90 
THE WOODLAND SCENERY OF THE NORTHERN 
HEIGHTS. 
NE by one, all the most beautiful spots round London 
are falling a prey to the builders, who spare nothing 
and treat fields, woods and gardens alike. 
The “Northern Heights” have long been justly 
celebrated for the beautiful woodlands and hedgerows that adorn 
them. The Highgate Woods and Parliament Hill, with the 
pleasant undulating fields adjoining, have happily been rescued, 
but only just in time. Extensive as they are, one can but fear 
that before many years have elapsed, they will be. oases in a sur- 
rounding wilderness of bricks and mortar ; and this fear is more 
forcibly brought home by what the writer noticed during a recent 
evening’s walk taken from East Finchley to Hampstead Heath. 
The road by which the walk was taken must be well-known to 
most dwellers in the district ; it is broad and has an iron fence on 
either side, and has evidently been constructed not so much for 
the convenience of pedestrians, as to acquaint the public with 
what is proposed to be done with one of the loveliest stretches 
of pasture and woodland — almost forest land — near the metropo- 
lis. The intimation is, as usual, conveyed by notice-boards 
placed at intervals along the road, and worded as follows : — 
“This Land to be Let on Building Leases for the Erection of 
Residences of Good Class ” — joyful news to the speculator and 
rich capitalist, but distasteful enough to all lovers of nature. 
For some distance the road passes through fields, then it winds 
through an oak-wood with patches of undergrowth, the open 
spaces covered with brake-fern and wild flowers (notice-boards 
appearing at intervals just the same), till at length we emerge 
on the Spaniard’s Road, close to the inn of the same name. 
So another stretch of country is to be swept away, and ere 
long the pick-axe, steam saw and spade will have completed 
the work of destruction. Of course there is only one remedy — 
the purchase of this estate as another open space for the benefit 
of the millions of inhabitants of the “ cluster of cities,” as 
London was not long ago aptly described, I think by the Chair- 
man of the London County Council — an expensive remedy in- 
deed, but surely not too expensive, when one thinks of all the 
abundant wealth existing in the metropolis, wealth too often 
directed into unprofitable channels. Although the Selborne 
Society aims at the preservation of woodland and rural scenery 
for its own sake, and as a protest against insults daily done to 
Nature all over England, there is not a member of the Society, 
I feel convinced, who would not rejoice at the rescue of such a 
spot, not merely for its own beaut)', but as another means of 
giving health and happiness to the numberless dwellers in what 
Sir Frederick Leighton so well called in the first number of 
Nature Notes, “this black and monstrous metropolis.” 
Archibald L. Clarke. 
