180 LONDON PARKS & GARDENS 
Vines were grown here for wine with success in the 
first half of the eighteenth century, when there was a 
revival in grape-growing, and vineyards were planted 
at Hoxton and elsewhere. Over ioo gallons of wine 
were made in a year in Rotherhithe. Some of the 
earth excavated from the Thames Tunnel was put on the 
ground covered by the Park before the laying out com¬ 
menced. When the land, 65 acres, was bought, only 
45 were to be kept for the Park, and the rest were 
reserved for building. But when the day of building 
arrived there was such an outcry that the whole plan 
was remodelled, the drives which encircled it done away 
with, and tar-paved paths substituted, only one driving 
road crossing it being left, and the ponds added. It 
is more the want of design, than any special style, that is 
conspicuous, and a good deal more could have been done 
to make the Park less gloomy. An avenue is growing 
up, but it will never have the charming effect of the one 
across Battersea, as the line is neither straight nor a 
definite curve. The wild fowl on the pond are such 
an attraction, that perhaps it may be that the wire netting 
and asphalt edges they apparently require are not draw¬ 
backs, but they are not beautiful. The gateway into the 
Park, near Deptford Station, has rather the grim look of 
a prison, and yet, with the forest of masts behind, all it 
requires is a climbing plant or two to make a picture. 
On the opposite end of the Park runs Jamaica Road, 
which perpetuates the name of a well-known Tea Garden, 
Jamaica House. Pepys records a visit there, on a Sunday 
in April 1667. “ Took out my wife, and the two Mercers, 
and two of our maids, Barker and Jane, and over the 
water to Jamaica House, where I never was before, and 
there the girls did run for wagers over the bowling-green; 
