When Philomel begins to sing The grass grows green and flowers spring; Metbinks it is a pleasant thing To walk on Promrose Hill.
ROXBURGH BALLADS, c. 1620.
REGENT'S PARK has had but a transitory day of fashion, and history has not crowded it with associations like the other Royal Parks. It is the largest and one of the most beautiful, yet there is something cold and less attractive about it. In spring, with its wealth of thorn trees, it has a delightfully rural appearance, and it possesses many charms on close acquaintance. Its history as a Royal Park is as ancient as that of Hyde Park or St. James's, but it remained a distant country sporting estate, and only assumed the form of a Park, in the modern sense of the word, less than a hundred years ago.
