210 A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND 
gardener to the Queen Dowager at Somerset House ; and Field, 
gardener to the Earl of Bedford, at Bedford House, in the 
Strand.” 1 These partners designed the gardens at Longleat. 
“ The four took it in turns to go down to lay out ” 2 the grounds. 
Lucre and Field died, then Cook retired, and London took 
Henry Wise into partnership. Johnson 3 says this occurred in 
1694, but Gibson in 1691 describes the nursery as “ Brompton 
Park garden, belonging to Mr. London and Mr. Wise.” So it 
does not seem as if the original four were many years together. 
These two gardeners became very famous, not only for their 
horticulture at Brompton, but for the gardens they designed all 
over the kingdom. London was made Superintendent of the 
Royal Gardens, and a Page of the Backstairs to Queen Mary. 
Besides the work they did for the King at Kensington, they 
carried out considerable alterations at Hampton Court. One 
rather strange piece of work undertaken there was the trans¬ 
planting of one of the rows of lime-trees which formed the 
avenue by the semicircular canal. The trees on the northern 
bank were taken up and replanted on the south of what had 
been the most southern row. “ Four hundred and three large 
lime trees y e dimensions of them from 4 6 in to 3 ft , the charge 
of taking up these trees, bringing them to the place, digging 
holes of 10 or 12 feet diameter, carting 5 loades of earth to each 
tree one with another, with all charges 10s. per tree, £201.10.” 
This removal took place some thirty years after the trees had 
been planted. 4 Other changes were made in the “ Mount 
Garden ” and the “ Privy Garden,” “ Queen Mary’s Bower,” 
of pleached elms, was planted, the old orchard turned into a 
wilderness, the terrace along the river was made, and probably 
the maze was laid out about the same time. Wise also planned 
the “ Broad walk ” which runs all along the front of the palace 
between it and the fountain garden. 5 Blenheim Garden was 
another of their great undertakings, and they were three years 
in finishing it. A fine specimen of their style is still to be 
1 Switzer, Ichnographia vustica, 1718. 2 Ibid. 
3 History of English Gardening, 1829, p. 123. 4 See p. 189. 
5 In the estimate for the work, the walk was to cost ^650 13s., and the 
turfing of the sides and planting and making the borders ^490 10s. and 
£210 respectively (Treasury Papers, Ixiii., 48, etc.). 
