1 88 LONDON PARKS & GARDENS 



tants of a parish, and it was doubtful if the custom 

 would hold good at law for such a large place as 

 London. Thousands of people from all parts of London 

 trampling over a common was a very different thing to 

 the free use of it by the parishioners. This report led to 

 the passing of the Metropolitan Commons Act of 1866. 

 Both before and after this Act there were several others 

 for the maintenance and regulation of the commons and 

 all the parks, gardens, and open spaces too numerous to 

 mention.-^ 



Under the present system most of the metropolitan 

 commons and heaths are in the hands of the County 

 Council, and in some cases considerable sums have been 

 spent on them. Among the smaller ones is London 

 Fields, Hackney, the nearest open space to the city. 

 This was in a very untidy state when first taken in hand 

 after 1866. The grass was worn away, and it was the 

 scene of a kind of fair, and the resort of all the worst 

 characters in the neighbourhood. It used to be known 

 as Shoulder of Mutton Fields, and the name survives in 

 a " Cat and Mutton " public-house on the site of a 

 tavern which gave its name to the fields. It was in the 

 eighteenth century a well-known haunt of robbers and 

 foot-pads, and in spite of a watch-house and special 

 guard robberies were frequent. The watch must have 

 been rather slack, as about 1732 a Mr. Baxter was robbed 

 about five in the morning " by two fellows, who started 

 out on him from behind the Watch-House in the 

 Shoulder of Mutton Fields." Hackney is rich in open 

 spaces, as besides London Fields there is Hackney or 

 Well Street Common, near Victoria Park, Mill Fields, 

 Stoke Newington and Clapton Commons, Hackney Downs 



1 See " Chitty's Statutes," by J. M. Lely, under " Metropolis." 



