John Banister, who was sent first to the West Indies and then to Virginia, and who, before his untimely death, sent Bishop Compton drawings, seeds, and herbarium specimens from which the Bishop's close friend John Ray compiled the first published account of North American flora, in his Historia Plantarum (1688). World War I In 1918, part of the grounds of the palace was converted into allotments, for growing food to help the war effort. The palace itself formed part of Fulham military hospital. After the war, the church found it increasingly difficult to maintain such a large, expensive building. The Bishop of London at the time, Arthur Winnington-Ingram, offered to give up the palace and live in two rooms as he had while the palace was being used "for the purpose of the National Mission" (the war effort). However, the bishop was unwilling to let the palace pass into secular hands. World War II Parts of the palace were damaged by bombing, and after the war, the church found it increasingly difficult to maintain this large, expensive historic building. In 1954, the Church Commissioners' architect described the palace as "badly planned and inconvenient". After many years of indecision the church authorities vacated the palace in 1973. The Palace moat The Palace's moat was nearly in length. It was the largest domestic moated site in medieval England but its origin is unknown. The first known reference to the moat was in a 1392 document that refers to magna fossa ('great ditch') but it is thought to be much older. Its distance from the palace suggests that it might have had a function other than defence. An alternative idea is that it was built by the Danes as a safeguard against flooding by the Thames. In 1976, the moated enclosure was designated as a Scheduled Ancient Monument. The moat was filled in with debris in the 1920s, at the request of the bishop of the time, Arthur Winnington-Ingram. Despite this, the entire moat still exists, underground, as an unbroken circuit. In 2010, an excavation of the moat began as part of a £8 million renovation of the palace and adjoining Bishops Park. The Tait chapel The Tait chapel at Fulham Palace, the fourth on the site, was designed by William Butterfield for Bishop Tait in 1866–7. It is dedicated to the Blessed Trinity and it cost £1869. Damaged by a bomb in