196 LONDON PARKS & GARDENS 



King's Bench Walk, from a tradition that justice was 

 administered under the trees there, when the judges 

 fled from London at the time of the Great Plague. 

 This walk is on the south-west side of the Heath, 

 the Well Walk on the south-east. To the east of 

 the highest point with Jack Straw's Castle and the 

 road which runs northwards towards the " Spaniards " 

 is the Vale of Health, and below are a series of 

 ponds. Hampstead has always furnished a water- 

 supply for the city at its feet. When more water 

 was required, in the sixteenth century, the Lord Mayor 

 proposed to utilise the springs there, and convey the 

 water to London by conduits. A pound of pepper 

 at the Feast of St. Michael annually to the " Bishop 

 of Westminster," was the tribute for the use of the 

 water, as the land belonged to the Abbey of West- 

 minster, having been granted to it by King Ethelred 

 in 986. The managers of water-supply in 1692 were 

 a company known as the Hampstead Water Company, 

 which became absorbed in the New River Company. 

 The lakes are very deep, and dangerous for boating, 

 bathing, and skating, although used for all those 

 purposes. 



The hill which rises beyond the ponds and stretches 

 away to the east, is part of the land adjoining the true 

 Heath, which was bought in 1887, so as to double 

 the area of open country, and prevent that side of 

 the Heath being overlooked by houses. The character 

 is quite a contrast, and lacks the wildness, but it is 

 pretty, park-like scenery, and Hampstead Heath would 

 have been greatly spoilt had this further wide space 

 of pasture land not been saved. The first hill to 

 the east of the Heath is crowned by a mound or 



