COMMONS & OPEN SPACES 193 



appear to have first attracted notice in the time of 

 Charles II. In 1698, Susanna Noel and her son, third 

 Earl of Gainsborough (then the owner of the soil), gave 

 the Well, with six acres of ground, to the poor of 

 Hampstead. For more than thirty years the Wells, 

 with all the attendant attractions of the pump-room, 

 with balls and music, drew the fashionable world up to 

 Hampstead. It was said to be " much more frequented 

 by good company than can well be expected, considering 

 its vicinity to London ; but such care has been taken to 

 discourage the meaner sort from making it a place of 

 residence, that it is now become . . , one of the Politest 

 Public Places in England." Here Fanny Burney made 

 her heroine, Evelina, attend dances, and it plays a part 

 in the fortunes of Richardson's Clarissa Harlowe ; and 

 here all the wits and poets of the time mingled in the 

 gay throng. Many have been the celebrated residents 

 in Hampstead — Lord Chatham, Dr. Johnson, Crabbe, 

 Steele, Gay, Keats, William Blake, Leigh Hunt, Romney 

 and Constable, John Linnell, and David Wilkie among 

 the number. The site of the pump-room is all built 

 over, but some fine old elm trees in Well Walk, still have 

 an air of romance and faded glory about them. The 

 houses near the Heath — such as Shelford, afterwards 

 Rosslyn House, with a celebrated avenue of Spanish 

 chestnuts, The Grove, Belsize Park, the residence of Lord 

 Wotton, and then of Philip, Earl of Chesterfield — have 

 all been consumed by the inroads of bricks and mortar. 

 It is more than likely that the Heath would have shared 

 the samejfate, had not the inhabitants taken active steps 

 to arouse public attention to preserve this wild heath, 

 unequalled near any great city. Already aggressive red 

 villas were making their appearance in far too great 



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