SOUTH LONDON PARKS 179 
the building that the stations were hardly at work 
before they were superseded by electricity. The signals 
were made by opening and shutting six shutters, arranged 
on two frames on the roofs of a small house, and by 
various combinations sixty-three signals could be formed. 
The Admiralty established the English line, of this form 
of telegraphy between Dover and London in 1795, an d 
the first public news of the battle of Waterloo actually 
reached London by means of the one on “ Telegraph 
Hill.” The place was well chosen, for even now, all 
surrounded by houses, the hill is so steep and conical, that 
a very extensive view is still obtained. The site of the 
semaphore station is now a level green for lawn tennis. 
On the other side of the roadway, the descent is steep into 
the valley, and there are two small ponds at the bottom. 
The cliffs are covered with turf, interspersed by the usual 
meaningless clumps of bushes, and a few nice trees. 
Southwark Park 
Southwark Park lies far away from Southwark, beyond 
Bermondsey, in Rotherhithe. It was in the parliamentary 
borough of Southwark, hence the misleading name. The 
Park is a gloomy enough place when compared with the 
more distant or West End Parks, but a perfect paradise in 
this crowded district. Between its creation in 1864 and 
its completion in 1869, a great reformation was worked 
in the district. Close to the docks, and intersected by 
streams and canals, with the poorest kind of rickety 
houses so vividly described by Dickens in “ Oliver Twist,” 
the surroundings were among the most dismal imagin¬ 
able. The actual site of the Park was partly market- 
gardens, which had for long been established in this 
locality owing to the fertility of the alluvial soil. 
