The StJames's magazine and United Empire review . at of all the suburbsof this great metropolis,— Hampsteads the place to ruralize. The loveliness of the scenery of Hampstead Heath, the beauty of itsview, the freshness and salubrity of its air, drew thousands to itsbreezy brow long before London could count its population by A STROLL HOUND IIAMPSTEAD AND HIGIIGATE. 415 millions. Its green hollows, its shady lanes, its gorse and heather,its sandpits and weird pine-trees, its long avenues of limes andbeeches, its Ashless ponds and rugged turf have for ages beenvisited and admired. It is a spot s
The StJames's magazine and United Empire review . at of all the suburbsof this great metropolis,— Hampsteads the place to ruralize. The loveliness of the scenery of Hampstead Heath, the beauty of itsview, the freshness and salubrity of its air, drew thousands to itsbreezy brow long before London could count its population by A STROLL HOUND IIAMPSTEAD AND HIGIIGATE. 415 millions. Its green hollows, its shady lanes, its gorse and heather,its sandpits and weird pine-trees, its long avenues of limes andbeeches, its Ashless ponds and rugged turf have for ages beenvisited and admired. It is a spot sacred to popular pastime andpopular taste for the beautiful—a spot that has been virtually thepeoples for generations past, and which is now, we trust, securedto the people for all generations to come. The entrance to the Heath, by way of Hampstead Church, isthrough a pleasant avenue of shady limes, where may be noticed arustic seat in what is still called Judges Walk, or Kings BenchAvenue. It is said that during the time when the plague was. kings bench avenue. raging in London, the Courts of Law were temporarily transferredhither from Westminster, and that the Heath was tenanted bywig and toga-bearing gentlemen, who were forced to sleep undercanvas, owing to the want of accommodation in the village ofHampstead. Prior to the year 1701, when that honour wastransferred to Brentford, as a more central spot, the elections ofknights of the shire for Middlesex were held on Hampstead Heath;and in the western part of the Heath, behind Jack Straws Castle,Hampstead races were held in the last century. These ^aces, as welearn from Mr. Howitt, drew together so much low company thatthey were put down on account of the mischief that resulted fromthem. The very existence of a race-course on Hampstead Heathseems now entirely forgotten, and the uneven character of theground, which has been much excavated for gravel and sand, issuch as wrould render a visitor almost disposed to doubt whethe
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, bookidstjamessmaga, bookyear1874
