icides that were punished capitally.

Barber's Barn and its adjoining grounds have, however, since become
appropriated to more pacific pursuits than hatching treason, compassing,
&c. About the middle of the last century, one John Busch cultivated
the premises as a nursery. Catharine II. Empress of Russia, says a
correspondent of Mr. Loudon's _Gardener's Magazine_, "finding she could
have nothing done to her mind, she determined to have a person from
England to lay out her garden." Busch was the person engaged to go out
to Russia for this purpose; and in the year 1771 he gave up his concerns
at Hackney, with the nursery and foreign correspondence, to Messrs.
Loddidges. These gentlemen, who rank as the most eminent florists and
nurserymen of their time, have here extensive green and hot houses which
are heated by steam; the ingenious apparatus belonging to which has been
principally devised by themselves. Their gardens boast of the finest
display of exotics ever assembled in this country, and a walk through
them is one of the most delightful spectacles of Nature.

Hackney was once distinguished by princely mansions; but, alas! many of
these abodes of wealth have been turned into receptacles for lunatics!
Brooke House, formerly the seat of a nobleman of that name, and Balmes'
House, within memory surrounded by a moat, and approached only by a
drawbridge, have shared this humiliating fate. Sir Robert Viner,[1] who
made Charles II. "stay and take t'other bottle," resided here; and John
Ward, Esq. M.P. whom Pope has "damned to everlasting fame," had a house
at Hackney.

[1] The following anecdote is related of him:--Charles II. more
than once dined with his good citizens of London on their
Lord Mayor's Day, and did so the year that Sir Robert Viner
was mayor. Sir Robert was a very loyal man, and, very fond of
his sovereign; but, what with the joy he felt at heart for the
honour done him by his prince, and through the warmth he was
in with continual toasting healths to the royal family, his
lordship grew a little fond of his majesty, and entered into
a familiarity not altogether so graceful in so public a place.
The king understood very well how to extricate himself in all
kinds of difficulties, and, with a hint to the company to avoid
ceremony, stole off and made towards his coach, which stood
ready for him in Guildhall yard.