ST. JAMES’S & GREEN PARKS 61 
time for anything; and to show how absolutely I am 
governed, I need but tell you that I am every night 
in the Park and at New Spring Gardens, where, though 
I come with a mask, I cannot escape being known nor 
my conversation being admired.” 
The most brilliant days of its history began, how¬ 
ever, in Charles II.’s reign. He entirely remodelled it, 
and began the work soon after his return from exile, 
imbued with foreign ideas of gardening. It has always 
been supposed that Le Notre was responsible for the 
designs, and it has often been asserted that he himself 
came to England to see them carried out. But close 
investigation has furnished no proof of this, and it is 
practically certain that, although invited, and allowed 
by Louis XIV. to come to England, he never actually 
did so. Other “ French gardeners” certainly came, and 
one of them, La Quintinge, made many English friends, 
and kept up a correspondence with them after his return 
to France. Perrault probably visited London also, and 
may have superintended the “French gardeners” who 
were employed on St. James’s Park. They transformed 
the whole place. Avenues—the Mall and “ Birdcage 
Walk”—were planted. A straight canal passed down 
the middle, and at the end, near the present Foreign 
Office, was the duck decoy. The “Birdcage Walk” 
is no fantastic title, for birds were literally kept there 
in cages. These were probably aviaries for large birds, 
and not little hanging cages, as has been sometimes 
suggested. A well-known passage occurs in Evelyn’s 
Diary, 1664, where he enumerates some of the birds 
and beasts he saw during one of his walks through 
the Park. The pelican delighted him, although “ a 
melancholy waterfowl,” and he watched the skilful way 
