Gardens -- England -- London; London (England) -- Description and travel; Parks -- England -- London
Wryneck, cuckoo, blackcap, grasshopper, sedge, reed and garden
warblers, both white-throats, wood and willow wrens, chiff-chaff,
redstart, stonechat, pied wagtail, tree pipit, red-backed shrike,
spotted fly-catcher, swallow, house martin, swift, goldfinch,
wheat-ears in passage, fieldfare in winter, occasionally redwings, also
redpoles, siskin, and grey wagtail.
This list is certainly a revelation to those who only associate dusty
sparrows and greedy wood-pigeons with the ornithology of London.
No better testimony is wanted to prove that Hampstead is still the
beautiful wild Heath that has given pleasure to so many generations.
The only other large space of common land, north of the river within
the London area, is Wormwood Scrubs, of very different appearance
and associations from Hampstead. The manorial and common rights
were purchased by the War Office, and the ground made over to the
Metropolitan Board of Works in 1879, with reservations for the rifle
range and military exercises. The space is altogether over 200 acres.
The ground in ancient times was a wood, adjoining “Old Oak Common,”
just beyond the London boundary, which was covered with patriarchal
oaks. The last was felled in 1830. The ground, being flat, is admirably
suited for the War Office purposes; it has gone through a process
of draining, and the only part not downtrodden by soldiers has been
“improved” by the London County Council, so there is little wildness
or attraction in the place. The presence of a prison, erected in 1874,
still further diminishes its charm as an open space.
This completes the open large spaces on the north; the south of the
river is even richer in commons. One of the most thoroughly rural spots
within the London area is Bostall Wood. There is nothing to spoil the
illusion, and for quite a considerable walk it would be easy to imagine
that a journey on the magic horse of the “Arabian Nights” had been
taken to some distant forest land, to forget that the roar of the town
was barely out of one’s ears, and that ten minutes’ walk would take
one, out of the enchanted land, back to suburban villas and electric
trams.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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