COMMONS & OPEN SPACES 205 



and Goose Green. The Common was secured by purchase 

 from further encroachments in 1882. 



The Park has much that savours of the country. An 

 enclosure within it, is not open to the public, and for that 

 very reason is one of the most rural spots. There is a 

 delightful public road across it, known as " the Avenue." 

 The old trees form an archway overhead, and on either 

 side of the fence the wood is like a covert somewhere 

 miles from London ; brambles and fern and brushwood 

 make shelter for pheasants, and squirrels run up the 

 trees. The farm-house, and its out-buildings with 

 their moss-grown tiled roofs, have nothing suburban 

 about them. The front facing the Rye Common has a 

 notice to say it is the Friern Manor Dairy, but even that 

 is not aggressive, as the name carries back the history 

 to the time of Henry I., when the manor was granted to 

 the Earl of Gloucester, and on till it was given by his 

 descendants to the Priory of Halliwell, which held it 

 until -the church property was taken by Henry VIII. and 

 granted to Robert Draper, and so on till modern days. 

 There is, besides this attractive farm, a regular piece of 

 laid-out garden, and a pond and well-planted flower-beds ; 

 but the little walk among trees, beside a streamlet which 

 has been formed into small cascades, and crossed by rustic 

 bridges, is a more original conception, and is decidedly a 

 success,' and a good imitation of a woodland scene. The 

 contrast is all the greater as Peckham is so eminently 

 prosaic, busy, and unpicturesque ; the old houses havmg 

 for the most part given place to modern suburban 



edifices. 



Due west of Peckham lies Clapham, the largest of 

 the South London Commons, 220 acres in extent; 

 although, being flat and compact in shape, it does not 



