INTRODUCTORY 
5 
few who possess motor cars the distances are trifling, but 
the vast majority of people must exercise considerable 
ingenuity, and possess a good bump of locality, if they 
wish to visit all London’s open spaces. A knowledge 
of the distant places, the names of which are inscribed 
in large letters on every omnibus, is necessary. The 
Royal Oak, Elephant and Castle, or Angel, are but 
starting-places for the more distant routes, although 
they form the. goal of green, red, or blue ’busses. The 
electric trams of South London have made the approach 
to Dulwich, Peckham, Greenwich, and many other parks 
much more simple, and motor ’busses rattle along close to 
even the distant Golder’s Hill or Highbury Fields. With 
a railway time-table, a good eye for colour in selecting 
the right omnibus, and a knowledge of the points of the 
compass, every green patch in London can be reached 
with ease, even by those whose purses are not long 
enough to let them indulge in motors, or whose nerves 
are not steady enough to let them venture on bicycles. 
Each park forms the central point of some large 
district, and they are not dependent on the casual visitor 
for appreciation. Every single green spot, on a fine 
Saturday throughout the year, is peopled with a crowd 
from the neighbourhood, and on every day in the year, 
winter as well as summer, almost every open space has 
a ceaseless throng of comers and goers. 
What is the cost of maintenance of these parks is a 
question that will naturally occur; and the answer in 
many cases is easy to find, as the statistics of both the 
London County Council Parks, published in their hand¬ 
book, and those of the Royal Parks, which are submitted 
to Parliament every year, are accessible. The following 
extracts may, however, be useful. In looking at the 
