THE STRUGGLE FOR THE HEATH.
As early as 1829 we find the freeholders and copyholders of the Manor of Hampstead meeting at the Assembly Rooms on Holly-bush Hill, to discuss the best means to prevent further damage being done to the Heath, by destruction of the herbage, and digging sand and gravel thereon, as well as to inaugurate a subscription to try by law the right of the Lord of the Manor to so disturb and destroy it, or to build on or enclose any part of it.
Even prior to this date there seems to have subsisted an ill-feeling between the inhabitants of Hampstead and Sir Thomas Wilson. The copyholders claimed the right to improve their own copyholds by building on them, or otherwise, as also to get materials for such purposes off their own land, or from the waste. This matter had been tried between Lady Wilson and Sir Francis Willes, and had gone against the latter, because his removing the herbage had been detrimental to the rights of the other copyholders, who on certain parts of the Heath had a right to turn in their cattle, levant et couchant. Yet from the beginning of the century, as we have seen, the digging of sand and gravel for the benefit of Lady Wilson, and subsequently for the Lord of the Manor, had been going on without stint, and with scarcely any intermission, though in doing so (to quote the phrase of Professor Vaughan of Oxford, a resident near the Heath) they were carting away the climate and the drainage, and therefore the health of the neighbourhood, which depended on the sand and gravel.
But the then Lord of the Manor was not living for posterity, but for himself. In the May previous to the meeting we have mentioned, without even the courtesy of giving the usual notice to the copyholders, Sir Thomas Wilson had brought his Estate Bill before Parliament, by which he sought to abrogate the privileges of the copyholders, and appropriate to himself the power of granting licenses to improve their customary estates, and licenses to get materials for that purpose from their own copyholds, upon payment of 40s. fine to the Lord of the Manor, and £3 3s. fee to the steward for every such license. The Bill also sought power to grant building leases of the Heath, or other wastes of the manor, and to extend the power of granting building leases over certain lands formerly part of the waste, which were granted by the Lord of the Manor to himself, in the name of a trustee, with the consent of the homage, upon the express condition that no buildings should at any time be erected on them.
It was by mere accident, it is said, that the people of Hampstead heard of this Bill being before the House, and only just in time to oppose its being carried through surreptitiously.
No wonder that there were meetings in hot haste, and resolutions passed to defend the rights and privileges of the freeholders and copyholders, and at the same time those of the inhabitants and visitors. The sympathy of the public, as well as of the principal residents in the neighbourhood, was with them. Lord Clifton favoured the opposition. Lord Mansfield headed the subscription, as we have elsewhere said, with a donation of £50.
The inhabitants, well aware how much of their prosperity was due to the natural beauty of the Heath and its surroundings, gave with no niggard hands towards the fund for its protection. But, as we subsequently learn, the £3,000 raised by voluntary contributions was expended with no other result than the prospect of endless litigation.
It was impossible for this state of things to exist without a certain degree of personal ill-feeling being imported into it. Sir Thomas was rich and resolute, but the copyholders had their rights, and determined to hold by them. The years ran on without any radical adjustment of the questions at issue.
Every now and again, not Hampstead only, but the heart of Nature-loving London, was shaken by reports that the Heath was forthwith to be built on, and then would come appeals for further subscriptions, with the hope of purchasing it, appeals headed grandiloquently, but earnestly, ‘Awake! arise! or lose the Heath for ever!’ and thenceforth other meetings would ensue, fresh resolutions be declared, but to little apparent purpose, so far as the assurance of the preservation of the Heath was concerned. Happily, in the meantime, Government had taken up the question of public parks and recreation-grounds for the people, and measures were being adopted for the preservation of the commons at Wandsworth, Wimbledon, Clapham, Tooting, and Putney.
The Hampstead Heath Committee put themselves into communication with the Board of Works, and authorized it to negotiate the purchase of the Heath with the Lord of the Manor of Hampstead.
