The Priory of the Augustinians, or Austin Friars, included a large tract of land. A part of it was given to the Marquis of Winchester, who built Winchester House, which occupied the site of Winchester Street and Buildings in Old Broad Street; and Drapers’ Hall was originally the house of Thomas Cromwell, who made what till a very few years since was known as Drapers’ Gardens by the simple process of stealing portions from the gardens of his neighbours, they not daring to quarrel with so great and so arbitrary a person. Immediately outside the walls was any amount of open space. The houses of the nobles along the Strand had each of them its ornamental garden. The Templars had their garden, which still remains. The Priory of St. Bartholomew had its garden; the Carthusians at the Charterhouse had their garden. Hotspur lived in Aldersgate Street, Prince Rupert lived in Barbican, and the dismal spot now known as Bridgewater Square was once occupied by the Earl of Bridgewater’s house and garden. Old Gerard, the herbalist, had his garden in Holborn, where he raised the potato, and he superintended Burleigh’s garden in the Strand. Hatton Gardens were famous when Sir Christopher Hatton lived there in state. Gray’s Inn Garden was planted by Francis Bacon. Grocers’ Hall had its garden, with hedge-rows and a bowling alley. The Merchant Taylors, the Ironmongers, the Salters, and the Barber-Surgeons had each of them gardens attached to their halls. The chief garden, or pleasure ground, for the citizens was Moorfields. This was originally a wild, undrained place, which extended from the City wall right away to the villages of Islington and Hoxton. According to Loftie, it appears that in 1274 the citizens called in question certain Acts of the previous Mayor, one Walter Hervey. They accused him of certain “presumptuous acts and injuries,” and the first of these appears to have been that “He had not attended at the Exchequer to show the citizens’ title to the Moor.” From this it would appear that over 600 years ago Moorfields was regarded as a common for the use and enjoyment of all, and it appears to have been used more or less for these purposes down to the close of the last century, and it is to be found in all maps. Moorfields was used for archery and for exercising the train-bands, that is, it was so used after it was drained, which was first attempted in the fifteenth century. At one time, the people living near Moorfields put up fences and showed a disposition to encroach on the moor, but the citizens, taking the law into their own hands, levelled the obstructions. When Moorfields had been drained, a part of it was planted, and it became a fashionable promenade, and in some maps it is shown as planted with intersecting avenues. According to Mr. Denton, the historian of Cripplegate, the northern part of Moorfields was the property of the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul’s being leased merely to the Corporation, together with the Manor of Finsbury.