INNS OF COURT 265 
as in 1565 there was an order “ for the plucking down 
of a study newly erected,” and again in 1567, “the 
nuisance made by Woodye, by building his house in 
the Outer Garden, shall be abated and plucked down, 
or as much thereof as is upon Temple ground.” All 
this garden has long ago been completely built over, 
and the large spaces now forming the Temple Gardens 
are those anciently known as the “ Great Garden,” 
belonging to the Inner Temple and the Middle Temple 
Garden. The Outer Temple (never another Inn) was 
merely the ground outside the limits of the City. 
The long green slopes down to the Embankment, 
are much larger than the older gardens, as the wall 
which was built in 1528 to keep out the river, cut 
across from where No. 10 King’s Bench Walk now 
stands. The wall must have been a vast improvement, 
and was greatly appreciated. In 1534 a vote of thanks 
was passed by the “ parliament ” of the Inner Temple 
to the late Treasurer, John Parkynton, who had “ takyn 
many and sundrie payns in the buylding of the walle 
betwene the Thamez and the garden,” for which 
“ greate dyligens ” they gave unto him “ hartey thankes.” 
And, indeed, the garden must sorely have needed this 
protection. It is difficult to picture the Temple in 
the sixteenth century, and the little gardens must 
have been as bewildering as the present courts and 
buildings. In the records there are references to various 
gardens, no doubt small enclosures like the present 
courts, besides the Great Garden and the kitchen- 
garden. There was the nut garden, perhaps adorned 
with nut trees, as Fig-tree Court probably was with 
figs. There is more than one record of payments for 
attending to the fig-tree or painting rails round it. 
