EAST LONDON 203 



buildings of some kind in the distance, a feature- 

 less space over which the vision roams in vain 

 in search of something to rest upon, utterly 

 devoid of interest, to be seen and straightway 

 forgotten. Yet I have experienced a pleasing 

 sense of exhilaration here, a feeling somewhat 

 differing in character from that produced in 

 me by any other metropolitan open space. And 

 this was not strange, for there is really nothing 

 like Hackney Marsh in London. Commons, 

 indeed, of various aspects we have in plenty, 

 parks, too, natural, artificial, dreary, pretty ; and 

 heaths, downs, woods, and wildernesses ; but the 

 Marsh alone presents to the eyes a large expanse 

 of absolutely flat grassy land, without a bush, 

 stick, or molehill to break its smooih surface. 

 A mile or a mile and a quarter away, according 

 to the direction, you see an irregular line of 

 buildings forming the horizon, with perhaps a 

 tapering church spire and a tall factory chimney 

 or two ; and if this extent of green waste seems 

 not great, it should be borne in mind that a man 

 standing on a flat surface has naturally a very 

 limited horizon, and that a mile in this district 

 of London is equal to two miles or more in the 

 country, owing to the Ijlue haze which produces 



