The Judges’ Walk was so called, it is said, because during the year of the Great Plague the judges removed their Courts from Westminster, and, returning to the normal practice of their prototypes in Saxon and Norman times, held their Seats of Justice ‘under the green tree’s shade.’ Court Tree, in the Isle of Sheppey, has its name from this antique custom, and the laws are thus annually promulgated on the Tynwald Hill in the Isle of Man.
Harrow and Welsh Harp, from Hampstead Heath.
Now that we are so near the Whitestone Pond, and the half square of houses opposite, let us cross over, and, passing at the side of the last of these, walk to the end of the tree-shaded alley, the view from which is one of the many scenic surprises of the Heath. There lies—or has it, with many other charms, been swept away?—the still pond, its surface scarcely ruffled by the movements of the swans, the green Heath on this side dipping down to its margin, and beyond the wooded heights of Highgate and the church. It is a picture that requires no composing; it is perfect in its natural picturesqueness.
A path under the garden wall of a house to the left brings us out at the Holford Road, between high walls, skirted by well-grown trees, past Heathfield House to the left, and other enclosed premises to the right, with Christ Church facing us, fringed by some grand old trees (part of a grove), leading by Cannon Place to Squire’s Mount. To the left of the church is a space half surrounded by houses, in one of which the well-known popular Nonconformist minister and eloquent preacher and writer, the Rev. Newman Hall, resided. To the east of the church are the school buildings appertaining to it, and Christ Church Road, which runs down to the Willow Walk and East Heath.
Leaving the church, which stands slightly raised above the roadway, on the right hand, we pass a row of good but dully-situated houses, known as Cannon Place, which extends from Christ Church to Squire’s Mount, and takes its name from the old cannon which stand as kerb-posts, muzzles downwards, in front of the courtyard of Cannon Hall, at the north-east corner of Squire’s Mount. Unfortunately, the history of the cannon is lost, and so also is that of the man who originally placed them there. Modern Hampstead is inclined to believe it the work of Sir J. C. Melville, but the older inhabitants, whose ‘fathers have told them,’ assert that the cannon were there long before this gentleman resided at Hampstead. There are, besides these peacefully-utilized pieces, two other very curious small bronze pieces of ordnance of beautiful workmanship and great age (said to have been taken from the Dutch), one bearing the date 1640, the other inscribed 1646. These find a place in the very beautiful grounds in which the house stands, an old red-bricked, two-storied mansion of early eighteenth-century design. The views from it—especially to the south—are said to be very extensive. It possesses a garden an acre in extent, and the ornamental grounds descend from 400 feet to the level of the Thames.
At the end of Cannon Place is Squire’s Mount, with some good houses cresting it, and a row of cottages running in a straight line towards the East Heath, with the Vale of Health (not assertive in offensive ugliness, as at present) modestly nestling right opposite, the Broad Walk crossing the Heath above it. At Squire’s Mount, in the house (one of those with some fine old trees sheltering them on the north-east) distinguished by a magnificent horse-chestnut in front of it, resided the octogenarian artist, Mrs. Harrison, a fine-looking, genial old lady, whose charming transcripts of spring flowers, wild blossoms, bird-nests, and bits of hedgerow beauty, were well known to visitors at the Old Painters in Water Colours’ Exhibitions. So late as the spring of 1864-65 she had copied primroses from nature.
At the back of Squire’s Mount Cottages are a group of small houses, known as Heath Cottages, looking out on a delightful view, but one which is said to be threatened with extinction. It takes in the red viaduct and wooded neighbourhood of Caenwood Farm, with Highgate; but when these lines were written, a brickfield smouldered on one side, and the ground it covered will, it is said, be shortly in the hands of the builders.