INNS OF COURT 281 



mentions his walks there with his wife, went to see the 

 alterations. " So to Lincoln's Inne, and there walked 

 up and down to sec the new garden which they arc 

 making, and will be very pretty." The outside world 

 seems to have had easy access to the gardens of all the 

 Inns of Court in those days, but it was regarded as a 

 special privilege granted to a very wide circle, and a 

 favour not accorded to the public at large. In the 

 Tatler occur such passages as, "I went into Lincoln's 

 Inn walks, and having taken a round or two I sat down 

 according to the allowed familiarity of these places." 

 Again, " I was last week taking a solitary walk in the 

 garden of Lincoln's Inn, a favour that is indulged me by 

 several of the benchers who are my intimate friends." 



They were, however, so much frequented by all the 

 fashionable world of London, that the foreigner arriving 

 there naturally took them for public gardens. Mr. 

 Grosley, who came to London in 1765, thus describes 

 them : — 



*' Besides St. James's Park, the Green Park, and Hyde 

 Park, the two last of which are continuations of the first, 

 which, like the Tuileries at Paris, lie at the extremity of 

 the metropolis, London has several public walks, which 

 are much more agreeable to the English, as they are less 

 frequented and more solitary than the Park. Such are 

 the gardens contained within the compass of the Temple, 

 of Gray's Inn and Lincoln's Inn. They consist of grass 

 plots, which are kept in excellent order, and planted with 

 trees, either cut regularly, or with high stocks : some of 

 them have a part laid out for culinary uses. The grass 

 plots of the gardens at Lincoln's Inn are adorned with 

 statues, which, taken all together, form a scene very 

 pleasing to the eye." 



