24 LONDON PARKS & GARDENS 
of spectators. In still earlier times there was many a 
day’s good sport after the deer, or many a busy hour’s 
ploughing the abbey lands of the then Manor of Hyde. 
Scene after scene can be pictured down to the present 
time, when, after centuries of change, the enjoyment of 
these Parks remains perhaps one of the most treasured 
privileges of the Londoner. 
In tracing the history of their various phases, the 
survival of many features is as remarkable as the dis¬ 
appearance of others. The present limits on the north 
and east, Bayswater Road and Park Lane, have suffered 
no substantial alteration since the roads were known as 
the Via Trimobantina and the Watling Street in Roman 
times. The Watling Street divided, and one section 
followed the course of the present Oxford Street to the 
City ; the other, passing down the line of Park Lane, 
crossed St. James’s Park, and so to the ford over the 
Thames at Westminster. The Park was never common 
or waste land, but must have been cleared and cultivated 
in very early times. In Domesday Survey the Manor 
was in plough and pasture land, with various “ villains ” 
and peasants living on it. The Thames was the southern 
boundary of the Manor of “Eia,” which was divided 
into three parts, one being Hyde, the site of the existing 
Hyde Park, the other two Ebury and Neate. Al¬ 
though now forgotten, the latter name was familiar for 
many centuries. When owned by the Abbots of West¬ 
minster, the Manor House by the riverside was of some 
importance, and John of Gaunt stayed there. Famous 
nurseries and a tea garden, 44 the Neate houses,” marked 
the spot in the eighteenth century. 
Until the stormy days of the Reformation these lands 
remained much the same. Owned by the Abbey of 
