INNS OF COURT 265 



as in 1565 there was an order "for the plucking down 

 of a study newly erected," and again in 1567, "the 

 nuisance made by Woodye, by building his house in 

 the Outer Garden, shall be abated and plucked down, 

 or as much thereof as is upon Temple ground." All 

 this garden has long ago been completely built over, 

 and the large spaces now forming the Temple Gardens 

 are those anciently known as the " Great Garden," 

 belonging to the Inner Temple and the Middle Temple 

 Garden. The Outer Temple (never another Inn) was 

 merely the ground outside the limits of the City. 



The long green slopes down to the Embankment, 

 are much larger than the older gardens, as the wall 

 which was built in 1528 to keep out the river, cut 

 across from where No. 10 King's Bench Walk now 

 stands. The wall must have been a vast improvement, 

 and was greatly appreciated. In 1534 a vote of thanks 

 was passed by the " parliament " of the Inner Temple 

 to the late Treasurer, John Parkynton, who had " takyn 

 many and sundrie payns in the buylding of the walle 

 betwene the Thamez and the garden," for which 

 *' greate dyligens " they gave unto him " hartey thankes." 

 And, indeed, the garden must sorely have needed this 

 protection. It is difficult to picture the Temple in 

 the sixteenth century, and the little gardens must 

 have been as bewildering as the present courts and 

 buildings. In the records there are references to various 

 gardens, no doubt small enclosures like the present 

 courts, besides the Great Garden and the kitchen- 

 garden. There was the nut garden, perhaps adorned 

 with nut trees, as Fig-tree Court probably was with 

 figs. There is more than one record of payments for 

 attending to the fig-tree or painting rails round it. 



