188 LONDON PARKS © GARDENS 
tants of a parish, and it was doubtful if the custom 
would hold good at law for such a large place as 
London. Thousands of people from all parts of London 
trampling over a common was a very different thing to 
the free use of it by the parishioners. This report led to 
the passing of the Metropolitan Commons Act of 1866. 
Both before and after this Act there were several others 
for the maintenance and regulation of the commons and 
all the parks, gardens, and open spaces too numerous to 
mention. 1 
Under the present system most of the metropolitan 
commons and heaths are in the hands of the County 
Council, and in some cases considerable sums have been 
spent on them. Among the smaller ones is London 
Fields, Hackney, the nearest open space to the city. 
This was in a very untidy state when first taken in hand 
after 1866. The grass was worn away, and it was the 
scene of a kind of fair, and the resort of all the worst 
characters in the neighbourhood. It used to be known 
as Shoulder of Mutton Fields, and the name survives in 
a “Cat and Mutton” public-house on the site of a 
tavern which gave its name to the fields. It was in the 
eighteenth century a well-known haunt of robbers and 
foot-pads, and in spite of a watch-house and special 
guard robberies were frequent. The watch must have 
been rather slack, as about 1732 a Mr. Baxter was robbed 
about five in the morning “ by two fellows, who started 
out on him from behind the Watch-House in the 
Shoulder of Mutton Fields.” Hackney is rich in open 
spaces, as besides London Fields there is Hackney or 
Well Street Common, near Victoria Park, Mill Fields, 
Stoke Newington and Clapton Commons, Hackney Downs 
1 See “ Chitty’s Statutes,” by J. M. Lely, under “ Metropolis.” 
