nd beeches, making them
shine with shimmery silver light. On all sides are magnificent views of
distant horizons.

The Heath forms one of the greatest attractions of Hampstead, and that
the inhabitants are fully alive to its beauty and importance is shown by
their gallant and successful efforts to preserve it intact, when, from
time to time, it has been threatened. Neither the proposed curtailments
by the Lord of the Manor nor the park-like "improvements" of the London
County Council have been permitted. It is still a wide space of
undulating ground, outlined by masses of foliage rising to the heights
of Highgate, and is an untold boon to the dwellers in the City, who
throng its slopes on Bank Holidays. In 1866 a contest arose between the
Lord of the Manor, Sir Thomas Maryon Wilson, and the inhabitants of
Hampstead as to the preservation of the Heath. Up to that date for
twenty years a guerilla warfare had been going on in dispute of Sir
Maryon Wilson's right to build upon the Heath, and when he began to
build a house close to the Flagstaff pond the matter came to an issue. A
subscription list was opened called the Hampstead Heath Protection Fund,
and the matter was taken into court. Before the case was ended Sir
Thomas died, and was succeeded by his brother Sir John, who was open to
a compromise. Under an Act of Parliament the Metropolitan Board of Works
acquired the Heath for L55,045. The ground thus acquired comprised 220
acres. In 1889-90 Parliament Hill Fields and the Brickfields were
purchased for L302,000, with money partly raised by the local Vestries,
partly by public subscription, and partly by Metropolitan taxation. The
land thus bought from Lord Mansfield and Sir Spencer Wilson comprised
261 acres, and was dedicated to the public as an open space for ever.

The part of the Heath known as East Heath consists of rolling grassy
slopes outlined with clumps of trees and intersected by roads and
footpaths. The great road known as Spaniards, which cuts across as
straight as an arrow, gives the impression of having been banked up and
levelled at some previous date, but this appearance is due to the
excavations for sand and gravel at its sides which took place while the
ground was still under the rule of the lord of the manor.

The Heath has suffered from highwaymen in common with most lonely spots
in the vicinity of the Metropolis. One, Jackson, in 1673, was hung
behind Jack Straw's Castle for highway murder, but