Hampstead has had periods of fashion as a residence. In the eighteenth century it is described as "a village in Middlesex, on the declivity of a fine hill, 4 miles from London. On the summit of this hill is a heath, adorned with many gentlemen's houses.... The water of the [Hampstead] Wells is equal in efficacy to that of Tunbridge, and superior to that of Islington." These Wells appear to have first attracted notice in the time of Charles II. In 1698, Susanna Noel and her son, third Earl of Gainsborough (then the owner of the soil), gave the Well, with six acres of ground, to the poor of Hampstead. For more than thirty years the Wells, with all the attendant attractions of the pump-room, with balls and music, drew the fashionable world up to Hampstead. It was said to be "much more frequented by good company than can well be expected, considering its vicinity to London; but such care has been taken to discourage the meaner sort from making it a place of residence, that it is now become... one of the Politest Public Places in England." Here Fanny Burney made her heroine, Evelina, attend dances, and it plays a part in the fortunes of Richardson's Clarissa Harlowe; and here all the wits and poets of the time mingled in the gay throng. Many have been the celebrated residents in Hampstead-Lord Chatham, Dr. Johnson, Crabbe, Steele, Gay, Keats, William Blake, Leigh Hunt, Romney and Constable, John Linnell, and David Wilkie among the number. The site of the pump-room is all built over, but some fine old elm trees in Well Walk, still have an air of romance and faded glory about them. The houses near the Heath-such as Shelford, afterwards Rosslyn House, with a celebrated avenue of Spanish chestnuts, The Grove, Belsize Park, the residence of Lord Wotton, and then of Philip, Earl of Chesterfield-have all been consumed by the inroads of bricks and mortar. It is more than likely that the Heath would have shared the same fate, had not the inhabitants taken active steps to arouse public attention to preserve this wild heath, unequalled near any great city. Already aggressive red villas were making their appearance in far too great numbers. The western side was dotted over with them. That the purchase of it for the public benefit has been appreciated it is not difficult to prove, when over 100,000 visit it on a Bank Holiday. It was the commencement of building operations near the Flagstaff by the lord of the manor, Sir Thomas Maryon Wilson, in the heart of the Heath, that brought things to a crisis in 1866. A case began against the lord of the manor, but he died before it was ended, and his brother, Sir John, being willing to compromise, the sum of �47,000 was agreed on for the sale of the Heath to the Metropolitan Board of Works. The few houses dotted about on the Heath are those of squatters, who have established their right by the length of time they have been in possession. The small hamlet or collection of houses in the "Vale of Health," those near the "Spaniards" and round Jack Straw's Castle, have existed from time immemorial, although few old houses of interest remain, and large, unsightly buildings have taken the place of the picturesque ones. In the Vale of Health the houses are chiefly given up to catering for holiday-makers. The "Spaniards," at the most northerly point of the Heath, is a genuine old house, and it still has a nice garden, although all the alleys and fantastic ornaments which made it popular, in the eighteenth century, have vanished. The name came from the fact that the first owner was a Spaniard. The next proprietor was a Mr. Staples, who "improved and beautifully ornamented it." The house was on the site of the toll-gate and lodge to Caen Wood, and its position saved that house from destruction, at the time of the Gordon riots. The rioters had burnt and wantonly destroyed Lord Mansfield's house in Bloomsbury Square. Maddened with drink, and flushed with triumph at the success of their outrages, they made a bonfire in the square of the invaluable books collected by Lord Mansfield. Their temper may be imagined as they marched by Hampstead to commit the same violence at Caen Wood, Lord Mansfield's country house. The proprietor of the "Spaniards" invited them in, and threw open his cellars to the mob. Fresh barrels of drink were sent down from Caen Wood, and meanwhile messengers were despatched for soldiers; so that by the time all the liquor had been consumed, and the drunken rioters began to proceed, they were confronted by a troop of Horse Guards, who, in their addled condition, soon put them all to flight. The name of the other inn on Hampstead Heath, which stands conspicuously on the highest point, 443 feet above the sea, is Jack Straw's Castle, and has also some connection with a riot. Jack Straw was one of the leaders in the Wat Tyler rebellion, and after burning the Priory of St. John of Jerusalem, he came up to Hampstead and Highgate, though there is no direct evidence to connect him, in 1381, with any tavern on the spot on which the inn stands. The addition of Castle to the name is from the fact, that there was some sort of fortress or earthworks on this commanding point. The inn on the site was known as the Castle Inn, and not until 1822 is there any mention of it as Jack Straw's Castle. The wood of the gallows on which a famous highwayman was hung behind the house in 1673 was built into the wall. Jack Straw's Castle is now quite modernised, but the view from it, on all sides, is still as lovely as ever. The Whitestone Pond in front is really a reservoir, and to the south of that lies the Grove, with fine trees and some old-fashioned houses. The most picturesque walk is that known as the Judges' or King's Bench Walk, from a tradition that justice was administered under the trees there, when the judges fled from London at the time of the Great Plague. This walk is on the south-west side of the Heath, the Well Walk on the south-east. To the east of the highest point with Jack Straw's Castle and the road which runs northwards towards the "Spaniards" is the Vale of Health, and below are a series of ponds. Hampstead has always furnished a water-supply for the city at its feet. When more water was required, in the sixteenth century, the Lord Mayor proposed to utilise the springs there, and convey the water to London by conduits. A pound of pepper at the Feast of St. Michael annually to the "Bishop of Westminster," was the tribute for the use of the water, as the land belonged to the Abbey of Westminster, having been granted to it by King Ethelred in 986. The managers of water-supply in 1692 were a company known as the Hampstead Water Company, which became absorbed in the New River Company. The lakes are very deep, and dangerous for boating, bathing, and skating, although used for all those purposes.
