i8o LONDON PARKS & GARDENS 



Vines were grown here for wine with success in the 

 first half of the eighteenth century, when there was a 

 revival in grape-growing, and vineyards were planted 

 at Hoxton and elsewhere. Over lOO gallons of wine 

 were made in a year in Rotherhithe. Some of the 

 earth excavated from the Thames Tunnel was put on the 

 ground covered by the Park before the laying out com- 

 menced. When the land, 65 acres, was bought, only 

 45 were to be kept for the Park, and the rest were 

 reserved for building. But when the day of building 

 arrived there was such an outcry that the whole plan 

 was remodelled, the drives which encircled it done away 

 with, and tar-paved paths substituted, only one driving 

 road crossing it being left, and the ponds added. It 

 is more the want of design, than any special style, that is 

 conspicuous, and a good deal more could have been done 

 to make the Park less gloomy. An avenue is growing 

 up, but it will never have the charming effect of the one 

 across Battersea, as the line is neither straight nor a 

 definite curve. The wild fowl on the pond are such 

 an attraction, that perhaps it may be that the wire netting 

 and asphalt edges they apparently require are not draw- 

 backs, but they are not beautiful. The gateway into the 

 Park, near Deptford Station, has rather the grim look of 

 a prison, and yet, with the forest of masts behind, all it 

 requires is a climbing plant or two to make a picture. 

 On the opposite end of the Park runs Jamaica Road, 

 which perpetuates the name of a well-known Tea Garden, 

 Jamaica House. Pepys records a visit there, on a Sunday 

 in April 1667. " Took out my wife, and the two Mercers, 

 and two of our maids. Barker and Jane, and over the 

 water to Jamaica House, where I never was before, and 

 there the girls did run for wagers over the bowling-green ; 



