THE LOWER LEA VALLEY AND ITS PRESERVA- 
TION AS AN OPEN SPACE. 
j^ITTLE change has passed over the upper reaches of the 
valley of the River Lea since the far-off day rvhen 
Piscator, Venator and Auceps, of “ The Compleat 
Angler ” fame, walked its banks and gravely vied in 
their respective arts. Miles to the southward the 
marshes are hemmed in by East London proper on one side, 
and “ London-over-the-border ” on the other. The further south 
you proceed the less definite does the border become, but a gulf 
of open land there still is between Homerton, Old Ford and Bow 
on the west, and Stratford and Leyton on the east. 
“ The Hackney Marshes ” is the general designation of this 
large area, which, though so close at hand, is comparatively little 
known. It has many features which might well excite the atten- 
tion of the antiquarian, and possesses scenic effects not unworthy 
an artist’s touch. Skeletons of animals of prehistoric date have 
been disinterred from the gravel-beds which lie on the border 
of the marsh land, and not many years ago the hulk of a Danish 
warship was dug out of an old river-bed, thus authenticating 
early records, which tell us that the valley of the Lea was the 
favourite passage of entrance for the Northmen when they left 
the Thames, up which they had sailed to over-run the south- 
midland districts of England. 
At time of sunset on a summer’s evening a golden haze over- 
spreads the green meadows lined here and there with willows and 
hawthorn hedges. After they have put on their spring verdure 
the pastures are still of as emerald a colour as any others miles 
away beyond the reach of human sight and sound. White cot- 
tages and old farmsteads still are dotted over the marsh ; and 
willow-herb, meadow-sweet and comfrey still line the banks of 
the creeks and dykes that intersect it. 
The northern portion, above the dividing line of the Lea 
Bridge Road, has been placed under control, regulated and 
devoted to public recreation for many years past. The southern 
half, to which I am now drawing particular attention, is still more 
or less in private hands. No small acreage is occupied by the 
reservoirs of the East London Water Company (when it bore 
that name). This will keep a certain area unbuilt upon. Some 
portions are devoted to farming of a sort, and market garden- 
ing. There is a very large tract of pasturage known as the 
Leyton Lammas Lands — a term dating from the time when 
dating 
every stock-owner had the right of turning out his animals 
graze on hay-growing or agricultural land from late summer 
harvest to springtime. Some rights of that sort still survive; but 
the broad fields of wheat long since have disappeared, though 
hay crops there are in plenty. 
Even now, on the eastern edge of the marsh, old houses and 
to 
