ST. JAMES’S © GREEN PARKS 79 
verted a Dutch canal into a fine flowing river, with 
incurvated banks, terminated at one end by a planted 
island and at the other by a peninsula.” A permanent 
bridge was first made across the water about this time. 
Previously a temporary one had been made when the 
Allied Sovereigns visited London in 1814—a kind of 
Chinese design by Nash, surmounted by a pagoda of 
seven storeys. It was this flimsy edifice which made 
Canova say the thing that struck him most in England 
was that Waterloo Bridge was the work of a private 
company, while this bridge was put up by the Govern¬ 
ment. It was on the canal in St. James’s Park that skates 
of a modern type first appeared in London. Bone ones 
were in use much earlier on Moorfields. Both Evelyn and 
Pepys saw the new pattern first in the Park in 1662. 
Two years later Pepys notes going to the canal with the 
Duke of York, “ where, though the ice was broken and 
dangerous, yet he would go slide upon his scates, which 
I did not like, but he slides very well.” Just before the 
alterations began, and the complete change of the canal 
was taken in hand, the Park was lighted with gas lamps, 
an innovation which caused much excitement. At the 
same time orders were issued to shut the gates by ten 
every evening. A wit on this occasion wrote the follow¬ 
ing lines, which were found stuck up on a tree 
“ The trees in the Park 
Are illumined with gas, 
But after it’s dark 
No creatures can pass. 
a Ye sensible wights 
Who govern our fates, 
Extinguish your lights 
Or open your gates.” 
