196 LONDON PARKS & GARDENS 
King’s Bench Walk, from a tradition that justice was 
administered under the trees there, when the judges 
fled from London at the time of the Great Plague. 
This walk is on the south-west side of the Heath, 
the Well Walk on the south-east. To the east of 
the highest point with Jack Straw’s Castle and the 
road which runs northwards towards the “ Spaniards ” 
is the Vale of Health, and below are a series of 
ponds. Hampstead has always furnished a water- 
supply for the city at its feet. When more water 
was required, in the sixteenth century, the Lord Mayor 
proposed to utilise the springs there, and convey the 
water to London by conduits. A pound of pepper 
at the Feast of St. Michael annually to the “ Bishop 
of Westminster,” was the tribute for the use of the 
water, as the land belonged to the Abbey of West¬ 
minster, having been granted to it by King Ethelred 
in 986. The managers of water-supply in 1692 were 
a company known as the Hampstead Water Company, 
which became absorbed in the New River Company. 
The lakes are very deep, and dangerous for boating, 
bathing, and skating, although used for all those 
purposes. 
The hill which rises beyond the ponds and stretches 
away to the east, is part of the land adjoining the true 
Heath, which was bought in 1887, so as to double 
the area of open country, and prevent that side of 
the Heath being overlooked by houses. The character 
is quite a contrast, and lacks the wildness, but it is 
pretty, park-like scenery, and Hampstead Heath would 
have been greatly spoilt had this further wide space 
of pasture land not been saved. The first hill to 
the east of the Heath is crowned by a mound or 
