THE GOOD OLD DAYS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19810, 3 December 1927, Page 14

THE GOOD OLD DAYS.

HAMPSTEAD STAG HUNTS.

A FARMER'S MEMORIES.

Memories of old Hampstead were recalled by Mr. Thomas Tooley who, at the age of 87, celebrated his diamond wedding iri October. Mr. Tooley was formerly a farmer at Hampstead, but he now lives at Hun ton Bridgo, Hertfordshire. Both he and Mrs. Tooley are in excellent health, and Mr. Tooley is still able to read and write without using spectacles. Mrs. Tooley is 90. "I once followed a stag hunt at Hampstead, the stag being run down in Golders Hill Park," said Mr. Tooley. At that time there were ploughed fields where Hampstead Railway Station now stands. When carting grain from a brewery in the city to Hampstead we considered we were out of London as soon as St. Paneras Road was reached. Every time I made the jdurney into the city in the old days I had to pay toll at the tollpike near Camden Town. "It wa° not so very many years before I was born that my uncle was held up by a robber on Hampstead Heath and relieved,of a gold watch and chain. My father told me, too, of a carter who was returning home late one night driving a waggon I6ad of hay when a'man, flourishing a pistol, stepped into the roadway and ordered him to pull up. The carter did so, but he picked up a heavy shovel and dashed it into the face of the robber, killing h'iinu" . Mr Tooley has been foreman for many years of the Court Leet and Court Baron of the Manor of Hampstead, which, has been in existence since the time of William ' Ritfus