234 LONDON PARKS & GARDENS 



dation, was for long current that a rough stone obelisk, 

 which stood afterwards in the Square, marked the spot 

 where Cromwell's body was buried by friends who rescued 

 the remains from the scaffold. The houses were built 

 round it at the end of the seventeenth century, but the 

 space in the middle seems, like all other squares at this 

 time, to have been more or less a rubbish heap, and a 

 resort of "vagabonds and other disorderly persons." In 

 1737 the inhabitants got an Act of Parliament to allow 

 them to levy a rate to keep the Square in order. A 

 contemporary, in praising this determination to beautify 

 the Square, " which had run much to decay," hopes that 

 "Leicester Fields and Golden Square will soon follow these 

 good examples." The "beautifying" consisted in setting 

 up a railing round it, with watch-houses at the corners, 

 while the obelisk rose in the centre out of the rank grass. 



The present garden, when first opened to the public, 

 was managed by the Metropolitan Gardens Association, 

 but since 1895 the London County Council have looked 

 after it; the inhabitants having made a practically free 

 gift of it for the public benefit. The nice old trees, . 

 flowers, seats, and fountain make it a much less gloomy 

 spot than during any time of its history since the Red 

 Lion kept solitary watch in the fields. 



The largest of all the squares is Lincoln's Inn Fields. 

 The garden, which is 7^ acres in extent, was, after 

 many lengthy negotiations, finally opened to the public 

 in 1895. The fine old houses which survive, show the 

 importance and size of Inigo Jones's original conception. 

 It has been said that the Square is exactly the same size 

 as the base of the Great Pyramid, but this is not the case. 

 The west side, which was completed by Inigo Jones, was 

 begun in 1618, but the centre of the Square was left an 



