ST. JAMES’S 6? GREEN PARKS 57 
crossed the modern Oxford Street to where it joined 
the Thames, a little west of where Vauxhall Bridge 
afterwards stood. It passed right across Green Park, 
where the depression of its valley can still be traced 
between Half Moon Street and Down Street. The 
name, St. James’s, originated with the hospital for lepers, 
dedicated to St. James, on the site of the present palace. 
The exact date of its foundation is lost in the mists of 
antiquity, but it was established by the citizens of 
London, a before the time of any man’s memorie, for 
14 Sisters, maydens, that were leprous, living chastly 
and honestly in Divine Service.” Later, there were 
further gifts of land and money from the citizens, and 
“8 brethren to minister Divine Service there” were 
added to the foundation. All these gifts were sub¬ 
sequently confirmed by Edward L, who granted a fair 
to be held for seven days, commencing on the eve of 
St. James’s Day, in St. James’s Fields, which belonged to 
the hospital. The letting out of the land for booths 
became a source of further income to the lepers. Stowe 
shortly tells the subsequent history. 44 This Hospital 
was surrendered to Henry the 8 the 23 of his reigne: 
the Sisters being compounded with were allowed Pensions 
for terme of their lives, and the King builded there a 
goodly Manner, annexing thereunto a Park, closed about 
with a wall of brick, now called St. James’s Parke, serving 
indifferently to the said Mannor, and to the Manner 
or Palace of Whitehall.” At first sight the summary 
ejection of these helpless creatures appears unusually 
heartless, even for those days ; but leprosy, which during 
the time of the Crusades had grown to a formidable 
extent, was declining in the sixteenth century in Eng¬ 
land. It is probable, therefore, that the poor outcast 