But though propositions had been made for its purchase in 1856, it was not till the latter end of 1866 that, from information received, the Board imagined that the time had arrived when Sir Thomas Wilson might be willing to negotiate for the sale of his rights in the Heath. Accordingly an interview was arranged between the then Chairman of the Board of Works, Sir John Thwaites, and the Lord of the Manor, upon what proved to be wholly delusive premises. Instead of being willing to listen to overtures on the subject, Sir Thomas was altogether indisposed to entertain any such proposition, or to acquiesce with the Board in any application for the necessary powers to deal with the Heath.
Though himself having only a life-interest in the estate, he insisted on regarding it as building land, and modestly estimated the value of the property at from £5,000 to £10,000 per acre, a prohibitory price, of course, to those who sought the purchase of the Heath.
At the commencement of 1870 there stepped in an unexpected arbitrator, or, as one of the vestrymen expressed it, ‘the hopes of Hampstead people were brightened by the death of Sir Thomas Wilson.’ His brother succeeded to the estate, and once more, and with reason in this instance, it was said that if an offer of £50,000 was made by the Board to the new Lord of the Manor, Sir John Maryon Wilson would be disposed to accept of that sum, and surrender all his rights and interest in the property, comprising an area of about 240 acres.
In consequence of this belief, negotiations were renewed at the suggestion of Mr. Le Breton, the representative of Hampstead at the Metropolitan Board, an honoured name in the neighbourhood from its associations with that of the Aikins family, Mrs. Barbauld’s grand-niece being the wife of Mr. Le Breton.
This gentleman, in conjunction with Mr. Gurney Hoare, and a committee of the influential lease and copy holders, reopened the overtures for the purchase of the Heath, which had so signally fallen through with the late Lord of the Manor (Sir Thomas Wilson), and happily with success.
Sir John Maryon Wilson and his son, Mr. Spencer Wilson, agreed to give up all the rights of the Lord of the Manor of Hampstead in the Heath for the sum of £45,000—costs to solicitors, surveyors, etc., not to exceed £2,000.
The Lord only reserved certain defined portions for the making new roads, which will not affect the enjoyment of the public.
Thus the struggle between the Lord of the Manor and the people of Hampstead—we may say, the people of the Metropolis—came to a final close. The Bill for the Preservation of the Heath passed the Houses of Parliament in the next spring, and the Act by which the ownership of Hampstead Heath was transferred to the Metropolitan Board of Works in trust to maintain it for ever as an unenclosed space for the purpose of health and recreation received the Royal Assent June 29, 1871, a day to be long remembered in the annals of Hampstead.
Very general pleasure and gratification was felt on the occasion by all who knew the lovely suburb, and regarded it as a pleasure spot of the Metropolis; and when the fears which the name of the Board of Works evoked, of straight lines, gravel-paths, and frigid plantations, had spent themselves in deprecating any attempt to make it other than itself, a wild heath, disfigured by turf and gravel-digging, scarred in all directions, and naked in parts, but with sufficient recuperative strength, if let alone, to renew its greensward and gorse and heather, and to restore the vigour of trees and undergrowth, a formal taking possession of it, and dedicating it to the use of the public for ever, was resolved on.
The circuit of its extent was marked out with flags. The officers of the Board of Works and local authorities were to perambulate it. But the free atmosphere of the vagrant Heath seemed to resent the intended formalities, and a downpour of rain put an end to the whole programme. Flags and bands and festive company were out of the question, and the ceremony consisted of a few officials and other gentlemen in close carriages making the partial circuit of the Heath, pausing at certain points where alterations and amendments were to be made, but eventually taking the shortest road to the Flagstaff and Jack Straw’s Castle, where the Vestry were about to entertain the officers of the Board of Works, the local authorities, and other guests at a handsome déjeûner. At the Flagstaff Colonel Hogg, in a brief but graceful speech, proclaimed the fact that Hampstead Heath was dedicated to the free use and recreation of the people for ever, and expressed a hope that it would prove that blessing which had been so long and fondly desired by the great Metropolitan community, the spirit of which speech, no doubt, the hearts of all present echoed.
