SOUTH LONDON PARKS i6i 



Hyde Park would satisfy the aspirations of the newly- 

 emancipated lady cyclists. What would their ancestors, 

 who had paced the Mall in powder and crinolines, 

 have said to the short-skirted, energetic young or even 

 elderly cyclist ? No doubt some of that language 

 which shocks modern ears, used by the heroines in 

 "Sir Charles Grandison," would have been found equal 

 to the occasion. The great cycling rage is over, and 

 Battersea is again deserted by fair beings, who now 

 prefer to fly further afield in motors, but the Park 

 is just as crowded by those for whose benefit it was 

 really made — the ever-growing population of London 

 south of the river. 



Vauxhall Park 



Going east from Battersea the next Park is Vauxhall, 

 a small oasis of green in a crowded district. Although 

 only 8 acres in extent, it is a great boon to the neigh- 

 bourhood, and hundreds of children play there every day. 

 It has been open since 1891, the land, occupied by houses 

 with gardens, having been acquired and the houses de- 

 molished, and the little Park is owned and kept up by 

 Lambeth Borough Council. 



It has nothing to do with the famous Vauxhall 

 Gardens, to which the rank and fashion of the town 

 flocked for nearly two hundred years ; and the country 

 visitor to Vauxhall Park could hardly speak of it in such 

 glowing terms as Farmer Colin to his wife in 174 1 of 

 the famous Vauxhall Spring Gardens : — 



" O Mary ! soft in feature, 



I've been at dear Vauxhall ; 

 No paradise is sweeter, 

 Not that they Eden call. 



