50 H AMP STEAD HEATH. 



extent allowed by the general law to tenants for life. 

 "In 1829," he said, "Host my Bill for building on 

 other parts of my property, and having always been 

 thwarted, I must now see what I can do to turn the 

 Heath to account, and get what I can. By the outcry 

 that has been raised against me, I have been deprived of 

 50,000 a year. ... It never entered my head to 

 destroy Hampstead Heath at all, until I found that 

 I was thwarted in my Bill that I brought into 

 Parliament." He added, however, that he had never 

 promised not to build on the Heath, if full powers 

 of leasing elsewhere were conferred upon him. " I 

 am not disposed," he said, " to make any concession ; 

 in fact, I will not do so.'' 



The subject of the Heath had already engaged the 

 attention of the Metropolitan Board of Works, who, 

 alarmed as to the possibility of its inclosure, were pre- 

 pared to negotiate for the purchase of the lord's rights ; 

 but the price suggested on behalf of Sir Thomas 

 400,000, or 1,600 an acre was so excessive that 

 nothing was possible in this direction. 



Sir Thomas Wilson's lawyer supported his em- 

 ployer's evidence before the Committee, by asserting in 

 the strongest manner the right of the lord to treat the 

 Heath as his private property, denying the rights of 

 copyholders, and claiming the power of inclosing under 

 the Statute of Merton, or under the customs of his 

 Manor. Very soon after the report of the Committee 

 of 1865, Sir Thomas Wilson began to put his claims to 

 a practical proof. He commenced the erection of a 