Having thus far traced the story of this loveliest of London suburbs, we, too, rejoice that its wide views on three sides can never be impeded, but that, as in the days of Defoe, visitors to the Heath may on a clear day distinguish in the north-west Hanslip steeple, which is only eight miles distant from Northampton, and see the Langden Hills in Essex to the east—objects which lie at least sixty-six miles apart. Then there is the prospect of London, and beyond to Banstead Downs, Shooter’s Hill, and Redhill; while on the west the view is uninterrupted to Windsor Castle. But to the north topographers tell us we can see no further than Barnet, which is only six miles distant.
But, unfortunately, there were other troubles to be encountered. The Board of Works were privileged to make grants of some portions of the Heath, a privilege that resolved itself into helping certain influential individuals to enclose some of the loveliest and most interesting portions of it into their own premises. The angle of ground on which stood the famous group of trees, the Nine Elms, was made over to the late Lord Mansfield, with what result we all know. Another gentleman, before a voice could be raised against it, was allowed to enclose the loveliest bit of North End, known for generations as the Lovers’ Walk, in his demesne. And just when a third claimant was bargaining for the historic grove of trees called the Judge’s Walk, the remnant of which recalls a memorable fact, not only in the history of Hampstead, but of England,[307] Mr. Le Breton, who had fortunately heard of the transaction, was enabled to interfere and frustrate it.
A similar piece of good fortune helped the inhabitants to preserve the remains of the Old Avenue at North End from being enclosed in an adjacent demesne. The committee of the Hampstead Heath Protection Society, who now charge themselves with looking after the Heath and maintaining it intact for the people, are resolved on getting back as many of its original acres as possible. When, therefore in the summer of the year 1898 the beautiful estate of Golder’s Hill, the residence of the late Sir Spencer Wells, was to be sold, the inhabitants of Hampstead were naturally disturbed by the report that a syndicate of builders were plotting its purchase, with the intention of covering the charming grounds with streets of houses.
Part of these grounds impinge upon the Heath, and it was said included the Flagstaff Hill, the very crowning point of view upon it, the threatened loss of which affected all the inhabitants, and roused, says my authority, a collective spirit of resistance. A letter from Mrs. Hart, widow of the artist, who had left a sum of money for such contingencies, appeared in some of the London papers, and called popular notice to the threatened vandalism. A committee was formed, and subscriptions were raised, to which the local and London County Councils, as well as many of the inhabitants of Hampstead, generously contributed, till the whole of the purchase-money, £40,500, was in a very short time happily provided.
It is intended to let the house, but the picturesque grounds are to be kept in their integrity and added to the Heath, from which, the new ride now divides them. The cost of the ground purchased averages about £1,000 per acre. This was the price paid to Lord Mansfield for 209 acres of the Heath, while Sir Spencer Wilson received £100,000 for sixty-one acres, making together, with all extra expenses in the purchase of the Heath, £302,000.
Everyone who knows the pleasant suburb must rejoice that a neighbourhood which has delighted the people of successive ages, as well as our own, is reserved to give enjoyment to those who shall come after us, and that henceforth, from generation to generation, each being, we may hope, more able to appreciate its natural beauty than the last, Hampstead will continue to be the scene of unnumbered holidays; the Heath,
‘Where sweet air stirs
Blue harebells lightly, and where prickly furze
Buds lavish gold,’[308]
with its wide margin of hundreds of added acres, under the wise supervision of skilled conservators, growing year by year into fuller beauty of Nature-planted wild-flowers and indigenous furze and ferns.
Long may the people of the close courts and alleys of London come hither in their tens of thousands on the gold-letter days of their sparse holidays, to revel in the winnowing freshness of its breezy height, and pleasant groves and lanes and grassy nooks, and take back with them to their crowded homes a measure of the health that ‘floats upon the genial atmosphere.’ So shall Hampstead still (as in old Drayton’s time) ‘remain the noblest hill.’
The old Heath covered 220 acres, so that 261 acres acquired by recent purchase up to 1889, have more than doubled the expanse of the old Heath (1899).