ST. JAMES’S & GREEN PARKS 71 
one between the Duke of Grafton and Dr. Garth, 
of 200 yards, was the excitement of the day. There 
were odd and original races got up, and wagers freely 
staked. Some inhuman parents backed their baby of 
eighteen months old to walk the whole length of the 
Mall (half a mile) in thirty minutes, and the poor little 
mite performed the feat in twenty-three minutes. What 
comments would modern philanthropic societies have 
made on such a performance! 
A race between a fat cook and a lean footman caused 
great merriment, but as the footman was handicapped by 
carrying no lbs., the fat cook won. Another time it 
was a hopping-race which engrossed attention—a man 
undertook to hop one hundred yards in fifty hops, and 
succeeded in doing it in forty-six—and endless variety 
of similar follies. The crowds who assembled indulged 
in every sort of gaiety; “ in short, no freedoms that can 
be taken here are reckoned indecent; all passes for raillery 
and harmless gallantry.” 
Although open to all the world for walking, only 
royal personages or a few specially favoured people were 
allowed to drive through. It was one of the grievances 
of the Duchess of Marlborough when the Duke was 
in disgrace that the privilege of driving her coach and 
six through the Park was denied her. The remaining 
restrictions with regard to carriages have only passed 
away in very recent years. The notice board stating that 
Members of Parliament during the session might drive 
through the Park from Great George Street to Marl¬ 
borough House was only removed when the road was 
opened to all traffic in 1S87, and Constitution Hill 
only became a public highway in 1889. The use of 
the road passing under the Horse Guards’ Archway is 
