192 LONDON PARKS & GARDENS 



now remains but the name. The Fields were turned 

 into a public Park in 1885, and now consist of wide 

 open spaces for games, with intersecting paths well 

 planted with limes, elms, chestnuts, and planes, and an 

 abundance of seats. Near the point where Upper Street, 

 Islington ends and HoUoway Road joins it, a memorial 

 to the soldiers and volunteers of Islington who fell in 

 the Boer War has been erected,-and the figure of Victory 

 stands conspicuously facing the approach from the city. 



By far the most beautiful and the most frequented 

 of all London Commons is Hampstead Heath. The 

 original Heath measured 240 acres, but, with the addition 

 of Parliament Hill, there are now over 500 acres of wild 

 open country for ever preserved for the benefit of Lon- 

 doners. 'Appy 'Ampstead, the resort not only of 'Arrys 

 and 'Arriets, but poets, artists, and people of every rank 

 in life, is too well known to demand description. The 

 view from it seems more beautiful every time the occa- 

 sional visitor ascends the hill, and gazes down on London 

 and away over the lovely country of the Thames valley. 

 The County Council, the present holders of this public 

 trust, have mercifully refrained from turning it into a 

 park — the original intention of those who first wished to 

 preserve it. The bracken still flourishes, the gorse still 

 blooms, and there is yet a wild freshness about it that 

 has not been " improved " away. 



Hampstead has had periods of fashion as a residence. 

 In the eighteenth century it is described as " a village in 

 Middlesex, on the declivity of a fine hill, 4 miles from 

 London. On the summit of this hill is a heath, adorned 

 with many gentlemen's houses. . . . The water of the 

 [Hampstead] Wells is equal in efficacy to that of Tun- 

 bridge, and superior to that of Islington." These Wells 



