there- 

 fore, would be the last Bishop who could have resided 

 there. The old Manor House was not destroyed till 

 1 800, when part of the material was taken to build 

 a farm-house, which was cleared away when the Park 

 was formed. 



The first laying out of the Park does not seem to 

 have been altogether satisfactory. A writer in 1851 

 criticises it very severely. The roads and paths, he says, 

 were so badly laid as to require almost reconstruction. 

 The " banks of the lake must be reduced to something 

 like shape to resist the wash of the water," and the re- 

 modelling of the plantations will be " a work of time." 

 Just then Mr. Gibson assumed the charge of the Park, 

 and even this captious critic seems to have been well 

 satisfied that he had " begun in real earnest " to carry 

 out the necessary improvements. Modern gardeners 

 might not applaud all his planting quite so enthusiasti- 

 cally as his contemporaries. For instance, the rage for 

 araucarias — monkey puzzles — has somewhat subsided, 

 though the planting of a number met with great praise 

 in the Fifties. Most of the Park was planted with 

 discrimination. In a line with the canal which forms 

 one boundary, an avenue was put, now a charming 



