The old manor-house had stood on the north side of the lane, in Park’s time the site of a modern house, on what was called the Manor Farm, occupied by General Sir Samuel Bentham, who, ‘tired of war’s alarms,’ had settled down to a peaceful life in a lovely neighbourhood, and took pleasure in pointing out to his visitors an old pollard oak in his grounds, which he believed was the identical oak which had given its name to the manor-farm—Hall Oak Farm. This name, Park tells us, was cut upon a stone built in as the keystone of the arched doorway of a large old barn. ‘The late lessee of the manor-farm (Mr. Thomas Pool) made great alterations in the disposition of the homestall. He pulled down the old house, and built a substantial residence upon the spot. At this house the manor courts were held till Pool removed to a smaller house on the other side of the road, and the courts were removed with him.’ But the house built on the site of the old manor-house, known in Park’s time as Hall Oak Farm, has now—1899—the name of Manor Lodge. ‘The title of Manor House was in 1813 appropriated to the adjoining house, then the residence of Thomas Norton Longman, Esq.,[106] which was without doubt a part of the original homestead, and in which the manor courts have occasionally been kept.’[107] But in spite of the respectability of its antiquity and inhabitants, West End was not without its drawbacks. The Cock and Hoop upon the edge of the green (it is there still, 1896) was by no means an overnice hostel in the matter of customers. It lay on the road to Finchley Common, and ‘first come, first served,’ liberally read, seems to have been the motto of successive landlords. It had the reputation of being a rendezvous of highwaymen and robbers. An annual fair, which had grown up no one knew how, having no legal sanction by charter or otherwise, must also have been, from the number of tramps and roughs, and other disreputable and dangerous characters it brought together, a real grievance to the respectable inhabitants. Ostensibly it was an innocent fair enough, dealing chiefly in toys and gingerbread, with the usual accompaniment of travelling shows and theatres, attractions which brought together a concourse of people, and as naturally a number of thieves and pickpockets. Yet, being regarded as a pleasure fair, and taking place in mid-summer, it appears to have been frequented during daylight by respectable persons, and when evening came by decent tradespeople, and others of a class who have made great progress in social refinement since then. A newspaper cutting subsequent to July 28, 1819, informs us, under the head of Bow Street, that in consequence of the outrageous and daring scenes of disorder, robberies, wounding and ill-treating of a number of persons at the West End Fair near Hampstead on Monday evening, and during the night, an additional number of constables from this office, as well as officers from Hatton Garden, and a number of the inhabitants of