t in them by a
laudatory pamphlet. However, while they were at the height of their
popularity many persons whose names are well known were attracted by
them. It was at the Long Room, Hampstead, that Fanny Burney (afterwards
Madame D'Arblay) came to stay, and here she made her heroine Evelina
attend balls. Her book gained her such a circle of admirers that it is
said her second work was expected as eagerly as a novel from Scott.

The chief building was the Pump Room, on the south side of the street,
near where the entrance to Gainsborough Gardens now is. The first
recorded entertainment here was on August 18, 1701, when a concert was
given. Concerts and entertainments of various kinds were kept up during
the season. There was a bowling-green near. This house dated from about
the beginning of the eighteenth century. In 1733 it was converted into
an episcopal chapel, and was so used until 1849. There was another
chapel called Sion Chapel in the vicinity, though its exact situation is
unknown; here couples could be married for five shillings, provided they
brought with them a license. The license was not always insisted on. The
Pump Room was later used as a guard-room of the West Middlesex
Volunteers, and was pulled down in 1880 to make way for the road above
mentioned. It was then discovered by the intervening wall that the
adjacent house was of still older date, and it is thus proved to be one
of the oldest remaining in Hampstead. It has a graceful spindle porch
and delightful old-world air, though the side adjoining Gainsborough
Gardens has been refaced.

Just opposite is a solid drinking fountain of polished granite, with
inscription to the effect that it is in memory of Susanna Noel's gift,
and here the chalybeate waters may still be tasted. One or two old
houses are on the northern side of the Walk, and one of these, a long,
low, red-brick edifice called Weatherhall House, deserves special
notice. It contained the Long Room where dances and assemblies were
held, and even after the fame of the waters declined it still held its
place. Perhaps this is the room referred to by Seymour as having been
built in 1735. He describes it as "60 feet long and 30 feet wide, well
adorned with chandeliers. The manner of being admitted into it is by a
ticket, of which every gentleman who subscribes a guinea for the season
has one for himself and two more for two ladies; all those who have not
subscribers' tickets pay 2s. 6d. each at t