THE CAT'S PAJAMAS LIX

Tad Tuleja

A collection of the (mostly) true origins of familiar phraes

DOWN THE GARDEN PATH

The London district of Tyburn, now called Marylebone, was the site of medieval public executions, and"Tyburn tree," until the eighteenth century, was a slang term for the gallows. Just north of Tyburn was The Garden - an expanse of shrub mazes that lay adjacent to Hampstead Heath and that, in 1684, the city council had turned into a French-style horticultural showpiece. The showpiece had an odd pragmatic value in that it offered criminals about to be hanged a last-minute possibility of reprieve. In addition to the usual hangman's fee that all the condemned had to pay, they could pay an extra two shillings for the privilege of "trying the Garden." If they had the money and the inclination to do this, they would be led blindfolded into the maze, the blindfold would be taken off, and they would be given one hour to find a path to the  Heath. Once on the Heath, they were free. If after the hour they were still lost, they would be found and led out to their deaths.

 

One might have expected all condemned criminals to try this last resort, but in fact very few did. For it was widely believed that the so-called path did not exist. The Garden had been constructed during the tenure of the notorious "hanging mayor" Royford Beame. Knowing this, and realizing that no person who paid the two shillings had ever been known to get his money's worth, London's criminals generally saw the Garden as a mere revenue-raising scheme. By 1700, throughout the underworld, to lead or take someone down the garden path had become a metaphor for deception.