326 LONDON PARKS & GARDENS 



destroyed. In writing of the merits of holly in his 

 " Sylva," Evelyn says of this one : " Is there under 

 heaven a more glorious and refreshing object of the kind, 

 than an impregnable Hedge a hundred and sixty feet in 

 length, and seven feet high, and five in diameter, which 

 I can shew in my poor Gardens at any time of the year, 

 glittering with its armed and vernish'd leaves ? the taller 

 Standards at orderly distances blushing with their natural 

 Corall. It mocks at the rudest assaults of the Weather, 

 Beasts, and Hedgebreakers." This hedge has long since 

 departed, but young hollies, planted in groups on the 

 same part of the Garden, keep up the old associations. 

 One wing of the house is standing, and is at present used 

 as a school. The walled garden on the south side is 

 still there, and on the north a wide terrace walk, with a 

 straight grass lawn with large beds, is in keeping with 

 the old place. But instead of the views over the river, 

 and the Garden descending to the water's edge, there is a 

 high rampart of the buildings of the Foreign Cattle 

 Market, from whence the sounds of lowing oxen mingle 

 with the din of streets which close round the Garden on 

 the three other sides. In spite of these drawbacks, it is 

 delightful to know, that the surviving portion of the once- 

 beautiful Garden is fulfilling a want among the poor in 

 a way that would have appealed to the generous and 

 kind-hearted author. 



These are some of the chief gardens of historic 

 interest, but it by no means exhausts the list of the 

 smaller ones rich in associations, green courts attached to 

 schools, almshouses, hospitals, or such-like, which are 

 hidden away in unexpected corners throughout London. 



