INNS OF COURT 
2 75 
flower. The turf, well rolled (for a new stone roller has 
just been purchased), stretches down to the river between 
straight lines of quaintly cut box, yews, and hollies. 
He sees Surrey hills clear in the early evening light, and 
the barges sail by, and boats pass up and down the river. 
He may linger on one of the seats in [the garden-house 
overlooking the river, or wander back under the stately 
elms of King’s Bench Walk, to rest awhile in the Privy 
Garden, where the air is scented with mezereum, and 
cooled by the drops that fall from the metal leaves 
hanging over the basin of the fountain. 
The Middle Temple, too, had its Benchers’ Garden, 
and part of it survives to this day in the delightful 
Fountain Court. The Benchers’ Garden was larger, 
covering the ground where Garden Court now stands, 
up to the wall of the famous gardens of Essex House. 
A garden covered the space where the library has been 
built, and the terrace and steps in front of the fountain 
reached right across to the Essex House wall. Below 
the beautiful old hall which Queen Elizabeth opened in 
person, and where Shakespeare’s contemporaries witnessed 
“ Twelfth Night,” lay the rest of the Garden, with green 
lawns and shady trees down the water’s edge. The 
fountain, once the glory of the Benchers’ private garden, 
is still one of the most delightful in all London. Sir 
Christopher Hatton, whose garden of Ely Place—wrung 
by Queen Elizabeth from the unwilling Bishop—was 
not far off, was an admirer of the Middle Temple 
fountain. It was kept, he says, “ in so good order as 
always to force its stream to a vast and almost incredible 
altitude. It is fenced with timber palisades, constitut¬ 
ing a quadrangle, wherein grow several lofty trees, 
and without are walks extending on every side of 
