the Mall

[the Mall.] To this [St. James's] Palace belongs a very pleasant Park; which hath been much enlarged and improved by King Charles the Second, having purchased several Fields, which ran up to the Road, and as far as Hide Park, now enclosed with a Brick Wall: and made the Pall Mall half a Mile long, with curious Rows of Lime Trees round about, set in uniform Ranks.

Mall (The), in St. James's Park, a gravel walk on the north side of the park extending from Constitution Hill to Spring Gardens. The first Mall, originally a part of St. James's Park, was the street now called Pall Mall [which see]. It was so named from having been enclosed for playing the game of pall-mall, a game somewhat resembling the modern croquet, played with a wooden ball and mallets, the ball being struck through an iron ring or arch, "in long alleys made on purpose, which are surrounded by a paling." Charles II., for whom the Mall in the park was formed, was very fond of the game.

Here a well-polished Mall gives us the joy,
To see our Prince his matchless force employ:
His manly posture and his graceful mien,
Vigour and youth in all his motions seen;
No sooner has he touched the flying ball,
But 'tis already more than half the Mall,
And such a fury from his arm has got,
As from a smoking culverin 'twere shot.

Waller, on St. James's Park

It was King Charles II. who gave Dryden the hint for writing his poem called the Medal. One day as the King was walking in The Mall, and talking with Dryden, he said, "If I was a poet, and I think I am poor enough to be one, I would write a poem on such a subject in the following manner"–and then gave him the plan for it. Dryden took the hint, carried the poem as soon as it was finished to the King, and had a present of a hundred broad pieces for it.—Spence's Anecdotes, p. 171.

In the meane time Mr. Hobbes meetes with the King [Charles II.] in the Pall Mall in St James's Parke; tells him how he had been served by the Deane of Christ Church, in a booke then in the presse, and withall desires his Majestic to be pleased to give him leave to vindicate himself. The King seeming to be troubled at the dealing of the Deane, gave Mr. Hobbes leave conditionally, that he touch nobody but him who had abused him.—Aubrey's Lives, vol. iii. p. 617.

Daines Barrington in his Observations on Clocks and Watches, read before the Society of Antiquaries, 1778, says (4to, p. 12):—

Charles II. was very curious with regard to these time measurers; and I have been told by an old person of the trade, that watch-makers, particularly East, used to attend whilst he was playing at the Mall; a watch being often the stake.

April 2, 1661.—To St. James's Park where I saw the Duke of York playing at Pelemele, the first time that ever I saw the sport.—Pepys.

May 16, 1663.—I walked in the Parke, discoursing with the keeper of the Pell Mell, who was sweeping of it; who told me of what the earth is mixed that do floor the Mall, and that over all there is cockle-shells powdered, and spread to keep it fast; which however in dry weather, turns to dust and deads the ball.—Pepys.

January 4, 1663–1664.—Afterwards to St. James's Park, seeing people play at Pell Mell; where it pleased me mightily to hear a gallant lately come from France, swear at one of his companions for suffering his man, a spruce blade, to be so saucy as to strike a ball while his master was playing on the Mall.—Pepys.

But manages her last half-crown with care
And trudges to the Mall, on foot, for air.—
Dryden, Prologue to Marriage à la Mode, 1672.

October 1709.—There is another story that I had from a hand I dare depend upon. The Duke of Grafton and Doctor Garth ran a foot match in the Mall of 200 yards, and the latter to his immortal glory beat.—Lady Mary W. Montagu to Mrs. Hewit.

By the 18th century the Mall had become the fashionable evening lounge. "I have had this morning," writes Lady Mary Wortley Montagu to the Countess of Bute, "as much delight in a walk in the sun as ever I felt formerly in the crowded Mall, even when I imagined I had my share of the admiration of the place."¹

May 15, 1711.—When I pass the Mall in the evening it is prodigious to see the number of ladies walking there.—Swift, Journal to Stella, ed. Scott, vol. ii. p. 258.

November 11, 1710.—His [St. John's] father is a man of pleasure that walks the Mall and frequents St. James's Coffee House, and the chocolate houses, and the young son is Principal Secretary of State.—Swift, Journal to Stella, ed. Scott, vol. ii. p. 77.

August 24, 1711.—Lord Radnor and I were walking the Mall this evening; and Mr. Secretary [St. John] met us, and took a turn or two, and then stole away, and so we both believed it was to pick up some wench; and to-morrow he will be at the Cabinet with the Queen: so goes the world.—Swift to Stella.

December 27, 1712.—I met Mr. Addison and Pastoral Philips on the Mall to-day, and took a turn with them; but they both looked terribly dry and cold. A curse of party.—Swift to Mrs. Dingley.

Some feel no flames but at the Court or Ball,
And others hunt white aprons on the Mall.—Pope.

November 6, 1751.—His Majesty [George II.] walked with the Duke of Cumberland in the Mall of St. James's Park, which is new gravelled, above an hour, to the great joy of the spectators.—Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xxi. p. 520.

Whether this "new gravelling" was in honour of the king and duke, or their Highnesses visited the Mall in honour of the occasion, the reporter does not say, but that the Mall much needed to be new gravelled would seem clear from a passage cited in the same Magazine a few months later (January 1752, p. 4), from "a Dialogue called 'Much Ado,' in the second volume of Miss Fielding's Letters." One young lady says:—

Well I was always mighty afraid of water. You remember, cousin Jenny, I was once like to be drowned. Lord! what a sweet pair of shoes did I spoil then by the wet.

Cousin Jenny replies: "You mean when you fell into that great puddle in the Mall?"

"I do."

In the same spirit Gay, in his Trivia, warns his readers—

When all The Mall in leafy ruins lies
And damsels first renew their oyster cries:
Then let the prudent walker shoes provide,
Not of the Spanish or Morocco hide—

but let wooden heels and "well-hammered soles" protect his feet. The Mall was a fashionable walk as late as 1774; Mrs. Harris writes to her son the Earl of Malmesbury: —

October 8, 1774.—First made a visit to Mrs. Carr in the Stable Yard; from thence to Knightsbridge to Lady Salisbury, flattering ourselves we might have an opportunity of kissing our hands, and bowing to many of our friends who were walking in the Mall; but to our great disappointment there was such a fog in the Park that we could neither see nor be seen.

[See Pall Mall; St James's Park.]

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¹ Works, by Lord Wharncliffe, vol. iii. p. 81.