of these three, who died in 1772, had fought in the Battle of the Boyne! It certainly speaks well for the care and attention bestowed on them in the Hospital. [Illustration: GARDEN GATE, CHELSEA HOSPITAL] The garden to the east of the buildings was part of the original ground, but has had a career and history of its own. It was the famous Ranelagh Gardens, which enchanted the beaux and fair ladies of the eighteenth century. From 1742 to 1803 its glories lasted. Ranelagh House was built by the Earl of that name, who was Paymaster to the Forces in the reign of James II., a clever, unscrupulous person, who amassed considerable wealth in the course of his office-work. He obtained a grant of the land from Chelsea Hospital, built a house and laid out a garden, where the “plots, borders, and walks” were “curiously kept, and elegantly designed.” After passing through the hands of his daughter, Lady Catherine Jones, the property was sold to Swift and Timbrell, who leased it to Lacey, the patentee of Drury Lane Theatre. The idea was to turn it into a winter Vauxhall. Eventually it was open from Easter till the end of the summer, and effectually outshone Vauxhall. Walpole, in a letter two days after it was first opened, did not think much of it. “I was there, last night, but did not find the joy of it. Vauxhall is a little better, for the garden is pleasanter, and one goes to it by water.” Two years later he wrote in a very different strain. “Every night constantly I go to Ranelagh, which has totally beat Vauxhall. Nobody goes anywhere else--everybody goes there. My Lord Chesterfield is so fond of it, that he says he has ordered all his letters to be directed thither.” Fanny Burney, in “Evelina,” to bring out the character of the “surly, vulgar, and disagreeable man,” makes him abuse the place which fascinated polite society. “There’s your famous Ranelagh, that you make such a fuss about; why, what a dull place is that!” The chief amusement was walking about and looking at each other, as the poem by Bloomfield puts it-- “We had seen every soul that was in it, Then we went round and saw them again.”