SOUTH-EAST LONDON 231 



narrow end of the ground a very attractive 

 prospect lies before the sight : the green wide 

 space of the Eve is seen to be bounded by a 

 wood (the park), and beyond the wood are 

 green hills — Furze Hill, and One Tree, or Oak 

 of Honor, Hill. The effect of distance is pro- 

 duced by the trees and hills, and the scene is, 

 for this part of London, strikingly rural. The 

 park at the broad extremity of the Eye, I 

 have said, has the appearance of a wood ; and 

 it is or was a wood, or the well-preserved frag- 

 ment of one, as j^erfect a transcript of wild 

 nature as could be found within four miles of 

 Charing Cross. This park was acquired for the 

 public in 1891, and as the wildest and best por- 

 tion was enclosed with an iron fence to keep 

 the public out, some of us cherished the hope 

 that the Count}^ Council meant to preserve it in 

 the exact condition in which they received it. 

 There the self-planted and never mutilated trees 

 flourished in beautiful disorder, their lower 

 boughs mingling with the spreading luxuriant 

 brambles ; and tree, bramble, and ivy were 

 one with the wild grasses and woodland 

 blossoms among them. If, as tradition tells, 

 Kino' John hunted the wild stao' at Peckham, he 



