The most recent changes in the Park have all been improvements, and now it is beautifully kept. There is much that is still wild, and the flora and fauna of the Park would astonish many. Among the wild flowers butcher’s broom, spindle, and the parasites on the heather and the broom, dodder and broom-rape are to be found, and hart’s-tongue, wall rue, polypody and male and lady ferns. The list of birds that breed there still is a long one:-- Barndoor owl. Spotted fly-catcher. Missel and the song thrush. Blackbird. Hedge sparrow. Robin. Sedge and reed warblers. Black-cap. White-throat. The great, blue, and cole tits. Pied wagtail. Common bunting. House sparrow. Greenfinch. Linnet. Bullfinch. Starling. Carrion crow. Jackdaw. Green woodpecker. Tree creeper. Wren. Nuthatch. Swallow. Ring, turtle, and stock doves. Pigeon. Moorhen. Lesser grebe. The part of the Park fenced off and known as the Wilderness is quiet and undisturbed; there under the big trees, among long grass and bracken, the young fawns are reared every year. They are most confiding and tame--those in the Park too much so; for they are only too ready to eat what is given them, and tragic deaths from a surfeit of orange-peel or such-like delights are the result. The lake is prettily planted, and red marliac varieties of water-lilies now float on the surface in the summer. The dell, planted with a large collection of flowering shrubs, is well arranged, and many choice varieties, _Solanum crispum_, gum cistus, magnolias, _Buddlea intermedia_, _Indigofera gerardiana floribunda_, and such-like are doing well. The frame-ground is most unostentatious, and it is satisfactory to see how much can be produced. The climate allows of the spring bedding plants and hardy chrysanthemums for autumn being raised out of doors; and the small amount of glass shelters the standard heliotropes, _Streptosolens Jamesoni_, and the like for bedding. Lilies do well in the open; _superbum_, tiger, _thunbergium_, _Henryii_, &c., and pots of _longifolium_ flower strongly after doing duty for three years. There is now a fair-sized garden, where these plants are displayed, near the Wilderness, adjoining Blackheath; while the rest of the Park, with the deer wandering under the chestnuts, is still left delightfully wild. Under the shady trees on a summer’s day it would still be possible to dream of Romans and Danes, of pageants and tournaments, and to people the scene with the heroes and heroines of yore. CHAPTER VI MUNICIPAL PARKS _Let cities, kirks, and everie noble towne Be purified, and decked up and downe._ --ALEXANDER HUME (1557–1609).