TOWN GARDENS 



The writer finishes his essay with a simple and rather 

 delightful passage : 



" You must know, Sir, that I look upon the Pleasure 

 which we take in a Garden, as one of the innocent 

 Delights in human Life. A Garden was the Habitation 

 of our first Parents before the Fall. It is naturally apt 

 to fill the mind with Calmness and Tranquillity, and 

 to lay all its turbulent Passions at rest. It gives us a 

 great Insight into the Contrivance and Wisdom of 

 Providence, and suggests innumerable subjects for 

 Meditation. I cannot but think the very Com- 

 placency and Satisfaction which a man takes in these 

 Works of Nature, to be a laudable, if not a virtuous 

 Habit of Mind." 



Our opinion has not altered in these two hundred years. 

 The enjoyment of a garden is certainly one of the most 

 innocent delights in human life, the enjoyment of 

 the garden he mentions in particular is one of the most 

 innocent pleasures in London. Kensington Gardens 

 have inspired many people, the classic of them is un- 

 doubtedly Mr. J. M. Barrie's "Little White Bird." 

 The patron Saint of them is, and I think ever will be, 

 " Peter Pan." One has only to walk down the Babies 

 Mile to hear games from Peter Pan going on in all direc- 

 tions. This peculiar spirit haunted the Gardens long 

 before the days of Mr. Barrie, and whispered much of his 

 charming story in the ears of a bewigged gentleman — 

 Mr. Tickell, by name — who, in a poem of some consider- 

 able length, sang Kensington's praises. Those tiny 

 fairy trumpets sounding in the walks of Kensington 

 sounded a tune which has never left the air, and 

 one fancies the creator of Peter Pan catching sight of 

 a dim ghost now and again, the ghost of Mr. Tickell, 

 Joseph Addison's friend, as he walks in full-bottomed 



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