136 BOROUGH OF LEWISHAM. 
originally have been either a footway or farm track. A few of the 
houses at the south-western end of the road are of early Victorian 
date, and the two houses which form the buildings of Catford 
Collegiate School were built in the ‘ fifties,” the remainder of the 
houses in’ the road being of modern date; those on the northern 
side are built on the grounds of Mount Pleasant House. 
On the brow of the hill, on the southern side of the road, stood 
“Mountsfield,” the residence of the late Mr. Henry Stainton, the 
eminent entomologist. The grounds were purchased in 1905, and 
formed into a public recreation ground, enlarged by the addition of 
adjoining land which had been previously purchased by the London 
School Board, the whole forming a park of about 14 acres. The 
house was pulled down, with the exception of outbuildings utilized 
as refreshment rooms. There is an extensive view from the 
grounds, with the Hilly Fields, Forest Hill, and the Crystal Palace 
hills on the horizon. 
The ‘‘ George ” Inn, which now occupies the corner of George 
Lane, was removed hither from Sion House, near the church 
{g.v.) sometime in the 18th century. The buildings were the 
homestead of a large farm belonging to the Stoddard family, which 
extended over the fields in the rear. They are of about mid- 
eighteenth century date. 
Next to the ‘‘George,” southwards, was a group of 
18th century weather-boarded cottages, which, with two brick 
houses of slightly later date which had been inserted in the group, 
formed a picturesque ‘‘bit” of old Lewisham. They have during the 
past few years been altered considerably, some having shop fronts 
built on the fore-courts, and others rebuilt altogether (Plate 59). 
The ‘‘George” Inn on the eastern side of the road, and 
Thackeray’s Almshouses on the western side, form the commence- 
ment of that part of the parish known as Rushey Green, a name 
which, like so many others, has become unintelligible to the 
‘*modern”’ on account of the buildings which now cover the 
ground. The old form of the name was ‘‘ Rishotetes Grene,” as it 
appears in the will of Richard Howchenson, in 1500, and ‘‘ Rushet 
Green,” in 1544, in the will of Isabella Fleming. Ina rental of the 
Manor of Lewisham, temp. Edward II, Walter de Castello and 
William the Smith, atte Russchete, paid 5s. for land called 
Russcheteslond in Brodefeld. The name was _ subsequently 
shortened into ‘‘ Rush Green,” but the form ‘‘ Rushy Green” is 
used in the 17th century. The greater part of the ground seems to 
have been marshy, with small water courses, and the name was no 
doubt quite descriptive of the locality from the Pound to Catford, 
and some distance along the Bromley Road. 
In the 16th century there stood here ‘‘ Rushy Green Place,” 
the Lewisham seat of Roger Fitz, Esq., of Tavistock, but the 
exact site is unknown. His wife was the Isabella Fleming 
mentioned above, who was daughter of John Harvey, of Thurley, 
in Bedfordshire, by Annis, daughter of Sir John Paston. She had 
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