HAMPSTEAD HILL. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE ENVIRONS OF LONDON. 



When an English summer brings glorious English summer 

 weather, which in some years, however, is slow in coming, the 

 thoughts of Londoners instinctively turn to almost every place 

 except their own wonderful town — to the sea-side, to the 

 " Lakes," to Scotland, to Wales, to Killarney or the splendid 

 coast of Wicklow, to the Rhine, to Switzerland — but still a 

 few who are not altogether Philistines have visions not so far 

 afield. To these there are sufficiently attractive charms in 

 Greater London, that belt of greenery and red brick encircling 

 the vast metropolis and wedding town to country with an 

 emerald and ruby ring. 



On every side of London this magnificent environment 

 of the nation's capital is the wonder and delight of our north- 

 country cousins, whose too often grimy towns and smoke- 

 laden atmospheres seem as unfriendly to fine timber and 

 luxuriant foliage as Nature is supposed to be to a vacuum. 

 The wooded vales of Chislehurst, the heights of Norwood 

 with their crystal crown, the Surrey commons, and the oak- 

 studded glades of Richmond commanding the broad vale of 



