ST. JAMES'S PARK. (Hansard, 26 February 1856)

§ MR. HINDLEY
said, he must again complain that the Motion was pressed forward with such indecent haste that Members had not time to examine the list, and move other names if they desired to do so. He objected to the cutting up of the ornamental garden of St. James's Park, which he regarded as the greatest beauty the metropolis possessed. He should as soon have thought that the Government would have proposed to pull down Westminster Abbey as to interfere with St. James's Park, by carrying a road though the centre of the plantation and erecting a bridge over the ornamental water. He was told there was a bridge across the Serpentine, and that it did not injure the appearance of the park. But there was plenty of space in Hyde Park, while St. James's Park was already much too small for its purpose, and the great beauty of that park was, that the landscape gardener who had laid it out had managed to make so much out of so little. He had been anxious to move an instruction to the Committee that they should not entertain any plan that would interfere with the ornamental garden, but he had been prevented by the late hour at which the question was brought on, and the haste with which it was pressed to a decision. It was open to him now, he was aware, to meet the present Motion with a direct negative, but he would not do that, preferring to throw the responsibility upon the shoulders of the Committee and the Government of maintaining the ornamental garden in its present state.

§ SIR BENJAMIN HALL,
in reply to 1430 a question from Sir Henry Willoughby, stated that one plan which had been laid upon the table, and would be referred to the Committee, was for a road from the western end of Pall Mall through Lord Sydney's house, taking a portion of Lord Ellesmere's grounds, and passing on by the north-west side of the canal to Buckingham Gate. That plan would be submitted to the Committee, with every other plan that had been proposed.

§ COLONEL GREVILLE
said, he understood that the duty of the Committee would be to consider the best mode of communication between the north and south sides of the park.

§ SIR BENJAMIN HALL
said, that the inquiry of the Committee would undoubtedly be what were the best means of communication generally. He apprehended that that would be very easily decided, and that the Report would be presented in the course of a very few days.