28o LONDON PARKS & GARDENS 



accounts are preserved in a splendid big old manor roll 

 now at the Record Office. It is supposed that at his 

 death in 131 1, Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, 

 assigned these lands to the " Professors of the Law as a 

 residence." Additions were made later from the ground 

 belonging to the Bishop of Chichester, round the palace 

 which Ralph Neville had built in 1228. Part of the 

 site was the " coney garth," which belonged to one 

 William Cottcrcll, and hence is often mentioned as 

 " Cotterell's Garden." Garden of course only meant a 

 garth or yard, and though the name now signifies an 

 enclosure for plants, in early times other enclosures 

 were common. There was the " grass yard " or lawn, 

 the " cook's garth" or kitchen-garden, and " coney 

 garth " where rabbits were kept, as well as the " wyrt 

 yard " or plant yard, the " ort yard " or orchard, apple 

 yard, cherry yard, and so on. The coney garth was not 

 a mere name, but was well stocked with game, and even 

 at a much later date, from Edward IV. to Henry VIII., 

 there were various ordinances in force for punishing law 

 students who hunted rabbits with bows and arrows or 

 darts. 



In the first year of Queen Elizabeth the Garden was 

 separated from the fields by a clay embankment, and a 

 little later a brick wall was added, with a gate into the 

 fields, which is probably the same as the present little 

 gate to the north of the new hall, at the end of the 

 border, shown in the illustration. The Garden continued 

 much further along the wall then, and only was curtailed 

 when the new hall and library were built in 1843. 

 The delightful terrace which is raised against the wall 

 overlooking the "fields" was made in 1663. On June 

 27th of that year, Pepys, who on other occasions 



