GARDENS OF CELEBRITIES 



hopping from bough to bough and flying from tree to tree, he 

 always eluded the clutch of the most agile of his pursuers at the 

 very moment of that person's apparent success. 



Presently the bird began to mount higher and higher, until he 

 reached the loftiest branch of a tall and spreading ailanthus, and 

 was quite out of everybody's reach. A ladder was brought, which 

 half a dozen aspiring young curates eagerly volunteered to climb. 

 But whilst the long chase waxed sterner, and excitement grew 

 apace in the ranks of the guests below, the parrot himself, con- 

 spicuous among the foliage in his scarlet and grey, calmly began 

 to plume his feathers, which was quite a perfunctory performance, 

 because they were really not in the least degree ruffled. Serenely 

 and rather haughtily, he looked down upon his would-be captors, 

 then closing one eye, it is a way that parrots have and expresses 

 the acme of knowingness, he put his head on one side and solemnly 

 ejaculated, "Let us pray" 



It is supposed by some that the smooth shaven lawn of the outer 

 court, shown in the drawing of the gateway, was at one time a 

 bowling-green. This is not unlikely, but it must certainly have 

 been paved with cobble-stones in earlier days, for then the principal 

 entrance to the great hall opened, as I understand, directly upon 

 it. The primate, as we know, kept high state, and the courtyard 

 would be crowded with men and horses on occasions commemorated 

 in the Parish annals by the usual charges for ringing the church 

 bells. 



There are some ancient and dusty fig trees in the inner court, 

 and these, according to Tombs in the " Curiosities of London," are 

 the offspring of " two fine white fig trees which were traditionally 

 planted by Cardinal Pole. The parent trees were more than fifty 

 feet in height, and forty in breadth, and their circumference 

 twenty-eight to twenty-one inches." Their immediate descendants, 

 though showing signs of wear and tear, form a very interesting 

 link in the chain of- historic happenings of which the old Palace 

 has been the scene ; events which have taken us from the days 

 of Baldwin, Chicherley, Morton, and Cranmer, to those of Laud, 

 Juxon, and Tillotson. 



There are many fine old trees at Lambeth, and one would be 

 glad to know who planted them, but alas ! in these gardens there 

 is no talking oak to tell us ! A distinct character is given to the 



60 



