66 LONDON PARKS © GARDENS 
passing down between the canal and the duck decoy to 
a semicircular double avenue near the tilting-ground. 
Deer wandered under fine old oaks between the canal 
and the avenues of “ the Mall.” These old trees have 
gradually disappeared, as much through gales as from 
the wanton destruction of the would-be improver. At 
the hour of Cromwell’s death, when the storm was so 
fierce the Royalists said it was due to fiends coming to 
claim their own, much havoc was wrought; and from 
time to time similar destructions have taken place, one 
of the most serious being in November 1703, when 
part of the wall and over 100 elms were blown down. 
Another notable gale was on March 15, 1752, when 
many people lost their lives. “ In St. James’s Park and 
the villages about the metropolis great numbers of trees 
were demolished.” 
The broad pathway, between avenues on the opposite 
side of the Park to the Birdcage Walk, now called the 
Mall, derives this name from the game of “ paille- 
maille,” which is known to have been played in France 
as early as the thirteenth century, and which was popular 
in England in the seventeenth. The locality, however, 
where it was first played in James I.’s time was on the 
northern side of the street, which is still called from it, 
Pall Mall. In those days fields stretched away beyond 
where now St. James’s Square lies, and a single row of 
houses lay between the playground and the Park. As 
the game became more the fashion, the coaches and dust 
were found too disturbing for enjoyment, and a new 
ground was laid out, running parallel to the old one, 
but within the Park. The game is considered by some 
to be a forerunner of croquet, as it was played with a ball 
( = pila) and mallet, the name being derived from these 
