If, following the tree-shaded winding way, we make a little détour to the right, we shall see, lying in the bottom, half in shade, by reason of new sheds and a great square, vane-crested barn (the natural outcome of thrifty labour, and better times for farmers than of late), the little Morland-like farmhouse to which they belong. When the trees about it are in leaf, its high-pitched, red-tiled roof, white weather-boarded front, and small windows, set in a garden in which rue and southernwood still flourish, the whole inclosed with palings and defended by a gate on the latch, makes a pretty picture. A few ash-trees, the remains of a grove of them, fringe the path to it past the new barn, and the view in front is closed by a little gravelly hill, on the summit of which seats are placed, and charming views are to be had for the climbing. This is Collins’ Farm, now called Tooly’s Farm, a dwelling that, for all its seeming humility, has been the temporary abode of many men of genius.[140] This was for successive summers the ‘_sunshine holiday_’ home of the elder Linnell and his family, who perhaps never worked harder himself than when here, and who, being here, drew around him a little company of his brother artists and men of letters—amongst them Blake, Varley, Flaxman, and Morland. Nearer to our own times Dickens had lodgings here, and wrote, it is said, several chapters of ‘Bleak House’ in this retirement. Lover is also said to have made it his summer quarters on one occasion. Other artists than the elder Linnell have found its simple comfort and quiet, in addition to its close proximity to the lovely Heath and its surroundings, excellent reasons for preferring Collins’ Farm to more pretentious lodgings in the neighbourhood. It is easy to return from this point to the broad holly hedge opposite Lord Erskine’s house. At the end of it is the site (until quite recently) of the most interesting relic that Hampstead retained of what may be called its classic days—the Nine Elms, whose boughs had shaded the favourite resting-place of Pope and Murray (the after owner of Ken Wood, Lord Chief Justice Mansfield). Poetically they were dedicated to the Muses, ‘Who chose them for their favourite shrine: The trees were elms, their number nine.’