MUNICIPAL PARKS 153 



indulgent and fatherly London County Council will 

 provide swings for the elders, too, some day, and so 

 remove the small jealousies. 



To the west of the long avenue lies the orchard. A 

 stretch of grass, devoted to tennis-courts and bowling- 

 greens, separates the pear trees from the walk. These 

 pears and the solitary apple tree are delightful in spring, 

 and a temptation in autumn. Round the house, which 

 is not by any means as picturesque as the date of its 

 building (about 1649) would lead one to expect, are some 

 good trees — planes that are really old, with massive 

 stems, horse-chestnuts and limes, acacias that have seen 

 their best days, cedars suffering from age and smoke, 

 and a good catalpa. The Manor House which preceded 

 the present building was of ancient origin. In early 

 times it was known as the Manor House of Paddenswick, 

 or Pallenswick, under the Manor of Fulham, and was 

 the residence of Alice Perrers, the favourite of Ed- 

 ward III. It was seized in 1378, when she was banished 

 by Richard II. ; but after the reversion of her sentence, 

 she returned to England as the wife of Lord Windsor, 

 and the King, in 1380, granted the manor to him. It is 

 not heard of again till Elizabeth's time, when it belonged 

 to the Payne family, and was sold by them in 1631 to 

 Sir Richard Gurney, the Royalist Lord Mayor, who. 

 perished in the Tower. After his death it was bought 

 by Maximilian Bard, who probably pulled down the old 

 house and built the present one, which is now used as 

 the Hammersmith Public Library. In the eighteenth 

 century the name was changed from Paddenswick (a 

 title preserved by a road of that name running near the 

 Park) to Ravenscourt, an enduring recollection of the 

 device of a black raven, the arms of Thomas Corbett, 



