VI
A charming writer has lately dwelt upon an aspect of the parks and gardens which is not always noticed. They are the home of many birds and fish. The beautiful canal which separates garden and park is full of water-fowl, water-hens, ducks, and the stately swans. For the benefit of the tame birds "exists the only distinctly Dutch contrivance now surviving at Hampton Court. Small 'duck-houses,' either built of boards, or made each spring out of laurel-boughs, are set along the margin for the ducks and geese to lay in. This is a very old Dutch custom to protect the eggs of the waterfowl on the canals and lakes round the Dutch country-houses from the magpies which abound in the woods. There are no magpies to steal them at Hampton Court, but it has always been the custom to make 'duck-houses' each spring, and the tradition probably dates from the days of William III."[1] One is tempted to inquire if the phlegmatic monarch was as fond of duck as he was of green peas. Fish, particularly the carp, a royal fish that seems always to speak of ancient days, throng the canals, and birds haunt the trees—rooks, blackbirds, flycatchers, redstarts, and many more. A "paradise of birds" it is indeed.
To forget "the great vine" would be an unpardonable offence in any account of Hampton Court. It has
- ↑ The Spectator, August 1, 1896.
