2, St. Edmund’s Terrace,
Regent’s Park North,
25th June, 1873.
LETTERS.
The Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, M.P.,
&c., &c.
Sir,
Knowing the great and arduous duties you have to perform I regret being obliged to call your attention to a very small affair, but the case is urgent, and in a few months buildings will be placed upon a portion of the ground.
Primrose Hill Park is very much used by boys as a cricket or foot-ball ground, and on Saturdays there is not enough space. Even to-day, with the ground wet and weather not inviting, it was full, and in the summer months boys go away because there is not room to play.
It may, therefore, be worthy of your consideration whether the Government should not purchase the Eton and Middlesex Cricket Ground, which adjoins, and consists of about twelve acres. This is a private ground, and, I believe, does not pay. There is another plot of about six acres which will be immediately built upon unless the Government at once secure it.
This would make a splendid addition to the park, and, perhaps, £20,000 would purchase the whole.
I have the honour to be, Sir,
Your obedient servant,
William Ray Smee.