300 LONDON PARKS © GARDENS 
“ Grete Garden,” which lay to the west. It was pro¬ 
bably, like all the gardens of that date, laid out in long, 
narrow, straight beds, in which were grown all the heal¬ 
ing herbs used for the sick of the monastery. Probably 
there were fruit-trees, too, as in 1362 John de Mordon, 
the infirmarer, got 9s. for his apples, and the following 
year 10s. for pears and apples. No doubt the favourite 
Wardon pear was among them, as in another record, 
between 1380-90, it is specially mentioned. The chapel 
of St. Katharine, which stood on the north side of the 
Garden, was destroyed in Elizabeth’s reign. This, the 
infirmary chapel of Norman building, was as replete 
with history as every other nook and corner of the Abbey 
buildings. Here St. Hugh of Lincoln and most of the 
early bishops were consecrated, and here took place the 
unseemly dispute for precedence, between the Primates of 
Canterbury and York in 1186, which led to the settling 
of their respective ranks by the Pope. While so many 
changes have swept over the Abbey, and whole buildings 
have vanished, the herb-garden of early days has kept its 
place, and is still a garden, though bereft of its neat little 
beds. 
The Little Cloister has been greatly altered since then, 
having been refashioned in the early part of the eighteenth 
century under the influence of Wren. Although so changed 
since the time when strange decoctions of medicinal herbs 
were administered within its walls, it has retained much 
of its fascination, and the approach to it by the dim 
vaulted entrance, dating from the Confessor’s time, out 
of the narrow passage known as the “ Dark Entry,” adds 
to its charm. The sun streams down on this small 
court, with its tree and ferns and old moss-grown foun¬ 
tain, lighting it with a kind of “ dusky splendour.” 
