st picturesque;
masses of shady trees in the grounds of Woodlands and Hillfield hang
over the seats placed for wayfarers, and on the east side, in spring,
bushes of flowering lilac or laburnum soften the picturesque red tiles
and bricks of the well-built modern houses. Here and there a small row
of shops forms a straight line, but between them the villa houses are
dotted about at any angle.

Of public buildings or institutions on the hill there are not many. The
Borough Hall, a red-brick building in the Italian style, stands at the
corner of Belsize Avenue. It was built in 1876, and first used for the
Cambridge Local Examination for Women.

Further up on the other side is St. Stephen's Church, which differs very
much from the ordinary church of the last half-century. It stands well,
surrounded by an enclosure of green grass, on a spot formerly called
Hampstead Green. The best view is obtained from Lyndhurst Road. Just
below it is the entrance to the immense buildings of the North-Western
Hospital. The brick wall encloses a house and front-garden at one time
belonging to Sir Rowland Hill. This site was acquired by the
Metropolitan Asylums Board in 1868, and was destined to be used for
cases of infectious disease, a plan which provoked the greatest
agitation in the parish. In 1870 a severe epidemic of small-pox broke
out, and some wards were hastily built in addition to those which had
already been used for fever patients. As this was followed by an
outbreak of small-pox in the parish, the parishioners very naturally
wished the hospital to be removed, but without result. In 1876 another
outbreak and a further congregation of patients had the same result, and
after a long and protracted fight the inhabitants of Hampstead obtained
a verdict preventing the Asylums Board from using the hospital for
small-pox, though fever cases were not prohibited. In 1882 a Royal
Commission inquired into the facts regarding the spread of disease from
hospitals, and gave as their decision that thirty or forty patients
might safely be treated when a larger number would be injurious to the
neighbourhood. The Asylums Board eventually came to terms, agreeing to
restrict the hospital cases of small-pox to the number mentioned, to pay
the plaintiffs' costs, and an additional L1,000 by way of damages; but
they demanded that Sir Rowland's property should be sold to them.

The terms were accepted, and the hospital henceforth was known as the
North-