SOUTH LONDON PARKS 165 
su gg es ti° n of the Prince Consort, a piece of land, then 
market-gardens, was let by the Duchy to the Surrey 
Cricket Club, which was formed for the purpose of 
maintaining it. This is the ground that has since 
gained such notoriety as the Oval, the scene of many 
a match historical in the annals of cricket. The 
Common, too, was famous for the masses that collected 
there to hear Whitfield preach. His congregations 
numbered from 10,000 to 40,000 persons, and his 
voice would carry to the “ extremest part of the 
audience.” He notes in his diary, Sunday, May 6, 
1731-—“At six in the evening went and preached at 
Kennington ; but such a sight I never saw before. Some 
supposed there were above 30,000 or 40,000 people, and 
near fourscore coaches, besides great number of horses ; 
and there was such an awful silence amongst them, and 
the Word of God came with such power, that all seemed 
pleasingly surprised. I continued my discourse for an 
hour and a half.” The last time he preached there was 
a farewell sermon before he went to America in August 
U39- 
Two other incidents are connected with Kennington 
Common, neither so pleasant—-the scenes of the execu¬ 
tion for high treason, with all the attendant horrors, 
of the “ Manchester rebels ” after the ’45 ; and the 
great Chartist revolutionary meeting under Feargus 
O’Connor in 1848. The precautions taken by the 
Duke of Wellington saved the situation, and the 
200,000 people who it had been proposed should 
march to Westminster melted away, and the whole 
thing was a fiasco. 
It was soon after this episode that the Common was 
converted into a Park. The ground, including all the 
