ST. JAMES’S © GREEN PARKS 77 
wall was another lodge, and a few trees near it, known 
as the Wilderness. 
The aspect of the Mall has greatly changed since 
the days when its fashion was at its height. Then the 
gardens of St. James’s Palace ran the whole length of the 
north side from the Palace towards Whitehall. Stephen 
Switzer, writing in 1715, extols the beauty of the garden, 
which by his time was cut up and partly built on. “ The 
Royal Garden in St. James’s Park, part of which is now in 
the possession of the Right Honourable Lord Carlton, 
and the upper part belonging to Marlborough House, 
was of that King’s [Charles II.] planting, which were in 
the remembrance of most people the finest Lines of 
Dwarfs perhaps in the Universe. Mr. London ”... 
presumed 44 before Monsieur de la Quintinge, the famous 
French gardener, ... to challenge all France with the 
like, and if France, why not the whole World ? ” 
Carlton House, a red-brick building, with the stone 
portico now in front of the National Gallery, was built 
in 1709 on part of this garden. Some twenty years 
later, before it was purchased by Frederick, Prince of 
Wales, the grounds belonging to the house were laid out 
by Kent. Until Carlton House was pulled down in 
1827, therefore, the Mall was bounded on the north by 
choice gardens. Between the Mall and the walls of 
these gardens ran the “ Green Walk,” or “ Duke 
Humphrey’s Walk,” as it was also often called. The 
origin of the latter name is to be traced to old St. Paul’s. 
The monument to Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, in the 
centre aisle of old St. Paul’s Cathedral was where 44 poore 
idlers ” and 44 careless mal-contents ” congregated-— 
“ Poets of Paules, those of Duke Humfrye’s messe 
That feed on nought but graves and emptinesse.” 
