MUNICIPAL PARKS 
*53 
Indulgent and fatherly London County Council will 
provide swings for the elders, too, some day, and so 
remove the small jealousies. 
To the west of the long avenue lies the orchard. A 
stretch of grass, devoted to tennis-courts and bowling- 
greens, separates the pear trees from the walk. These 
pears and the solitary apple tree are delightful In spring, 
and a temptation In autumn. Round the house, which 
Is not by any means as picturesque as the date of its 
building (about 1649) would lead one to expect, are some 
good trees—planes that are really old, with massive 
stems, horse-chestnuts and limes, acacias that have seen 
their best days, cedars suffering from age and smoke, 
and a good catalpa. The Manor House which preceded 
the present building was of ancient origin. In early 
times it was known as the Manor House of Paddenswick, 
or Pallenswick, under the Manor of Fulham, and was 
the residence of Alice Perrers, the favourite of Ed¬ 
ward III. It was seized in 1378, when she was banished 
by Richard II.; but after the reversion of her sentence, 
she returned to England as the wife of Lord Windsor, 
and the King, in 1380, granted the manor to him. It Is 
not heard of again till Elizabeth’s time, when it belonged 
to the Payne family, and was sold by them in 1631 to 
Sir Richard Gurney, the Royalist Lord Mayor, who 
perished in the Tower. After his death it was bought 
by Maximilian Rard, who probably pulled down the old 
house and built the present one, which is now used as 
the Hammersmith Public Library. In the eighteenth 
century the name was changed from Paddenswick (a 
title preserved by a road of that name running near the 
Park) to Ravenscourt, an enduring recollection of the 
device of a black raven, the arms of Thomas Corbett, 
