146 LONDON PARKS & GARDENS 
soft curtain of smoke, the mysterious blue light, a 
gentle reminder of orange and black fog, shrouds and 
beautifies everything it touches. On a June day, when 
the grass is vivid and the trees a bright pale green, 
Waterlow Park is at its best. The dome of St. Paul’s, 
the countless towers of Wren’s city churches, the pin¬ 
nacles of the Law Courts, the wonderful Tower Bridge, 
dwarfing the old Norman White Tower, all appear in 
softened beauty behind the fresh verdure, through well- 
contrived peeps and gaps in the trees. 
Most of the ground is too steep for the cricket and 
football to which the greater part of other parks are given 
over. Only lawn tennis and bowls can be provided for, on 
the green lawns at the top of the Park. A delightful 
old pond, with steep banks overshadowed by limes and 
chestnuts, has a feeling of the real country about it. The 
concrete edges, the little patches of aquatic plants and neat 
turf, are missing. The banks show signs of last year’s 
leaves, fallen sticks, and blackened chestnuts, and any green 
near it, is only natural wild plants that enjoy shade and 
moisture. It is the sort of place a water-hen would feel 
at home in, and not expect to meet intruding Mandarin 
ducks or Canadian geese. Let us hope this quiet spot 
may long remain untouched. There are two newer lakes 
lower down, laid out in approved County Council style, 
trim and neat, with water-fowl, water-lilies, and judi¬ 
cious planting round the banks of weeping willows and 
rhododendron clumps. Probably many visitors find 
them more attractive than the upper pool. There is 
no fault to find with them, and they are perhaps more 
suited to a public park, but they are devoid of the 
poetry which raises the other out of the commonplace. 
As the slopes towards the lower lakes are the playground 
