Charles I." in October, 1660. Nineteen of these "bold traitors," (among
whom was Okey,) fled from justice, and were attainted, and Barber's Barn
was in his tenure at the time of his attainder. His interest in the
premises being forfeited to the crown, was granted to the Duke of York,
who, by his indenture, dated 1663, gave up his right therein to Okey's
widow. The colonel was apprehended in Holland, with Sir John Berkestead
and Miles Corbett, in 1662, whence they were sent over to England; and
having been outlawed for high treason, a rule was made by the Court of
King's Bench for their execution at Tyburn. These were the last of the
regicides 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'