SOUTH-WEST LONDON 247 



one area. Tooting Bee has a fair amount of 

 gorse and bramble bushes scattered about, and 

 a good many old trees, mostly oak. The 

 number of old trees gives this space something 

 of a park -like appearance, but it is not exhilarat- 

 ing ; on the contrary, its effect on the mind is 

 rather depressing, on account of the perfect 

 flatness of the ground and the sadly decayed 

 and smoke-blackened condition of the trees. 

 An ' improvement ' of the late Metropolitan 

 Board of Works was the planting of a very long 

 and very straight avenue of fast-growing black 

 poplars, and this belt of weed-like ungraceful 

 trees, out of keeping with everything, has made 

 Tooting Bee positively ugly. 



Another improvement has been introduced 

 by the County Council ; this is the usual small 

 pond and the usual couple of big swans. 

 The rage for putting these huge birds in 

 numberless small ponds and miniature lakes can 

 only proceed from a singular want of imagina- 

 tion on the part of the park gardeners and park 

 decorators employed by the Council; or we 

 might suppose that the Council have purchased 

 a big job lot of swans, which they are anxious 

 to distribute about London. These dreary little 



