INTRODUCTORY 
l 3 
to be taken doune, 22 foot to be measured forth right 
into the north of every man’s ground, a line then to 
be drawn, a trench to be cast, a foundation laid, and an 
high bricke wall to be builded. My Father had a garden 
there, and there was a house standing close to his south 
pale; this house they loosed from the ground, and bare 
upon Rowlers into my Father’s garden 22 foot ere my 
Father heard thereof. . . . No man durst goe to argue 
the matter, but each man lost his Land.” 
It is difficult to estimate whether the charitable muni¬ 
ficence of the Company is altogether as great a public 
benefit, from a health point of view, as retaining some 
of the garden for public use would have been. Men are 
naturally so conservative, that, because they have been 
content to talk and do business, and even search for a 
breath of air, in the crowded streets on the hottest 
summer days, it has probably never occurred to them 
that a few minutes on a seat under shady trees would 
have “ refreshed their spirits,” and the addition of 
better air improved their brain powers more effectually. 
The idea of a garden city is such a new one that it 
is not fair to judge by such standards. Distances are 
now much reduced by electricity above and below 
ground, so that the necessity of crowding business 
houses together to save time is not so all-important. 
When the City gardens became built over, no doubt the 
newer and more sanitary conditions were felt amply to 
compensate for the loss of oxygen given off by the 
growing plants, and the preservation of air spaces in the 
midst of crowded centres had not occurred to men’s 
minds. 
London four or five hundred years ago must indeed 
have needed its gardens. The squalor and dirt of its 
