SQUARES 237 



Order, Pardon Churchyard was maintained as a burial- 

 ground for felons and suicides. After the dissolution 

 of the monasteries, when Charterhouse School and 

 Hospital had been established by Thomas Sutton, the 

 houses round the other three sides of the Square began 

 to be built. One of the finest was Rutland House, once 

 the residence of the Venetian Ambassador. It is still a 

 quiet, quaint place of old memories ; and the garden, 

 with two walks crossing each other diagonally, and some 

 fair-sized trees, has a solemn look, as if, even after all 

 the centuries that have passed, it had some trace of its 

 origin. Finsbury Circus and Finsbury Square are very 

 different. They are more modern, bustling places which 

 have entirely effaced the past. That they were, for long 

 years, the most resorted to of open spaces, where Lon- 

 doners took their walks is well-nigh forgotten, except 

 in the name Finsbury, or Fensbury, the fen or moor- 

 like fields without the walls. Bethlehem Hospital, 

 known as Bedlam, was, for many generations, the only 

 large building on the Fields. Finsbury Square was 

 begun more than a hundred years ago, and but for the 

 few green trees, nothing suggests the former country 

 origin. Trinity Square, by the Tower, is so unique 

 in aspect and association that it must be mentioned. In 

 the sixteenth century the " tenements and garden plots " 

 encroached on Tower Hill right up to the " Tower 

 Ditch," and from the earliest time some kind of garden 

 existed at the Tower. When it was a royal residence, 

 frequent entries appear in the accounts of payments for 

 the upkeep of the garden. Although so much has 

 changed, and the wild animals that afforded amusement 

 for centuries are removed, it is pleasant to see the moat 

 turned into walks, and well planted with iris and hardy 



