HISTORICAL GARDENS 295 



for widows. The garden was much too large for these 

 decrepid old women to cultivate, so the place was taken 

 in hand some twenty-five years ago by the Rev. Sidney 

 Vatcher, who built the beautiful church of St. Phihp, 

 Stepney, hard by, and he became the tenant of the 

 Brewers' Company. This charming garden was at first 

 more or less opened by him to the parish, but lately it 

 has been put to the most suitable use of giving a quiet 

 place for rest and recreation to the nurses of the London 

 Hospital. The almshouses were pulled down about 

 four years ago, to make way for the laundries of the 

 Hospital. Here, indeed, is one of those sudden and 

 surprising contrasts to be found in London. A high 

 brick wall encloses this oasis, and the nurses and some 

 privileged people have keys to the door, which opens, 

 from a side street close to the noise of the Mile End 

 Road, suddenly into a peaceful, picturesque garden. The 

 idea in the formation was a willow-pattern plate, and the 

 little bridge over a miniature stream is reproduced. 

 Plane trees in a formal array are kept trimmed to give 

 a dense shade, and the hammocks hung from them in 

 summer provide the most ideal resting-places for the 

 worn-out nurses. At one time animals were kept here 

 in cages, as a kind of small "Zoo" for Whitechapel ; 

 but since the last alterations the animals have been re- 

 linquished, and the bear-pit makes a delightful rock 

 garden, and the various other cages form summer-houses. 

 One thoughtful addition of the vicar was placing a small 

 stove in one of these shelters, with an array of kettles, 

 teapots, cups and saucers, so that any of the nurses 

 resting can have their al fresco cup of tea— and what 

 could be more grateful and comforting? A French 

 writer who recently gave her impressions of L'lle In- 



