e chiefly detached, and can hardly
be said to form a square. At New End is the workhouse originally built
in 1845, but extended in 1870 and 1883. It is a solid and commodious
building. Of the remainder of that part of Hampstead known as New End,
it is almost impossible to give any detailed account. It is a curious
medley of steeply tilted narrow streets, little passages, small cottages
set down at any angle, with vine or Virginia creeper growing over them,
and here and there a hideous row of little modern brick houses. The
White Bear at New End is the oldest public-house in the parish, bearing
date 1704. Willow Road lays claim to its name by the fringe of willows
that lines its northern side.

The Flask Tavern in Flask Walk is on the site of one of the oldest
beerhouses in Hampstead; the present structure is a hideous brick
building of modern date. The Walk is reached from High Street under a
covered entry, and the street is at first only wide enough for the
passage of one vehicle. Being on the side of the hill it shows, further
on, a picturesque irregularity with the footway at a different level
from the road. Small rows of limes add a certain quaintness to its
aspect, and it is easy to imagine the four days' fair, beginning on
August 1, which used to be held here annually. The watch-house and
public stocks stood at the upper end of this street when removed from
Heath Street.

It is easy to imagine that the name Flask originated in the shape of the
road, with its narrow neck and expanded end, but perhaps the Walk took
its name from the public-house, in which case the suggested derivation
would fail.

Well Walk is the most celebrated spot in Hampstead, for here flow the
famous chalybeate waters, which rivalled those of Bath and Tunbridge
Wells, and in their best days drew an amazing army of gay people to the
spot. The earliest mention of the spring is in the time of Charles II.,
when a halfpenny token with the words "Dorothy Rippin at the well in
Hampsted" on the obverse was issued. In 1698 Susanna Noel with her son
Baptist, third Earl of Gainsborough, gave the well, encompassed by six
acres of ground, to the poor of Hampstead. It was in the beginning of
the eighteenth century that the waters first became famous. Howitt says
they were carried fresh every day for sale to Holborn Bars, Charing
Cross, and other central spots; but their palmy days did not last very
long, for in 1734 there was an attempt to revive interes