THE BOOK OF THE ROYAL 



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connected with the Great Exhibition of 1851, whose crystal 

 home stood not many hundred yards off — not to speak of Hyde 

 Park, Kensington Gardens, the Serpentine, Eotten Row, and the 

 South Kensington Museum, all lending an interest to the 

 locality ; the Garden itseK is classic ground. 



At the south-west corner, near where the present entrance 

 and council-room are erected, formerly stood Hale House, 

 commonly called " Cromwell House," where OUver CromweU is 

 supposed to have resided. The house and premises were sur- 

 rounded by a wall and clievaiix-de-frise, and battlements, re- 

 sembhng a fortified place, and contained many old-fashioned 

 arrangements, not without their anecdotes, whether vero or hen 

 trovato. Amongst others, a recess, formed by a curve of the 

 chimney, was pointed out as a place of concealment which had 

 been used by the Protector himself. 



The land to the south of the lower Arcades, upon which 

 the Exhibition Budding of 1862 is now built, and extending 

 as far as the Brompton Almshouses, was formerly the site of 

 CromweU Gardens, a favourite place of public resort. Mr. 

 Hughes, who built the Surrey Theatre, used to exhibit here his 

 feats of horsemanship in the open an-. Adjoining this spot was 

 an ancient well-known public-house and garden, kno-mi by the 

 name of the " Hoop and Toy." 



The greatest part of the ground now occupied by the Garden, 

 however, possesses a more direct interest to the Horticultural 

 Society, as being the site of the first nursery of any extent in the 

 kingdom. Previous to the middle of the I7th century almost 

 the whole of the fruit and forest trees planted in this country 

 were obtained from Holland and Flanders ; and those nurseries 



