122 LONDON PARKS & GARDENS 



ham, but half the purchase-money of ^^72,000 was paid 

 by the London County Council, and the entire cost of 

 alteration and maintenance is found by it. The place 

 was bought chiefly to preserve the wooded aspect of the 

 view from Richmond Hill. The Forest of Hainault is 

 also outside the bounds, near Epping. The 805 acres 

 there are partly fields, and in part the remains of the old 

 Forest of " Hyneholt," as it was often written, a section 

 of the Royal Forest which covered a large tract of Essex. 



The most natural division, when dealing with these 

 open spaces, is the river, and it is a division which strikes 

 a fairly even balance. Including Royal Parks, which 

 contain some 1266 acres, the northern side can claim the 

 larger area, as, irrespective of squares and churchyards 

 and gardens, there are about 3 141 acres of green. The 

 south side has only Greenwich Park of 185 acres of 

 Royal Park, and, exclusive of that, there are quite 2169 

 acres, as against 1875 of the municipal areas on the 

 northern side, when the Crown land is deducted. Besides 

 these, there are 226 acres maintained by the Borough 

 Councils ; so in round numbers London has about 

 5721 acres of open space. These figures are only rough 

 estimates, and do not include all the smaller recreation 

 grounds or gardens of less than an acre. 



These parks scattered around London are enjoyed by 

 hundreds of thousands annually, and yet, to a compara- 

 tive handful of people who live near Hyde Park, they 

 are as much unexplored country as the regions of Tim- 

 buctoo. The bicycling craze of ten years ago suddenly 

 brought Battersea Park into fashion ; but the miles of 

 crowded streets, with their rushing trams and top-heavy 

 omnibuses, put a considerable bar between the " West 

 End " and those more distant favoured spots. There is 



