8 o LONDON PARKS © GARDENS 
The same lamps inspired another poet, who wrote, 
just before the destruction of the avenues took place :— 
“ Hail, Royal Park ! what various charms are thine ; 
Thy patent lamps pale Cynthia’s rays outshine, 
Thy limes and elms with grace majestic grow 
All in a row.” 
Yet once more has St. James’s Park been subjected to 
renovation. The work, which is a memorial to our late 
beloved Queen Victoria, is not yet completed, so its 
description must be imperfect. The design aims at 
drawing together the several quarters of the Park 
towards Buckingham Palace and a central group of 
statuary. The Mall is now the scene of ceaseless traffic, 
and the sauntering pedestrian is a thing of the past. A 
wide road runs at right angles across the Green Park, 
and so once again more closely associates the Upper with 
the Lower St. James’s Park. Probably the greatest praise 
of the alterations would be to say that Le Notre would 
have approved them. They seem to complete the 
design in a fitting manner, but they banish once and for 
all time, the semi-rural character which for so many 
centuries clung to the Park. The design includes a 
series of formal parterres which are filled with bedding- 
out plants raised in Hyde Park. In the summer of 
1906 they were planted with scarlet geraniums with an 
edging of grasses and foliage and a few golden privets, 
and on hot July days there were many people ready to 
pronounce the arrangement as extremely bad taste. It 
seemed a reversion to the days when a startling mass of 
colour was the only effect aimed at. As they appeared 
all through the mild October days, when a soft foggy 
light enveloped the world, and the trees looked dark and 
