70 BOROUGH OF LEWISHAM. 
crowded state of the Heath. An interesting portrait of Mr. 
William Innes, Captain in 1776, was painted by Lemuel F. 
Abbot, R.A., in 1790. He is attended by a Greenwich pensioner 
as a ‘‘caddie.” In Rugby Football Blackheath is entitled to a 
place of high honour, and the encouragement both football and 
cricket received in the latter half of the 19th century from residents 
on and around Blackheath, no doubt largely contributed to the 
popularizing of those games amongst the working classes. The 
more important clubs nowadays play on private grounds, but the 
lover of sport cannot survey Blackheath on a Saturday afternoon 
with any other feeling but that of satisfaction. 
In the survey of the King’s Manor of Greenwich in 1695, and 
the map by Samuel Travers, Esq., the Surveyor-General attached 
thereto,* the houses in what is now known as Dartmouth Row, are 
shown as ‘‘ The New Buildings,”’ and then numbered eleven, No. 1 
occupying the ground between Blackheath Hill and Dartmouth 
Hill, Nos. 2 to 8 from Dartmouth Hill to Morden Hill, No. 9 the 
site of Dartmouth House (now the Greyladies) and the chapel 
adjoining, No. 10 the site of Perceval House, and No. 11, which 
was the Market House, at the corner of Dartmouth Place, the 
space between Dartmouth Place and Blackheath Hill and the 
Heath being occupied by the Bowling Green House, now the 
“*Green Man.” 
These eleven houses were declared ‘‘ encroachments ” on the 
Heath, and to have been erected on pretence of a right to do so 
by grants or leases from Mrs, Graham or Lord Dartmouth. Lord 
Dartmouth disputed the claim that these houses were in the Manor 
of Greenwich, and it is evidence of how uncertainly the boundaries 
between Lewisham-and Greenwich were defined at the time, that 
the Crown did not proceed in the matter, and Dartmouth Row and 
the greater part of Blackheath Hill were ultimately agreed to as 
belonging to Lewisham. 
The houses on the western side of Dartmouth Row have been 
considerably altered, both externally and internally, but some of 
them still retain details which place their date at about 1670 or 1680. 
On the eastern side of the Row, and at its northern end is the 
‘‘Green Man” Hotel, formerly the Bowling Green House—the 
ground appears to have been first enclosed in 1629. Evelyn, in his 
diary, under date 9th May, 1683, says: ‘I went to Blackheath to 
see the new faire, being the first procured by the Lord Dartmouth. 
This was the first day, pretended for the sale of cattle, but I think 
in truth to enrich the new tavern at the bowling green, erected by 
Snape, His Majesty's farrier, a man full of projects. There 
appeared nothing but an innumerable assembly ot drinking people 
from London, pedlars, etc., and I suppose it is too neere London 
to be of any great use to the country.” Evelyn was right, and 
after a trial of some go years the fair was practically discontinued. 
* Printed in Kimball's ‘‘ Charities of Greenwich.” 
