During the past year I had not managed my professional resources as carefully as usual; and my extravagance now limited me to the prospect of spending the autumn economically between my mother's cottage at
Hampstead and my own chambers in town.
[General Chairman--Member Pickwick Club], entitled "Speculations on the Source of the
Hampstead Ponds, with some Observations on the Theory of Tittlebats;" and that this Association does hereby return its warmest thanks to the said Samuel Pickwick, Esq., G.C.M.P.C., for the same.
Lucy lies in the tomb of her kin, a lordly death house in a lonely churchyard, away from teeming London, where the air is fresh, and the sun rises over
Hampstead Hill, and where wild flowers grow of their own accord.
And now, gentlemen, I have one or two little interviews this evening, and it is a long drive to
Hampstead..
Chelsea and Bloomsbury have taken the place of
Hampstead, Notting Hill Gate, and High Street, Kensington.
It is such as he, as little conscious of himself as the bee in a hive, who are the lucky in life, for they have the best chance of happiness: their activities are shared by all, and their pleasures are only pleasures because they are enjoyed in common; you will see them on Whit-Monday dancing on
Hampstead Heath, shouting at a football match, or from club windows in Pall Mall cheering a royal procession.
An invalid friend of mine wants a furnished house at
Hampstead. I undertake to find one for her, and the day I select to make the discovery is the day you select for dining with a friend.
I drove from the railway to his private residence at
Hampstead, and disturbed the old lawyer dozing alone in his dining-room, with his favourite pug-dog on his lap, and his bottle of wine at his elbow.
"They took one of them yellow buses over there," answered the man; "them that go to
Hampstead."
'Why,' says her friend, 'he had been at
Hampstead to visit a gentleman of his acquaintance, and as he came back again he was set upon and robbed; and having got a little drink too, as they suppose, the rogues abused him, and he is very ill.'
He went through Islington; strode up the hill at Highgate on which stands the stone in honour of Whittington; turned down to Highgate Hill, unsteady of purpose, and uncertain where to go; struck off to the right again, almost as soon as he began to descend it; and taking the foot-path across the fields, skirted Caen Wood, and so came on
Hampstead Heath.
It was not unusual for those who wended home alone at midnight, to keep the middle of the road, the better to guard against surprise from lurking footpads; few would venture to repair at a late hour to Kentish Town or
Hampstead, or even to Kensington or Chelsea, unarmed and unattended; while he who had been loudest and most valiant at the supper-table or the tavern, and had but a mile or so to go, was glad to fee a link-boy to escort him home.