Pehr Kalm

Kalm's Account of His Visit to England on His Way to America in 1748

Trans. Joseph Lucas. Macmillan & Co., 1892.

15th May 1748. In the afternoon I walked out on the North side of the town to see the country on that side. The land here was mostly divided into grass fields. Beautiful and very well-built villages, farm house, and buildings were scattered here and there amongst them. These villages and houses were commonly surrounded with beautiful gardens. A multitude of people now streamed out here from all sides of London to enjoy their Sunday afternoon and take the fresh air. In all the aforesaid villages there was a superfluity of beer-shops, inns, and such-like houses, where those who came from the town rested. There were also small summer-houses built in the gardens, with benches and tables in them, which were now all full of swarming crowds of people of both sexes

The Swedish naturalist had to make a lengthy stopover in England when his onward journey was delayed by bad weather, and took the opportunity to make observations. He does not identify the area as Marylebone Park, but Ann Saunders (Regent's Park from 1086 to the Present) cites his description of the grass fields as evidence that the Park at that time was mostly grassland.

22nd May, 1748...On the whole of this side of London which we visited today there was a great multitude of inclosures...nearly all laid out as meadows. The land around Hampstead consisted mostly of hills, long-sloping on all sides. The grass-growth in them was very beautiful, and now as long as any on our very best meadows in Sweden at the end of June, which is principally owing to this, that these meadows are here commonly manured every year. On most of the meadows around Hampstead the grass growth...stood as thick as the thickest rye-fields, and every plant was 2 feet 6 inches high or more