SQUARES 
239 
was built about 1820. The farm on that spot, which 
in 1676 came to the Grosvenor family, was a farm of 
430 acres in Queen Elizabeth’s time, and is mentioned 
as early as 1307, when Edward I. gave John de 
Benstede permission to fortify it. There was only one 
road across the swampy ground from St. James’s to 
Chelsea, and that was the King’s Road, which followed 
the line of the centre of Eaton Square. There were, 
however, numerous footpaths, infested by footpads and 
robbers at night, and bright with wild flowers and 
scented by briar roses by day. There is a great same¬ 
ness among all the squares between Vauxhall Bridge 
and the Pimlico Road. Of this latter original-sounding 
name there seems no satisfactory explanation. The 
space between Warwick Street and the river, was in 
old times occupied by the Manor House of Neyte, 
and in later days by nurseries and a tea garden, known 
as the Neat House. The ground near Eccleston Square 
was an osier bed. The whole surface was raised by 
Cubitt, with soil from St. Katherine’s Docks in 1827, 
and the houses built, and square gardens laid out; Eccle¬ 
ston in 1835, Warwick 1843, St. George’s 1850, and so 
on until the whole was covered. The gardens are all 
in the same style, and have no horticultural interest. 
The garden in front of Cadogan Place varied most from 
the usual pattern, having been designed by Repton. 
“ Instead of raising the surface to the level of the street, 
as had usually been the custom, by bringing earth from 
a distance,” he “ recommended a valley to be formed 
through its whole length, with other lesser valleys flow¬ 
ing from it, and hills to be raised by the ground so 
taken from the valleys.” The original intention was to 
bring the overflow of the Serpentine down Repton’s 
