XXVlll INTRODUCTION. 



of the Hampstead Hills, Scratch Wood beyond Edgware, and nume- 

 rous woods to the north of Ruislip (Duck's Hill, Copse Park, Mad Bess, 

 and North Kiding- Woods). These are all on a soil of stiff yellow clay. 

 The woodlands near Colney Hatch (including HoUick Wood and 

 others) were gruhbed up when the Lunatic Asylum was built, which 

 now occupies their site. A piece of wood, partly plantation^ lies 

 between Winchmore Hill and Southgate, and is sometimes named 

 from the one, and sometimes from the other place. Enfield Chase for- 

 merly contained much wood. The hills about Hornsey were originally 

 wooded, but were cleared at the end of the last century, and laid down 

 to grass (Middleton). 



Mr. Clutterbuck thinks that the existing woods are not likely to be 

 brought into cultivation, from the nature of the soil. He describes 

 the growth as consisting of hazel, hornbeam, and blackthorn, from 

 which the best and straightest are cut into stakes and headers for 

 making hedges ; the practice has of late decreased. At present, with 

 the exception of the larger poles, very much of the growth is made 

 into faggots for domestic use, which meets with a ready sale {Journ. 

 Royal Agr. Soc. 1869). The trees, chiefly oak and hornbeam, do not 

 grow to any size. Ken Wood, which stands higher and on sandy 

 soil, is also said to be of original native growth • if so, it presents 

 considerable differences from the adjacent woods, containing many 

 large beeches. At Harefield some fine trees, chiefly beeches, grow 

 naturally in the old woodlands called Old Park Woods, on the 

 chalk. 



The wooded land in the north of London now exists only in name. 

 Besides Great St. John's Wood, to the north-west there was also a 

 Little St. John's Wood, which abutted on the New Ptiver a little 

 north of Highbury Wood (' woods near the Boarded Eiver ' — R. 

 Syn. iii. 411). One half of Highbury Wood was grubbed up in 

 1650 (Tomlins' Islington). Cream Hall in Highbury Vale is the 

 farm-house {temj-). Charles II.) which was built on the site of High- 

 bury Wood when it was finally cleared. 



10. Heaths, Commons, and Waste Lands. — While the clay ground 

 of the north of the county and the slopes of the hills were wooded, 

 the sandy tops of the hills and the flat loamy and gravelly districts of 

 the south-west were heaths. The area of heath was probably larger 

 originally than that of wood, and extensive portions retained the 

 character of open heath up to quite recent times. In 1807 the com- 

 mons of Middlesex were roughlj^ estimated at about 8,700 acres, 

 whicli included also the water meadows of the Colne and Lea (Middle- 



