The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1898-11-18
LoNDoNs ISLE OF Dogs
The Smallest Park of the Metropolis,
Opposite Greenwich Hospital.
(From the London Mail.)

| Vt rum tie LUlluOl Mall
Perhaps the most out-of -the-way, as
it certainly is one of the smallest, OF
Londons many lungs" is the tiny
park situated at the southern extremity
of the Isle of Dogs. For more than
three years has it been open to the pub
| lie. yet how many, or how few, rather,
| are aware of its exiStencei
Nor is this surprising, for the island
itself has always been more or less of
a terra incognita to metropolitans.
Even the origin Of the uninviting title
| is involved in obscurity; some authort-
ties declaring it to be a corruption of
Isle of Ducks while others assert
that it was first so called owing to the
fact of the royal kennels being situated
there in Charles It's time. For centu-
ries prior to that, it was a dismal
swamp, uninhabited and uninhabitable,
save and except for rowing bands of
river pirates, who found within it's moi
some recesses a safe and secure abiding
place. Pepys alludes to it as that UNI
lucky Isle of Dogs And "unlucky
it has remained ever since. Over and
over again the turbid waters of the
Thames have devastated it. In 1870 a
flood carried away ''all the inhabita-
lions" on the island, and in 1898 there
was but zone house in the whole
marsh"
In 1900 it was described as zone of
the best limitations of the Great Dismal
Swamp to be found in England" Broad
bitches filled with black, sinking mud
and malodorous water, interseeted it in
every direction; and a large proportion
of its inhabitants, at all events, We're
criminals who had fed from justice.
Five of these were taken in one day and
hanged in chains on the foreshore Of
the Thames: and from Greenwich Hos
pital opposite, sober citizens in broad
cloth and gallants in silk and velvet,
ave. and dainty DANES in trllls ana
furbelows, foregathered 10 gaze
through telescopes lent by the aged
pensioners at a penny a head at the
CHASTITY. grisly swaying things.
Today the island exists as q sort OF
hacl,water in the stream of London life.
AWAY to the northward through the
great main artery of the East INDIA
Dock-road, throbs eternally the tufmoll
of the town. But it's reaction upon the
everlasting placidity of the island pen
insula to the south Of 1t Is OF the sllghl-
est. The Isle of Dogs is, IN fact, q, Aof.
gotten not to say neglected, corner u
I ,ondon. No buses run to or through
II IFS streets are unseamed by tram
ways. There is not d single caostain.d
in fhe Mace. Only, at intervals OF nj
teen minutes. a perky, putting little en-
pine draes a. miniature train or papy
earriaees from the Greenwich ferry 70
NTillwau Junction. Other communca-
ton with the outside world there IS
none .a q bas
Nevertheless, as has been SAID, II mas
its mark. with trim parterres, asphalt
walks and a. real oetagonal bandsta1ld
Of The latest and most approved pat
tern. from whence a real lively county
council band discourses sweet music
every sunday evening throughout the
summer Curiously enough, the pos
session bv the inhabitants OF TINS boon
can he directly traced to the enterprise
and foresight of Sir Christopher Wren.
When the great architect selected tIle
curving. baylike sweep Of ground III ~
mediafely opposite the island as nj
tine site for Greenwich hospital, ne
,,,s6e d stipulation that the ground on
tbe other side OF the river should not
he built upon. "Otherwise, he urged.
9tbe annearance of my work viewed
from the Nfiddlesex bank OF the InaI nam, =
viii he entirely spoiled very Wen,
renlied his royal patron, hlng VIII
Ion, III of happy memory, II shall De
. &c von desire And forthwith a plot
~ three acres Of ground, more or less,
was acquired, and vested IN the trus-
tees of the hospital in question, the
STIMULATION being that it should pc pre-
served as an open space Tor al 'iile.