THE usual road from London to Cheshunt is one of the most public in the Neighbourhood of the metropolis; but, by taking Hornsey and Southgate instead of Edmonton and Enfield, the road is as quiet as in any remote district, and the scenery as rural and varied. At Hornsey there is the beautifully situated villa of Harringay, noticed in an early volume of this Magazine, for the fine effect of the New River encircling the lawn, and forming its boundary, and for some of the largest specimens of Magnolia in the neighbourhood of London, especially M. macrophylla, noticed in the Arb. Brit., vol. i. p. 272., as being, in 1835, the second largest in England, 22 ft. high, and flowering freely every year. Here, also, some fine new camellias were raised from seed by Mr. Press; and the hot-houses in the kitchen-garden, and the conservatory at the house, at a considerable distance, were heated by steam from one boiler, at a period when that mode of heating was comparatively new. At Crouch End, in this neighbourhood, is Crouch Hall, the residence of G. Booth, Esq., F.H.S., which contains a magnificent architectural conservatory; and on the opposite side of the valley is Muswell Hill, lately sold, and now denuded of some of its finest old trees. The scenery from Muswell Hill to Hornsey is singularly quiet, rural, and secluded; and so little is it known to Londoners who have not their country houses in that direction, that very few persons can find their way to it, or through it when they are there, without the aid of a guide or map. Southgate and its neighbourhood have long been celebrated for the beauty of the villas, which are generally remarkably well wooded, the trees being chiefly the remains of an ancient oak forest. This is placed beyond all doubt, by the oaks being chiefly of the sessile-fruited kind, as at Kenwood.
