Carlton House, a red-brick building, with the stone portico now in front of the National Gallery, was built in 1709 on part of this garden. Some twenty years later, before it was purchased by Frederick, Prince of Wales, the grounds belonging to the house were laid out by Kent. Until Carlton House was pulled down in 1827, therefore, the Mall was bounded on the north by choice gardens. Between the Mall and the walls of these gardens ran the "Green Walk," or "Duke Humphrey's Walk," as it was also often called. The origin of the latter name is to be traced to old St. Paul's. The monument to Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, in the centre aisle of old St. Paul's Cathedral was where "poore idlers" and "careless mal-contents" congregated- "Poets of Paules, those of Duke Humfrye's messe That feed on nought but graves and emptinesse." When Duke Humphrey's Walk in St. Paul's was burnt the name became attached to the walk in St. James's Park, where idlers also sauntered. Some writers attribute the transference of the name to the fact that the arched walk under the trees was like the cathedral aisle. Anyhow the name clung to this walk in the Park from 1666 and during the eighteenth century.
When Carlton House became the centre of attraction the Park itself was in a very neglected state. The canal was turbid, the grass long, and the seats unpainted. How long it would have remained in this condition is uncertain had not a new impulse of gardening possessed the whole nation, and once more it was resolved to alter the entire Park.
When Carlton House became the centre of attraction the Park itself was in a very neglected state. The canal was turbid, the grass long, and the seats unpainted. How long it would have remained in this condition is uncertain had not a new impulse of gardening possessed the whole nation, and once more it was resolved to alter the entire Park.
