146 LONDON PARKS & GARDENS 



soft curtain of smoke, the mysterious blue light, a 

 gentle reminder of orange and black fog, shrouds and 

 beautifies everything it touches. On a June day, when 

 the grass is vivid and the trees a bright pale green, 

 Waterlow Park is at its best. The dome of St. Paul's, 

 the countless towers of Wren's city churches, the pin- 

 nacles of the Law Courts, the wonderful Tower Bridge, 

 dwarfing the old Norman White Tower, all appear in 

 softened beauty behind the fresh verdure, through well- 

 contrived peeps and gaps in the trees. 



Most of the ground is too steep for the cricket and 

 football to which the greater part of other parks are given 

 over. Only lawn tennis and bowls can be provided for, on 

 the green lawns at the top of the Park. A delightful 

 old pond, with steep banks overshadowed by limes and 

 chestnuts, has a feeling of the real country about it. The 

 concrete edges, the little patches of aquatic plants and neat 

 turf, are missing. The banks show signs of last year's 

 leaves, fallen sticks, and blackened chestnuts, and any green 

 near it, is only natural wild plants that enjoy shade and 

 moisture. It is the sort of place a water-hen would feel 

 at home in, and not expect to meet intruding Mandarin 

 ducks or Canadian geese. Let us hope this quiet spot 

 may long remain untouched. There are two nev^er lakes 

 lower down, laid out in approved County Council style, 

 trim and neat, with water-fowl, water-lilies, and judi- 

 cious planting round the banks of weeping willows and 

 rhododendron clumps. Probably many visitors find 

 them more attractive than the upper pool. There is 

 no fault to find with them, and they are perhaps more 

 suited to a public park, but they are devoid of the 

 poetry which raises the other out of the commonplace. 

 As the slopes towards the lower lakes are the playground 



