74 ROYAL GARDENS 



being done, as well as to the many kinds of birds and animals 

 to be observed there. 



A quaint old map by Knyff showing St. James's Park and 

 its immediate surroundings at the end of Charles's reign, 

 presents one very curious piece of information, which 

 seems to have an almost prophetic tendency. The guiding 

 principle of nearly all the great French landscape-gardener's 

 designs was to make at least three straight avenues radiate 

 from the centre of the mansion to which the park belongs. 

 One of these, generally that in the middle, has water — 

 sometimes, as at Hampton Court, in the form of a straight 

 " canal " — between its rows of trees. All this was done in 

 the new park. But the three avenues, namely, the Mall, 

 Birdcage Walk, and that in the centre (containing then a 

 long straight canal), radiated, not from St. James's as might 

 be expected, but from the spot now occupied by Buckingham 

 Palace. And note : this was carried into effect exactly one 

 hundred years before Buckingham House was purchased by 

 the Crown. In Charles's time the site was bought by Mr. 

 Secretary Bennet, afterwards Lord Arlington. When the 

 purchase was made there was already a building — known 

 as Goring House — standing on a part of the land called 

 Mulberry Gardens. This had been planted by James L, 

 one of whose whims was to try and increase the revenue by 

 encouraging silkworms. His plan failed, and the chief result 

 was that his trees gave a name to these gardens. They 

 became a place of fashionable resort, and are mentioned as 

 such by both Evelyn and Pepys. The former says in May 

 1654, "My Lady Gerrard treated us at Mulberry Garden, 

 now the only place of refreshment about town for people 

 of the best quality to be exceedingly cheated at." It 

 must be remembered that this was written during the days 

 of the Puritans. Fourteen years after Evelyn's visit, Pepys 

 says, " To the Mulberry garden, where I never was before ; 

 and find it a very silly place, worse than Spring-garden, and 

 but little company, only a wilderness here that is some- 

 what pretty." Spring Garden was just outside the north-east 



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