It is at least doubtful whether, if Moorfields could be restored as a playground for the City, it would not be of more use to the City, from the point of view of the health of those who dwell in it, than are the Essex and Buckinghamshire estates. Almost every inch of available ground in the City has been built upon. Goodman’s Fields, once a farm where Stowe used to buy three pints of milk for a halfpenny, is now covered with houses. Spitalfields was once an open space, but it is an open space no longer. Paternoster Square has its centre packed with buildings, and for aught I know there is nothing to prevent the occupation in a similar way of the centres of Finsbury Square and Circus, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, the Gardens of the Temple and Gray’s Inn, of Russell and Bloomsbury Square, and, in short, of every inch of green that can be turned into money. The gradual obliteration of open spaces in London is seen not only in public and semi-public spaces, but also in the curtilage of private houses. Before the introduction of our modern system of sewerage and water supply, it was not possible to build houses without adequate curtilage for a well and the bestowal of refuse, and this obvious fact is borne out by a reference to the maps of 1558, 1658, and 1720, which are hung upon the screen. It is noteworthy that Newcourt’s map of the time of Charles II. shows that the houses in the City were much more closely packed than in the time of Elizabeth, and it is probable that just before the Plague and the Fire the crowding of houses was excessive. [Illustration: DIAGRAM SHOWING THE SIZE OF LONDON AT DIFFERENT PERIODS BETWEEN 1560 AND 1889.] The diagram (p. 23) shows the growth of London between 1560 and 1889. The notable features being (_a_) the very rapid extension of the London area since 1815, and (_b_) the fact that the marshy land south of the Thames has only been covered with buildings within comparatively recent times. The frontispiece is a reproduction of part of Newcourt’s map (1658) showing that the houses in the centre of London were very densely packed. It also shows the position of Moorfields, and the Drapers’ Garden, which are alluded to in the text. HEALTH OF OLD LONDON. That mediæval London was very unhealthy there is no question, but whether it was more or less unhealthy than other cities of the time is doubtful. It would be difficult, however, to conceive a worse state of public health than that prevalent in old London. Exact information on the subject is not to be had. It was not till 1593 that deaths were registered and published by the parish clerks, but the record of deaths without a knowledge of population does not make it possible to hazard even a guess at the death-rate.