While attempting to increase the revenues, the only attempt made at municipal improvement during the reign seems to have been the lighting of the principal thoroughfares from St. James’s. Apparently William had little use for the Park but to pass through it and the Green Park on his way from Kensington to the town, and this he often had to do after sunset. The road was rough and dark; in fact, was altogether unsafe after nightfall. The King decided that, whatever the cost, it must be lighted. Accordingly he had about three hundred lamps placed along the way. But this was too great an expense in those days to be kept up except in the winter, and the spluttering oil-wick lamps only dimly lighted it for a few months of the year. This was rather a difference from our present-day lighting arrangements, which many people still consider totally insufficient. Vice flies before illumination. In this year of grace the Park is lighted with electric arc lamps as well as incandescent gas. The policy is to light up main roads and paths, but not the whole surface of the Park. Certain wide spaces, like the “Lecture Ground” near the Marble Arch, the road from the Marble Arch to Hyde Park Corner, and the Band Stand enclosure, are lighted by electricity. When William and Mary increased the popularity of Kensington by going to live at the new Palace, they also improved the prospects of the ever enterprising light-handed fraternity. Social gatherings of all sorts took place, gambling was indulged in for high stakes, and ladies attending Court functions at St. James’s and private entertainments at Kensington had to pass along this dreary road, laden with jewels or the proceeds of the basset tables. The thieves were so active and daring that at last a guard-house had to be erected within the park, and the place patrolled, while on occasions of any Court functions the Park guard was doubled. The _London Post_ of 7th December 1699 records that “On Monday night the Patroul of the Guards was doubled between Kensington and the City, and marched continually to and fro till day to prevent any Robberies being committed upon those that returned from the Basset-tables held there that Evening.” In ill-repute though it had become, “persons of quality” still enjoyed their afternoon drive in Hyde Park. Its worst side was reserved for the night. The gilded coaches, the painted women, and swaggering men, with their wigs, their long waistcoats and their swords, moving about among the trees, gave an appearance of festivity, even if the times were remarkably dull. Tom Brown’s _Amusements Serious and Comical_, published in 1700, gives a picture of Hyde Park manners near the close of William III.’s reign which is certainly not edifying. The author is supposed to be showing “an Indian” over London: