The Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race was best seen from Cheyne Walk as the course at that time was from Westminster to Putney, for that and all other leading races, and the race was considered a dead certainty for whichever boat got through Battersea Bridge first and had the Middlesex shore. They used to have some tolerably good sailing matches for small boats off Chelsea Reach. The course was from a boat moored opposite the “Adam and Eve,” turning round a boat moored off Lambeth Palace, and back to the starting point. Races were arranged to start at about three-quarter’s flood so that they would finish on the ebb of the tide. They were small tubby-looking, half-decked boats, not above three tons, and would carry an immense amount of canvas, and when there was a breeze and the river was a little bit lumpy they would dance about merrily and were a very pretty sight. They were generally sailed by the owners. CHAPTER 6.—Public Gardens. The first public garden that I recollect, long before Cremorne, was the Manor House in the King’s Road, between Little’s Nursery and Shawfield Street, where Radnor Street and the Commercial Tavern now stand. It was a detached house with carriage drive in front, and grounds reaching to where the bottom of Radnor Street is. It used to be occupied by one, Colonel Middleton, and in about 1836 it was taken by a man of the name of Smith, and turned into a tea and recreation garden, a sort of little Vauxhall with coloured lamps, statuary, shrubbery, winding path and fountain, with music and dancing. Flexmar the clown, when a youth, was one of the regular visitors and would amuse the company with a break-down dance, and the great Mackney, the negro delineator and stump orator (I believe still on the music hall stage), as a youth was a very clever violinist, and would entertain the company by playing in almost any position and imitating almost any sound. It was carried on only a few years, after which the owners built the Commercial Tavern, with a large room behind, now Radnor Chapel. The grounds were laid out for builders, and Radnor Street was built, leaving the old Manor House standing at the corner in the King’s Road. It was then turned into the Chelsea Literary and Scientific Institution, and so continued until removed to the Chelsea Town Hall. It struggled on for a few years and then came to grief.