Already aggressive red villas were making their appearance in far too great numbers. The western side was dotted over with them. That the purchase of it for the public benefit has been appreciated it is not difficult to prove, when over 100,000 visit it on a Bank Holiday. It was the commencement of building operations near the Flagstaff by the lord of the manor, Sir Thomas Maryon Wilson, in the heart of the Heath, that brought things to a crisis in 1866. A case began against the lord of the manor, but he died before it was ended, and his brother, Sir John, being willing to compromise, the sum of £47,000 was agreed on for the sale of the Heath to the Metropolitan Board of Works. The few houses dotted about on the Heath are those of squatters, who have established their right by the length of time they have been in possession. The small hamlet or collection of houses in the “Vale of Health,” those near the “Spaniards” and round Jack Straw’s Castle, have existed from time immemorial, although few old houses of interest remain, and large, unsightly buildings have taken the place of the picturesque ones. In the Vale of Health the houses are chiefly given up to catering for holiday-makers. The “Spaniards,” at the most northerly point of the Heath, is a genuine old house, and it still has a nice garden, although all the alleys and fantastic ornaments which made it popular, in the eighteenth century, have vanished. The name came from the fact that the first owner was a Spaniard. The next proprietor was a Mr. Staples, who “improved and beautifully ornamented it.” The house was on the site of the toll-gate and lodge to Caen Wood, and its position saved that house from destruction, at the time of the Gordon riots. The rioters had burnt and wantonly destroyed Lord Mansfield’s house in Bloomsbury Square. Maddened with drink, and flushed with triumph at the success of their outrages, they made a bonfire in the square of the invaluable books collected by Lord Mansfield. Their temper may be imagined as they marched by Hampstead to commit the same violence at Caen Wood, Lord Mansfield’s country house. The proprietor of the “Spaniards” invited them in, and threw open his cellars to the mob. Fresh barrels of drink were sent down from Caen Wood, and meanwhile messengers were despatched for soldiers; so that by the time all the liquor had been consumed, and the drunken rioters began to proceed, they were confronted by a troop of Horse Guards, who, in their addled condition, soon put them all to flight. The name of the other inn on Hampstead Heath, which stands conspicuously on the highest point, 443 feet above the sea, is Jack Straw’s Castle, and has also some connection with a riot. Jack Straw was one of the leaders in the Wat Tyler rebellion, and after burning the Priory of St. John of Jerusalem, he came up to Hampstead and Highgate, though there is no direct evidence to connect him, in 1381, with any tavern on the spot on which the inn stands.