The pleasures of Hornsey Wood House were of an unsophisticated kind--unlimited tea-drinking, a ramble in the wood, and a delightful view of the surrounding country. An excursion to Little Hornsey to drink tea was a favourite with London citizens’ wives and daughters.[183] Hone remembered the old Hornsey Wood House, as it stood (apparently before 1800), “embowered and seeming a part of the Wood.” It was at that time kept by two sisters, Mrs. Lloyd and Mrs. Collier, and these aged dames were usually to be found before their door on a seat between two venerable oaks, wherein swarms of bees hived themselves. Soon after their death (before 1800?) the house was pulled down and the proprietor expended £10,000 in improvements and in erecting the roomy brick building known as Hornsey Wood Tavern. The tea-gardens were enlarged and a lake formed, for the benefit of those who wished for a little angling or boating. To effect these improvements, a romantic part of the wood was destroyed, but the remaining portion still continued an attraction. About 1835 the “lower order of citizens” as T. Cromwell (_Islington_, p. 138) calls them, used to go “palming” to the wood on Palm Sunday. All through the present century Hornsey Wood House (or Tavern) was a favourite Sunday resort of Londoners. In 1866 at the time of the formation of Finsbury Park, the house was pulled down and its site and that of the gardens and the Wood must be looked for in the Park, which was opened as a public recreation ground in 1869. [_The Idler_, No. 15, July 1758; Dodsley’s _London_, 1761; _Low Life_ (1764), p. 46; _Sunday Ramble_, 1776 and 1797; Kearsley’s _Strangers’ Guide_; Lambert’s _London_, iv. 274; _Picture of London_, eds. 1802, 1823 and 1829; Hone’s _Every Day Book_, i. 759, ff.; Lewis’s _Islington_, pp. 190, 282; J. F. Murray’s _World of London_, 1845, ii. p. 82, ff.; Walford, v. 430, ff.; _Illustrated London News_, 14 August, 1869; J. H. Lloyd’s _Highgate_, 1888.] VIEWS. 1. An engraving of old Hornsey Wood House &c., in Lewis’s _Islington_, p. 282. 2. There are many views of the later Hornsey Wood House (or Tavern), _e.g._ one engraved in Walford, v. 426, and there assigned to the year 1800. This is substantially the same as one (undated) in Hone’s _Every Day Book_, i. 759. Hone, _ib._ 761, also gives a woodcut of the Lake. There is an engraving of the house of 1809, published by J. Cundee (W. Coll.), and there are views of it of a later date; _e.g._ an engraving in Cromwell’s _Islington_, p. 138. THE SPRING GARDEN, STOKE NEWINGTON. This Spring Garden is marked in Warner’s _Survey of Islington_, 1735, rather to the south of Newington Green. About 1753 the tavern connected with the garden was taken by W. Bristow, who advertised the place as an afternoon tea-garden, appending to his advertisement the note “beans in perfection for any companies.”[184]