The ground which the Park covers was chiefly brick-fields and market-gardens, and Bishop’s Hall Farm. The latter place is the only part with any historical association. The farm was in the manor of Stepney, which was held by the Bishops of London, and Bishop’s or Bonner’s Hall was the Manor House. Many of the Bishops of London resided here in early days. Stowe, in 1598, referring to Bishop Richard de Gravesend in 1280, writes: “It appeareth by the Charter [of free] warren granted to this Bishop, that (in his time) there were two Woods in the Parish of Stebunheth [Stepney], pertaining to the said Bishop: I have (since I kept house for my selfe) knowne the one of them by _Bishops Hall_, but now they are both made plaine of wood, and not to be discerned from other grounds.” These woods were on the ground covered by the Park. Stowe notices in his short accounts of the Bishops of London that Ralph Stratford, who was Bishop from 1339 to 1354, “deceased at Stebunhith.” The name Bonner’s Hall somehow became attached to the Manor House. The same chronicler also records that Bishop Ridley gave the manors of Stepney and Hackney to the King in the fourth year of Edward VI., who granted them to Lord Wentworth. Bonner, therefore, would be the last Bishop who could have resided there. The old Manor House was not destroyed till 1800, when part of the material was taken to build a farm-house, which was cleared away when the Park was formed. The first laying out of the Park does not seem to have been altogether satisfactory. A writer in 1851 criticises it very severely. The roads and paths, he says, were so badly laid as to require almost reconstruction. The “banks of the lake must be reduced to something like shape to resist the wash of the water,” and the remodelling of the plantations will be “a work of time.” Just then Mr. Gibson assumed the charge of the Park, and even this captious critic seems to have been well satisfied that he had “begun in real earnest” to carry out the necessary improvements. Modern gardeners might not applaud all his planting quite so enthusiastically as his contemporaries. For instance, the rage for araucarias--monkey puzzles--has somewhat subsided, though the planting of a number met with great praise in the Fifties. Most of the Park was planted with discrimination. In a line with the canal which forms one boundary, an avenue was put, now a charming shady road with well-grown trees. The artificial water with fancy ducks, in which is a wooded island with a Chinese pagoda, is a great delight for boating. The bathing-lake has still greater attraction, and thousands bathe there daily all through the summer months. It is said, as many as 25,000 have been counted on a summer’s morning. Bedding out was at its height when Victoria Park was laid out, so the flower-garden included some elaborate scroll designs which were suited to the style of carpet-bedding then in vogue. Now, though less stiff, the formal