THE ROOKS AND ROOKERIES OF LONDON. 195 
that same Palace, on June 28th, 1837. Even now the younger 
scions of our royal family can hear the “caws” of the old 
and the feeble cries of the young Rooks, descendants of the 
old colony, now, alas! reduced to thirty-one nests, and confined 
to a few of the upper trees skirting the broad walk near the 
North Gate. 
A few years ago a pair of Rooks took possession of the plane 
tree in the grounds of the Deputy Ranger of Hyde Park. The 
colony increased, and numbered ten nests in 1870; dwindled again 
to two in 1874; increased to seven in 1877; and again diminished 
to two in 1878. Some new buildings have been erected close by : 
this may be the cause of the diminution at the present time. 
A Rookery formerly existed in the Green Park, in the elm trees 
at the end of the garden belonging to the Green Park Lodge, the 
residence (if my memory serves me) of the late Princess Amelia. 
When the Lodge was pulled down some of the trees were also 
destroyed and the Rooks all left. The Rookery in Chesterfield 
Gardens then existed, but | think about this time the nests in 
Wharncliffe Gardens were commenced, and (as I suspect) by the 
Rooks from the Green Park which migrated from those trees. 
If the great Lord Chesterfield could revisit the scene of his 
greatness here on earth, what would he see? His house remains, 
it is true, but in what desolation! The garden, described by 
Beckford as the finest private garden in London, entirely destroyed 
and covered with modern mansions; the stately elms, with their 
sable inhabitants, all gone; the beautiful colonnade in the court- 
yard demolished; nothing but the mansion left, despoiled of all 
its beauty and significance! In those old elms above that old 
bulging wall in Curzon Street there were, in 1846, close upon fifty 
nests, and two in Lord Wharncliffe’s garden. Now the trees are 
all gone and the Rooks too. The colony in Wharncliffe Gardens 
has increased from two to ten nests, which are at present confined 
to three or four plane trees behind the mansion. A year or two 
ago there were a few in trees in the outer garden. 
In 1875 a Rook’s nest was built and the young hatched in a tree 
at the back of Hereford Square, Brompton. The following year the 
birds with returned others, and ten nests were built in the fine elm 
and plane trees there, thus establishing a fine colony. 
A Rookery formerly existed in the wees in the Gardens of 
Carlton House; but this was destroyed in 1527, when the trees 
