192 LONDON PARKS © GARDENS 
now remains but the name. The Fields were turned 
into a public Park in 1885, and now consist of wide 
open spaces for games, with intersecting paths well 
planted with limes, elms, chestnuts, and planes, and an 
abundance of seats. Near the point where Upper Street, 
Islington ends and Holloway Road joins it, a memorial 
to the soldiers and volunteers of Islington who fell in 
the Boer War has been erected,-and the figure of Victory 
stands conspicuously facing the approach from the city. 
By far the most beautiful and the most frequented 
of all London Commons is Hampstead Heath. The 
original Heath measured 240 acres, but, with the addition 
of Parliament Hill, there are now over 500 acres of wild 
open country for ever preserved for the benefit of Lon¬ 
doners. ’Appy 'Ampstead, the resort not only of ’Arrys 
and ’Arriets, but poets, artists, and people of every rank 
in life, is too well known to demand description. The 
view from it seems more beautiful every time the occa¬ 
sional visitor ascends the hill, and gazes down on London 
and away over the lovely country of the Thames valley. 
The County Council, the present holders of this public 
trust, have mercifully refrained from turning it into a 
park—the original intention of those who first wished to 
preserve it. The bracken still flourishes, the gorse still 
blooms, and there is yet a wild freshness about it that 
has not been “ improved ” away. 
Hampstead has had periods of fashion as a residence. 
In the eighteenth century it is described as “ a village in 
Middlesex, on the declivity of a fine hill, 4 miles from 
London. On the summit of this hill is a heath, adorned 
with many gentlemen’s houses. . . . The water of the 
[Hampstead] Wells is equal in efficacy to that of Tun¬ 
bridge, and superior to that of Islington.” These Wells 
