[Illustration: THE FLEET, KENTISH TOWN. _Circa_ 1837.]
Here we see the Fleet running its quiet course--and the other sketches bear witness to its rurality.
[Illustration: VIEW OF THE VALLEY OF THE FLEET AND HIGHGATE CHURCH, FROM FORTESS TERRACE, KENTISH TOWN, SEPT. 28, 1845.
After the Fleet had recrossed the Highgate Road near the junction of that road and the Kentish Town Road, it passed near the _Gospel Oak_, which now gives its name to a railway station in the locality. About this oak, there was a tradition that it was so called because St. Augustine preached underneath its boughs--a fact which is probably as correct as the story that the Church of St. Pancras was the first Christian Church in England. In truth, there are, or were, many Gospel Oaks and Elms throughout the country; for instance, there is an iron foundry near the parishes of Tipton and Wednesbury called _Gospel Oak Works_. It was, as a matter of fact, a traditionary custom, in many places, when, on Holy Thursday (Ascension Day), the parochial bounds were beaten, to read a portion of the Gospels under some well-known tree, and hence its name. One or two quotations will easily prove this.
[Illustration: THE FLEET AT KENTISH TOWN.]
In the "Bury Wills," p. 118, is the following passage in the will of John Cole of Thelnetham, dated May 8, 1527: "Item, I will haue a newe crosse made according to Trappett's crosse at the Hawe lanes ende, and set vp at Short Grove's end, where the gospell is sayd vpon Ascension Even, for y^e w^{ ch} I assigne x^s."
And, in the poem of Herrick's "Hesperides," which is addressed "To Anthea."
"Dearest, bury me Under that holy Oke, or Gospel Tree; Where, (though thou see'st not,) thou may'st think upon Me, when thou yerely go'st procession."
It also passed near Parliament, or Traitors', Hill--a name which is much in dispute; some maintaining that it was fortified by the Parliamentary Army, under Cromwell, for the protection of London, others that the 5th of November conspirators met here to view the expected explosion of the Houses of Parliament. This, which forms the most southern part of Hampstead Heath, and therefore the nearest, and most accessible to the great bulk of Londoners, has a beautiful view of Highgate and London, and has, I am happy to say, been preserved as an open space for the public.