HYDE PARK 
4i 
measuring, directing, or ordering her Buildings, but in 
Gard’ning, especially Exoticks, she was particularly 
skill’d, and allowed Dr. Pluknet ^200 per ann, for his 
Assistance therein.” After his queen’s death William III. 
did no more to the gardens, but they were completed by 
Queen Anne. She appointed Wise to the chief care of 
the gardens, and when in 1712 rules for the “better 
keeping Hyde Park in good Order” were drawn up, 
and people were forbidden to leap the fences or ditches, 
or to ride over the grass, a special exception was made 
in favour of Henry Wise. Switzer, in tracing the history 
of gardening to his day (1715), praises the “late pious 
Queen, whose love to Gardening was not a little,” for 
“ Rooting up the Sox, and giving an English Model 
to the old-made Gardens at Kensington; and in 1704 
made that new garden behind the Green-House, that 
is esteemed amongst the most valuable Pieces of Work 
that has been done any where. . . . The place where 
that beautiful Hollow now is, was a large irregular 
Gravel-pit, which, according to several Designs given 
in, was to have been filled, but that Mr. Wise pre¬ 
vailed, and has given it that surprizing Model it now 
appears in. As great a Piece of Work as that whole 
Ground is, ’twas near all completed in one Season, (viz.) 
between Michaelmas and Lady Day, which demon¬ 
strates to what a pitch Gardening is arrived within these 
twenty or thirty years.” 
When William III. purchased Kensington Palace, 
the grounds covered less than thirty acres. Under 
the management of Wise, in Queen Anne’s time, more 
was added, and the Orangery was built in 1705. Few 
people know the charms of this old building, which 
stands to the north of the original garden, and which 
