62 
NATURE NOTES. 
We hear that a petition to the County Council praying for the better treatment 
of Hampstead Heath is being largely signed. It is to be hoped that the petitioners 
will insist upon the immediate removal of the obnoxious trees on the summit of 
the East Heath, which are such an eyesore. A local vigilance committee is also 
to be formed in order to keep in check, of course by constitutional means, the 
lamentable outbreak of landscape-gardening which has already gone so far to 
deface the Heath. 
In the last sentence we have one explanation of the mischief 
that has been done. The Chief Officer of the Parks Department 
probably wishes to emulate on Hampstead Heath the triumphs 
he has achieved at Brockwell Park, to which a strip of land, 
about a quarter of a mile long and varying from fifty to a 
hundred yards in width, has recently been added. “ This narrow 
strip ” — we quote from the Chronicle of March i6 — “ would hardly 
be expected to give much scope for the ‘ landscape gardener ’ ; 
but Colonel Sexby, Chief Officer of the Parks Department, has 
almost made it romantic. A small stream, the overflow of the 
old bathing-pond, runs through it, and has given Colonel Sexby 
opportunity for a masterpiece of rustic bridge, tiny lakes, 
winding banks, and murmuring cascades. The last named 
number sixteen.” Sixteen murmuring cascades, tiny lakes 
(number not stated), winding banks, and a rustic bridge — all 
within a quarter of a mile of ground, at most a hundred yards 
in width ! As contrasted with these charms, it is no wonder 
that the Heath, although it might suit the unformed taste 
of a Constable, a Linnell, or a Cotman, should appear unkempt 
to Colonel Sexby, and that he should be endeavouring to make 
Hampstead as “ romantic ” as Brockwell. 
We are indebted to a correspondent for the following account 
of what has been taking place on the Heath since the County 
Council took it in hand : — 
We live close to the Heath, and are in the habit of walking over it daily. We 
have seen from the beginning that the London County Council’s officials wished 
to turn it into a park, but they have never proceeded to defy public opinion as 
they are doing at present. On the cast side of the old Heath a band of workmen 
have been employed for months, levelling the beautiful silver and brown sand hills, 
for which that part was so loved by artists (including Constable, Linnell, Muller, 
and Cotman). The hills being cut down and their tops thrown into hollows, 
round holes have been dug at equal distances, black garden mould put in, and 
many hundreds of little trees planted in them with stakes, wire netting, manure, 
&c. They have brought these trees quite up to the edge of the Spaniards Road, 
blocking out the world-renowned view of St. Paul’s and London. These trees 
are planted thickly the whole way from Jack Straw’s Castle to the end of that part 
of the Heath. 
On the other side (the left hand of Spaniards Road) there was the most beautiful 
part, full of gorse, broom and other wild growths. Here five men with billhooks 
have been clearing for weeks, each day lighting a large fire and burning piles of 
cut down gorse. This gorse they call dead. It was not so. I and many others 
stood by and saw them cut branches thicker than an arm and sprouting with green 
all the length of the bough. They call this priiiiiitg, but the obvious intention is 
to clear this part also, and then to jilant their little nurseryman’s garden trees. 
The part beyond the sandy road we used to call 1 leatherland ; it was a blaze of 
purple. Now you must look about for a patch of bloom as big as a handkerchief. 
The bog on the West Heath has always been celebrated for rare flowers — sundew, 
&c. It was drained by the Metropolitan Board ; the rare flowers are gone. 
