SQUARES 
237 
Order, Pardon Churchyard was maintained as a burial- 
ground for felons and suicides. After the dissolution 
of the monasteries, when Charterhouse School and 
Hospital had been established by Thomas Sutton, the 
houses round the other three sides of the Square began 
to be built. One of the finest was Rutland House, once 
the residence of the Venetian Ambassador. It is still a 
quiet, quaint place of old memories; and the garden, 
with two walks crossing each other diagonally, and some 
fair-sized trees, has a solemn look, as if, even after all 
the centuries that have passed, it had some trace of its 
origin. Finsbury Circus and Finsbury Square are very 
different. They are more modern, bustling places which 
have entirely effaced the past. That they were, for long 
years, the most resorted to of open spaces, where Lon¬ 
doners took their walks is well-nigh forgotten, except 
in the name Finsbury, or Fensbury, the fen or moor¬ 
like fields without the walls. Bethlehem Hospital, 
known as Bedlam, was, for many generations, the only 
large building on the Fields. Finsbury Square was 
begun more than a hundred years ago, and but for the 
few green trees, nothing suggests the former country 
origin. Trinity Square, by the Tower, is so unique 
in aspect and association that it must be mentioned. In 
the sixteenth century the “ tenements and garden plots ” 
encroached on Tower Hill right up to the “ Tower 
Ditch,” and from the earliest time some kind of garden 
existed at the Tower. When it was a royal residence, 
frequent entries appear in the accounts of payments for 
the upkeep of the garden. Although so much has 
changed, and the wild animals that afforded amusement 
for centuries are removed, it is pleasant to see the moat 
turned into walks, and well planted with iris and hardy 
