300 LONDON PARKS <^ GARDENS 



" Grete Garden," which lay to the west. It was pro- 

 bably, like all the gardens of that date, laid out in long, 

 narrow, straight beds, in which were grown all the heal- 

 ing herbs used for the sick of the monastery. Probably 

 there were fruit-trees, too, as in 1362 John de Mordon, 

 the infirmarer, got 9s. for his apples, and the following 

 year los. for pears and apples. No doubt the favourite 

 Wardon pear was among them, as in another record, 

 between 1380-90, it is specially mentioned. The chapel 

 of St. Katharine, which stood on the north side of the 

 Garden, was destroyed in Elizabeth's reign. This, the 

 infirmary chapel of Norman building, was as replete 

 with history as every other nook and corner of the Abbey 

 buildings. Here St. Hugh of Lincoln and most of the 

 early bishops were consecrated, and here took place the 

 unseemly dispute for precedence, between the Primates of 

 Canterbury and York in 11 86, which led to the settling 

 of their respective ranks by the Pope. While so many 

 changes have swept over the Abbey, and whole buildings 

 have vanished, the herb-garden of early days has kept its 

 place, and is still a garden, though bereft of its neat little 

 beds. 



The Little Cloister has been greatly altered since then, 

 having been refashioned in the early part of the eighteenth 

 century under the influence of Wren. Although so changed 

 since the time when strange decoctions of medicinal herbs 

 were administered within its walls, it has retained much 

 of its fascination, and the approach to it by the dim 

 vaulted entrance, dating from the Confessor's time, out 

 of the narrow passage known as the " Dark Entry," adds 

 to its charm. The sun streams down on this small 

 court, with its tree and ferns and old moss-grown foun- 

 tain, lighting it with a kind of " dusky splendour." 



