Lungs of London

One of the first things that beckoned was a visit to the ‘ Lungs of London ’ , The Hampstead heath , four miles north of London , a huge green land mass with its various ponds , and houses that once had sought after occupants . Promptly catching the Tube’s Northern line from King’s Cross station to Hampstead , we were greeted by Emily just outside the Patisserie on the other side of the station’s exit . A petite , young woman , hazel-eyed Emily had served as a guide for the Walking Company for the last couple of years . The brochure said that she was an effervescent and smoky-voiced actress , who had shot to fame for her role in the production , Nicholas Nikleby . She wore an old bag slung across her shoulders , and a tanned blue french cap and worn jeans .
‘How are we this afternoon’, she asked all of us who had assembled , three british girls on a study trip , one Spanish women , five Americans with one of whom was massively built and the two of us .
‘Ready to roll ‘, said the Spanish woman .
The girls giggled .
‘I must tell you we have to walk all the way up the heath and then across a lot of great greens and then through large moors . Is everyone upto it ?’ She smiled .
Everyone nodded their heads happily .
‘ You can expect the most picturesque and perfectly preserved Georgian neighbourhood . Most of the people who came here came to breathe its fresh air and hoped to live a long life .’
‘I must begin with the story of John Constable , the painter of Hampstead ‘,said Emily as we crossed St.John’s dilapidated church .
John Constable was a painter and had earned fame for the story of his life more than his paintings . He fell in love with a girl called Mary and their romance over years and their four children born out of wedlock , forms part of the folklore of the heath.
Then we walked past the long and winding cobblestoned pathways with some very pretty cottages . The houses here were architecturally brilliant and very well created , though a lot of them were identical .
We stopped near the Kenwood house , some of the large windows of which were covered with blocks of wood .
‘The window tax was created to identify and tax the rich . The more windows the house had , the richer were its inmates .’added Emily emphatically , ‘So some of the rich blocked their windows to avoid paying the tax !’ Must tell her that some of the Indian businessmen were even more ingenious when it came to tax –aversion !
Soon , we reached the highest point of Hampstead Heath , called parliament hill , Emily asked us to pause and look over the hill for a great view of the city , just four miles away .On the left was the Canary warf area , with its financial epicenter and the stock indices in an electronic ticker circulating around the main building there .The Saint Pauls cathedral’s dome could be seen at a distance . We resumed our walk towards one of the larger ponds in the Heath , half of which was frozen and had birds walking on the icier part of the pond . A couple of swans made up the scenary .
Just as we walked around the pool under the thick foliage , there was a small patch of land with a lot of stationary wagons , most of whose tyres were deflated and was were very sad sight . A couple of people walked around , looking very poverty stricken , a strange sight in London , for sure .
‘The gypsies ‘, Emily said ‘have been around for as long as I can remember . They are extremely proud of themselves and don’t like anyone peeping into their homes . There are over thirty ponds in the heath and most served as reservoirs for water in the 17th and 18th centuries . Different ponds were used by men and women for bathing with one of them being a common public one , that one over there .’
On the northern fringes of Hampstead Heath lies Kenwood House, one of the most glorious country houses in London , which was in 1754 was acquired by Lord Mansfield, the Lord Chief Justice, and one of the great British lawyers who, when a slave was brought before him, made the great judgment that England had always been free, and that when any slave set foot in England, he was automatically free .
Much further down the heath , we came across the Highgate Cemetery with its long winding pathways , one of the 'garden cemeteries' of the Victorian era. ‘There are in fact two cemeteries at Highgate . The original one, created by Stephen Geary , the short bespectacled architect , stands on the west of Swains's Lane, and was established in 1839 as a joint-stock company .’Emily added .
This is where we found the original communist , Karl Marx , resting . It’s an irony that within a couple of miles of the cemetery of Karl Marx are the houses of the last James Bond , the debonair Pierce Brosnan and Madame Jude Dench , the irrepressible M in 007’s life .

Irving Wallace would have turned in his grave at the thought of having the creator of communist Russia , arch rival and key target of master dapper spy , Marx staying in the same neighbourhood as Bond himself .