GARDENING UNDER WILLIAM AND MARY 209 



been made famous by Bishop Grindal, who introduced the 

 tamarisk in Ehzabeth's reign, was further improved by Bishop 

 Compton at this date, and there are splendid hickory and other 

 trees of his planting still to be seen there. " He had a thousand 

 species of exotick plants in his stoves and gardens, in which 

 last place he had endenizoned a great many that have been 

 formerly thought too tender for this cold climate. There were 

 few days in the years, till towards the latter part of his life, but 

 he was actually in his garden, ordering and directing the 

 Removal and Replacing of his Trees and plants."^ 



Besides the private gardens, there were the parks, which 

 even then added beauty to the country round London, St. 

 James's Park, and " another much Larger, Hide parke, w"^ 

 is for Riding on horseback, but mostly for coaches, there 

 being a ring railed in, round w^ a gravel way, . . . the rest 

 of the park is green, and full of deer, there are Large ponds 

 w''' fish and fowle."^ Beyond Hyde Park was Kensington, a 

 favourite palace of King William, and there, again, was a 

 good garden, begun by him, and completed under Queen Anne. 

 The gardeners employed there were the famous London and 

 Wise, who owned the large nursery at Brompton, hard by. 

 This was the finest nursery of the day, and they kept an 

 immense collection of plants. The tender greens from the 

 gardens at Kensington were housed during the winter at 

 Brompton, where, although a fine collection in themselves, 

 they took " but little room in comparison with "^ those belong- 

 ing to the nursery. 



George London, who was the principal founder of the 

 Brompton Nurseries, was a pupil of John Rose, and at one 

 time gardener to Bishop Compton. He travelled abroad, both 

 before and after he established the nursery, and visited Ver- 

 sailles after the Peace of Ryswick, when he went to France with 

 the Earl of Portland. He died in 1713. The nursery " was 

 started by him in the reign of James II. in conjunction with 

 Cook, gardener to the Earl of Essex at Cassiobury ; Lucre, 



^ Switzer, Ichnographia rtistica, 1718. Bishop Compton (1632-1713). 

 Some of the old trees have lately been blown down. See details in my 

 London Parks and Gardens, 1907. 



2 Celia Fiennes' Diary. ^ Gibson, 1691. 



14 



