76 LONDON PARKS & GARDENS 
Near the top of the Park was a reservoir or “fine 
piece of water” belonging to the Chelsea Waterworks, 
and the path round it was included in the fashionable 
promenade by those who paraded in the Queen’s Walk 
after dinner. Lower down, where there is still a de¬ 
pression, was a little pond, originally part of the Tyburn 
stream. The “green stagnant pool” was abused by a 
writer in 1731, who regretted that trees had just been 
planted near it, which probably meant that the offensive 
pool would “ not soon be removed.” The prophecy was 
correct, for it was more than a hundred years later before 
this was filled up. The Park wall ran along Piccadilly, 
and here and there, as was often the case in the eighteenth 
century, there were gaps with iron rails, through which 
glimpses of the Park could be obtained. Some persons 
had private keys to the gates leading into the Park from 
Piccadilly. Daring robberies were by no means un¬ 
common, and thieves, having done mischief in the streets 
near Piccadilly on more than one occasion, were found 
to be provided with keys to the gates, through which 
they could make their escape into the Park and elude 
their pursuers. The Ranger’s Lodge stood on the 
northern side, and was rebuilt and done up in 1773. 
It was made so attractive that there was great competi¬ 
tion, when it was completed, to be Deputy-ranger and 
live there. The two stags which now stand on Albert 
Gate, Hyde Park, once adorned the gates of this Ranger’s 
Lodge. It is described in 1792 as “ a very neat lodge 
surrounded by a shrubbery, which renders it en- 
chantingly rural.” When George III. bought Buck¬ 
ingham House, then an old red-brick mansion, he 
took away the wall which separated the Green Park 
from St. James’s, and put a railing instead. In this 
