of the town, owned by Waverley Borough Council. There was a tenement on the hill in the 14th century and it may have been the site of the original settlement of Haslemere. In the early 18th century, an optical telegraph station, part of the Admiralty Semaphore line between London and Portsmouth was constructed on Haste Hill. It operated from 1822 until 1847, when it was superseded by an electrical telegraph line between the two cities. Lion Green Lion Green was designated a recreation ground and open space in the Inclosure Act of 1845. The Haslemere Classic Car Festival and Haslemere Fringe Festival take place on the green each year. Recreation ground The recreation ground adjoins Scotland Lane and Old Haslemere Road. The land was purchased in 1921 by the War Memorial Committee, using surplus funds donated for the construction of the memorial in the High Street. It was presented to the UDC in the same year, in memory of those who had died in the First World War. In 2015, the recreation ground was legally protected by the charity, Fields in Trust, and was designated a Queen Elizabeth II field. Swan Barn Farm Swan Barn Farm, owned by the National Trust, is an area of grassland and ancient woodland to the east of Haslemere High Street. The property includes two orchards and is run as a smallholding. Areas of pasture are mown for haymaking and are also grazed by Belted Galloway cattle. The Hunter Base Camp, which provides accommodation for long-term volunteers working on Blackdown, is part of the farm. Notable people John Boxall (d. 1571) Secretary of State to Mary I, owned Burgage House (now the Haslemere Educational Museum) James Oglethorpe (16961785) founded the Colony of Georgia, was MP for Haslemere (1722–1754) and lived at Town House on the High Street Josiah Wood Whymper (18131903) artist, lived at Town House, High Street, Haslemere from 1859 until his death George Bowdler Buckton (18181905) chemist and entomologist, designed his own house on Weycombe Road, where he lived from 1865 George Eliot (18191880) novelist and poet, wrote much of Middlemarch while living in Shottermill in the summer of 1871 Sir Francis Galton (1822–1911), polymath, died in Haslemere Anne Gilchrist (18281885) writer, lived in Shottermill from 1861 to 1871 Jonathan Hutchinson (18281913) surgeon, founded Haslemere Educational Museum John Penfold (18281909) surveyor, architect and designer of a Post Office standard pillar box, lived at