North End is easily accessible from any part of the Heath, but if one happens to come out on the Spaniards Road, it is worth while pausing to admire the pleasing effect of the slender spire of Christ Church, showing almost everywhere above the trees that appear massed about it on Squire’s Mount, and everywhere harmonizing with the view. We have the east Heath to the right, with the Vale of Health lying in a green hollow below the Broad Walk, which divides the upper from the lower Heath; and passing the destroyed site of the ‘Nine Elms’ in a dell on the same side of the way, the roof of a grange-like dwelling, noticeable in my time for a bell or clock turret on the stable buildings, peeping through the surrounding foliage. If I remember aright, Mrs. Hodgson then lived there. Bordering the road for some distance we have, or had, the holly-hedge, said to have been wholly the work of Lord Erskine. Turning back at the Spaniards, we can either take the Sandy Road, as it is locally called, which shows like a terrace path between the pines upon the side of the hill; or, going on past Heath House and Jack Straw’s Castle, make a landmark of one of the Heath-keeper’s red-brick lodges, and steer a course at an angle that will bring us out close to Wildwood Avenue, and pretty low down on the North End Road. By the first route we pass some charmingly-situated houses on the upper ridge of the Heath, looking towards the south-west, and with their back-fronts, if I may so call them, to the road. Closed in by high walls, the passers-by see nothing of the beauty of the grounds by which they are surrounded, so that by making a slant across the Heath we lose nothing of interest or beauty. Our path brings us out nearly opposite the gates of Cedar Lawn, and not far from Hill House, or The Hill, as it was more generally called, the beautiful home till quite recently of Francis Hoare, Esq. The place was celebrated for its lovely grounds and gardens. In 1895 Mr. Francis Hoare removed to a house in Kensington, and Hill House, that for the best part of a century had been the home of one or other of the Hoare family, now nearly rebuilt, is the residence of Mr. Fisher. It was probably built in George I.’s reign, but had been several times altered and added to. In 1811 Abrahams mentions the house ‘with new buildings,’ and it had no doubt suffered since from modern improvements. [Illustration: _Fenton House, 1780._]