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 
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