COMMONS © OPEN SPACES 213 
couraged by Foote, Wilkes, and others, witty speeches 
were made. Foote wrote a farce called “ The Mayor 
of Garratt,” which for some time gave the ceremony 
no small celebrity. The rowdyism becoming serious 
at the sham elections, they were suppressed in 1796. 
When the Common was eventually saved, it was in a 
bad and untidy state : quantities of gravel had been 
dug, and holes, some of them filled with water, were 
a danger ; the trees had all disappeared, and the whole 
surface was bare and muddy. It has improved since 
then, but there is nothing picturesque left. The “ Three 
Island Pond,” which is supposed to be its greatest 
beauty, is stiff, formal, and new-looking, with a few 
straggly trees growing up. Still it is safely preserved 
as an open space, and makes a good recreation ground. 
All round London, besides the larger commons, 
smaller greens are to be found, which are survivals of 
the old village greens. They recall the time when 
London was a walled city, and thickly scattered round 
it were the little hamlets which have now been absorbed 
by the ever-growing, monster town. 
There is little that is distinctive about them. For 
the most part they are simply open spaces of well-worn 
turf without trees. Shepherd’s Bush is one of these. 
Brook Green, in Hammersmith, not very far from it, 
has the remains of a few fine elm trees. In Fulham 
there are Parson’s Green and Eel Brook Common. 
Away in South London, Goose Green and Nunhead 
Green are other examples where grass is even more 
inconspicuous. 
On the north lies Paddington Green, which is small 
in extent, but close to the large graveyard turned into a 
public garden. In the centre of the Green a statue to 
