NOETH-WEST AND NORTH LONDON 177 



streets and squalid streets innumerable. Here, 

 then, we have a vast part of London, which is 

 like the West-central and East-central districts in 

 that it is without any open space, except the 

 comparatively insignificant one of Highbury 

 Fields. It is to the Heath that the inhabitants 

 of all this portion of London must go for fresh 

 air and verdure ; but the distance is too great 

 for most people, and the visits are consequently 

 made on Sundays and holidays in summer. 

 Even this restricted use they are able to make 

 of ' London's playing ground,' or ' Happy 

 Hampstead,' as it is lovingly called, must have 

 a highly beneficial effect on the health, physical 

 and moral, of the people. 



To come to the bird life of this largest of 

 London's open spaces. Owing to its very open- 

 ness and large extent, which makes it impossible 

 for the constables to keep a watch on the 

 visitors, especially on the gangs of birds'-nesting 

 boys and young men who make it a happy 

 hunting-ground during the spring and summer 

 months, the Heath is in reality a very unfavour- 

 able breeding-place for birds. Linnets, yellow- 

 hammers, chaffinches, robins, several warblers, 

 and other species nest every year, but probably 



N 



