228 LONDON PARKS & GARDENS 
names connected with the Square is too long to recite, 
but four of the greatest are commemorated by the four 
busts in the modern garden — Sir Joshua Reynolds, 
Hogarth, John Hunter, the eminent surgeon, and Sir 
Isaac Newton. But before these monuments were 
erected Leicester Square Garden had gone through a 
period of decay. It was left unkept up and uncared 
for; the gilt statue was tumbling to pieces, and was 
only propped up with wooden posts. The garden 
from 1851 for ten years, was used to exhibit the Great 
Globe of Wylde, the geographer, who leased the space 
from the Tulk family, then the owners of the land. 
Leicester House, after it ceased to be a royal residence, 
was in the hands of Sir Ashton Lever, who turned 
it into a museum, which was open from 1771 to 1784, 
but failed to obtain much popularity. The collection 
was dispersed, and soon after the house was pulled 
down and the site built over, and the Square was 
allowed to get more and more untidy. Several efforts 
were made to purchase it for the public, but the price 
asked was prohibitive, as the owners wished to build 
on it. When, however, after much litigation, the 
Court of Appeal decided it could not be built on, 
but must be maintained as an open space, they were 
more ready to come to terms. A generous purchaser 
came forward, Mr. Albert (afterwards Baron) Grant, 
who bought the land, laid it out as a garden, and 
presented it to the public, to be kept up by the 
Metropolitan Board of Works. The plans for the 
newly-restored garden, were made for Mr. Grant by 
Mr. James Knowles, and the planting done by Mr. 
John Gibson, who was then occupied with the sub¬ 
tropical garden in Battersea Park. The statue of 
