194 LONDON PARKS & GARDENS 



numbers. The western side was dotted over with them. 

 That the purchase of it for the public benefit has been 

 •appreciated it is not difficult to prove, when over 100,000 

 visit it on a Bank Holiday. It was the commencement of 

 building operations near the Flagstaff by the lord of the 

 manor, Sir Thomas Maryon Wilson, in the heart of the 

 Heath, that brought things to a crisis in 1866. A case 

 began against the lord of the manor, but he died before 

 it was ended, and his brother. Sir John, being willing to 

 compromise, the sum of ;^47,ooo was agreed on for the 

 sale of the Heath to the Metropolitan Board of Works. 

 The few houses dotted about on the Heath are those of 

 squatters, who have established their right by the length 

 of time they have been in possession. The small hamlet 

 or collection of houses in the " Vale of Health," those 

 near the "Spaniards" and round Jack Straw's Castle, 

 have existed from time immemorial, although few old 

 houses of interest remain, and large, unsightly buildings 

 have taken the place of the picturesque ones. In the 

 Vale of Health the houses are chiefly given up to catering 

 for holiday-makers. The " Spaniards," at the most 

 northerly point of the Heath, is a genuine old house, 

 and it still has a nice garden, although all the alleys 

 and fantastic ornaments which made it popular, in the 

 eighteenth century, have vanished. The name came from 

 the fact that the first owner was a Spaniard. The next 

 proprietor was a Mr. Staples, who *' improved and beauti- 

 fully ornamented it." The house was on the site of the 

 toll-gate and lodge to Caen Wood, and its position saved 

 that house from destruction, at the time of the Gordon 

 riots. The rioters had burnt and wantonly destroyed 

 Lord Mansfield's house in Bloomsbury Square. Mad- 

 dened with drink, and flushed with triumph at the success 



