In writing about London Parks the obvious starting-point seems to be the group comprising Hyde, Green, and St. James’s Parks, which are so intimately connected with London life to-day, and have a past teeming with interest. What changes some of those elms have witnessed! Generation after generation of the world of fashion have passed beneath their shades. Dainty ladies with powder and patches have smiled at their beaux, perhaps concealing aching hearts by a light and careless gaiety. Stately coaches and prancing horsemen have passed along. Crowds of enthusiasts for various causes have aired their grievances on the green turf. Brilliant reviews and endless parades have taken place on the wide open spaces; games and races have amused thousands of spectators. In still earlier times there was many a day’s good sport after the deer, or many a busy hour’s ploughing the abbey lands of the then Manor of Hyde. Scene after scene can be pictured down to the present time, when, after centuries of change, the enjoyment of these Parks remains perhaps one of the most treasured privileges of the Londoner. In tracing the history of their various phases, the survival of many features is as remarkable as the disappearance of others. The present limits on the north and east, Bayswater Road and Park Lane, have suffered no substantial alteration since the roads were known as the Via Trimobantina and the Watling Street in Roman times. The Watling Street divided, and one section followed the course of the present Oxford Street to the City; the other, passing down the line of Park Lane, crossed St. James’s Park, and so to the ford over the Thames at Westminster. The Park was never common or waste land, but must have been cleared and cultivated in very early times. In Domesday Survey the Manor was in plough and pasture land, with various “villains” and peasants living on it. The Thames was the southern boundary of the Manor of “Eia,” which was divided into three parts, one being Hyde, the site of the existing Hyde Park, the other two Ebury and Neate. Although now forgotten, the latter name was familiar for many centuries. When owned by the Abbots of Westminster, the Manor House by the riverside was of some importance, and John of Gaunt stayed there. Famous nurseries and a tea garden, “the Neate houses,” marked the spot in the eighteenth century.